Professor Williams Chosen for Prestigious Fellowship to Study How Black Muslim Communities Shaped America’s Cities
Assistant Professor Darien Alexander Williams has been named a Camargo Foundation Fellow for Fall 2026, selected from a pool of more than 1,000 international applicants. One of only 14 fellows chosen through the competitive program, Williams joins scholars from across the humanities and social sciences for a ten-week residency at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France.
During the residency, Williams will advance his book manuscript, “Hijra Theory: Black Planning and Islams of the Great Migration,” an examination of how Black Muslim communities during the Great Migration shaped urban life through economic development, institution-building, and placemaking. The research centers Islamic history, thought, and practice as a lens for understanding Black community organizing in cities including Detroit, Chicago, and Boston, and contributes to the fields of Black planning history, Muslim geographies, and critical urban theory.
“Hijra Theory” positions Black Muslim communities as visionary architects of their own urban futures instead of being passive recipients of planning decisions. The work challenges dominant narratives in planning history and elevates the intellectual and spatial contributions of communities historically marginalized along lines of both race and religion.
Williams joined Boston University School of Social Work in Fall 2023 as a member of the Macro Department. His scholarship reflects the school’s commitment to justice-oriented research and the empowerment of oppressed and marginalized communities. Beyond his academic work, Williams is co-founder of QMOSQUE, a social and spiritual institution operated by the Queer Muslims of Boston, and serves as an editor at Acacia Magazine, a publication of politics and culture for the Muslim Left.
The Camargo Foundation, based in Cassis, France, supports artists and scholars whose work engages with French and Francophone cultures and societies.
Learn more about Professor Darien Alexander Williams