Who Am I?

Samuel and Isaiah, April 2008

About Me: Originally from Missouri, my path through life and formal education has wound through many different institutions, states, and countries. Along the way I fell in love with and married Kristen Brennan. We have two sons, Isaiah, age 1 1/2, and Samuel, age 4. With Samuel and Isaiah we have embarked on a journey that has been utterly transformative. Now more than ever I subscribe to the wisdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children." I am an avid cyclist, gardener, vegetarian cook, chorister, letter writer, and St. Louis Cardinals fan. I have taught at Ithaca College since 2001.

About My Work: I am currently revising my manuscript on the history of summer camping in the U.S. I have also been engaged in several projects in the scholarship of teaching and learning since my year as a Carnegie Scholar with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 2005-6, including co-editing a volume entitled Citizenship Across the Curriculum (Indiana University Press, forthcoming 2009). And this work best represents how I envision my role in postsecondary education. I became a college teacher for two principal reasons: to help produce liberally-educated, civically-engaged college graduates and to help build a more sustainable society.