Since 1991 I have been a professor of sociology at Portland State University, where I regularly teach classical theory in Foundations of Sociology I, contemporary theory in Foundations of Sociology II, and occasionally a course in the Sociology of Religion. From its inception in 1994 until 2007 I was active in the implementation of University Studies, the university's award winning four year undergraduate program in general education. In that capacity I team-taught for seven years in Freshman Inquiry (America as a Pluralistic Society and Human/Nature: Exploring the Equation) and for another six years teaching Sophomore Inquiry courses in American Studies (Turn of the Century, America and the Great War, Perplexities of American Pluralism). In addition I offer a course called Charismatic Leadership: Frameworks, Exemplars, Insights, Lessons (most recently taught in 2008 in London) in the Junior Cluster sequence on Leadership.Prior to PSU, I spent 17 years at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, where, from 1985 to 1991, I chaired the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Previous academic appointments have been at the University of Southern Colorado in Pueblo; Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana; and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. An easterner by birth, I've spent the majority of my adult life in the Mountain West and the Pacific Northwest. My graduate education took place at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and Columbia University in New York City.
Reflecting on the strands of my thinking that have found expression in writing over the 42 years of my academic life, I have realized that many are still "works in progress." In various ways they are also collectively interrelated and cumulative. Taking advantage of the unique character of the Web I have assembled all these materials in one "place" and inter-linked their connectedness.
In this format, I offer them to the reader as a whole, as my "intellectual oeuvre." Much that is here first appeared as a paper at a professional meeting, as an invited lecture, or as a journal article, and is so noted in my vita. That which has been since edited or expanded I've presented here in its most recent—and often still changing—form.
Along with these more academic works, I have also included informal essays, some rather short –and sometimes provocative—fragments, and some of my poetry.
I hope those of you who discover this site find it interesting and worthwhile. All of this material is, of course, copyrighted. But you are encouraged to peruse it, to reflect on it, and to incorporate it in your own thinking in any way that makes sense for you to do so. I welcome your comments and reactions, as well as requests for permission to quote or reproduce.