Sope Williams

Sope Williams (PhD) is the E.K. and Justine Gubin Distinguished Visiting Professor of Government Contracts Law. Prior to joining GWU in August 2026, she was a professor at Stellenbosch University in South Africa and had previously taught at the universities of Stirling, Nottingham, and Lagos.

She is an expert in anti-corruption law, public procurement law and policy; procurement in the multilateral development banks; gendered corruption, gender-responsive procurement; emergency contracting and sustainable public procurement. She has written/co-edited 6 books: Fighting Corruption in Public Procurement (2012); Public Procurement and Multilateral Development Banks (2017); Public Procurement Regulation for 21st Century Africa (2018); Public Procurement Regulation in Africa: Development in uncertain times (2020); and Routledge Handbook of Public Procurement Corruption (2024); Routledge Handbook of Gender and Corruption (2025) and authored over 65 peer-reviewed publications. She is currently co-writing a monograph on gender responsive procurement with Professor Annamaria La Chimia from the University of Nottingham, UK.

She has been recognised for her research and in December 2022, she was awarded the prestigious International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award for Academic Research and Education by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the State of Qatar. In 2014, 2019 and 2024, she was a recipient of Stellenbosch University’s Research and Innovation Excellence Award. In 2021, she was designated by the Open Contracting Partnership (USA) as an “anti-corruption champion.” In 2020 she was appointed as a research fellow by the University of Nottingham, UK. Her research was cited by the South African Constitutional Court in the case of Shaik v The State (2008), in which corruption allegations were levelled against former President Jacob Zuma.

She has drafted some significant policy and research reports including "Legal Research on Sextortion/Sexual Corruption in South Africa” for Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, (2024); “Public Procurement and Women’s Economic Empowerment” for the International Development Research Centre, Canada (2023); "Crisis Responses and Corruption in Vulnerable Sectors” for Global Integrity, USA (2022); "Equity and Inclusion of Women-Owned Businesses in Public Procurement in South Africa” for the Open Contracting Partnership, USA (2021); "Unlocking the potential for Open Government in Africa” for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (2017).

She sits on the advisory board of Coalition for Integrity (Washington DC), International Anti-Corruption Court Treaty Committee (Washington DC), the International Anti-Corruption Academy (Vienna, Austria) and is a co-chair of the debarment and exclusions sub-committee of the International Bar Association.

She has an LLM (with distinction) from the London School of Economics (2000), and a PhD in public procurement and anti-corruption law from the University of Nottingham, UK (2011).