The Officers of the William James Society make up the Executive Committee of five voting members and one ex officio member without vote. The voting members hold the following posts: President (two-year term); Vice President (two-year term followed by a two-year term as President); Secretary (three-year term); Treasurer (three-year term); two At-Large Representatives (staggered two-year terms). The immediate Past President sits on the Executive Committee ex officio without vote. The Executive Committee also relies on the insightful resources of the Society’s past presidents who, along with the Society’s founder Randall Albright, are Fellows of the Society.
Current Executive Committee
• Phil Oliver (Middle Tennessee State University) President, 2024–2026
• John Kaag (University of Massachussetts-Lowell), Vice-President, 2024–2026
• Kevin Decker (Eastern Washington University), Secretary, 2023–2026
• Gary Jaron (Independent Scholar), Treasurer, 2023–2026
• Guy Axtell (Radford University), At-Large Member, 2024 – 2025• John Shook (Bowie State University), At-Large Member, 2024 – 2025
• Sami Pihlström (University of Helsinki), Immediate Past President, 2023–2024
Founder
• Randall Albright, 1999
Past Presidents
• John J. McDermott (Texas A&M Univeristy), 2001 – 2002
• Linda Simon (Skidmore College), 2003
• Charlene Haddock Seigfried (Purdue University), 2004
• William Gavin (University of Southern Maine), 2005
• Peter Hare (SUNY Buffalo), 2006
• John Lachs (Vanderbilt University), 2007
• David Lamberth (Harvard University), 2008 – 2009
• Paul Croce (Stetson), 2010 – 2011
• Ellen Suckiel (UC Santa Cruz), 2012
• Micah Hester (University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences), 2012 – 2013
• James Campbell (University of Toledo), 2013 – 2014
• James Pawelski (University of Pennsylvania), 2015 – 2016
• Henry Jackman (York University), 2017 – 2018
• Megan Mustain (St. Mary’s University), 2019 – 2020
• Michael Hodges (Vanderbilt University) 2021 – 2022
Past Officers
Secretary-Treasurers
• Micah Hester (UAMS), 2001 – 2007
• Lynn Bridgers (University of New Mexico), 2008 – 2010
• Todd Lekan (Muskingum University), 2011 – 2013
• Lee McBride (College of Wooster), 2014
• Ermine Algaier (Harvard University), 2015 – 2016
Secretary
• Ermine Algaier (Monmouth College), 2017
• Stephen Bush (Brown Univeristy), 2018-2020
• Tadd Ruetenik (St Ambrose University) 2020-2023
At-Large Representatives
• Phil Oliver (Middle Tennessee State University), 2001 – 2002
• John Shook (Oklahoma State University), 2001 – 2002
• Robert Talisse (Vanderbilt University), 2003 – 2004
• Cornelis de Waal (IU-PUI), 2004 -2005
• Paul Croce (Stetson University), 2005 – 2006
• James Campbell (University of Toledo), 2006 – 2007
• James Pawelski (University of Pennsylvania), 2007 – 2008
• Jonathan Levin (SUNY–Purchase), 2008 – 2009
• Felicitas Kraemer (Potsdam University), 2009 – 2010
• Francesca Bordogna (University of Notre Dame), 2010 – 2011
• Amy Kittlestrom (Sonoma State University), 2011 – 2012
• Lee McBride (College of Wooster), 2012 – 2013
• Jeremy R. Carrette (University of Kent), 2013 – 2014
• Linda Simon (Skidmore College), 2014 – 2015
• Ralph Hood (University of Tennessee, Chattanooga), 2015 – 2016
• Michael Slater (Georgetown University), 2016-2017
• Deborah Whitehead (University of Colorado, Boulder), 2017 – 2018
• John Capps (Rochester Institute of Technology), 2018 – 2019
• Yumiko Inukai (University of Massachusetts Boston), 2018 – 2020
• Wang Chenbing (Shanxi University), 2023-2024
Fellows of WJS (non-Presidents)
• Randall Albright, 1999
• Ruth Ann Putnam (Wellesley College), 2012
• Cornel West (Union Theological Seminary), 2013