Rate My Professor Rene Williamson

Rene de Visme Williamson was a professor of political science at Louisiana State University. A Chicago native, he earned his doctorate from Harvard University. Prior to joining LSU, he held faculty positions at Princeton University, Davidson College, Beloit College, and the University of Tennessee. He also taught at Vanderbilt University, Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, and the University of Michigan.

At LSU, Williamson served as chair of the political science department from 1955 to 1963 and again from 1965 to 1968. He retired in 1977. He was a leading political theorist of his generation, with a particular focus on political theology. Williamson authored books including Independence and Involvement: A Christian Reorientation in Political Science and Politics, published in 1964 by Louisiana State University Press, and Politics and Protestant Theology: An Interpretation of Tillich, Barth, Bonhoeffer and Brunner. He served as editor of the Journal of Politics from 1949 to 1953, as a member of the executive council of the American Political Science Association from 1959 to 1961, and as president of the Southern Political Science Association in 1959.