title: Rhys H. Williams (sociologist)
text: # Rhys H. Williams (sociologist)
  
  Rhys H. Williams (born 1955) is Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Sociology at Loyola University Chicago. He is also Director of the McNamara Center for the Social Study of Religion.
  
  ## Biography
  
  He received his undergraduate degree from the University of New Mexico in 1979 and his master's (1985) and doctoral (1988) degrees from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
  
  From 1989 to 2001 he taught at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and from 2001 until 2009 at the University of Cincinnati. Since 2009, he has taught at Loyola University Chicago. From 2003-08 he was editor of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, was President of the Association for the Sociology of Religion in 2009-10 and President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, 2011-12. His research interests span the fields of sociology, religious studies and political science.
  
  