Joanna Williams

University of Kent

Joanna Williams is an author, academic and writer. She is the education editor of Spiked and was recently profiled in the Times Higher Education.
Joanna began her career teaching English in secondary schools and Further Education. She started working as a lecturer in Higher Education and Academic Practice at the University of Kent in 2007. Most recently she was Director of Kent’s Centre for the Study of Higher Education.
Joanna is the author of Consuming Higher Education Why Learning Can’t Be Bought (Bloomsbury, 2012) and Academic Freedom in an Age of Conformity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) which she talks about here.
Joanna has written numerous academic journal articles and book chapters as well as being a frequent contributor to national and international education debates. She has given many guest lectures, most recently speaking at the Universities of Bath, Brighton and Oxford Brookes, Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society and Oxford Arts Festival. In America she has lectured at the University of San Diego and California State University, Fullerton.
Joanna’s writing has been published everywhere from The Times Higher Education to Early Years Educator; from the Spectator to the Erotic Review.
Joanna also writes and speaks about a range of other issues including schools, gender, feminism, children and families. She has recently appeared on BBC Radio 3’s Night Waves, Radio 4’s Moral Maze, and Radio 5.