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WILLIAM MARTIN
HARRY AND HAZEL CHAVANNE SENIOR FELLOWRICE UNIVERSITY’S BAKER INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY
DIRECTOR, RELIGION AND PUBLIC POLICY, DRUG POLICYCHAVANNE EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY
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Professor, Author, Policy Analyst
William Martin, Ph.D., is the Harry and Hazel Chavanne Senior Fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, where he directs both the Religion and Public Policy Program and the Drug Policy Program. He is also the Chavanne Emeritus Professor in Rice’s department of sociology. His areas of current research and writing focus on two major sets of issues: 1) the political implications of religion, particularly fundamentalist religions, and the importance of the separation of religion and government, or “church and state”; and 2) ways to reduce the harms associated with both drug abuse and drug policy.
After receiving his B.A. and M.A. at Abilene Christian University, Bill Martin graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1963 and received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1969. He is in his 54th year at Rice, the first 38 as a sociology professor. During those years, he received numerous teaching awards, including a Lifetime Award for Excellence in Teaching. His six books include A Prophet with Honor: The Billy Graham Story (William Morrow 1991; Zondervan update 2018) regarded as the authoritative biography of the famed evangelist; With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America (Broadway Books 1996; updated 2005), the companion volume to a PBS miniseries of the same title; and My Prostate and Me: Dealing With Prostate Cancer (Caddell and Davies 1994). In addition to a modest number of publications in professional journals, he has written more than 200 articles for prominent magazines that include The Atlantic, Harper’s, Esquire, and, most frequently, Texas Monthly.
His writings have led to hundreds of invited lectures, more than 300 appearances on radio and television programs, including 60 Minutes, Nightline, Today, and Good Morning America, and countless interviews by print media. For more information, see About.
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Contact
Phone:
Office: (713) 348-3481
(After The Pandemic)
For the quickest response, please send an email.
For interview requests, please contactJeff FalkDirector of National Media RelationsOffice: 713.348.6775Email: jfalk@rice.edu