Rosalind H. Williams
A specialist in the cultural study of technology, Dr. Rosalind (McFarland) Williams is a 1962 honor graduate of Andrew Lewis High School in Salem Virginia, where she was Co-Valedictorian of her class. She was on the A.L. Spokesman newspaper staff and the school literary magazine staff. Rosalind was in the Beta Club and Latin Club and was named to Girls’ State.
In 1966, McFarland received a B.A. degree from Sellsley College, Harvard University, and the following year in M.A. from the University of California at Berkley. In 1978, she earned a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts in Amhurst.
She married Dr. W. Gary Williams, who holds two degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in chemical engineering and in oceanography and who owns a company that builds oceanographic instruments. In 1976 they began their family with the birth of Laurel and four years later Owen and in four more years Peter. They live in Newton, Massachusetts, close by to Boston where Rosalind teaches at MIT.
Between 1980-82, Rosalind was a Fellow of the Science, Technology and Society Programs at MIT and began her teaching career at MIT in 1983 as a lecturer in the writing program. She became an assistant professor in 1985 and associate professor of writing and technology studies, holding the MIT Class 1992 Career Development Professorship from April 1990 to June 1992. She received tenure in 1990.
In 1992, when MIT appointed Dr. Williams to the Robert M. Metcalf Professorship in Writing, Professor Philip S. Khoury, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Science, described Rosalind as “one of the school’s outstanding scholars, teachers, and curriculum innovators….Both her scholarship and her service demonstrate Professor Williams’ commitment to elucidating the connection between the humanities and engineering.”
Dr. Williams has written 2 books, 14 articles, 6 book chapters, 28 reviews, 10 newspaper columns, 1 major research report and has served on the Advisory Committee for: The American Experience on PBS Television; the Newton Historical Society; the Hagley Museum in Wilmington, Delaware; the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities; and serves on the Executive Council of the Society for the History of Technology. She is now the dean for undergraduate education and student affairs at MIT.
In recognition of her outstanding career achievements, in 1996 Rosalind Helen (McFarland) Williams was among the charter members inducted into the Salem Alumni Hall of Fame established by the Salem Educational Foundation and Alumni Association.
