Lindy Williams is a professor emerita in the Department of Global Development.

Williams' focuses geographically in the United States and Southeast Asia. Her most recent published research examines family formation (for example, changing attitudes toward marriage in the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam); fertility attitudes, intentions, and behavior (most recently among couples in the Philippines, and previously regarding U.S. men's and women's experiences with unplanned pregnancy); and the educational attainment of children (most recently in Thailand and the Philippines). Williams' current focus is on overseas labor migration from the Philippines, particularly the effects of that migration on children who stay behind when their parents take positions abroad. She is also working with graduate students on understanding the practice of transnational marriage in East and Southeast Asia.

Her current and past research endeavors all contribute to the courses she teaches in regular rotation: Social Change and Population Processes in Asia (DS 6120), Qualitative Research Methods (DS 6150), Human Migration (DS 4300/6300), and Population and Development (DS 4380/6380). Williams introduces students to substantive results from published work and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the techniques that produced the findings. In each class, students learn about the theories, data, and methods that are used to generate the information that appears in the texts they study.