Jennie Katherine Williams, Ph.D.

Jennie K. Williams, Ph.D. is a historian with expertise in American slavery and the domestic traffic of enslaved persons, the digital humanities, data and data ethics. Her book, Oceans of Kinfolk: African American Ancestral History & the Antebellum Coastwise Traffic of Enslaved Persons to New Orleans is forthcoming from UNC Press. Dr. Williams is the author of five databases--Oceans of Kinfolk, Louisiana Kindred, Named in Affectionate Terms, Remembered by Name, and Reeds Memoriam--which collectively contain the names of approximately 100,000 enslaved African American ancestors. She is also the Founding Executive Director of Kinfolkology: an open archive, database collective, and collaborative community dedicated to remembering enslaved people as kin and kindred in full partnership with Descendant communities.