Research Interests
I am broadly interested in art and knowledge production, and examining the ways in which we can learn about ourselves and others through art. I pay special attention to the artistic expressions of women, the colonized or once colonized, enslaved, incarcerated, “foreign” or “other”. I regard popular culture artifacts, media and text such as blogs, vlogs, films, fashion, music, literature, poetry and spoken word, visual and performance art, all as art and as mechanisms for creating emancipatory visions.
Education
PhD in Educational Policy Studies ▪ University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2017
Dissertation title: “(W)raps of Consciousness: Articulating Women’s Rights in Hip Hop in the Middle East and North Africa Region”
M.A. in Linguistics ▪ University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009
B.A. in Linguistics ▪University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006
Courses Taught
Women and Popular Culture in the Middle East and North Africa
GLBL 296 Fall 2016 and 2019
Additional Campus Affiliations
Associate Director, Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Recent Publications
Williams, A. S. (2020). Hip Hop Harem: Women, Rap, and Representation in the Middle East. Peter Lang Publishing. https://doi.org/10.3726/b16024
Williams, A. S. (2010). 'We ain't Terrorists but we Droppin' Bombs': Language Use and Localization in Egyptian Hip Hop. In M. Terkourafi (Ed.), Languages of Global Hip Hop (pp. 67-95). Continuum.