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I was a small town/rural kid from “downstate” (the Hudson Valley area about an hour north of NYC).  I showed up at ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅ in 1985, not quite sure why I was going to college except that everyone expected me to go.   I stumbled around a bit lost for a couple of years and landed at Sociology as my major (with a computer science minor).  I wasn’t all that inspired for my first couple/few years (academic probation after my 1st semester), but becoming a SOC major ended up inspiring me (thanks partly to the great faculty).

I did graduate on time in ’89, but felt like I had only just gotten started with Sociology. I was still “hungry.”  I was also inspired by a couple of my profs to think about graduate school.
They are now long gone from ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅ (retired), but it was especially Dr. Jim Watson (Theory prof) and my adviser Dr. Nancy Kleniewski (later President at SUNY Oneonta.)

I was pretty burned out, so I took 2 years off from school and worked and traveled.  (Dr. Watson advised a 2 year limit or “life entanglements” would end up in the way).  I then ended up going to the University of Virginia, and earned my MA (1994) and PhD (2000).  I landed two 1 year “visiting assistant professor” contracts at the University of Richmond, and then a tenure-track job at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA.

And that’s where I remain.  I’m now a full professor, and still trying to, (often succeeding) bring the “sociological imagination” to my students – a quality of mind that allows one to grasp the intersections between history and biography (C. Wright Mills – you’ve all heard this one!).

I’m often heard to say that one of the biggest problems in the world – at the root of most other problems – is that people don’t know enough sociology.  I believe that whole-heartedly.

I sometimes tell my students that we teach people to “do” nothing and everything all at once.  A Sociology major gives you forms of knowledge and skills that are completely multi-purpose – flexible and adaptable.  That’s the story of the fast-moving 21st century.  You will land on your feet and be valuable to the world in many ways.