Heather A. Williams
Heather A. Williams is a scholar of African American studies and lawyer. She serves as Presidential Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.[1]
Heather A. Williams | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | Saint Ann's School Harvard College Harvard Law School |
| Occupation | Professor |
| Employer | University of Pennsylvania |
| Notable work | Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery |
| Title | Presidential Professor and Professor of Africana Studies |
Heather Andrea Williams moved to the United States from Jamaica when she was 11 years old.[2] She attended Saint Ann's School in Brooklyn, New York,[2] then Harvard College, graduating in 1978, then earned a J.D. from Harvard in 1981. She practiced law in the public sector, serving as an assistant attorney general and section chief for the State of New York and as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.[3]
After teaching history at Saint Ann's School for two years,[2] she earned a Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University[4] in 2002.[3] She was a post-doctoral fellow at Smith College for two years, then taught in the history department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 2004 to 2014, when she was named Presidential Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.[3]
Her book Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery (2012), about ads placed after emancipation to reunify families, was described as "a superbly researched and engaging analysis" by John G. Cox, though Williams's writing was criticized for engaging "only very slightly with extant scholarship".[5]
Works
- Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom (University of North Carolina Press, 2005)[6][7][8][9][10][11][12]
- Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery (University of North Carolina Press, 2012)[13][14][15]
- American Slavery: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, forthcoming)
References
- "Heather A. Williams | Africana Studies". africana.sas.upenn.edu. University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
- Feiner, Lauren (May 10, 2014). "Historian to join Africana Studies department as a Presidential Professor". The Daily Pennsylvanian. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
- Mott, Amanda (April 30, 2014). "Heather Williams Appointed Sixth Presidential Professor at Penn". news.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2017-08-25.
- "Heather Williams: " 'What I Came to Say': Writing Help Me to Find My People" | Department of African American Studies". afamstudies.yale.edu. Retrieved 2017-08-25.
- Cox, David G. (2 January 2014). "Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery". American Nineteenth Century History. 15 (1): 102–104. doi:10.1080/14664658.2014.893096. S2CID 144561214.
- Ayatey, Shirley A. (2006). "Review of Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom". Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association. 47 (1): 120–124. JSTOR 4234173.
- Bernstein, Robin (2009-02-21). "Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom (review)". Southern Cultures. 15 (1): 87–89. doi:10.1353/scu.0.0047. ISSN 1534-1488. S2CID 149949374.
- Mintz, Steven (2007-10-02). "Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom (review)". Civil War History. 53 (1): 94–96. doi:10.1353/cwh.2007.0022. ISSN 1533-6271.
- Rousmaniere, Kate (2007-11-01). "Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom by Heather Andrea Williams". History of Education Quarterly. 47 (4): 532–534. doi:10.1111/j.1748-5959.2007.00120.x. ISSN 1748-5959. S2CID 143801231.
- Troupe, Carol (2006-02-01). "Heather Andrea Williams, Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom". Black Theology. 4 (2): 240–242. doi:10.1179/blt.4.2.l61v08t6t417j560. ISSN 1476-9948. S2CID 144410638.
- King, W. (2006-04-01). "HEATHER ANDREA WILLIAMS. Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom. (John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture.) Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2005. Pp. xiii, 304. $29.95". The American Historical Review. 111 (2): 484–485. doi:10.1086/ahr.111.2.484. ISSN 0002-8762.
- Margo, Robert A. (June 2005). "Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom. By Heather Andrea Williams. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Pp xii, 304. $29.95. -". The Journal of Economic History. 65 (2): 590–591. doi:10.1017/S0022050705290228. ISSN 1471-6372. S2CID 153567180.
- Chakkalakal, Tess (2014-02-08). "Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery by Heather Andrea Williams (review)". The Journal of the Civil War Era. 4 (1): 126–129. doi:10.1353/cwe.2014.0007. ISSN 2159-9807. S2CID 162368817.
- Perry, Imani (2012-06-29). "'Help Me to Find My People,' by Heather Andrea Williams". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-08-25.
- Hager, Christopher (2014-03-04). "Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery by Heather Andrea Williams (review)". Civil War History. 60 (1): 92–93. doi:10.1353/cwh.2014.0009. ISSN 1533-6271.