J. Allen Williams

AKA: James Allen Williams, Jr. or "Al Williams"

Born 1936-03-07 Durham, NC (USA)

Died 2018-11-26
Lincoln, NE (USA)

Williams joined the University of Nebraska faculty in 1970 and had a 40-year career as a Professor of Sociology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His major interests were civil rights, non-conformity and environmental studies. At the end of his career, he was lead author of a 2011 study published as "The Human‐Environment Dialog in Award‐Winning Children’s Picture Books" that showed a decline in depictions of nature in children's literature. The study's results were reported in the press and garnered attention worldwide.

Places Lived

Durham, NC
Chapel Hill, NC
Ithaca, NY
Seattle, WA
Austin, TX
Lincoln, NE

Author Of

Nonfiction

Keywords

Sociology; Civil Rights; Environmental Sociology; Children's Literature

Education

Master of Arts Degree, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Ph.D. in Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC

Occupation

Sociologist
Educator
Professor
Director of Environmental Studies
Chair, Sociology Department, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Places Worked

University of Washington, Seattle, WA
University of Texas, Austin, TX
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE (1970-2010)

Honors

Outstanding Graduate Student, University of North Carolina
Distinguished Teaching Award, 1979, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Associations

Fellow of the Center for Great Plains Studies
Advisory Editor, Great Plains Research
Member, Faculty Senate

Bibliography

Nebraska's Ethnic Heritage : Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey, 1978, #8. 1978.
Tolerance for Nonconformity (The Jossey-Bass Social and Behavioral Science Series). with Clyde Z. Nunn and Harry J. Crockett, Jr., 1978.
"The Human‐Environment Dialog in Award‐winning Children’s Picture Books," (with Christopher Podeschi, Nathan Palmer, Philip Schwadel, and Deanna Meyler), Sociological Inquiry, November, 2011.

Numerous articles in professional journals

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