I am a healer. I do not state this with arrogance, but as a self-affirming recognition of my calling. I engage in healing work through the field of education, and I am currently working on expanding my model and practice.

I am Dr. Hakim Mohandas Amani Williams, a native of Laventille, Trinidad & Tobago. I am the inaugural Daria L. & Eric J. Wallach Professor & Director of Peace and Justice Studies,  Associate Professor of Africana Studies, Affiliate of Education, and Advisory Committee Member for International & Global Studies, and Public Policy at Gettysburg College. My doctorate is in International Educational Development and Peace Education from Columbia University, and my research and writing center on school/structural violence, educational inequity, and youth/community empowerment. My next project will focus on healing and suicidal ideation.

I was the co-founder of CONAPP (Consortium of North American Peace Programs) and the Peace and Justice Transformative Leadership program. I was a Visiting Scholar (2015-2016) at the Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict and Complexity (AC4) at the Earth Institute, Columbia University, and I am one of the inaugural Emerging Scholar Award recipients of CIES’s African Diaspora Special Interest Group (2017). I was Co-Chair for the International Peace Research Association 2023 Conference, and was a recipient of both a Spencer Foundation Grant and a Fulbright Global Scholar Award for a (2021-2023) project on decolonial peace and justice education that took me to Ghana, Brazil, Jamaica, and Georgia (USA) to document Afro-centric, youth-based work (currently working on this book, and will ramp up this work during my sabbatical from May 2026 to August 2027). I am the co-editor of Disrupting Hierarchy in Education: Students and Teachers Collaborating for Social Change (Teachers College Press, 2024).

I travel the world conducting workshops and trainings on restorative circles, mediation, conflict resolution, antiracism, DEI (diversity, equity & inclusion), and intercultural competencies with students, teachers, parents, and community leaders.

…Stand tall in your beauteous skin…

Dr. Williams_AFS Building

Dr. Williams_Weidensall Office

Faculty Convocation Speaker 2014

At AC4 Event

Excellence in Teaching Award

Dr. Williams @LGBT Rally

Angela Davis & Dr. Williams

Dr. Williams in action