GWS is thrilled to announce the addition of Assistant Professor Cinnamon Williams to our faculty! Dr. Williams holds a PhD in African American Studies and a graduate certificate in Gender and Sexuality Studies from Northwestern University. Her book manuscript, Slave of a Slave No More: Reproductive Labor and the Birth of Black Feminism, received the 2023 NWSA/Illinois Press First Book Prize and is currently under revision. Drawing on extensive archival research, the book addresses the reproductive labor -- including cooking, cleaning, childcare, and emotional support -- undertaken by Black feminist thinkers and collectives throughout the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. Foregrounding the ways that Black feminists explicitly articulated these activities as work, Williams offers a nuanced analysis of reproductive labor as simultaneously sustaining and exploitative, and as central to the development of a Black feminist intellectual and political tradition.
Prof. Williams' research and teaching specializations include Black feminist theories, Black women's histories, and the politics of work. In Fall 2025, she is teaching GWS 590: Radical Black Feminisms.