J. Jarpa Dawuni, Ph.D.

My recent trip to Johannesburg, South Africa, to conduct interviews with women judges was a profound exercise in seeing the human side of the judge beyond the robe. This research initiative, conducted as part of the seven-nation study on the demographic variation among judiciaries, seeks to document the lives, experiences, and contributions of individual Black women judges through their own voices and agency.

In the past eleven years, I have conducted fieldwork on women judges in over 15 countries. Today, I take on the role of the judge and make my decision– my recent research journey to Trinidad and Tobago has been a revelation, standing out among the fifteen countries visited for the unparalleled warmth and hospitality I received from every single judge I encountered.

The Adinkra symbol of the Akans represents the essence of learning—Nea Onim—which loosely translates to “(s)he who does not know can learn”—a symbol emphasizing the importance and pursuit of knowledge through lifelong learning.