BIO

Ashleen Williams is an Instructional Associate Professor and co-director of The Good Life: A Knowledge for Freedom Program. Her work centers on questions of power, agency, and the ways in which education can contribute to social change. Dr. Williams joined the university in 2016 and teaches courses in a variety of departments, including history, public policy, and honors. Dr. Williams helped establish UM’s Flagship First-Gen. She advocates for first-generation college students and supports their academic success and personal development. The Good Life is a pre-college program for Mississippi high school students to college to study humanity’s deepest questions about leading lives of purpose and civic responsibility.

Before joining UM, Dr. Williams worked in Qatar, Yemen, and Bahrain. These experiences contributed to her expertise in global studies and post-conflict reconstruction, which she brings into the classroom. Dr. Williams completed her Ph.D. in History of the Modern Middle East at the University of Mississippi and a M.Sc. in Applied Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Ulster, where she was a Mitchell Scholar.