William Glass earned degrees in history from Centre College (BA) and Emory University (MA, PhD) and studied church history at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He teaches courses on American history, religion, race, and cinema.

His research interests center on American Protestantism, the American South, and the use films as cultural documents. His research has received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and he has been a Fulbright Fellow in Poland.

He has published essays in The Journal of Church and State, Film & History, Jewish Social Studies, and contributed entries for American National Biography and the Encyclopedia of Southern Religion.