Terrion Williamson is an associate professor of African American & African Studies and American Studies at the University of Minnesota, where she is also an affiliate faculty member in Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies. Her research and teaching specializations include black feminist theory, twentieth and twenty-first century African American literature, black cultural studies, midwestern studies, and racialized gender violence. A native of Peoria, Illinois, she also serves as the founding director of the Black Midwest Initiative and is the editor of Black in the Middle: An Anthology of the Black Midwest (Belt Publishing, 2020). Her first book, Scandalize My Name: Black Feminist Practice and the Making of Black Social Life, was published by Fordham University Press in 2017, and she is currently working on a book titled We Cannot Live Without Our Lives: Black Women, Serial Murder, and the American Midwest.

Educational Background & Specialties
Open Close

Educational Background

  • B.A.: African American Studies and English, University of Illinois at Chicago
  • J.D.: , University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • M.A.: American Studies and Ethnicity, University of Southern California
  • Ph.D.: American Studies and Ethnicity, University of Southern California

Specialties

  • Racialized gender violence
  • Contemporary African-American literature
  • Black cultural studies
  • Midwestern studies
  • Feminist theory