Danielle M. Williams

Danielle Williams is smiling in the rain

Hi there.

My name is Danielle Williams. After teaching at Baylor University for nearly ten years, I talked my family (and one small cat) into moving across the Atlantic to live in the United Kingdom. I now teach in the School of English at the University of Leeds where I currently serve as the Deputy Director of Student Education, Academic Lead for Employability and Placements and Lecturer in Enhancing Employability.

I believe that English students, and Arts and Humanities students more broadly, are uniquely equipped to meet the ethical challenges and opportunities of this moment. Their empathic imaginations, creative problem-solving skills and ability to articulate present and future realities are the tools we need to face our rapidly approaching future.

I draw on my experiences teaching and researching in Rhetoric and Composition to lead interactive workshops on modules in literature, language and writing to help students connect what they are studying to wider professional contexts and their future goals. Beginning in spring 2024, I will convene a writing module that more intentionally joins up the discourse community of literary scholars with students' employability profiles and future career goals.My research interests are composition and digital pedagogies, community-based writing and the scholarship of teaching and learning. I am also working on a three-year empirical study to examine students' self-efficacy and self-promotion skills to develop a narrative that supports their employability aims.

I really miss Mexican food, but we love living in a little English village at the foot of the Yorkshire Dales. If you want to chat about favourite pubs or writing, feel free to contact me at d[dot]williams2[at]leeds.ac.uk.