Faculty Directory

Timothy Williams

Assistant Professor of Global Social Work Practice

Profile

Timothy P. Williams is an Assistant Professor of Global Practice at Boston College School of Social Work, where he is working alongside faculty and students to shape and strengthen the global practice program.

Tim鈥檚 recent research and consultancy work includes: providing technical support to UNICEF鈥檚 child protection system strengthening work; writing an influential report for the International Committee of the Red Cross on the consequences of urban warfare on children; co-authoring a systematic evidence review for the Safe Futures Hub on interventions to prevent child sexual violence in low- and middle-income countries; and drafting a working paper on the politics of education policy adoption for the World Bank鈥檚 World Development Report.

His research interests focus on the systems that perpetuate inequalities and the experiencesof those affected, particularly children. Over the last 15 years, he has authored and co-authored more than 70 academic articles, reports, and book chapters in education, child protection, and health. This work has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, World Development, Comparative Educational Review, and The Washington Post, among others.

His notable research also includes a decade-long study on education policy in Rwanda, in which he received the 2020 Dudley Seers Prize for best paper in The Journal of Development Studies as well as the 2018 Joyce Cain Award from the Comparative and International Education Society of North America.

Timothy earned a Ph.D. in international development from the University of Bath, an MSc in public health from Harvard, and an MSW from Boston College. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and served as an honorary research fellow with the Effective States and Inclusive Development Research Centre at the University of Manchester.

SELECTED AWARDS

2022: Illumination Award at Boston College for inspiring students to discern their career interests and pursue paths of service

2020: Dudley Seers Memorial Prize for Best Article published in Volume 55 of the Journal of Development Studies for the paper, The Things They Learned: Aspiration, Uncertainty, and Schooling in Rwanda鈥檚 Developmental State

2018: Joyce Cain Award for Distinguished Research on People of Africa Descent, from the Comparative and International Education Society, for the 2017 paper, The Political Economy of Primary Education: Lessons from Rwanda published in World Development

2015: Finalist, University of Bath Ede and Ravenscroft Top Research Student Prize

2009: Alumni of the Year for George Fox University

Professional Activities

Affiliate at

Senior Associate, Proteknon Consulting Group

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