This article was originally posted on The Vineyard Gazette by Claire Dow.
Patricia Williams does not shy away from hard subjects. From writing about CRISPR gene editing to critical race theory, the Northeastern University law professor fielded questions and shared reflections on a host of bioethical, racial and legal topics at a book talk on Sunday.
Ms. Williams spoke with writer, photographer and art historian Teju Cole at Featherstone Center for the Arts to discuss her newest book of essays, The Miracle of the Black Leg: Notes on Race, Human Bodies, and the Spirit of the Law.
Ms. Williams said the unifying force for her wide-ranging book was born from her fixation with a painting of Cosmas and Damian, two physicians who were later sainted, performing a transplantation of a Black leg onto a white body. The original owner of the limb lies lifeless and legless in the foreground of the painting.
The painting deeply disturbed Ms. Williams but it also provoked some legally relevant questions for the professor of contract law and MacArthur Fellowship winner. Contract law governs the creation and enforcement of agreements between parties. Constitutional law, on the other hand, concerns itself with concepts that are harder to objectively define, such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and civil rights and privileges.
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