Thad Williamson joined the Jepson faculty as
assistant professor of leadership studies in 2005.
He is currently completing a book, "Sprawl, Justice,
and Citizenship: The Civic Costs of the American Way of
Life," to be published by Oxford University Press in
early 2009. The book combines the use of both normative
political theory and empirical investigation to assess
the benefits and costs of sprawling development patterns
in the United States. Empirically, the book uses Census
Data and the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey
to assess the impact of sprawling neighborhoods on
quality of life, social trust, political ideology, and
political participation. Normatively, the book
critically compares how utilitarian, liberal
egalitarian, and civic republican normative perspectives
assess sprawl as a policy issue. The dissertation on
which the book is based was the co-winner of the
American Political Science Association’s 2005 Harold D.
Lasswell Award for best doctoral thesis in the field of
public policy.
Williamson’s broader research interests include the
normative evaluation of political and economic
institutions; contemporary social movements,
particularly those pertaining to economic justice;
theories of long-term social and historical change; and
urban politics. His master's degree in religion carried
a concentration in Christian ethics.
Williamson serves on the board of the International
Partnership for Service-Learning and Leadership, a New
York-based nonprofit that sponsors programs worldwide in
which college students combine study abroad with service
learning. On the UR campus, he has been a faculty
advisor for the Collegiate Disaster Relief Team, and has
helped design service-learning component of trips taken
by UR students to the Gulf Coast and New Orleans the
past two years to assist in Katrina recovery efforts.
His professional experience includes work in
Washington at both the Institute for Policy Studies and
the National Center for Economic and Security
Alternatives from 1992 to 1996. In addition to his
doctorate in political science from Harvard University,
Williamson holds an A.B. in religion and history from
Brown University and an M.A. in Christian Ethics from
Union Theological Seminary, New York.
Already, he has published three books including
Making a Place for Community: Local Democracy in a
Global Era (Routledge, 2002), a comprehensive overview
of the sources of and possible remedies for community
economic instability in the United States.
He also written on current issues for a wide variety
of popular and scholarly publications, and currently
contributes monthly pieces as a political columnist for Richmond.com.
Dr. Williamson teaches Justice and Civil Society,
Foundations of Leadership Studies, Social Movements and
Leadership and Governance in Metropolitan America.
