​Adrien Wing is the Associate Dean for International and Comparative Law Programs and the Bessie Dutton Murray Professor at the University of Iowa College of Law, where she has taught since 1987. Additionally, she serves as the Director of the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights, as well as Director of the France Summer Abroad Program. She has previously served as the Associate Dean for Faculty Development and the on-site Director for the London Law Consortium semester abroad program. She has been, in addition, a member of The University of Iowa's interdisciplinary African Studies faculty and North Africa/Middle East faculty groups. During fall 2002, she was a visiting professor at the University of Michigan Law School. During fall 2011, she was the Bette and Wylie Aitken Distinguished Visiting Professor at Chapman Law School.

After receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton with high honors in 1978, Professor Wing earned her Master of Arts degree in African studies from UCLA in 1979. She obtained her Doctorate of Jurisprudence degree in 1982 from Stanford Law School, and was awarded the Stanford African Student Association Prize. While in law school, she served as an editor of the Stanford Journal of International Law, as an intern with the United Nations Council on Namibia, and as Southern Africa Task Force Director of the National Black Law Students Association.

Prior to joining the College of Law faculty in 1987, Professor Wing spent five years in practice in New York City with Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle; and with Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky & Lieberman, specializing in international law issues regarding Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. She also served as a representative to the United Nations for the National Conference of Black Lawyers.

Professor Wing has advised the founding fathers and mothers of three constitutions: South Africa, Palestine, and Rwanda. She organized an election-observer delegation to South Africa, and taught at the University of Western Cape for six summers. She also advised the Eritrean Ministry of Justice on human rights treaties.

Having studied French, Portuguese, and Swahili, she served on delegations to many nations including Angola, Cuba, Egypt, Grenada, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Mozambique, Namibia, Nicaragua, Palestine, Panama, Sudan, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. She has conducted additional research in China, France, Hong Kong, Brazil, London, and Tunisia.

Author of more than 150 publications, Wing is the editor of Critical Race Feminism: A Reader and Global Critical Race Feminism: An International Reader, both from NYU Press. She is co-editor of the Richard Delgado Reader and Family Law and Gender in the Middle East and North Africa: Change and Stasis since the Arab Spring. Her US-oriented scholarship has focused on race and gender discrimination. Her international scholarship has emphasized two regions: Africa, especially South Africa; and the Middle East, in particular the Palestinian legal system. International law and Feminism, International law and Race, and the Arab world and women’s rights  are among the topics of articles.

Further, Wing has held leadership positions in various organizations. She currently serves on the: American Journal of International Law Board of  Editors; Council of the American Bar Association Section on Legal Education; Princeton Class of 78 Executive Committee; International Law Student Association Board of Directors; Blacks of the American Society of International Law Task Force; American Journal of Comparative Law Board of Editors, and as  a law school inspector for the American Bar Association.

She has been: Vice President of the American Society of International Law; Blacks of the American Society of International Law Task Force Co-Chair;  American Bar Association Section of Legal Education Accreditation Committee member; American Society of International Law Executive Council; Law & Society Diversity Committee Chair; American Association of Law Schools Recruitment and Retention of Minority Law Professors Committee member;  Stanford Law School Board of Visitors member; Association of American Law Schools Minority Section Chair; AALS Membership Review Committee Chair; American Bar Association Middle East/North Africa Law Council member; Human Rights Watch Africa Division Advisory Committee member; American Friends Service Committee, Middle East Programs Board member; Princeton Class of 1978 Foundation President; Princeton African American Studies Advisory Council member; Princeton Alumni Council member; Princeton Board of Trustees nominee; Association of Black Princeton Alumni Board member; UI Center for Human Rights Board member; Iowa Peace Institute Board member; Iowa City Foreign Relations Council Board member; National Conference of Black Lawyers International Section Chair; and TransAfrica Forum Scholars Council member. Iowa Governor Vilsack appointed Professor Wing to the Commission on the African American Prison Population as well. 

Wing will teach Sex-based Discrimination Law in spring 2024.

View Publications Download CV

Practice and Teaching: 

• Critical Race Theory
• Sex Discrimination Law
• Law in the Muslim World 

(Previously Taught) 

• International Human Rights
• US Constitutional Law
• Comparative Law
• Comparative Constitutional Law
• Race, Racism & American Law
• Law in Radically Different Cultures
• International and Domestic Legal Aspects of AIDS

(Teaching Affiliations)

• Member of The University of Iowa's interdisciplinary African Studies faculty and North Africa/Middle East faculty groups
• Visiting professor at the University of Michigan Law School (Fall 2002)
• Bette and Wylie Aitken Distinguished Visiting Professor at Chapman Law School (Fall 2011)

Awards and Honors: 

• Counsellor, American Society of International Law
• Iowa Women’s Foundation Ovation Tribute
• National Black Prelaw Legal Education Access & Diversity Champion Award Regents Award for Faculty Excellence (Iowa)
• Clyde Ferguson Award from Association of American Law Schools Minority Section
• Lena O. Smith Award from Minnesota Black Women Lawyers Network
• Distinguished Achievement Award from University of Iowa
• Juliette Gordon Low Award from Mississippi Valley Girls Scouts
• Gertrude Rush Award from Iowa National Bar Assn and Iowa Women’s Bar Assn
• Newark Academy (NJ) Distinguished Alumni Award
• University of Iowa African Student Association Diversity Award
• Haywood Burns & Shanara Gilbert Award from Northeastern Law Professors of Color
• Vice President, Princeton Class of 1978

Affiliations: 

• American Bar Association
• American Law Institute
• American Society of International Law
• Society of American Law Teachers
• Association of Black Princeton Alumni and the Council on Foreign Relations (lifetime member)
• New York Bar