Meet research fellows of The SoulFolk Collective, inquire after our research, and share a treat with our community during Cookies with the Collective. Come learn about Black geographies with The SoulFolk Collective and Dr. Rachel Elizabeth Williams, an Assistant Professor in the Educational Policy Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Dr. Williams’ interdisciplinary research brings together Black studies and critical geography with education policy to examine race, place, and political economy in the U.S. metropolitan South. Her research agenda explores: 1) the impact of charter schools and state takeover on local democratic governance in majority Black contexts; 2) the relationship between education, capital, and the spatial organization of metropolitan landscapes and 3) Black intra-racial politics, representation, and spatial imaginaries within and beyond geographies of racial capitalism.