Jill Williams
Dr. Jill M. Williams is a feminist social scientist, qualitative researcher, and program developer focused on understanding inequitable social systems and contributing to their transformation. Dr. Williams holds an MA in Women's Studies from the University of Cincinnati and a PhD in Geography from Clark University. She is trained as a feminist political geographer and has researched contemporary US border enforcement practices for over a decade. In her research, she employs a feminist geopolitical approach to understand the material, discursive, and affective processes through which border enforcement practices play out and how they shape the lived experiences of individuals and communities. She currently serves as the Principal Investigator (with Co-PI, Kate Coddington, SUNY-Albany) of a National Science Foundation funded project examining the use of public information campaigns as a tool of border governance in the US and Australia. Past research has examined the criminalization of humanitarian aid and uneven practices of migrant detention and release in southern Arizona.
Dr. Williams also serves as the Director of the Women in Science and Engineering Program where she oversees the development, implementation, and evaluation of programs aimed at increasing girls and women's participation in the sciences and engineering. In this role, she also works with university and community partners to evaluate educational and student support programs aimed at creating more diverse and inclusive STEM educational environments. She is particularly interested in supporting and researching STEM educational programs that are grounded in a sociopolitical approach to STEM education that combines issues of social justice and STEM. For more information on WISE visit wise.arizona.edu