Robert Williams, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Comparative Ethnic Studies and American Studies and Culture

 

Biography

Robert Williams (he/him/his) is an Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies in the School of Languages, Cultures and Race at Washington State University. Dr. Williams is originally from the Central District neighborhood in Seattle and graduated from Franklin High School. He is also a proud WSU Alum, having been a WSU McNair scholar during his time in Pullman. Dr. Williams credits the wonderful McNair program for helping him get into graduate school and eventually returning to WSU to teach new generations of WSU students. Go Cougs!

His research focuses on the ways in which material conditions of anti-black racism, segregation, and exclusion affect the development of the Pacific Northwest from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries highlighting the contributions of Black communities to the development of the PNW overtime. He has a forthcoming article on hermeneutics and the transformations in Black religious and philosophical traditions brought on by migration and urbanization throughout the long 20th C. His other research interests include race and religion in US culture, the development of Westcoast jazz, and dialectics

Education

2019 Ph.D., Ethnic Studies, University of California, San Diego
Dissertation: “Didn’t It Rain?: Religiosity, Swingin’ Jazz, and Black Community Formations in the Pacific Northwest (1844 – 1967)”

2013 M.A., Ethnic Studies, University of California, San Diego

2011 B.A., Comparative Ethnic Studies, Washington State University

Publications

• “A ‘Hermeneutics of the Cypher’ in “To Be A Diplomat,” and “Gone,” – Migration, Religiosity, and Exegesis in Early 21^st C. Rap Lyrical Formations,” Forthcoming.
• “Oh My Lord, How it Rained!”: Talking Guitars, Blues Epistemologies, and a ‘Politics of Transfiguration’,” Forthcoming.
• Didn’t It Rain?: Migration, Religiosity, Swingin’ Jazz, and Black Community Formations in the Pacific Northwest (1800 – 1967).  Monograph in progress.

Select Public Speaking Engagements

• “Black Americans and the Vote: US Democracy, Allyship, & the Significance of Participation,” Chapman & Cutler Corporate Black History Month Event. Chicago, IL. February 2022.

• “Remembering Dr. King and honoring his legacy in US society,” Rivian Corporate MLK Day Celebration. Irvine, CA. January 2022.

• “Million Dollar Hoodz: Mapping the Human and Fiscal Cost of Mass Incarceration in Los Angeles,” Panel Presentation by Dr. Kelly Lytle Hernandez. UCSD Ethnic Studies Department 30th Anniversary Event. January 2021.