“Where Are They Now?” Brittany M. Williams 08F Makes Tenure History at the University of Vermont

When we spoke with her in 2022, Williams had just been selected as a NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow by the National Academy of Education. Three and a half years later, she’s a proud interdisciplinary educator; an internationally recognized speaker, writer, and facilitator; and working on a book that has evolved from her research project funded by the NAEd/Spencer fellowship.

What drew you to Hampshire and why did you choose it?

To say it plainly, I chose Hampshire because Hampshire chose me. Becoming a James Baldwin Scholar remains one of the highlights of my life, and I’m a better educator, thinker, and citizen because of it.

Hampshire is unlike any other institution in America. I knew that as a high school student. But now that I’m paid to study institutions of higher education and the students, faculty, and staff within them, I understand that more clearly than ever before. A Hampshire education doesn’t prepare you for just one area of study, or career path, or idea. It prepares you to critically engage, view, and navigate the world around you, and to do so in such a way that enables you to care for yourself while also caring for others. 

Has your time at Hampshire influenced the ways in which you teach? (We love that you call yourself an interdisciplinary professor in your Instagram bio!)

Hampshire shows up in my pedagogy daily. First, in my emphasis on development and growth rather than memorization and recitation. Second, in my co-construction of classrooms where students are equitable partners and stewards of their learning. Next, in my approach to course syllabi, when I think not only about venerated classics or perspectives I agree with, but also about challenges, departures, and critical perspectives on the things I focus on. Last, Hampshire is in who I am. I self-identify as an interdisciplinary professor because my teaching, like my research, spans multiple disciplines, modalities, and areas of focus. I refuse to be placed into a singular box for the work I do or the approaches I take. Only an education like Hampshire can do that. It’s how I ended up self-teaching my way into HIV/AIDS prevention and public health sciences as an area of study.

Most professors are trained directly in the discipline in which they work. Chemists are trained in chemistry. Educators are trained in education. Regardless of the degree programs I’ve chosen, I’ve always created, remixed, and drawn on multiple areas of study and inquiry to develop an interdisciplinary lens through which to understand my work. 

 I self-identify as an interdisciplinary professor because my teaching, like my research, spans multiple disciplines, modalities, and areas of focus. I refuse to be placed into a singular box for the work I do or the approaches I take. Only an education like Hampshire can do that.

Congratulations on your history-making tenure appointment! It’s been almost a year . . . how have things changed for you?

It’s an honor to have become the first African American woman tenured by UVM CESS. And more changes have happened to higher education than within me. I’m the same critical, committed, and equity-oriented scholar I was pre-tenure, and I remain so now that I’m post-tenure.

I did, sadly, lose a lot of federal funding for many research and intervention projects I love, such as the one for New American Youth on the Rise, in which I mentor and support middle school girls of immigrant origin in STEM. Beyond that, I feel empowered to take on more projects that take longer to complete and have clearer pathways to acceptance because I’m on a less strict productivity clock. But my work is driven by my commitment to saving and changing lives. Now, more than ever before, that feels like an important place to be. 

What else have you been up to since 2022, when we last interviewed you? What are you working on and/or planning for right now?

Ha. What haven’t I been up to? Right now, I’m working on a research study on citation (in)equity and bias in higher education. This work began before the current movements to systematically dismantle DEI in higher education, but it’s certainly right on time as I interrogate whose knowledge, values, and cultures are legitimized and valorized versus dehumanized in academic contexts.

I’m also co-editing the first-ever volume by Black women on Black women and PrEP for HIV prevention. This book, currently under contract with Springer Nature, brings together Black women researchers, community organizers, medical providers, and advocates/activists to chronicle, challenge, and elucidate everything we know about Black women and PrEP and what we’ve done around them. It’s my dream to take this volume on the road to college public health programs, medical schools, and other continuing education entities to help them rethink everything they think they know about biomedical HIV prevention.

I’m also working on a book that blends my own experiences with those of the participants from my NAEd/Spencer postdoctoral study into a conversation with one another. It’s sort of a multigenerational conversation on HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness in college. 

What do you do for fun?

When I’m not working, I’m busy trying to finish my U.S. map (I’m so annoyed that I still have three states remaining to see — Alaska, Montana, and Idaho), traveling around the globe (most recently I visited Germany, Antigua, and South Korea), and trying to avoid my friends signing me up for random side quests. It seems everyone in their 30s, myself included, is signing up for road races and marathons or figuring out whether fiber or protein is the most important new dietary commitment to make.

I also love a quiet night curled up in the corner reading books by cool women and on cool women, so I’ve deeply enjoyed my book club as of late. Other than that, in the spirit of transparency . . . I’m still a party girl at heart. Hampshire is the place where I really learned you can study hard and party harder, and you don’t have to choose between the two. I consider it might be my duty to continue that legacy in my 30s. 

Anything else?

Of all the institutions fighting to tell their story, none has a more important one than Hampshire. The contributions Hampshire students have made to the world are so numerous that I could limit them to academia alone and we would rival any more “highly ranked” campus with significantly more resources than Hampshire has ever had.