Shari L. Williams, Ph.D. is the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in History from Auburn University. She is a social and cultural historian who researches the Modern American South with a focus on the past, present, and future of rural historic landscapes, cultural traditions, and folklife in Alabama’s Black Belt through the lens of race, gender, and class. Dr. Williams is a public history practitioner through her work as the founder and executive director of The Ridge Macon County Archaeology Project based in Warrior Stand, Alabama, and through various board of director memberships and community-based historic preservation projects.
