Bianca C. Williams, PhD.
Writer. Teacher. Speaker. Organizer.
Education as a practice of freedom ~ bell hooks
WRITER
The Pursuit of Happiness
Black Women, Diasporic Dreams, and the Politics of Emotional Transnationalism
Plantation Politics and Campus Rebellions
Power, Diversity, and the Emancipatory Struggle in Higher Education
Select Published Works
Black Feminist Citational Praxis and Disciplinary Belonging
Plantation Politics and Neoliberal Racism in Higher Education: A Framework for Reconstructing Anti-Racist Institutions
‘‘Giving Back” to Jamaica: Experiencing Community and Conflict While Traveling with Diasporic Heart
Sitting at the Kitchen Table: Fieldnotes from Women of Color in Anthropology
‘‘Don’t Ride the Bus!’’: and Other Warnings Women Anthropologists are Given During Fieldwork
“Who Convinced You that Black Feminist Thought Isn’t a Part of the Canon?: A. Lynn Bolles and the Power of Citation Practice”
transforming anthropology 28(2): 133-134.
“Guard Your Heart and Your Purpose: Faithfully Writing Anthropology”
“Radical Honesty: Truth-telling as Pedagogy for Working Through Shame in Academic Spaces”
in race, equity, and the learning environment: the global relevance of critical and inclusive pedagogies in higher education, edited by frank tuitt, chayla haynes, and saran stewart, 2016, pp. 71-82.
“Introduction #BlackLivesMatter,” Cultural Anthropology
“Virtual Ethnography”
oxford bibliographies in anthropology, oxford university press, 2013
“The Future of Doctoral Education: Four Provocations for a More Just and Sustainable Academy”
la review of books
TEACHER
Bianca C. Williams (she/her) is an Associate Professor of Anthropology, Critical Psychology, and Women & Gender Studies at CUNY Graduate Center. Her desire to answer the question “How do Black women develop strategies for enduring and resisting the effects of racism and sexism while maintaining emotional wellness?” has motivated her life-long exploration of race, gender, and emotion in higher education and organizing communities. Williams is the author of the award-winning book The Pursuit of Happiness: Black Women, Diasporic Dreams, and the Politics of Emotional Transnationalism (Duke U 2018), and co-editor of the volume Plantation Politics and Campus Rebellions: Power, Diversity, and the Emancipatory Struggle in Higher Education (SUNY 2021).
Williams is Faculty Lead of the PublicsLab, where she and Director Stacy Hartman encourage graduate students and faculty to think broadly about the utility of public scholarship and reimagine doctoral education as a process of wellness and wholeness. Some of her most intense and insightful learning experiences were earning a Ph.D. at Duke University, and later organizing as a co-founder of Black Lives Matter 5280. Always thrilled to talk about the power of Black women’s writing, Williams was the inaugural Scholar-in-Residence at Well-Read Black Girl from 2021-2022, supported by the Mellon/ACLS Scholar and Society fellowship.
More information about Dr. Williams is available here: https://www.gc.cuny.edu/people/bianca-c-williams.
Media
Speaker
On Trust and Power: a Final Interview with Bianca Williams and Stacy Hartman
Sharing visions of what PublicsLab could be, and reflections on the successes and challenges of the work accomplished.
Left of Black
Interview with Mark Anthony Neal and Armond Towns.
Anti-Racist Teaching, Rebellion, and Plantation Politics
A Conversation with Bianca Williams and Dian Squire on the University of Connecticut’s Higher Education Anti-Racist Teaching (H.E.A.R.T.) Podcast
Scholarship for the Public Good: What We Value, How We Evaluate It
Hosted by: Mina Rees Library Provost’s Office CUNY Graduate Center
What is the Utility of Anthropology in this Moment of Emergency?
A conversation with Deborah A. Thomas, for the Anthropology Section of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2020.
A Discussion on Race & Racism
virtual panel with Khalil Gibran Muhammad, hosted by Joy Connolly of American Council of Learned Societies and Alondra Nelson of Social Science Research Council, 2020.
What Does Anthropology Sound Like?: Activism
An interview with Cory-Alice André-Johnson and Sophie Chao, for Anthropod, 2019.
African American Women and Jamaican Travel
Interview with Annette Joseph-Gabriel for Time to East the Dogs: A Podcast about Science, History, and Exploration, 2019.
The Pursuit of Happiness Interview
Interview with Dannah Dennis at New Books Network, 2019.
Interview about The Pursuit of Happiness
Left of Black with Mark Anthony Neal, 2018.
Feminist Anthropology: A Live Annual Review
Interview with Carla Freeman, Inderpal Grewal, Lucinda E.G. Ramberg, and Rayna Rapp at American Anthropological Association’s annual meeting, 2017.
Radical Honesty & Subjective Truths: A Black Feminist Politics of Teaching with Emotion
Precarious Publics Conference at Duke University, 2017.
Saving Our Selves, Saving Our Souls: A Love Note for Zora Neale Hurston,
Hurston @125 Conference at Barnard College, 2016.
Collaborations + Organizing
ORGANIZer
“Reclaim MLK Marade”
Video by Gino Canella
Fabulous Speaker, BLM5280 Co-founder Amy E. Brown