Erica L. Williams, Ph.D.

Biography

Faculty Member Since 2009

Erica L. Williams (she/her/hers) is Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Department at Spelman College. She has a Ph.D. and M.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Stanford University, and a B.A. in Anthropology and Africana Studies from New York University. She is the author of Sex Tourism in Bahia: Ambiguous Entanglements (2013), which won the NWSA/University of Illinois First Book Prize. She is co-editor of The Second Generation of African American Pioneers in Anthropology (2018) along with Ira Harrison and Deborah Johnson-Simon, and Speechifying: The Words and Legacy of Johnnetta Betsch Cole, along with Celeste Watkins-Hayes and Johnnetta Betsch Cole (2023). She has published peer-reviewed journal articles in Feminist Anthropology, Transforming Anthropology, Feminist Studies, Gender, Place, and Culture; and several book chapters in edited volumes. She is currently working on two book projects: an ethnography of Black feminist activism in Bahia, Brazil (Fighting for a Good Life) and a creative non-fiction/ memoir (Take Flight: A Memoir of Race, Identity, and Travel.) She is an Associate Editor of Transforming Anthropology, the journal of the Association of Black Anthropologists (ABA). She is a member of the Cite Black Women Collective, and an Advisory Board Member for VidaAfroLatina, an international women’s fund that mobilizes resources and connects them with Afro-descendant women-led organizations in Latin America that address sexual violence.

Book Links:

• University of Illinois Press: Sex Tourism in Bahia
• Interview on Left of Black
• Lecture at Duke
• Speechifying: The Worlds and Legacy of Johnnetta Betsch Cole
• The Second Generation of African American Pioneers in Anthropology

 

Education

• PhD Cultural and Social Anthropology, Stanford University, 2010

• MA Cultural and Social Anthropology, Stanford University, 2005

• BA Anthropology and Africana Studies, New York University, 2002

Courses Taught

• SANT203 Introduction to Anthropology

• SANT305 Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Gender & Sexuality

• SANT316 Feminist Ethnography

• SANT320 Anthropological Theory to the list

• SANT336 Ethnographic Methods

• SANT350 Race and Identity in Latin America

• SAN450 Sexual Economies

• IBQC100 Going Global: From Travelogues to Black Travel Blogs

• IBQC100 Defund the Police: Abolition & Black Feminisms

Research Interests

Sex Tourism, Black feminist activism in Brazil, transnational Black feminisms, race, gender, sexuality, feminist ethnography, Black expatriates; Brazil, African Diaspora, Afro-Latin America.

Select Publications

Books

Cole, Johnnetta Betsch, Celeste Watkins-Hayes, 7 Erica L. Williams, eds. Speechifying: The Worlds and Legacy of Johnnetta Betsch Cole. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2023.

Harrison, Ira, Deborah Johnson-Simon, and Erica L. Williams, eds. The Second Generation of African American Pioneers in Anthropology. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2018.

Williams, Erica L. Sex Tourism in Bahia: Ambiguous Entanglements. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2013.

Forthcoming Books

Routledge Handbook on the Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality. Shah, Svati and Erica L. Williams, editors. Routledge, Under Contract/Forthcoming 2027

Williams, Erica L. Fighting for a Good Life: Black Feminist Activism in Bahia. University of North Carolina Press, Under Contract/Forthcoming 2027.

Book Chapters (Selected)

Williams, Erica L. “A Black Feminist Anthropologist Reflects on her Journeys to Brazil.” In Spelman Going Global: Cross-Cultural Reflections of Students, Faculty, and Staff. Edited by ‘Dimeji Togunde and Krishna Bista. STAR Scholars, 2022.

Williams, Erica L. “A Formação de Mulheres Negras no Ensino Superior: A Experiência de Spelman College.” (Training Black Women in Higher Education: The Spelman Experience). In Pedagogia Feminista Negra. (Black Feminist Pedagogy). Carol Pinho, Ed. São Paulo: Veneta Editora, 2022.

Williams, Erica L. “No Bodily Rights Worth Protecting: Transnational Circulations of Black Hypersexuality in Brazil.” Black Sexual Economies: Race and Sex in a Culture of Capital. Adrienne Davis and the BSE Collective. University of Illinois Press, 2019.

Williams, Erica L. “Niara Sudarkasa: A Legacy of Black Women’s Leadership.” In The Second Generation of African American Pioneers in Anthropology. Edited by Ira Harrison, Deborah Johnson-Simms, and Erica L. Williams. Urbana-Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2018.

Williams, Erica L. “Mucamas and Mulatas: Black Brazilian Feminisms, Representations, and Ethnography.” In Transatlantic Feminisms: Women and Gender Studies in Africa and the African Diaspora. Eds. Ampofo et. al. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2015.

Williams, Erica L. “Feminist Tensions: Race, Sex Work, and Women’s Activism in Bahia.” In Taking Risks: Feminist Stories of Social Justice Research in the Americas. Edited by Julie Shayne. Albany, NY: SUNY Press; Praxis: Theory in Action series, 2014.

Williams, Erica L. "Moral Panics and Racialized Sexuality: “Sex Tourism,” “Trafficking” and the Limits of Transnational Mobility in Bahia." In Policing Pleasure: Global Reflections on Sex Work and Public Policy. Edited by Patty Kelly and Susan Dewey. New York: New York University Press, 2011.

 

Journal Articles (Selected)

Williams, Erica L. and Svati Shah. “Kamala Kempadoo’s Influence on Sexual Economies Scholarship in South Asia and Latin America.” Special Issue: Race and Gender in Sex Work and Critical Trafficking Studies. Feminist Anthropology, 2025.

Williams, Erica L. “Centering Black Women: A Black Feminist Critique of Mainstream Anthropology from the Margins of an HBCU.” Cultural Anthropology. Vol. 37 (No. 3) Colloquy, 2022.

Williams, Erica L. “A Tale of Two Women: Genealogies of Black Feminist Anthropology in Brazil.” In “Genealogies of the Feminist Present: Lineages and Connections in Feminist Anthropology,” edited by Lynn Bolles and Mary H. Moran, American Ethnologist (AES) website, 24 May 2021.

Williams, Erica L. “Black Girl Abroad: An Autoethnography of Travel and The Need to #CiteBlackWomen in Anthropology. Feminist Anthropology. Special Issue: #CiteBlackWomen. Vol. 2, Issue 1, p. 143-154, 2021.

Smith, Christen A., Erica L. Williams, Imani A. Wadud, Whitney N. L. Pirtle, and The Cite Black Women Collective. “Cite Black Women: A Critical Praxis (A Statement). Feminist Anthropology. Special Issue: #CiteBlackWomen. Vol. 2, Issue 1, p. 10-17, 2021.

Williams, Erica L. “The Practical Ethics of Johnnetta Betsch Cole: The Life of a Black Feminist Anthropologist.” Feminist Anthropology. Vol. 1, Issue 1: pp 118-128. May, 2020.

Williams, Erica L. “The More Things Change, the More they Stay the Same: Reflections on A. Lynn Bolles’s ‘Telling the Story Straight.’” Transforming Anthropology. Vol. 28, Issue 2. Oct. pp. 136-138. DOI: 10.1111/traa.12194

Williams, Erica L. “Geographies of Blackness, Sex Work, and Exclusion in the Tourist Districts of Salvador.”Gender, Place, Culture. Vol. 21(4): 453-470, 2014.

Williams, Erica L. “Women’s Studies and Sexuality Studies at HBCUs: The Audre Lorde Project at Spelman College.” Forum: W/G/S Studies Women’s Studies and Sexuality Studies in Conversation. Feminist Studies Vol. 39, No. 2, 2013.

Op-Eds/Advocacy/Public Scholarship (Selected)

Williams, Erica L. “The Healing Power of Black Women’s Words: In Honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.” Cite Black Women Blog. October 8, 2021.

Williams, Erica L. “Honoring Black Women’s Transnational Intellectual Production.” Roundtable: The Dialectic is in the Sea. In Black Perspectives. Published by AAIHS, Aug 28.

Caldwell, Kia L., W. Muse, T. Paschel, Keisha-Khan Perry, Christen A. Smith, and Erica L. Williams. “On the Imperative of Transnational Solidarity: A U.S. Black Feminist Statement on the Assassination of Marielle Franco.” The Black Scholar Blog, March 23, 2018.

Creary, Melissa and Erica L. Williams. . “The Place of Black Women in the World Cup.” Huffington Post. Jun. 17, 2014.

Williams, Erica L. “Slut Walk: Bahia-Style.” Ms. Magazine Blog. Aug. 5, 2010

Williams, Erica L. “Blonde Beauties and Black Booties: Persisting Racial Hierarchies in Brazil.” Ms. Magazine Blog. Jun. 11, 2010.