Officers

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

Sami Pihlström (University of Helsinki) President, 2023–2024
Phil Oliver (Middle Tennessee State University), Vice-President, 2023–2024
Kevin Decker (Eastern Washington University), Secretary, 2023–2026
Gary Jaron (Independent Scholar), Treasurer, 2023–2026
Guy Axtell (Radford University), At-Large Member, 2023 – 2024
Wang Chenbing (Shanxi University), At-Large Member, 2023 – 2024
Michael Hodges (Vanderbilt University), Immediate Past President, 2021–2022

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

Fellows of WJS (non-Presidents)
• Randall Albright, 1999
• Ruth Ann Putnam (Wellesley College), 2012
• Cornel West (Union Theological Seminary), 2013