Professor Williams arrived at Loyola in 2009 from the University of Cincinnati, where he had taught in the Department of Sociology since 2001. From 1989 to 2001 he taught in the Sociology Department at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and did post-doctoral research at Yale University’s Program on Non-Profit Organizations from 1992-94. His research has focused on the intersection of politics, religion, and social movements in American culture. He has also studied the involvement of religious groups in urban politics, as well as the ways in which urban settings affect religion and its public roles.

Professor Williams’ current research examines these themes in two different projects. One is a study of the involvement of religious groups in progressive political causes – with two collaborators he recently published Religion and Progressive Activism (New York University Press, 2017). The second is an examination of the public attitudes and political language about immigration and immigrants in contemporary American politics, and how they use images of national identity.

Professor Williams teaches both graduate and undergraduate classes in religion and society, religion in American politics, sociology of culture, and sociological theory.