Dr Williamson's doctorate, granted by King's College London in 2010, is in 20th century Spanish socio-political history and her home department is the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities.

As well as being a historian, she is an expert in the field of international education and has 22 years of creative programming experience in Higher Education, the last 15 of which have been spent in institutional-level leadership roles.  To do so, she develops original ideas, leads high performing teams and delivers financial successes, in a consultancy capacity as required. Her education programmes are sector-leading.

She has travelled extensively, negotiating international university partnership agreements for KCL, setting up transnational education programmes and consulting for vice-chancellors, executive deans and chief operating officers in Asia, North America and Europe seeking to better define their HE institution's international strategy and improve their international research and exchange relationships.

At King's she founded the Study Abroad Programme in 2009 and the Accredited Internship Programme in 2011. She was also invited to author two institutional white papers which were the blueprint to restructure the professional services of the School of Law and the School of Arts & Humanities. These education innovations and change management projects changed the way the university functioned.

In 2014, she was invited by the Senior Vice Principal to author a further white paper to grow a portfolio of commercial short courses in the summer. As a result, KCL expanded its summer education activity to become the largest HEI-led UK pre university summer school and the second largest undergraduate summer school. She also created and oversaw delivery of a portfolio of commercial bespoke courses in London, Italy, Germany and India, drawing the academic content from diverse subject specialisms including health sciences, bio engineering, social sciences, international relations, history, literature, theatre, culture.

Before completing her PhD and joining King’s in the Department of Spanish, in the faculty of Arts & Humanities, she worked in the NHS and for Imperial College London in Imaging Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine, as a data manager and junior coordinator for the Intergroup Exemestane Study, a randomized, double blind clinical trial of breast cancer drug, Exemestane, having previously taught at secondary schools in France and Spain.

Research and Teaching Interests

International Education:

• Strategic plans for short courses programming in HEIs
• Business models for short courses in higher education
• Curriculum design
• Integrating education abroad as an accredited component of a higher education degrees
• Short courses as an opportunity for inclusion in higher education
• Teaching cultural competency through international education
• Internationalisation at Home initiatives

History

• European History in the 20th century
• Spanish cultural history in the 20th century
• Socio-political journalism in Spain in the 20th century
• Late Francoism
• Possibilism
• Triunfo Magazine

 

Selected Publications and Conferences

(JOURNAL ARTICLE) "Exploring ten years of U.S. Education Abroad Experience in Europe: Evolution, Trends and Trajectory from the perpsective of leading practitioner universities", Williamson, S. 2025, https://www.frontiersjournal.org/

(CONFERENCE PAPER) "Short term research modules: innovations in East-West Undergraduate Education", Williamson, S et al., 27-31st March 2022, APAIE Conference.

(BOOK CHAPTER) “Improving Inclusion: Short Courses as an Opportunity for Transnational Education”. Williamson, S, et al., 2021 in Importing Transnational Education. Tsiligiris, V., Lawton, W., Hill, C. (eds.) Palgrave Macmillan. p. 251 – 261.

(CONFERENCE PAPER) “All Eyes On Us: How Established Summer Schools Overcome Challenges”. Williamson, S, et al., September 13, 2018, Annual Conference of European Association for International Education (EAIE), Geneva, Switzerland.

(CONFERENCE WORKSHOP) “Summer School Euros: Costs, Resources & Business Models”. Williamson, S, et al., September 11, 2018, Annual Conference of European Association for International Education (EAIE), Geneva, Switzerland.

(CONFERENCE PAPER) “Improving Inclusion: Short Courses as an Opportunity for Transnational Education”. Williamson, S et al., July 11, 2018, “Transnational Education: Innovations in Practice”, Second TNE-Hub Symposium, City University, London UK.

(CONFERENCE PAPER) “Diversifying Summer Programming: A Game Changer in Internationlisation”. Williamson, S, et al., September 12-15, 2017, Annual Conference of European Association for International Education (EAIE), Seville, Spain.

(CONFERENCE POSTER PRESENTATION) “Changing Lives: Strategies for Building Inclusive Summer Schools”. Williamson, S et al., September 12-15, 2017 Annual Conference of European Association for International Education (EAIE), Seville, Spain.

(CONFERENCE) “Changing Lives: Strategies for Building Inclusive Summer Schools”. Williamson, S et al., May 28-June 2, 2017, 69th Annual Conference of NAFSA Association of International Educators, Los Angeles, California.

(BOOK) Triunfo Magazine: An Iconic Cultural Product of Late Francoism. Williamson, S. 2010.

(BOOK CHAPTER) Collage and Pastiche in Triunfo Magazine. Williamson, S. 2007 in Exploración y proceso: investigando la cultura hispánica. Boyle, C. (ed.). Valencia: Biblioteca Valenciana, Valencia, p. 129-139.