Dana A. Williams, Ph.D.

Dana's Story

Dana A. Williams is Professor of African American literature and Dean of the Graduate School at Howard University. Prior to serving as Dean, she served as Chair of English at Howard University for nine years. She is 1st Vice-President of the Modern Languages Association and a past president of the College Language Association (the oldest and largest professional organization in the US for faculty of color who teach languages and literature). She is also president of the Toni Morrison Society and a member of the Advisory Board for the American Council of Learned Societies, the Furious Flower Poetry Center, the Hurston/Wright Foundation, and the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College. In addition to her work at Howard, she has held faculty positions at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge; Northwestern University, Evanston, IL as a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow; and Duke University, as a faculty fellow of the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute.