Darien Williams

Darien Alexander Williams is an assistant professor with a focus on environmental & climate justice in the BU School of Social Work Macro Practice Department. His research broadly engages Black and Muslim urban planning history, hurricane disaster recovery, climate change, and community organizing.

Williams’ research examines counter-institution building methods developed by Black and Muslim organizations who grappled with segregation and land clearance in urban neighborhoods in the 20th century, with particular attention given to Roxbury, Massachusetts. By drawing on diverse sources including archival documents, organization financial records, the Black press, interview data, and present-day fieldwork, Williams maps the claims to land made by Black religious and Nationalist groups who challenged common assumptions about citizenship, identity, and planning power.

Williams also does participatory action research supported by the Florida Sea Grant interrogating health, climate change, and spatial justice in Jacksonville, Florida. He also works alongside researchers and community organizers at the intersection of climate disaster, urban planning, and incarceration along the Gulf Coast. Both projects draw on and contribute to an abolitionist framework of emergency management.

Williams has worked on long-term planning in historically Black towns in Eastern North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew. He is currently an organizer for the Queer Muslims of Boston, a grassroots organization that builds social and spiritual space for LGBTQ Muslims across New England.