Dr. Joy Williamson Lott

Biography

Joy Williamson-Lott's primary research agenda examines the reciprocal relationship between social movements—particularly in the middle twentieth century—and institutions of higher education. Her published book, 'Jim Crow Campus: The Higher Education Struggle for a New Southern Social Order' (2018), explores the threats to academic freedom and constitutional protections for black and white individuals in public and private institutions within the South, against the backdrop of the black freedom struggle and the anti-Vietnam War movement. The book was named a finalist for the INDIES Book of the Year by Education Forward Magazine and won the Frederic W. Ness Book Award from the Association of American Colleges and Universities. Her other works, such as 'Radicalizing the Ebony Tower: Black Colleges and the Black Freedom Struggle in Mississippi' (2008) and 'Black Power on Campus: The University of Illinois, 1965-1975' (2003), address challenges of institutional autonomy and responses to internal and external pressures at historically black colleges during the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. Williamson-Lott has also researched the educational programs of the Black Panther Party and the portrayal of the black freedom struggle in high school history textbooks. She teaches courses that engage with themes of education as a moral endeavor and the evolving definitions of education and liberation for marginalized communities.

Research Interests

Courses