Miriam F. Williams, PhD
Professor of English
ASSOCIATE CHAIR
Education
Ph.D. in Technical Communication & Rhetoric, Texas Tech University
M.A. in Technical Communication, Texas State University
M.A. in Public Administration, University of Houston
B.S. in Economics, University of Houston
Areas of Specialization and Interest
Public Policy Writing
Intercultural Communication
Ethics in Technical Communication
Qualitative Research Methods
Biography
Dr. Miriam F. Williams is a Professor of English in Texas State University's Department of English. She holds a B.S. in Economics and an M.A. in Public Administration from the University of Houston, an M.A. in Technical Communication from Texas State University, and a Ph.D. in Technical Communication & Rhetoric from Texas Tech University. Before joining Texas State University's Department of English in 2004, she worked 8 years for State of Texas agencies as a caseworker, health and safety investigator, policy analyst, policy writer/editor, and program administrator of rules & regulations. Her books and articles focus on public policy writing, plain language, race and ethnicity, and archival research. Her publications include articles in Technical Communication, Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Technical Communication Quarterly, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, and Programmatic Perspectives. Her co-edited book with Dr. Octavio Pimentel, Communicating Race, Ethnicity, and Identity in Technical Communication, received CCCC’s 2016 Best Original Collection of Essays in Scientific and Technical Communication award and her co-authored article with Dr. Natasha Jones won the CCCC’s 2020 Best Article Reporting Historical Research or Textual Studies in Technical award. She is a Fellow of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing, 2022 recipient of the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Design of Communication (SIGDOC) Rigo Award, 2023 recipient of the Society for Technical Communication’s Ken Rainey Distinguished Research award, and the Editor-in-Chief of the Society for Technical Communication's journal, Technical Communication.
Research Interests
Government & Public Policy Writing, Technical Writing & Communication, Rhetoric, Race & Ethnicity
Contact Information
Phone: 512-245-3015
Featured Publications
Gonzales, L., Walwema, J., Yu, H., Jones, N., & Williams, M. F. (2021). Narratives from the Margins: Centering Women of Color in Technical Communication. In Equipping Technical Communicators for Social Justice Work: Theories, Methodologies, and Pedagogies. Eds. Godwin Agboka and Rebecca Walton.
Jones, N. N., & Williams, M. F. (2018). Technologies of Disenfranchisement: Literacy tests and Black voters in the U.S. from 1890-1965. Technical Communication, Volume 65(Issue 4).
Williams, M. F., & Jones, N. N. (2017). The Social Justice Impact of Plain Language: A Critical Approach to Plain Language Analysis. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Transactions on Professional Communication Journal, 412–429. https://doi.org/10.1109/TPC.2017.2762964
Williams, M. F., & Pimentel, O. (2014). Communicating Race, Ethnicity, and Identity in Technical Communication. Amityville, NY: Baywood Technical Communications Book Series-Routledge.
Williams, M. F., & Pimentel, O. (2012). Guest Edited Special Issue of JBTC: Race, Ethnicity, and Technical Communication: Examining Multicultural Issues within the United States. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (12th-Jul ed., Vol. 26, pp. 271–276).