Emily Williamson is a PhD student in anthropology at Boston University. Her research questions center on belonging, place, and pluralism among ''zongos, '' the informal, predominantly Muslim settlements found in most Ghanaian cities. With over ten years of intermittent engagement with zongo residents as a teacher, designer, landscape heritage consultant, and anthropologist, she is proficient in the Hausa language and has built trusted relationships among zongos in Accra, Cape Coast, Elmina, Salt Pond, Kumasi, Techiman, Wa, and the Bronx, New York.

More recently, she co-founded the Zongo Story Project with John Schaidler to help formalize her continuing literacy work in Ghana. In August 2017 Emily and John co-led a weeklong storybook workshop in Nima, Accra. They worked with over sixty students on illustrating, writing, and performing stories embedded in local traditions that explore community.