The following story originally appeared on the W&M Law School website. – Ed.

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has announced that James Dwyer of William & Mary Law School has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship as part of the foundation’s 100th class of fellows.

This prestigious honor recognizes Dwyer’s exceptional contributions to the field of philosophy. As the Cabell Research Professor and Arthur B. Hanson Professor of Law at William & Mary, he specializes in family law, children and the law, trusts and estates, and philosophy of law.

Dwyer’s most recent book, “International Migration of Children for a Better Life: Human Rights, State Power, and Nations’ Duties,” has just been published by Oxford University Press. He has published seven other books with academic presses, including the “Oxford Handbook of Children and the Law” (Oxford, 2020), “Homeschooling: The History and Philosophy of a Controversial Practice” (with Shawn F. Peters, Chicago, 2019), “Liberal Child Welfare Policy and its Destruction of Black Lives” (Routledge, 2018), “Moral Status and Human Life: The Case for Children’s Superiority” (Cambridge, 2011) and “The Relationship Rights of Children” (Cambridge, 2006).

A prodigious scholar, Dwyer also has several recent and forthcoming articles in scholarly journals, including “Clarifying Parens Patriae,” in the Journal of Ethics & Social Philosophy; “Pierce’s Problems: Reassessing Revered Precedent,” in the Notre Dame Law Review; “The Kincare Craze in Child Protection: Romanticism, Subterfuge, and Racial Separatism,” in the Florida International University Law Review; “Mired in Meyer’s Mischief a Century After the Invention of Constitutional Parents’ Rights,” in the Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues; and “The Real Wrongs of ICWA,” in the Villanova Law Review.

Dwyer holds a Ph.D. in moral and political philosophy from Stanford University and a J.D. from Yale Law School. He joined the William & Mary law faculty in 2000 after teaching at the Chicago-Kent and University of Wyoming law schools. He previously practiced law with Sutherland, Asbill, and Brennan; and Coudert Brothers, both in Washington, D.C., and worked in the New York State Family Court as a Law Guardian for children.

Dwyer teaches family law, youth law, trusts and estates, and law and social justice at William & Mary, and was selected for the Class of 2010 professorship as well as three times for the Plumeri Award for Faculty Excellence. He served as visiting professor at Harvard Law School in the fall of 2019.

“It’s a huge honor to receive this recognition from the Guggenheim Foundation,” Dwyer said. “This fellowship, along with William & Mary’s ongoing support, will allow me to focus intently on my next book project during a research leave next year.”

Chosen through a rigorous application and peer review process from a pool of nearly 3,500 applicants, the Class of 2025 Guggenheim Fellows was tapped based on both prior career achievement and exceptional promise. As established in 1925 by founder Sen. Simon Guggenheim, each fellow receives a monetary stipend to pursue independent work at the highest level under “the freest possible conditions.”

“At a time when intellectual life is under attack, the Guggenheim Fellowship celebrates a century of support for the lives and work of visionary scientists, scholars, writers, and artists,” said Edward Hirsch, award-winning poet and president of the Guggenheim Foundation. “We believe that these creative thinkers can take on the challenges we all face today and guide our society towards a better and more hopeful future.”