In 1979, a successful, bloodless coup established the People's Revolutionary Government as leaders of the south Caribbean island of Grenada. Four years later, the party that was once held as a triumph of post-colonial democracy imploded. The ruthless assassinations of the prime minister and his associates by his own party left the country in political ruin. At this point, Grenada native Dessima Williams, then ambassador to the Organization of American States and Deputy Governor to the World Bank, left Grenada to finish her graduate studies in the United States.

A revolutionary, an activist, and a wealth of political wisdom, Prof. Williams (SOC) remains modestly sequestered in her department at Brandeis. Her story is remarkable, and equally powerful are the lessons she has to teach about social injustice in the world in which we live.

Raised in rural Grenada, Dessima Williams represented in her youth the generation of bright, energetic community leaders who would bring Grenada out of dictatorial rule and into democracy.

Strongly influenced by a Catholic upbringing, Williams says that from an early age, she was trained in the values of charity and social obligation. At the age of nine, she began work in a medical clinic after school, helping the resident nurse examine low-income rural children. This, she says, had a vast impact on her view of her place in the world, as she became involved in the process of challenging malnutrition and sickness among Grenada's poor.

"What began to emerge with the volunteering in the clinic," she says, "was my role in society, which was a leadership role."

Her potential for leadership blossomed in secondary school, where she distinguished herself as a scholar and valuable member of the community. Accepted into the University of Minnesota, she left Grenada to study International Relations. Although at first bewildered and confused by the racism and unfairness she saw in the United States, she became politically active, forming groups to spread the word about Caribbean culture. After four years, she enrolled in American University.

In 1979, Williams' plans for graduate school rapidly became inconsequential. The pro-socialist New Jewel Movement, with which she had affiliated herself, overthrew the dictatorial government and took power. In a brief phone call, Williams was assigned the central role as Grenada's ambassador to the Organization of American States. In a whirlwind of meetings and travel, she became the government's representative to Congress, the media, the U.N., the World Bank and UNESCO. Working alongside Grenada's prime minister and foreign minister, she helped to manage Grenada's foreign relations while seeking economic support from bilateral and multilateral donors.

Any student who has attended Williams' lectures will have been struck by her deep understanding of the institutional injustice that exists at the global level. This understanding, she says, first began to form while she fought for Grenada's survival in the global climate of the Cold War. She discovered the nuances involved in power relations in the old colonial model, and learned how the G7 countries held an absolute institutional authority over the smaller, struggling developing nations.

She says, however, "I understood the possibility of change." Developing countries stuck together in the UN, she explains, and she was active in a non-alignment movement with Mexico, India, Cuba, Ghana and Yugoslavia. "I became a global citizen for justice in a way I'd never been before." Her role became "to translate Grenada to the world and the world to Grenada," she says. Greatly respected as a revolutionary character and an active speaker, she also began to represent the rights of women around the world.

In 1983, havoc broke loose among the government of Grenada. The prime minister and others were killed by more radical members of their own party, and U.S. forces swept into the country to make order of the ensuing political chaos. Arresting the interim government and deporting those who remained, U.S. troops ensured that the party was permanently scattered. Williams tells of how she was both "enraged and devastated" to watch the collapse of what she and her colleagues had fought for. "When brother killed brother, I couldn't go on," she recalls. She left the embassy and mobilized diplomatic opinion for the removal of U.S. troops from Grenada, a process which ended a year and a half later.

Shortly afterwards, she tried to resume life by studying International Relations at American University.

It was difficult for Williams to read in a textbook what she had just directly experienced so vividly. At that time, she says, most academics wanted to justify the Cold War and saw national liberation movements as dangerous for the United States' agenda. Militarism was rampant, and the idea of global injustice was dismissed as an argument in favor of the communist agenda. Globalization blossomed, and the economy of Grenada began slowly but persistently expanding-but became more unequal under U.S.-favored rule.

In 2004, 12 years after Williams began to teach at Brandeis, one-third of the population of Grenada lives in poverty. The country must now open itself to free trade in a market in which it has little chance of competing.

Professor Williams, however, is far from pessimistic or at the end of her mission to bring prosperity and democracy to her homeland. "It was really the place where my whole life's mission was formed and crystallized," she says. She is still actively involved in bringing the country away from its downward spiral.

Through her organization, GRENED, Williams brings students from Brandeis to the island to help spread knowledge and encourage a high educational standard. When asked about the ultimate solution for her country's survival, she replied, "Education and investment, education and investment."

Once the lower and middle classes gain enough economic and social power to build a competitive trade edge in the regional and global market, she predicts the current gap between rich and poor could lessen and ownership of the island's resources will be more fairly distributed. She calls for a greater number of successful Grenadians to study inside and outside of Grenada, earn degrees and return to their communities to help to bring the economy back on track from a broader social base.

With a new, more liberal parliament and an ever-increasing presence of non-governmental organizations, Grenada's future looks hopeful, and Williams' expertise and understanding are undoubtedly invaluable in its recovery.

In her class, Global Apartheid and Social Movements, Williams encourages students to gain first-hand experiences of ongoing struggle against inequality at the global level. She shares her own experience as a combination of her social history ties to big ideas of injustices and movements for change. More information about her organization can also be found at grened.org.