[Canceled] Olatunde Johnson is the Next Speaker in the Mudd Lecture Series Johnson, the Ruth Bader Ginsburg ’29 Professor of Law at Columbia University, will give a lecture on Oct. 2 in Stackhouse Theater.

By Emily Innes Stanley
September 25, 2025

Editor’s note: As of the morning of Oct. 2, please note that this event has been canceled. 

Olatunde Johnson, the Ruth Bader Ginsburg ’59 Professor of Law at Columbia University, will present a lecture on Oct. 2 at 5:15 p.m. in Stackhouse Theater in Elrod Commons as part of W&L’s Mudd Center for Ethics’ series, “Taking Place: Land Use and Environmental Impact.”

Johnson’s lecture, which is free and open to the public, is titled “Environmental Sacrifice Zones and the Limits of Civil Rights Enforcement.” The event will also be streamed online at https://go.wlu.edu/livestream, and a recording will be available afterward.

In her talk, Johnson will examine how the constitutional and statutory notions of equal protection have failed to attend to geographic spaces in which environmental harms are concentrated, known as environmental sacrifice zones. She will approach this issue through the lens of St. John the Baptist Parish, a predominantly Black community located in Louisiana’s 85-mile-long “Cancer Alley” between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Surrounded by petrochemical plants and oil refineries, residents of the parish face some of the highest cancer rates in the nation, and chronic cardiopulmonary health issues are pervasive.

“Johnson’s work raises important ethical questions about communal responsibility, corporate accountability and health equity in relation to Louisiana’s infamous ‘Cancer Alley,”  said Melissa Kerin, the director of the Mudd Center. “We are also thankful to alumnus Ralph Caldroney ’72, whose generous gift made it possible for the Mudd Center to host this speaker on campus.”

Johnson is known for her distinguished scholarship in civil procedure, legislation and anti-discrimination law. She is dedicated to cultivating the next generation of civic-minded lawyers, and in her teaching, she draws on her background in legal practice and government service to illustrate how social change can be effected through litigation as well as problem-solving outside the courtroom.

Johnson’s research has helped shape the national conversation on modern civil rights legislation, anti-discrimination, fair housing, congressional power and innovations to address discrimination and inequality. Her recent work examines the efforts of state and local governments to enhance opportunities for historically excluded groups, as well as the conflicts that arise when states preempt local efforts to address discrimination and promote wage increases and affordable housing.

Johnson received her bachelor’s degree from Yale University and her J.D. from Stanford Law School. She clerked for Judge David Tatel on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and Justice John Paul Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court. She worked at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund from 1997 to 2001, where she conducted trial- and appellate-level litigation to promote racial and ethnic equity in employment, health and higher education. From 2001 to 2003, she served as constitutional and civil rights counsel to Senator Edward Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee, then as a senior consultant on racial justice on the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Legal Department from 2003 to 2004. Johnson joined the Columbia Law School faculty in 2006 and was appointed Vice Dean for Intellectual Life for the 2016-2018 term.

For more information and a complete schedule of events, visit the Mudd Center for Ethics’ series webpage.

The Mudd Center was established in 2010 through a gift to the university from award-winning journalist Roger Mudd, a 1950 graduate of W&L. By facilitating collaboration across traditional institutional boundaries, the center aims to encourage a multidisciplinary perspective on ethics informed by both theory and practice. Previous Mudd Center lecture series themes have included “Global Ethics in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities,” “Race and Justice in America,” “The Ethics of Citizenship,” “Markets and Morals,” “Equality and Difference,” “The Ethics of Identity,” “The Ethics of Technology,” “Daily Ethics: How Individual Choices and Habits Express Our Values and Shape Our World, “Beneficence: Practicing and Ethics of Care,” “The Ethics of Design” and “How We Live and Die: Stories, Values and Communities.”