Jill Norgren
Professor emerita, biographer, book reviewer, and author most recently of Stories from Trailblazing Women: Lives in Law, Forgotten Stories of America’s First Women Lawyers (NYU Press)
I taught government, law and society, and women’s studies for nearly thirty years at John Jay College and the University Graduate Center, The City University of New York. My research has focused on various aspects of cultural pluralism and law. In two early books, Partial Justice (with P.T. Shattuck), and The Cherokee Cases, I took up questions of federal Indian law. In our textbook, Cultural Pluralism and Law (now in the 3rd ed.), anthropologist Serena Nanda and I explore the continual negotiation that has occurred between culturally different groups and American society through the mechanism of law. In my three most recent books, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would be President; Belva Lockwood: Equal Rights Pioneer (for young adults); and Rebels at the Bar I have turned to biography, recovering the lives and careers of America’s first (nineteenth century) women lawyers. My current project, a group biography of trailblazing women attorneys born in the twentieth century, brings this biographical exploration into the present moment.
I am also a co-founder of, and researcher/writer for, the website www.herhatwasinthering.org. This site focuses upon women in the United States who ran for political office before 1920 when the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. Through mini-biographies and short historical essays, this unique site challenges the longstanding belief that women did not involve themselves in electoral politics. Currently, the names and short biographies of more than 3,500 women appear on our website.
As a book reviewer for the online cultural site, SeniorWomen.com, I specialize in essays on memoir, biography, and U.S. politics. I have recently reviewed Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor’s memoir My Beloved World; David Nasaw’s The Patriarch; Carla Peterson’s Black Gotham; and Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. http://www.seniorwomen.com/news/index.php/author/jill-norgren/
Complementing my delight at being a writer is my longtime interest in public lecturing. Who could teach for many years and not want to continue presenting ideas and stories to an audience, and receiving back questions and responses? Currently, I speak on the writing of biography and the biographical subjects of my books Belva Lockwood, Rebels at the Bar, and Stories from Trailblazing Women. (See My Lecture Topics page)
I taught government, law and society, and women’s studies for nearly thirty years at John Jay College and the University Graduate Center, The City University of New York. My research has focused on various aspects of cultural pluralism and law. In two early books, Partial Justice (with P.T. Shattuck), and The Cherokee Cases, I took up questions of federal Indian law. In our textbook, Cultural Pluralism and Law (now in the 3rd ed.), anthropologist Serena Nanda and I explore the continual negotiation that has occurred between culturally different groups and American society through the mechanism of law. In my three most recent books, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would be President; Belva Lockwood: Equal Rights Pioneer (for young adults); and Rebels at the Bar I have turned to biography, recovering the lives and careers of America’s first (nineteenth century) women lawyers. My current project, a group biography of trailblazing women attorneys born in the twentieth century, brings this biographical exploration into the present moment.
I am also a co-founder of, and researcher/writer for, the website www.herhatwasinthering.org. This site focuses upon women in the United States who ran for political office before 1920 when the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. Through mini-biographies and short historical essays, this unique site challenges the longstanding belief that women did not involve themselves in electoral politics. Currently, the names and short biographies of more than 3,500 women appear on our website.
As a book reviewer for the online cultural site, SeniorWomen.com, I specialize in essays on memoir, biography, and U.S. politics. I have recently reviewed Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor’s memoir My Beloved World; David Nasaw’s The Patriarch; Carla Peterson’s Black Gotham; and Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. http://www.seniorwomen.com/news/index.php/author/jill-norgren/
Complementing my delight at being a writer is my longtime interest in public lecturing. Who could teach for many years and not want to continue presenting ideas and stories to an audience, and receiving back questions and responses? Currently, I speak on the writing of biography and the biographical subjects of my books Belva Lockwood, Rebels at the Bar, and Stories from Trailblazing Women. (See My Lecture Topics page)
My Current Lecture Topics
Belva Lockwood and the Experience of Writing Biography
The Life, Career, and Politics of Belva Lockwood: First Woman to Argue before the U.S. Supreme Court, First Woman to Run a Full Campaign for the U.S. Presidency
Belva Lockwood: Presidential Candidate and Peace Activist
The Legal Career of Belva Lockwood
Belva Lockwood: Equal Rights Pioneer (for ages 9-12)
Rebels at the Bar: The Fascinating, Forgotten Stories of America’s First Women Lawyers
Nineteen and Twentieth Century Women Lawyers in Conversation
Women Trailblazers of the Twentieth Century
Email if you would like to comment on any of my books, the women candidates website, my book reviews, or my current project.