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Gregory Williams

Associate Professor and Program Director, Master in Public Policy

Gregory P. Williams, PhD, is an associate professor of politics and policy in the Gwen Ifill School at Simmons University. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Maine with membership in Phi Beta Kappa. As a Maine Policy Scholar, he studied clean elections and party politics. Dr. Williams also served as vice president of the Maine Outing Club. He earned his doctorate at the University of Connecticut (UConn). He specialized in international relations and comparative politics. His research was funded by UConn's president's office and the multidisciplinary Center for Environmental Sciences and Engineering.

Prior to coming to Simmons, Dr. Williams was associate professor of political science and international affairs at the University of Northern Colorado. There, he chaired his college's Committee on Policies and Procedures, served on the Faculty Senate, and represented the university to Colorado's higher education faculty advisory board. In 2022, he held a summer institute on congressional redistricting at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.

At Simmons, Dr. Williams collaborates with students in the Master in Public Policy (MPP) program. For example, he organizes public policy panels for graduate students at meetings of the New England Political Science Association and the Northeastern Political Science Association. Simmons MPP graduate students have also worked on and written for New Political Science, of which Dr. Williams is the reviews editor. A journal in the critical tradition, New Political Science is dedicated to understanding contemporary structures of political and cultural power as well as the struggle for a more democratic and egalitarian world. For the 2024-2025 academic year, Dr. Williams and MPP candidate April Beatty won a collaborate fellowship for her work as reviews editorial assistant.

Occasionally, Dr. Williams engages in public discussions of politics and policy. In 2018, he co-moderated one of Colorado's gubernatorial debates. In 2024, he was interviewed on Jacobin Radio's Long Reads podcast. And, later that year, his comments were featured on the NPR's OnPoint program.

Dr. Williams met his wife Colleen skiing at Arapahoe Basin, Colorado. Now, they bring their daughter and dog to the mountains in New Hampshire and Maine. More information can be found on his personal website, www.gpwilliams.org.
 

Education

  • Ph.D., Political Science, University of Connecticut
  • Graduate Certificate, Global Governance, University of Connecticut
  • M.A., Political Science, University of Connecticut
  • B.A., Political Science, University of Maine

Research/ Creative Activities

Dr. Williams writes primarily about international relations, especially on the topics of American hegemony and radical perspectives of political economy. He also writes in the areas of comparative democratization, including social movements and state building, and on contemporary American political thought. His book, Contesting the Global Order: The Radical Political Economy of Perry Anderson and Immanuel Wallerstein, is an American Library Association Outstanding Academic Title. His work on narratives of American foreign policy won the award for best paper presented at the 2022 meeting of Northeastern Political Science Association. Dr. Williams's other writings have appeared in journals such as Perspectives on Politics, American Political Thought, International Politics, European Review of International Studies, and Social Movement Studies. His research has been translated into French, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish.

Publications

Book

  • Contesting the Global Order: The Radical Political Economy of Perry Anderson and Immanuel Wallerstein. Albany:State University of New York Press, 2020. Series in New Political Science. (https://doi.org/10.1515/9781438479675).
    • *American Library Association Outstanding Academic Title*
    • Reviewed in Choice, Contemporary Sociology, E-International Relations, Journal of Economic Literature, Journal of World-Systems Research, New Political Science, Perspectives on Politics, and Socialist History.

Articles and Chapters

  • "Utopistics in an Age of Uncertainty," in Capitalisme, anticapitalisme et sciences sociales engagées à l'échelle globale: autour de l'œuvre d'Immanuel Wallerstein, Katharine Wallerstein, Maurice Aymard, Stéphane Dufoix, and David Hugot, eds. (Paris: Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, forthcoming).
    • [Mandarin Chinese translation forthcoming.]
  • "A Critique of Deep Engagement, the Social Narrative of U.S. Foreign Policy," European Review of International Studies 11, no. 2 (2024): 248-274. https://doi.org/10.1163/21967415-11020003.
  • "From Africa to the World: The Sources of Wallerstein's The Modern World-System," in The Anthem Companion to Immanuel Wallerstein," Chamsy el-Ojeili and Patrick Hayden, eds. (London: Anthem Press, 2023, 15-35). ISBN: 978-1-839-98472-3.
    • [French translation forthcoming in Katharine Wallerstein, Maurice Aymard, Stéphane Dufoix, and David Hugot, eds. Immanuel Wallerstein: 70 ans d'histoire intellectuelle et politique. Paris: Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme.]
  • "Social history from a bird's eye view: Perry Anderson's theory of international relations," International Politics 58, no. 2 (2021): 259-277. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41311-020-00239-3.
  • "What's the Matter with Resentment? Richard Hofstadter's Understanding of Political Paranoia," American Political Thought 8, no. 4 (2019): 528-551.
  • "Old Ideas for New Times: Radical History in International Political Economy," Perspectives on Global Development and Technology 17, no. 4 (2018): 429-450.
  • "Will We Know It When We See It? Contemplating Emergent World-Systems," Journal of Globalization Studies 9, no. 1 (2018): 14-34. https://doi.org/10.30884/jogs/2018.01.09.
  • "When Opportunity Structure Knocks: Separatism in the Soviet Union and Russian Federation," Social Movement Studies 9, no. 4 (2010): 443-460. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2010.522312.

Public Essays

  • "Immanuel Wallerstein's Work Can Help Us Understand the Deepening Crises of Capitalism," Jacobin (December 5, 2023).
    • [Spanish translation: "Wallerstein nos ayuda a comprender la crisis capitalista," trans. Florencia Oroz, Jacobin Latin America, December 13, 2023.]
  • "The paranoid president," Monthly Review (August 11, 2020).
  • "The brutality of capitalism," Monthly Review (July 6, 2020).

Encyclopedia Entries

Interview

  • Interview with Immanuel Wallerstein (and accompanying essay), "Retrospective on the Origins of World-Systems Analysis," Journal of World-Systems Research 19, no. 2 (2013): 202-210.

Policy Studies

  • "Sunset Law In Connecticut" (with Carrie Vibert, lead author), Legislative Program Review and Investigations Committee, Connecticut General Assembly, Hartford, CT (2007): 1-61.
  • "Maine's Clean Election Law and its Impact on Political Parties," University of Maine Library theses (2004): 1-40.

Interviews, Review Essays, and Book Reviews

  • "Labor Pragmatism," Perspectives on Politics 14, no. 1 (2016): 145-146.
  • The Modern World-System IV: Centrist Liberalism Triumphant, by Immanuel Wallerstein, New Political Science 34, no. 3 (2012): 428-431.
  • The New Old World, by Perry Anderson," Socialist History 39 (2011): 100-103.
  • Reviews (2010-2014) in Choice Magazine: S. Ridgeway and P. Jacques, The Power of the Talking Stick (2014); A. Carter, People Power and Political Change (2013); I. Clark, Hegemony in International Society (2012); D. Drezner, Theories of International Politics and Zombies (2011); I. Neumann and O. J. Sending, Governing the Global Polity (2011); C. Hill, Grand Strategies (2010); and, A. Hybel, The Power of Ideology (2010).