Robert A Williams

Interests

Teaching

Federal Indian Law; Critical Race Theory and Practice; International Law and Indigenous Peoples Rights; International Human Rights; Comparative Indigenous Rights; Tribal Courts and Customary Law; Property Law; Critical Race Theory and Practice International Human Rights Advocacy Workshop (2011-Present);Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Clinic

Research

Federal Indian Law; Critical Race Theory and Practice; Indigenous Peoples' Human Rights; Legal History of Colonialism.

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Others

• Williams, R. A. (2026, May).

  I want to note that during this reporting period, as in the past several reporting periods, my scholarship agenda and contributions have been defined primarilyby the major externally funded grant and contract projects for which I have served as Principal Investigator. For this reporting period, these projects for which i have served as PI  have included the IPLP Indigenous Rights and Protected Lands Initiative and the Pascua Yaqui Tribe-University of Arizona Microcampus. Grant awards during this period amount to $150,000 secured and another $75,000 committed by the Pascua Yaqui Tribal Council at the beginning of the tribe's fiscal year (October 1, 2026). Since FY 19, I have been awarded over $5,182,000 in grants and contracts to support the development and research that have gone into and have been produced by these and other initiatives for which I have serve as PI and grant/contract administrator. During this reporting period I have developed, designed, supervised, made substantive contributions, edited and reviewed for final approval reseach and curriculum development projects across  these two  initiatives for 3 externally funded full-time UA employees, 2 externally funded supplemetal compensation consultants, and 4 externally funded graduate law fellows and research assistants. The original research products produced by these three initiatives can be found on the four IPLP websites I've designed, developed and supervised for these three projects:
  https://un.arizona.edu/ (see especially the "Databases" dropdown menu)
  https://pascuayaqui.arizona.edu/
  https://indigenous.arizona.edu/(see especially the "Databases" dropdown menu)
  https://nativenet.arizona.edu/

  While spending the bulk of my time working on thes egrant funded initiatives, I completed my final contributions to the publication of the 8th edition of my co-authored casebook, D. GETCHES, C. WILKINSON, R. WILLIAMS, M. FLETCHER, K. CARPENTER & WENONA K. SINGEL, FEDERALINDIAN LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS, 8th ed. (West Publishing Co.   2025). I continued research and drafting of my long-term book project on comparative Indigenous rights with a particualr focus on first contact Indigenous peoples.

  Additionally, I initiated a new research project on Legal Personhood for Orca Whales, for which I'm collaborating with several British Columbia First Nations. 

  Finally, as Principal Investigator and IPLP Research Team Director for the  IPLP INDIGENOUS RIGHTS AND PROTECTED AREA INITIATIVE, https://indigenous.arizona.edu  I directed and contributed to  continued development and content generation for the Initiative's  Research Database of Alleged Violations Against Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Violations In Protected Areas And Natural Parks, https://indigenous.arizona.edu/databases/human-rights-violations-database and the Initiative's reports and analysis of alleged human rights violations committed by States and by private and non-governmental entities against Indigenous peoples in protected areas and UNESCO World Heritage sites, https://indigenous.arizona.edu/publications-resources/reports .  

  . See project websites above.