David Wiley is Professor in the Department of Sociology and from 1977-2008 served as Director of the African Studies Center at Michigan State University. Wiley holds a Ph.D. in sociology and sociology of religion from Princeton, after studying social anthropology at the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (now University of Zimbabwe). He also obtained a Master of Divinity degree from Yale University and a B.A. in zoology and chemistry from Wabash College. Previously, he worked as a professor in sociology and chairperson of the African Studies Program at University of Wisconsin-Madison and as lecturer at the University of Zambia. For two years, he served as a race relations worker in the U.S. and "Southern Rhodesia."
Recently, Wiley has served as chairperson of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Advisory Committee for International Programs as well as various international committees of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the American Sociological Association. He also is a member of the Panel on Science and Technology Information Networks for Africa of the National Research Council (NRC) Board on Science and Technology for International Development (BOSTID). He now serves as co-chairperson of the Council of Directors of Title VI National Resource Centers, the coordinating organization for the more than 90 foreign language and area studies centers in U.S. universities. Recently, he was co-chairperson of the Association of Concerned Africa Scholars, a national organization seeking greater scholarly input into U.S. foreign policy. His current research concerns environment and development in Durban (South Africa), where he was a Fulbright-Hays Research Fellow in 1994-95 – and socio-economic aspects of the ecological crisis of Lake Victoria. Previously he worked on social stratification and religion in Zimbabwe and Zambia; urbanization and housing in Zambia; scholars and U.S. foreign policy toward Africa. Wiley has conducted research in Zimbabwe on African independent churches and in Zambia on urban religion and socio-economic stratification.
