Wesley James currently serves as Associate Professor of Sociology and Executive Director of the Center for Community Research and Evaluation (CCRE) at the University of Memphis. He received his Ph.D. from Mississippi State University in 2009.

Dr. James' primary research interests are medical sociology, demography, and rural health. He has been involved in several externally supported research projects exploring a variety of health-related issues. Currently, his research agenda is focused in three areas: (1) U.S. mortality disparities across time and place, (2) social determinants of health and mortality in rural America, and (3) evaluating health and educational interventions in the Mississippi Delta.

Dr. James is an active member of the Southern Sociological Society (SSS), Population Association of America (PAA), and Southern Demographic Association (SDA), and is currently President Elect of SDA. He is a member of the 2020 class of P.I. Millionaires at the University of Memphis, and has been recognized with excellence in teaching as the 2013 recipient of the W. Russell Smith Award, the highest teaching honor in the College of Arts and Sciences at the U of M. Dr. James has delivered talks on rural health around the nation, highlighted by invited presentations at a Congressional Briefing on Capitol Hill and at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. James has been published in American Journal of Public Health, Social Science and Medicine Population Health, Demographic Research, N-IUSSP, Population Research and Policy Review, Journal of Rural Health, and many others.

Education

Ph.D., Sociology, Mississippi State University, 2009.
M.S., Sociology, Mississippi State University, 2004.
B.A., Sociology, University of Missouri - Columbia, 2001.