Rachel Elizabeth Williams

Rachel Elizabeth Williams is an Assistant Professor in the Educational Policy Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her interdisciplinary research brings together Black studies and critical geography with education policy to examine race, place, and political economy in the U.S. metropolitan South. Her research agenda explores: 1) the impact of charter schools and state takeover on local democratic governance in majority Black contexts; 2) the relationship between education, capital, and the spatial organization of metropolitan landscapes and 3) Black intra-racial politics, representation, and (spatial) imaginaries within and beyond racial capitalism. Her work has been supported by the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation and the Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowships.