Instructional Assistant Professor, Hobby School of Public Affairs
Director, Elizabeth D. Rockwell Center on Ethics and Leadership

Expertise: Metaethics, Normative and Applied Ethics, Social-Political Philosophy and Epistemology 

Brandon M. Williams, Ph.D., is an instructional assistant professor and the director of the Elizabeth D. Rockwell Center on Ethics and Leadership at the Hobby School of Public Affairs. Williams has a Doctor of Philosophy from Rice University and a Master of Arts in Philosophy from Northern Illinois University. He attended Central Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, for his undergraduate education. Before joining the Hobby School, Williams was an instructor of philosophy and director of the Northwest Honors College at Houston Community College System. 

His research and expertise span metaethics, normative and applied ethics, social-political philosophy and epistemology, with his published works exploring two distinct areas: digital health and data ethics and metaethics in relation to the philosophy of mind and epistemology. Williams’s research bridges philosophical theory and applied ethics with a particular focus on how abstract moral and epistemological concepts intersect with real-world issues. He studied as a graduate fellow at the Hebrew University’s Center for Moral and Political Philosophy in 2019. 

Williams previously taught a wide range of courses at Rice University, including Problems of Philosophy, Contemporary Moral Issues and Introduction to Philosophy of Science, as well as Introduction to Philosophy at Lone Star College–Kingwood. At the Hobby School, he teaches Philosophy and Public Policy II, Contemporary Political Philosophy and Policy and Public Policy Laboratory. 

Williams’s academic service includes roles as interim chair for the department of Philosophy and faculty senate delegate at Houston Community College. He has also co-organized public philosophy initiatives such as the Ethics & Society at Rice and served as a moderator for the Houston Ethics Bowl at Rice University.