Green joined the Division of Social Sciences at Delta State University in 2002 as an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Community Development. He was promoted to Associate Professor. He also served as Interim Chair of the Division of Social Sciences, Acting Chair of History, and Director of the Institute for Community Based Research. In 2011, he relocated to the University of Mississippi. He serves as Director of the Center for Population Studies and is a Professor of Sociology. He has held formal leadership roles in the Community Development Society, Southern Rural Sociological Association, Rural Sociological Society, and the Alabama-Mississippi Sociological Association. He also served as Editor-In-Chief for the Community Development Society's journal for two terms. He is affiliated with the University of Mississippi School of Law. He is also the director of the Minor for Society and Health. He works with the Interdisciplinary Graduate Minor in Applied Statistics Committee. Additionally, he works with the Flagship Constellations project at UM. He is also an advisor for the Mississippi Delta Project at Harvard Law School. He is also affiliated faculty with the Ole Miss School of Law. Green's research focuses on the American South. However, he mostly does research in the state of Mississippi. His work covers applied and community-based research frameworks. He has also worked in Hawaii and the U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands, especially Guam, Saipan, and American Samoa. In October 2019 he was named as the Vice-Chairman of the Mississippi Complete Count Committee for the 2020 Census.
Writing and Awards
He has authored/co-authored published articles for peer-reviewed journals including Agroforestry Systems, Community Development, Journal of Primary Care and Community Health, Rural Sociology, Sociological Spectrum, and Southern Rural Sociology, along with book chapters in several edited volumes. He co-authored a chapter on “Action Research and Evaluation” in the Introduction to Community Development textbook. Other books he has written a chapter for include Community Development Reader, Introduction to Community Development, Sociology of Katrina, The Politics of Globalization, and Cultivating Food Justice. He also served as the editor-in-chief of Community Development, a peer-reviewed journal of the Community Development Society, for five years. In October of 2018, he and fellow researchers at the University of Mississippi published "Microaggressions at the University of Mississippi," which was a part of the UM Race Diary project. The report garnered some controversy from some conservatives. In August of 2019 he wrote an article for The Conversation entitled "Why the 2020 census matters for rural Americans." Green has been awarded the Delta State University Foundation Prizes for Excellence in Service and for Excellence in Research, the Rural Sociological Society’s Award for Excellence in Extension and Public Outreach, and the Community Development Society’s Ted K. Bradshaw Outstanding Research Award. Additionally, in 2018 he was awarded the Research, Scholarship, and Creative Achievement Award from the UM College of Liberal Arts.
