Fiona Williams

Williams was born on 22 July 1947 in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, to Celia and Leonard Williams. She was educated at Ilkley Grammar School, a state grammar school in Ilkley, Yorkshire. She studied sociology and social administration at Bedford College, London, graduating with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in 1968. In later life, she studied for a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree with the Open University, which she completed in 1993.[1]

From 1968 to 1970, Williams was a Commonwealth Scholar at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. Having returned to the United Kingdom, she was a part-time lecturer at Kilburn Polytechnic from 1970 to 1972 and a lecturer at the Polytechnic of North London from 1972 to 1975. After a break from academia, she joined Plymouth Polytechnic where she was a part-time lecturer between 1981 and 1985, and a research officer from 1985 to 1987. She was a research officer at Leeds Polytechnic during the 1987/1988 academic year.[1]

In 1988, Williams joined the Open University; she was a lecturer from 1988 to 1992 and a senior lecturer from 1992 to 1995.[1] For the 1995/1996 academic year, she was Professor of Applied Social Studies at the University of Bradford.[1] In 1996, she joined the University of Leeds having been appointed Professor of Social Policy and remained there until she retired.[1][2] She was Director of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Research Group on "Care, Values and the Future of Welfare" between 1999 and 2005.[1][3] In 2012, she retired from full-time academia and was appointed a Professor Emeritus.[1]

Williams has led an active retirement. Since 2012, she has been a research associate of the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society at the University of Oxford,[1][2] She continued to be co-editor of the academic journal Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society until 2014.[2] Since 2014, she has been an honorary professor of the Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales.[1][4]

Williams has two children: a daughter and a son.[1]

In 2003, Williams was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS).[1] In the 2004 New Year Honours, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) "for services to social policy".[5] In 2016, she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.[4]

• Williams, Fiona (1989). Social policy: a critical introduction – issues of race, gender, and class. Cambridge: Polity Press. ISBN 978-0745601496.
• Atkinson, Dorothy; Williams, Fiona, eds. (1990). 'Know me as I am': an anthology of prose, poetry and art from people with learning disabilities. Hodder Education. ISBN 978-0340513293.
• Bornat, Joanna; Johnson, Julia; Pereira, Charmaine; Tomasini, Floris; Williams, Fiona, eds. (1992). Community Care: Reader (1st ed.). Houndmills: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0333587157.
• Bornat, Joanna; Johnson, Julia; Pereira, Charmaine; Tomasini, Floris; Williams, Fiona, eds. (1998). Community care: a reader (2nd ed.). Basingstoke: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0333698471.
• Williams, Fiona; Popay, Jennie; Oakley, Ann, eds. (1999). Welfare Research: a critical review. London: UCL Press. ISBN 978-1857282696.
• Williams, Fiona (2004). Rethinking families. London: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. ISBN 978-1903080023.