Incoming

Celebrated new professors Rhonda Y. Williams and Robyn Spencer-Antoine share their excitement about life in the city and researching Detroit’s rich grassroots history.

Rhonda Y. Williams, Wayne State University’s incoming Coleman A. Young Endowed Chair in the Department of African American Studies, shares inspiration, expectations ahead of autumn arrival

A number of influences tugged at Rhonda Y. Williams, Ph.D., last year as she weighed whether to apply for a position at Wayne State University. From academic peers who urged her to join the faculty to the prospect of reuniting with family members who call Detroit home, Williams faced an array of considerations.

One that significantly swayed her was the late Detroit mayor Coleman A. Young — or, more accurately, his legacy.

“I took another look at the job posting and said, ‘Coleman A. Young: Detroit iconoclast, civil right activist, social justice guy,’” Williams recalled. “It was the energy, the career, the kinds of things Coleman Young stood up for — the idea that African Americans and labor deserved equality, that people deserved to have resources to live, that white supremacy was not to be dealt with passively, that racial inequality had to be challenged. Those things spoke to me.”

Fittingly, Williams joined the Wayne State faculty as the Coleman A. Young Endowed Chair in the Department of African American Studies, where she plans to focus on humanistic research and develop working relationships with Detroit’s formidable activist community to help further social justice causes.

“I did some serious introspection about whether this opportunity is a fit for me,” Williams said. “I asked myself: Is this a move I want to make? What kind of relationships will I have? What kind of things can I contribute when I get there? How will I make good use of the things I’m excited about around social justice? Also, I’ve thought about wellness as part of social justice movements, about how that has shown up or has not shown up. What kind of support systems exist or don’t exist today? All of those things came together to kind of create this excitement and energy around being at Wayne State.”

Ollie Johnson, Ph.D., chair of the Department of African American Studies, said he and others are excited about Williams’ arrival.

“Professor Rhonda Williams is one of the great scholar-activists in the country,” Johnson said. “Her presence at Wayne State helps us take the university to the next level. She is a truly outstanding researcher, teacher and administrator.”

Williams, a Baltimore native, said she has already made some local connections that she’s eager to re-establish and is eager to forge new ones. “I’m looking forward to building connections,” Williams said. “To being in the community, building bridges with the community and listening to what the community is doing — as opposed to saying, ‘Hey, I’m here. This is what we going to do.’”

“Professor Rhonda Williams is one of the great scholar-activists in the country. Her presence at Wayne State helps us take the university to the next level. She is a truly outstanding researcher, teacher and administrator.”

–Ollie Johnson, Ph.D., chair of the Department of African American Studies

Williams said she would also like to help bridge the ideas of wellness and social justice activism. “We can burn out quick,” Williams noted. “We can have internal conflicts just as we have the external dynamics that we’re struggling with. Additionally, there are our own levels of known and unknown traumas or any number of other things … Where’s the space for understanding how that fits with social movements and being more proactive?”

Williams recalled the essence of a conversation with famed poet and Black arts icon Sonia Sanchez, who powerfully braided together the ideas of wellness and activism. “I was at the Social Justice Institute at Case Western Reserve University, and we invited Sonia Sanchez as a keynote speaker. And one of the things she said to our group was that her generation was out there in the struggle. They were marching. They were doing poetry, letting it lay out there. But they also had moments where they just had some fun, where they got together, and they rested and chatted and listened to music. That helped sustain, spur and invigorate the struggle.”

Having started teaching in 1997, a year before she earned her Ph.D., Williams has been steeped in both academia and activism for decades. She has authored two books, the award-winning The Politics of Public Housing: Black Women’s Struggles against Urban Inequality (2004) and Concrete Demands: The Search for Black Power in the 20th Century (2015). She also co-edits the book series “Justice, Power, and Politics” at the University of North Carolina Press and is co-editor of Teaching the American Civil Rights Movement.

Incoming history professor Robyn C. Spencer-Antoine looks ahead with eagerness and excitement to joining the WSU faculty

For historian and author Robyn C. Spencer-Antoine, Detroit has served any number of purposes over the past several years, from acting as a hub of research and professional networking to being a repository of political thought and a fount of inspiration.

And in coming months, Detroit will be, simply, home.

This fall, Spencer-Antoine became one of the newest additions to the Wayne State University faculty when she stepped into her role as a professor jointly assigned to the university’s History Department and its Department of African American Studies. Spencer-Antoine, who previously taught at Lehman College in the City University of New York system, is among a host of new hires who arrive as the university continues to boost faculty diversity and readies for the opening of the recently announced Detroit Center for Black Studies.

“I’m happy to become part of the Wayne State community,” Spencer-Antoine said during a recent conversation. “I’ve been to Detroit several times. I’ve done time as a researcher at the Reuther Library, so I know it’s excellent. I’ve come in for labor history conferences. I have come and interviewed activists like General Baker and learned about the League of Revolutionary Black Workers. Detroit has always been on my radar screen as a place that was rooted in this Black history, that was really deeply political, very much a place where the questions of working people were at the front and center of community life.”

Stephanie Hartwell, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said she is pleased to welcome Spencer-Antoine.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome Professor Spencer-Antoine to Wayne State and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,” Hartwell said. “Her wealth of knowledge in civil rights, Black power and Black women’s history is unparalleled. We’re excited for our students to have the opportunity to learn from her. Her presence will undoubtedly enrich the academic experience of the entire WSU community.”

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Spencer-Antoine said she is eager to become part of the larger Detroit community that WSU serves. “I really want to see and feel and experience Detroit’s neighborhoods,” she said.

Given Spencer-Antoine’s longtime academic interest in grassroots political movements — particularly as reflected in the impact and contributions of working-class African-Americans and women — her impending addition to the WSU faculty has her excited about the raft of lessons she can share with students.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome Professor Spencer-Antoine to Wayne State and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Her wealth of knowledge in civil rights, Black power and Black women’s history is unparalleled. We’re excited for our students to have the opportunity to learn from her. Her presence will undoubtedly enrich the academic experience of the entire WSU community.”

–Stephanie Hartwell, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

“I am both in history and African American Studies, in a joint appointment,” explained Spencer-Antoine, who also is the author of The Revolution Has Come: Black Power, Gender and the Black Panther Party in Oakland, which studies the evolution of the famed revolutionary organization throughout its existence. “That means that I’ll be able to contribute and be a member of both departments. I’ll be able to build community with the students in both departments, and my courses will most likely be cross-listed between them. I hope to teach courses on 20th century African American social protests, Black internationalism and Black women’s history. I’m still figuring out where I will make my contribution.”

Despite any lingering questions about her role, however, Spencer said that she’s confident that her move to Wayne State was the right one.

“One of the things that really attracted me to Wayne State is, I felt like the university is on a mission — and with money behind the mission, with resources behind the mission, with vision behind the mission,” she said. “That’s not lip service, unlike others who came out after the summer of 2020 (following national protests against racism and police violence). Some of them said they were going to change things or that they were doing to diversify — and then nothing happened. But at Wayne State, they’re making the actual investments. Wayne State is a place where things are budding — and it is exciting to think about becoming part of that movement.”

Before taking her position as the inaugural John L. Seigenthaler Chair in American History at Vanderbilt, the researcher known affectionately as “Dr. Rhonda” worked at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, where she established and directed the Postdoctoral Fellowship in African American Studies, and founded and directed the university-wide Social Justice Institute. Williams engaged in numerous community efforts as a resident of Cleveland, including on police and criminal justice reform as a member of the Collaborative for a Safe, Fair, and Just Cleveland and the “Cleveland 8,” and as a co-chair and commissioner on the Cleveland Community Police Commission.

Williams said she looks forward to the opportunity to engage in equally meaningful work in Detroit, to teach students the importance of getting involved and to help foster new approaches to the current social justice struggle.

“I’m so excited about what that could look like in terms of teaching and having students in the community,” Williams said. “There are different ways to engage. There are activist scholars, scholar activists, people who may not even show up at a march. There is more involved in social justice work than just showing up at a rally, though protest is definitely important, even essential. There are people organizing. They’re doing research. And they’re putting forth ideas and policies. We need it all.”

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