Zoe Williams

Born in 1973, Zoe went on to study Modern History at Lincoln College, Oxford.

As a political commentator and motoring critic, Zoe has written for the Guardian since 2000, while contributing columns on a variety of subjects across other publications, including the Evening Standard, The Spectator, Marie Claire and the London Cyclist.

She was 2013’s Print Journalist of the Year at the Speaking Together Media Awards, 2011’s Columnist of the Year at the Workworld awards, and in 2012 was long-listed for the prestigious Orwell Prize for journalism.

Zoe is a former restaurant critic for The Sunday Telegraph’s magazine, and was named Restaurant Reviewer of the Year in 2014 by the Guild of Food Writers. She is a regular face on current affairs TV shows, and the author of The Secret World of the Working Mother and Bring It On, Baby: How to have a dudelike pregnancy (2010), an advice book for mothers-to-be which was republished in 2012 as What Not to Expect When You're Expecting. In 2015 she published Get It Together: Why We Deserve Better Politics.

Journalist and Goldsmiths lecturer Ellie Levenson, who nominated Zoe for an Honorary Fellowship, says: “As a comment and features writer Zoe represents everything that we are trying to teach our own journalism students - an ability to ask pertinent questions of those in charge coupled with probing research skills and an excellent creative energy that results in articles that both inspire action and cause the reader to reflect.

“Her non political articles - including those on food, travel and celebrity, entertain the reader while informing us about each subject without us even realising we are being educated.

“Zoe makes subjects that could be considered 'worthy', lively and funny. The range of publications she writes for is wide, and this is particularly inspiring to students who feel they may have to choose between being political and being populist - she does both.”

Zoe says: “I am absolutely delighted to be associated with Goldsmiths in any capacity; as an honorary fellow, deeply honoured also. I’ve admired the college for so many things over the years, from creating Britpop to dismantling neo-liberalism (at least in theory).”

Quotes from Zoe's speech at her graduation ceremony on 13th July 2016

"[When I came here in 2011] the students I met felt a burning responsibility to find out what was going on, an intellectual responsibility to explore a full range of views, the civic responsibility to put their whole lives into this… an adventurous spirit, that’s as old as language, probably older." 

"I really thought that much more, much nobler, human instincts, were served by journalism the way it's taught here. Much nobler instincts of fellowship and the life of the mind."

"Old media isn’t dead… You digital natives are just going to be the best at it."

"There are lots of challenges out there, the main one being that no one's getting paid and no one's met anybody who’s getting paid… but you guys are fantastic at it, and it’s worth it, the bread and butter - the foundation on which everything else stands - is the way you apply your human energy. I can not wait to see it in full steam."