Justin Williams
Justin Williams
Associate Professor of History
Department Co-Chair
Director of the African American Studies Program
Degrees
- Ph.D., History from Stony Brook University
- M.A., History from Stony Brook University
- B.A., History from Columbia College (Missouri)
Biography
Justin Williams is an associate professor of History and director of the African American Studies Program at University of Detroit Mercy. He specializes in the politics of modern Africa and its diasporas. In 2025, he was a featured commentator in the PBS documentary series Great Migrations: A People on the Move, hosted by Henry Louis Gates. He joined the University in fall 2023.Publications
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Books
Pan-Africanism Ghana: African Socialism, Neoliberalism and Globalization (Carolina Academic Press, 2016) -
Articles, chapters and entries
"Whatever the quality is that white people enjoy in black people, I ain’t got it.”: Critical Reflections on Paul Mooney’s Afrocentrism,” Journal of African American Studies- March 2026
“A Talented Tenth: Afrocentrism, Gentrification, and Racial Uplift in Newark, New Jersey,” The Black Scholar, Vol. 55 (1)- March 2025
“Maroons” in South America: From European Contact to Independence (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2025)
“The Challenge of African Americans: Kofi Busia Through The Eyes of the Black Press (1966-1972),” Ghana Studies, Vol. 27- December 2024
“Atlanta Compromise, 1895” with Bobby R. Holt, in 50 Events That Shaped African American History (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO Greenwood, 2019)
“The “Rawlings Revolution” and rediscovery of the African Diaspora in Ghana (1983-2015),” African Studies, Vol.74 (3)- December 2015
“New Africa in the World Coming to Harlem: A Retrospective Comparison of Jerry Rawlings & Thomas Sankara,” Journal of Pan African Studies, Vol.7 (7)- December 2014
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Other publications
“Anti-intellectual discourse threatens higher education,” The Detroit News, November 27, 2023
“What the media gets wrong about Newark, NJ,” The Huffington Post, August 11, 2017