William Hamilton Sewell (November 27, 1909 – June 24, 2001) was a United States sociologist and the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Madison during the 1967–1968 school year.

He then attended the University of Minnesota, where he received his Ph.D. in sociology in 1939 with a dissertation supervised by F. Stuart Chapin.

Sewell became chancellor of the Madison campus in 1967, in the midst of the Vietnam War and student protests.

After a tough year due to the protesting, in June 1968, he resigned as chancellor and returned to research and teaching.

He was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1976 and the American Philosophical Society in 1979.