Student Finds Knowledge By Asking Big Questions

Ashley Williams knows no boundaries and shows no fear when asking big questions.

“I think that being a student at UNC Charlotte, you get prepared with not being afraid,” Williams said. “And you feel ready to attack the text or attack the performance, or look at something and say, ‘Okay I know what to do with this,’ whether that be critiquing it, finding ways to make it better, or questioning it. I feel very prepared in that way.”

Williams is one of the rare UNC Charlotte students to double major across two colleges and also begin a master’s program while working on her undergraduate degrees. She is on track to graduate in spring 2015 with bachelor’s degrees in philosophy in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and dance in the College of Arts + Architecture. She also is enrolled in UNC Charlotte’s early entry master’s degree program for ethics and applied philosophy.

Williams sees her wide-ranging choices as critical preparation for her future.

“The people who are involved in the liberal arts are going to be the leaders making the decisions 20 years from now,” she said. “I’m very confident to know that because of the liberal arts understanding and studies that I’m doing here at UNC Charlotte, I can carry that with me no matter what my job is going to entail.”

Williams was a Charlotte Research Scholar in the summer of 2013, working with mentor Robin James, who is an associate professor in the Philosophy Department.

Her research examined whether Kanye West diminishes or enhances the conversations surrounding the racial, political, and social issues that were illuminated in his latest album, Yeezus. The goal of the project, “Yeezus: Critique or Contradiction?” was to consider Yeezus and offer alternatives to the conventional ways in which people discuss celebrities and how their fame serves as a platform to discourse about matters of contention.

“I was able to do my own research from what I learned from (James’ research),” she said. “I found myself having to go back to asking questions or being able to objectively look at something and say ‘O.K., what’s really going on here?’ ”

Drawing from her broad-based liberal arts education, Williams plans to attend law school and to pursue a doctoral degree.

“I’m excited to go into the world and collaborate with other people who go to amazing universities as well, and make big decisions and ask the big questions,” she said.

Words: Cady Ray, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences communications intern
Image: Lynn Roberson, college communications and marketing director
Pictured: Williams (right) and James