My professional background includes a stint in West Africa as an agricultural teacher trainer, work as a sales rep for Prentice Hall Publishing, internships in a variety of agencies for the State of Louisiana, curriculum development and teaching for the Institute of Reading Development, and educational and national security consulting for a variety of federal government agencies. I have been teaching at Grossmont for the past six years and joined the faculty as a full time member in the Fall of 2005. I have been a student for most of my life and have a Bachelor's of Arts from Eureka College in Illinois, a Master in Public Administration from Louisiana State University, and a Ph.D. in political science from that same university. I have studied in Germany where I was awarded a Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst Stipendiat (The German government's version of the Fulbright Grant) to study political science, economics, and philosophy. I also have studied in Brazil as a Ronald W. Reagan Fellow. Most recently, I have received awards from the NEH to study Chinese culture, the Freeman Foundation to study Japanese culture, and the Lehrman Institute and the James Madison Institute at Princeton University to study American statesmanship.
I am deeply interested in the relationship between politics and the stories peoples tell about themselves and the exploration of economic decision making with attention to ethical concerns. My present research projects include developing a student-centered think tank focusing on political, cultural, and economic reforms in Asia, writing a brief introduction to Confucianism, analyzing Osamu Tezuka’s philosophy of history and its relationship to Japanese post war identity, and exploring the relationship between art, identity, and capitalism in the contemporary Chinese art scene.
In my free time (Is there such a thing?), I read for pleasure (I like to read literature written by Nobel laureates, history, philosophy and economic theory), read, watch, and listen to the news (I like NPR and read the New York Times), play strategy games, spend time with my wife and my two sons, hike, play Frisbee, lift weights, jog, and appreciate nature.
