Pamela Bridgewater
Professor of Law
Office: Room 406
Phone: 202-274-4065
E-mail: pbridgewater@wcl.american.edu
Professor Pamela D. Bridgewater is a lawyer, reproductive rights advocate and activist. She teaches property law, inheritance law and reproduction and the law. She has been involved in the women's health movement for many years providing legal defense of reproductive health care clinics, service providers and activists. Professor Bridgewater also assisted federal and state law makers on issues ranging from clinic violence to contraceptive and sterilization abuse. Prior to teaching law, Professor Bridgewater worked as a legal aid lawyer, a judicial law clerk and an advocate for indigenious property rights. Professor Bridgewater currently provides pro bono legal service and consultation on matters such as estate planning for poor people and people living with HIV/AIDS as well as legal services for peace activists and activists within the fair trade and globalization movements. Her work in the area of reproduction, sexuality, identity, poverty and women's health care has led her to work with leading legal scholars, policymakers, activists and advocates from North America, Europe, Latin America and South Africa. Professor Bridgewater is on a number of advisory boards including the Our Bodies Ourselves (formerly Boston Women's Health Book Collective), WAGADU: Journal for Transnational Feminisms, and the Kopkind Project for Journalists and Activists. Her past committee service includes the Law School Admissions Sub Committee on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Issues, the Law and Society Association's Student Writing Competition Committee. She is a member of Law and Society, the Society of American Law Teachers, Critical Legal Studies Association and the National Lawyers' Guild. Her book, Breeding A Nation: Reproductive Slavery and the Pursuit of Freedom (exploring the practice and legacy of slave breeding during the American slavery era) will be published by South End Press in 2006.
Currently Teaching
Areas of Specialization
- Feminist Theory
- Legal History
- Reproductive Rights and Technology
- Sexual Identity Theory
Degrees & Universities
- LL.M., University of Wisconsin Law School 2000
- J.D., Florida State University College of Law 1995
- B.A., Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University 1992
Selected Publications
- Pamela Bridgewater, Exploring Abortion Through a Personal, Political and Pedagogical Prism, in Critical Race Feminism: A Reader (Adrien K. Wing, ed., N.Y.U. Press 2003).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Ain't I A Slave: Slavery, Reproductive Abuses and Reparations, 14 UCLA Women's L.J. 89 (Fall 2005).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Exploring Abortion Through a Personal, Political and Pedagogical Prism, in Critical Race Feminism: A Reader (Adrien K. Wing 2003).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Reproductive Rights and Civil Freedom: The Thirteenth Amendment's Role in the Struggle for Reproductive Freedom, in Sources: Notable Selections in Race and Ethnicity (Adalberto Aguirre, Jr., ed., 3d ed., Dushkin/McGraw-Hill 2002).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Un/Re/Dis Covering Slave Breeding in the Thirteen Amendment Jurisprudence, Wash. & Lee Race & Ethnic Ancestry L.J. (Fall 2001).
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More Publications...
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- Pamela Bridgewater, New Approaches to Roe and Reproductive Rights, 5 Geo. J. Gender & L 817 (Fall 2004).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Reproductive Rights and Civil Freedom: The Thirteenth Amendment's Role in the Struggle for Reproductive Freedom, 3 J. Gender, Race & Justice 401 (2000).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Connectedness and Closeted Questions: The Use of History in Developing Feminist Legal Theory, 11 Wis. Women's L.J. 351 (1997).
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Selected Works in Progress
- Pamela Bridgewater, Breeding a Nation: Reproductive Slavery and the Pursuit of Freedom (South End Press (forthcoming 2006)).
- Pamela Bridgewater, 'Of Slight Relevance': A Critical Economic Theory of Reproductive Labor, __ Emory L.J. __ ((forthcoming 2007)).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Minding the Gap: Reproductive Freedom and the Limits of Constitutionalism, in Comparative Constitutionalism (Penelope Andrews, ed., Cambridge U. Press (forthcoming 2007)).
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Selected Presentations
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Narratives in Critical Legal Feminist Theory (Feminism and Legal Theory Workshop, Emory University Law School, Atlanta, Ga., Oct. 2007).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, From Slavery to Reconstruction to Black Power (African American Legal History Panel at the Southeastern Law School Association Annual Conference, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., July 2007).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Reading Gentleman: Race and Gender in Legal Academy (University of Iowa College of Law, Iowa City, Iowa, July 2007).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Black Women and the Legal Profession (Holland and Knight, LLP., Wash., D.C., June 2007).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Scholarly Voices: Women of Color in Legal Scholarship (SE/SW People of Color Scholarship Conference, Florida A&M University College of Law, Tallahassee, Fla., Mar. 2007).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Symposium Moderator, Emerging Issues in Family Law (Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law, American University Washington College of Law, Wash., D.C., Feb. 2007).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Emerging Issues in Property Rights and Redevelopment (Northeast People of Color Scholarship Conference Nassau, Bahamas, July 2006).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Critical Economic Theory and the Rational Reproductive Actor (Columbia Law School, N.Y.C., N.Y., Mar. 2006).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Hurricane Katrina and Kelo: Implications for the Poor (National Lawyers Guild National Conference, Wash., D.C., Mar. 2006).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Economic Actor Reproductive Labor (Mid Atlantic People of Color Conference, Jan. 2006).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Constitutionalism and Reproductive Rights (University of Kwa Zulu Natal, Durban, S. Afr., Dec. 2005).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Reproduction and Feminism (Hampshire College, Amherst, Mass., 2005).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Reproduction and Feminist Legal History (Socialist Scholars Conference, N.Y.C., N.Y., Mar. 2005).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Of Slight Relevance, Reproductive Decision Making and Free Trade in the Americas (Feminism and Legal Theory Workshop, Feb. 2005).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Reproductive Slavery and Reparations: The New Tool in the Fight for Reproductive Freedom (St. Louis University School of Law Faculty Colloquim, St. Louis, Mo., Sept. 2004).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Tending the Ties that Bind: The Inescapably Interdependence of Lawyers, Activist, Academics, Historians and Journalists (Kopkind Colony Summer Retreat, Aug. 2004).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Racialized Reproduction: Sexual and Reproductive Exploitation as a Modality of Subordination (AALS Mid Year Conference on Race, 2004).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Integrating Gender into Legal Education (Lay and Society Annual Meeting, May 2004).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Reproduction and Free Trade in the Americas (LATCRIT Colloquim/Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Arg., Aug. 2003).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, The History of Reproductive Rights in America (Gloria Steignam Institution Lecture Series, July 2003).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Globalization and Reproduction: An Feminsit Legal Theory Activist Project (Feminism and Legal Theory Workshop/University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis., Jun. 2003).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, The Prism of Race and Sexuality (Law School Admissions Council Annual Meeting, May 2003).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Strange Bedfellows: Political Activism and teh Reproductive Rights Doctrine (Hampshire College, Amherst, Mass., Apr. 2003).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Getting Real: Exploring the Symbolic Importance of Roe v. Wade (American University Washington College of Law Symposium, Wash., D.C., Apr. 2003).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Narratives in Legal Pedagogy (Georgetown Law Center, Wash., D.C., Mar. 2003).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Reparations and the Female Slave Experience (Symposium on Reparations Depaul University, Chi., Ill., Mar. 2003).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Reproductive Freedom and the Role of Midwives (American University Washington College of Law, Wash., D.C., Mar. 2003).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Sexual Identity and Race in the Legal Profession (Washington College of Law, Wash., D.C., Feb. 2003).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Women and Estate Planning (Women of Washington, Inc., Wash., D.C., Jan. 2003).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, The Other Thirty Years' War: Roe v. Wade and the Fight to Protect Reproductive Freedom (Feminist Majority Foundation, Annual Meeting, Wash., D.C., Jan. 2003).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Multidimensionality in Law School Admissions (NLGLA/Lavender Law, Phila., Pa., Oct. 2001).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Reproduction, Slavery and Feminst Theory (Hampshire College, Amherst, Mass., Oct. 2001).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, A Singular Silence: The Constitution on Matters of Sexual and Reproductive Abuses (Faculty Colloquium Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., Apr. 2001).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Abortion and Same-Sex Marriage: The Pitfalls of Single Issue Organizing (Association of American Law Schools, S.F., Cal., Jan. 2001).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Prisms, Space and Margins: Critical Queer Legal Theory (Critical Legal Studies Conference Univ. of Helsinki, Helsinki, Fin., Sept. 2000).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Erasing the Alter: A Prismal Analysis of Transgender and Same-Sex Marriages (Feminism and Legal Theory Workshop, Cornell Law School, Ithaca, N.Y., Nov. 2000).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the Increase of Violence Against Women in the Military (American Association of Law Schools, Wash., D.C., Jan. 2000).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Narratology and Doctrine in American Legal History (Critical Legal Studies Conference University of London, London, Eng., Sept. 1999).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, History, Identity and Narrative: The Pursuit of Reproductive Freedom (Critical Race Feminism Conference, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, Nov. 1998).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Calling All Queers!: Sexual Orientation and the Legal Academican (NLGLA/Lavender Law Conference, Bos., Mass., Oct. 1998).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, The Norplant Crisis and the Thirteenth Amendment: Toward a Content Bas Conference, Yale Law School, New Haven, Conneticuted Remedy for Reproductive Abuse (Critical Race Theory Conference, Yale Law School, New Haven, Conn., Nov. 1997).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, The Globalization of the Reproductive Rights Discourse (Distinguished Scholar Lecture Series Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Mich., Mar. 1997).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Towards a Feminist Lesbian Legal and Political Theory (National Women Law Student's Association, Long Beach, Cal., Feb. 1997).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, The Global Pursuit of Reproductive Freedom (Law and Society Association Annual Conference University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scot., July 1996).
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Deviance and Feminst Theory: Learning from the Margins (National Women Law Student's Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wis., Mar. 1996).
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Selected Media Appearances
- Pamela Bridgewater, Speech, Reproduction in the Americas (Encuentro Feminista, San Jose, Costa Rica, Dec. 2002).
