

McGuinn Hall 208D
Telephone: 617.552.2815
Email: Timothy.Williams@bc.edu
Political economy; Social policy; International development
Dr. Timothy Williams is adjunct faculty member at Boston College School of Social Work where he has taught on global child protection since 2015.
His work centers on the systems that give rise to inequalities and the experiences of those that bear witness, especially children. His work includes a focus on education policy, child protection, human trafficking, and global health. He recently completed a 15-month project with UNICEF focusing on the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic on children’s protection and wellbeing.
His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The New England Journal of Medicine, World Development, and Comparative Educational Review among others. He has been commissioned to write think pieces for The Brookings Institution, Center for Global Development, and The World Bank.
Timothy’s research includes a decade-long investigation into education policy in Rwanda. This work has received numerous awards, including the 2020 Dudley Seers Prize for best paper published in the Journal of Development Studies and the 2018 Joyce Cain Award from the Comparative and International Education Society of North America.
Timothy received his Ph.D. in international development from University of Bath, his MSc in public health from Harvard, and an MSW from Boston College. In 2017, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Williams, TP. et al. (2020). Protecting children on the move during infectious disease outbreaks: lessons from UNICEF's COVID-19 response. New York: UNICEF.
Williams, TP. et al. (2020). Responding to the shadow pandemic: taking stock of gender-based violence risks and responses during COVID-19. New York: UNICEF.
Carhill-Poza, A. & Williams, T.P. (2020). Learning ‘Anytime, Anywhere’?: The imperfect alignment of immigrant students’ Experiences and school-based technologies in an urban U.S. high school. Comparative Education Review, 64(3). 428-450.
Williams, TP. (2019) “The things they learned: aspiration, uncertainty, and schooling in Rwanda’s developmental state.” Journal of Development Studies, 55(4) 645-660. doi:10.1080/00220388.2018.1453602 Williams, T.P. (2019). The downsides of dominance: education quality reforms and Rwanda’s political settlement (pp. 86-104).In: Hickey, S. & Hossain, N. (eds). The Politics of Education in Developing Countries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Williams, T.P. et al (2018). Child protection and sexual exploitation of adolescent girls within and beyond refugee camps in Rwanda. Child Abuse and Neglect, 86, 158-166. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.09.015.
Williams, T. P. (2017). The political economy of primary education: lessons from Rwanda. World Development, 96, 550-561. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.03.037
Williams, T. P. (2016). Theorizing children’s subjectivity: Ethnographic investigations in rural Rwanda. Childhood, 23(3), 333-347. doi:10.1177/0907568216644031
2020: Dudley Seers Memorial Prize for Best Article published in Volume 55 of the Journal of Development Studies for the paper, The Things They Learned: Aspiration, Uncertainty, and Schooling in Rwanda’s Developmental State
2018: Joyce Cain Award for Distinguished Research on People of Africa Descent, from the Comparative and International Education Society, for the 2017 paper, The Political Economy of Primary Education: Lessons from Rwanda published in World Development
2015: Finalist, University of Bath Ede and Ravenscroft Top Research Student Prize
2009: Alumni of the Year for George Fox University
Senior Associate, Proteknon Consulting Group