Rachelle Williams
Rachelle L. Williams is the Firesoul at the Honoring Our Ancestors, Enacting our Dreams Garden at Talladega College in Talladega, AL. Rachelle also serves as the Director of the Dr. Jewel Plummer Cobb Honors Program, an Assistant Professor of Humanities in the School of Humanities and Fine Arts, Writing Center Coordinator, advisor for the Alpha Chi Honors Society, Alpha Kappa Mu Honors Society, Word on the Street Poetry Club, and the Senior Class. In addition to her work on campus, she is dedicated to the transformative power of learning in all communities and also teaches humanities courses at the Federal Correctional Institution in Talladega, Alabama.
Rachelle earned a BA in History/Pre-Law from Talladega College, an MA in Women’s Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park, and an MFA in Narrative Media Writing from the University of Georgia. Her research and scholarship focus on Black women’s art and culture, African American history and culture, representations of race and gender in popular culture, and gender politics in hip-hop and jazz. She is currently working on a biography of five-time Grammy award-winning jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves.
Previously, she taught in the African American and Women’s Studies departments at the University of Maryland, College Park, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She also taught arts and humanities courses to adult learners at the University of Phoenix. A former contributing writer for East City Art, an online magazine covering visual arts events in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, Williams’ writing appears in two editions of the anthology CONFLUENCE: Two Rivers, One City, the DC region’s annual publication of critical art writing.
In addition to her dedication and commitment to Talladega College as an alumna and a legacy, Williams serves on the Reading List Committee for the national book club Go On Girl! and holds certification as an instructor of Kathleen Adams’ Journal to the Self program through the Center for Journal Therapy in Denver, Colorado. Williams is a proud member of the Talladega County Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., where she presides as chair of the Arts and Letters Committee.
