Sarah A. Williams

Assistant Professor of Anthropology

Anthropology

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Education

Ph.D., 2021, University of Toronto

About

Sarah A. Williams, PhD, is an applied medical anthropologist, birthworker, and scholar of global and Indigenous perinatal health. Her scholarship is primarily focused on midwifery and obstetrics and the relationship between racialization, medical racism, and perinatal healthcare in Mexico and Canada. Her book project, entitled “Always Already Vanishing: Midwifery’s Future(s), Indigeneity, and the Mexican State,” traces midwifery organizing, professionalization, and collaboration to protect traditional midwifery and counter obstetric violence and racism in Mexico. She is currently the Co-Investigator and Qualitative Research Lead on the QueerCOVID-Toronto project, which is examining the impact of the pandemic and public health policy on queer people’s mental and physical health.

Research Interests

Medical Anthropology, Maternal & Reproductive Health and Rights, Indigenous Health, Medical & Obstetric Racism, Queer Health, Social Determinants of Health.

Teaching

Undergraduate

Medical anthropology, race & health, reproductive justice, reproductive health & rights, genders & sexualities, medical cultures

Graduate Seminars

Race, racialization, & health; qualitative research methods

Publications

2024 Gibb, James K., Sarah Williams, Kaspars Mikelsteins, Jada Charles, Leela McKinnon, Laura Beach, Luseadra McKerracher, and Jessica Fields. “Queering food security research: A critical analysis of 2SLGBTQ+ People’s experiences of food insecurity in Toronto during the COVID-19 pandemic.” Social Science & Medicine (2024): 116709.

2024 Rice, Kathleen, and Sarah Williams. “Partner Exclusion from Childbirth During COVID-19 in Canada: Implications for Theory and Policy.” Medical Anthropology 43, no. 1 (2024): 5-16.

2023 Meejin, Park, Susitha Wanigaratne, Rohan D’Souza, Roxana Geoffrion, Sarah Williams, and Giulia M. Muraca. “Asian-White disparities in obstetric anal sphincter injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis.” AJOG Global Reports (2023): 100296.

2023 Park M, Wanigaratne S, D’Souza R, Geoffrion R, Williams SA, Muraca GM (2023) Asian-white disparities in obstetric anal sphincter injury: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS ONE 18(9): e0291174.

2022 Rice, Kathleen and Sarah A. Williams. “Increased use of birth interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic?: An exploratory qualitative study.” Annals of Family Medicine 20: Supplement 1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.20.s1.3041

2021 Rice, Kathleen and Sarah A. Williams. “Making Good Care Essential: The Impact of Increased Obstetric Interventions and Decreased Services during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Women and Birth. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wombi.2021.10.008

2021 Rice, Kathleen, and Sarah A. Williams. “Women’s postpartum experiences in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study.” Canadian Medical Association Journal open 9, no. 2 (2021): E556.

2020 Gibb, James K., L. Zachary DuBois, Sarah A. Williams, Luseadra McKerracher, Robert‐Paul Juster, and Jessica Fields. “Sexual and gender minority health vulnerabilities during the COVID‐19 health crisis.” American Journal of Human Biology: e23499.

2020 Williams, Sarah A. and Sabrina Speich. “Home versus the hospital: Negotiating birth location risk and midwifery’s value in Mexico.” In COVID-19 and SRH/MNH: A curated online collection for Medical Anthropology Quarterly. Medical Anthropology Quarterly.

2019 Williams, Sarah A. “Narratives of responsibility: Maternal mortality, reproductive governance, and midwifery in Mexico”. Social Science & Medicine. 254. 112227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.03.023

2016 Silver, Michelle Pannor and Sarah A. Williams. “Reluctance to retire: A qualitative study on work identity, intergenerational conflict, and retirement in academic medicine”. The Gerontologist. 58(2), 320-330. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnw142

2016 Williams, Sarah A. “Ideal citizens: The birthing of state truths and fictions in Quintana Roo.” Anthropology & Medicine. 23(3), 332-343. https://doi.org/10.1080/13648470.2016.1181946

2015 Silver, Michelle Pannor, Angela D. Hamilton, Avi Biswas, and Sarah A. Williams. “Life After Medicine: A Systematic Review of Studies of Physicians’ Adjustment to Retirement”. Archives of Community Medicine and Public Health. 1(1):026-032.

2015 Silver, Michelle Pannor, N. Celeste Pang, and Sarah A. Williams. ““Why Give Up Something That Works So Well?”: Retirement Expectations Among Academic Physicians.” Educational Gerontology. 41(5), 333-347.

Selected Book Chapters

2024 Williams, Sarah A. “Le’ Xkampaal Iknalitica’o: Omni-Desvanecimiento y Omni-Existente.” In T’áalk’u’ Iknalítico: Omniausencias, Omnipresencias y Ubicuidades Mayas, edited by Juan Castillo Cocom. Astra Editorial.

2023 Williams, Sarah A. “Bad Pelvises”: Mexican Obstetricians and the Re-Affirmation of Race in Labor and Delivery. In Obstetric violence and systemic disparities: can obstetrics Be humanized and decolonized?. Vol. 3. Berghahn Books, 2023. Davis-Floyd, Robbie, and Ashish Premkumar, eds. Pg 44-62.

2020 Williams, Sarah A. & Janice Boddy. “Midwifery and Traditional Birth Attendants in Transnational Perspective.” In D. Lueddeckens & J. Schleiter, eds. Routledge Handbook of Religion, Healing, and Medicine. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge.

2018 Williams, Sarah A. “Reconquista – Obstetric Violence and Under-Reporting of Obstetric Complications in Yucatán and Quintana Roo.” In Maternal Health, Pregnancy-Related Morbidity and Death Among Indigenous Women of Mexico & Central America: An Anthropological, Epidemiological and Biomedical Approach, edited by David Alan Schwartz. New York, NY: Springer Publishing.

Reports

2020 Reinhart Reithmeier and Sarah A. Williams. “Building a Healthy Lab Culture at the University of Toronto.” Report commissioned by the School of Graduate Studies, University of Toronto.

Public and Engaged Scholarship

2025. Founder & organizer. Traces: Queer Toronto During the Pandemic Public Exhibition and Walking Tour.

2023 Sarah A. Williams & Laura Beach. “Needs, Access, and Obstacles: Mental Health Care for 2SLGBTQIA+ People During COVID.” Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto. April 20.

2022 Sarah A. Williams, Aida Parnia, and Jessica Fields. “Toronto 2SLGBTQIA+ Health and Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto. October 26.

2022 Guest speaker, Doulas at Brown & Pembroke Center. “Reimagining What’s Possible: Reproductive Justice.” October 21. Providence, Rhode Island.

2022 Organizer & moderator, Sarah Doyle Center. “What’s Next? Reproductive Justice in a Post-Roe Nation: A Virtual Conversation with Zakiya Luna, Sara Matthiesan, & Sarah Williams.” October 19. Providence, Rhode Island.

2022 Invited salon speaker, World Affairs Council of Rhode Island. “Roe Overturned, A Model for the World?” September 26. Providence, Rhode Island.

2022 Invited guest speaker, FearlessR2W Community Meeting. “Reproductive Justice, Doulas, and Indigenous Parenting Rights.” September 21. Winnipeg, Manitoba.

2022 Sarah A. Williams and Jessica Fields. “Lost and Found: Queer Selves, Stay-at-Home Orders, and the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto. September 20

2021 Jessica Fields, Sarah A. Williams, & James Gibb. “Queer People’s Experiences During the Pandemic Include New Possibilities and Connections.” The Conversation. June 27, 2021.