Circulating Back to Swem
James Boswell ’86 shares his full-circle journey back to W&M and Swem Library
December 16, 2024
By
Connie G. Ryu ’25
Libraries are at the heart of any university, serving not only as study spaces but as keepers of generations of stories. For James Boswell ’86, little did he know that his own story would evolve from working as a student at William & Mary’s Earl Gregg Swem Library to returning to the university as a faculty member — and as a member of the W&M Libraries Board of Directors.
In between graduating with an English major and anthropology minor and returning to W&M to teach business law, Boswell earned a law degree from the University of Georgia. He spent nearly 20 years as an attorney representing corporations and state and federal governments, before transitioning to work as a consultant.
Boswell credits his time at W&M, particularly the liberal arts education, for equipping him with transferable skills throughout his professional career.
“Anthropology classes were incredibly useful to understanding how societies function,” Boswell says. “When you start practicing and working with clients, you start looking at organizational behavior: how organizations function and how internal politics work.”
During his senior year at W&M, Boswell worked as a student assistant at Swem Library, where he helped digitize the card catalog and reclassify materials from the Dewey Decimal System to the Library of Congress System.
“The library is a repository of data, and the card catalog was a form of metadata,” Boswell says. “It was more than just scanning or manual labor; it was analyzing metadata. It required attention to detail, and it gave me experience with using and being able to understand technology that was just coming along.”
He recalls that the work was both tedious and rewarding, and that it was impactful in positioning W&M Libraries at the forefront of technological change at the time.
“When I came to W&M, I had a typewriter. But when I left, I had a computer,” Boswell says. “We were right at that cusp of change, and the job really helped me because I had had no computer skills.”
Beyond the technical skills he learned, this experience left him with fun memories and a deep appreciation for the staff who support the university, its students and faculty from behind the scenes. Boswell believes William & Mary would not be the same without its dedicated staff.
“I always liked and was comfortable in libraries, and the staff members I was working with were professional, but they had so much fun,” Boswell says. “There are still jokes that I remember, and funny events were always happening in the library.”
‘We’re There Because of the Students’
One staff member who made a lasting impact on Boswell was Natasha McFarland, who worked at Swem Library for 37 years before retiring in 2020. Beginning in 1983 as a part-time, hourly worker in Interlibrary Loan, she served in several roles, eventually receiving her Master of Library and Information Science degree and serving students face-to-face as a librarian in the research office.
Boswell always felt cared for by McFarland, fondly remembering that she had given him law books knowing his interest and plans to pursue the legal field. Believing in the role of staff to support students both academically and personally, McFarland treated her relationships with students like Boswell as a “family affair.”
“I realized early that we’re there because of the students,” McFarland says. “The students are paving a way to make our future, so the best thing we could do is provide what they need on the educational side and the nurturing side — to know that they had someone to support them locally with encouragement.”
McFarland credits other staff at Swem Library with fostering her decades of success as a research librarian.
“I had a good support system at Swem,” McFarland says. “I’m honored to have worked there for so long and to have met someone like James and to see him from being a student to where he is now as a professor.”
After Boswell returned to W&M in 2018 as a faculty member in the Raymond A. Mason School of Business, he felt a call not only to W&M, but also to Swem Library. Since 2021, he has been serving on the W&M Libraries Board of Directors and describes his role as being a “missionary” for the libraries. As a board member, he advocates for the continued relevance of campus libraries, despite living in a time when information is now widely accessible online.
“There’s a myth that libraries are going to fall out of favor,” Boswell says. “But that couldn’t be farther from the truth. A lot of what the board does is learning about what our libraries are doing and then coming up with ways that we can support their efforts.”
By coincidence, fate or luck, McFarland joined Boswell on the W&M Libraries Board of Directors, bringing her experience to the development team. She shares his belief in the indispensable role that Swem Library plays in W&M’s excellence.
“No one entity on campus can make the university as great as it is,” McFarland says. “The library is in the center by supporting all departments, and its role is to meet all the demands for information. It is an intricate part of any educational institution.”
After Boswell and McFarland’s recent reunion on the board, McFarland was not surprised to hear of Boswell’s successful career. While they worked at Swem together, she recognized his strong work ethic and genuine love for learning how the library contributed to the campus community.
“He wasn’t ashamed to ask a question, and that’s where learning starts,” McFarland says. “You ask questions and seek answers so that you can come up with another question, and he was not shy in doing that.”
Degrees of Dedication
Growing up with two professors as parents, Boswell developed curiosity and passion for learning that led him to continue his education amid his legal and teaching careers. He now has four degrees, including a master’s in government from Harvard University and an MBA from Eastern University.
On the other side of the classroom, Boswell teaches business law to undergraduate and graduate students at the business school. He emphasizes that his course is relevant not only for a professional career but also in everyday life, starting with all the “Terms & Conditions” agreements we endlessly encounter.
“I think it’s incumbent on faculty to address the questions ‘Why this class?’ and ‘What is its value?’” Boswell says. “I want my students to see I care about my classes, because I love the law and want to share that enthusiasm.”
Boswell has also been a principal consultant at Christopher James Associates LLC since co-founding it in 2009, leveraging his expertise and creativity to draft solutions for organizations facing complex issues. He enjoys consulting and teaching because both involve knowing how to hear and then tell stories through case studies that highlight real-world decision-making.
“Each case is telling the story of an individual or a business that made choices faced with a situation and led to an outcome,” Boswell says. “For me, it’s fun to tell those stories, and business law gives you so many opportunities to do that.”
Service in Preservation
Throughout his work at the intersection in law, business and government, service has always been a priority for Boswell. He has spent numerous years serving on and chairing various advisory boards for cities and foundations, such as The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the Williamsburg Planning Commission and Old Salem Museums & Gardens.
In addition to his service with W&M Libraries, Boswell is heavily involved in the W&M community as a member of the Williamsburg-Peninsula Alumni Network board and First-Generation Low-Income Collaboration, Support and Advocacy Council. Earlier this month, he became chief strategy officer at The Williamsburg Institute, a collaboration between William & Mary and Colonial Williamsburg that is the brainchild of former W&M Rector Jeff Trammell ’73, D.P.S. ’24 and Carly Fiorina, chair of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Board of Trustees.
Beyond his individual service, Boswell and his husband, Christopher “Chris” Caracci HON ’23, who also teaches at the business school, are active philanthropists. Together, they support various campus initiatives, from the W&M football program to a fund for tenure-track faculty at the business school to attend professional development opportunities.
“Community involvement is something that W&M instills in its students, and we get used to being involved in the community,” Boswell says. “When Chris and I see a need or something that we want to support, we do.”
Connecting back to Boswell’s passion and advocacy for libraries and historical preservation, he and Caracci support the Special Collections Research Center at Swem Library, which houses rare and unique materials including original manuscripts, rare books, audiovisual media and more, from a variety of places and eras.
Boswell and Caracci have also established the Boswell-Caracci Acquisition Fund for the Wolf Law Library’s recreation of George Wythe’s library. As collectors themselves, this is a meaningful endeavor for them, with Boswell describing it as an exciting “treasure hunt” to find the same editions of Wythe’s obscure, 18th-century books.
“The library is a window into the mind of George Wythe,” Boswell says. “You would think it’s a lot of law books, but there’s sociology, literature, chemistry — the scope of it is absolutely incredible.”
Boswell values the stories told by each object, whether by its origins, words or fading from sun.
Continuing His Story
Part of James Boswell’s own story at W&M is to continue the legacy of his distant cousin and distinguished LGBTQ historian and professor John E. “Jeb” Boswell ’69, for whom Boswell Hall is named.
“Jeb was not ‘out’ to anybody and was terrified that people were going to find out he was gay, but he still said the best time of his life was at W&M,” Boswell says.
The younger Boswell recalls taking history classes as a student in what is now Boswell Hall and at times hesitating to tell professors that he was related to John E. Boswell for fear of not living up to such a “brilliant scholar, researcher and writer.”
At the Boswell Hall dedication ceremony in 2021, Boswell said, “As I speak with you today with my husband, Chris, looking on, I am able to be my authentic self. Had it not been for the brilliance of John Boswell, I doubt that would be possible. So today, I don’t feel that I’m in John Boswell’s shadow. Today, I feel that I’m in John Boswell’s light.”
Reflecting on his journey beginning as a student and returning to the W&M community, he finds that the magic of W&M is hard to define but felt and shaped by all those who experience it.
“We can give examples of why W&M is so good,” Boswell says. “But I think it’s the type of people that we attract as students, faculty, and staff, and our scope. I could take Japanese in the morning and study the harpsichord in the afternoon. There are so many opportunities here that I think are meaningful and carry forward throughout life. So, I think it’s about the place and that history — that continuity.”