The Making of You: Navigating Various Legal Career Pathways for Early Career Lawyers

Afronomicslaw 33rd Guest Lecture: The Making of You: Navigating Various Legal Career Pathways for Early Career Lawyers This event is collaboratively organized by the Afronomicslaw Academic Forum and the Institute for African Women in Law. Guest Speaker: Prof. J. Jarpa Dawuni Moderator: Leezola Zongwe Dr. J. Jarpa Dawuni is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Howard University and a qualified Barrister-at-Law before the Ghana Superior Courts. She holds a PhD in Political Science from Georgia State University and specializes in judicial politics, gender and the law, international human rights, and women’s civil society organizing. She is the founding Director of the Howard University Center for Women, Gender, and Global Leadership and has authored multiple books on gender and the judiciary in Africa. Dr. Dawuni has secured over $4 million in grants and is the Principal Investigator of a National Science Foundation (NSF) study on Black and Afro-descendant women judges. She has held prestigious fellowships, including at STIAS, the French Institute for Advanced Studies, and the Salzburg Global Fellowship. She received the President Obama White House Presidential Award in 2016 and the Women in Law Academia International Award in 2020. She is the founder and Executive Director of the Institute for African Women in Law (IAWL) and has consulted for the World Bank and UNDP on gender and judicial integrity. Dr. Dawuni is a Board Member of the African Studies Association and the Nine Dots Book Prize and serves on several editorial boards. Her research has been published widely, and she has presented at international conferences and institutions worldwide.