Before his retirement in 2009, David Little was Professor of the Practice in Religion, Ethnicity, and International Conflict at Harvard Divinity School, and was an Associate at Harvard's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. He is at present a Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & International Affairs at Georgetown University. He was Senior Scholar in Religion, Ethics and Human Rights at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC. Before that, he taught at the University of Virginia and Yale Divinity School and was a member of the State Department Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad.
Professor Little is co-author with Scott W. Hibbard of Islamic Activism and U.S. Foreign Policy, and also author of publications on Ukraine, Sri Lanka, and Tibet (with Hibbard) in the USIP series on religion, nationalism, and intolerance. In 2007 he published two edited volumes: Peacemakers in Action: Profiles of Religion in Conflict Resolution, and Religion and Nationalism in Iraq: A Comparative Perspective (with Donald K. Swearer). He has authored a number of articles on religion and human rights, the history of rights and constitutionalism, and religion and peace. Cambridge University Press has recently published a book of his writings, Essays on Religion and Human Rights: Ground To Stand On, and a book of responses to his work by colleagues and former students: Religion and Public Policy: Human Rights, Conflict, and Ethics, edited by Sumner Twiss, Marian Simion & Rodney Petersen.