About me

This is me when I was hired
at UW-Eau Claire (Sept 2002).
While I have been around UW-Eau Claire's Department of Geography and Anthropology for over a decade (Fall 2002), I have been department chair for less than a year (Summer 2013). I appreciate the challenge and responsibility of being chair, but being a chair, like university teaching, is not what we are taught, but what we grow into.  I am very much growing into being chair, and getting some things right, and others not so much.  I am always open to suggestions.

Professional Background
This is me last week
(Dec 2013).
Early years
I was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I attended pre-K through MSc.  I attended Ann Arbor Huron High School (the River Rats, '78), attended Calvin College for a bit, and graduated from the University of Michigan with degrees in English Literature and Geology (BSc '82).  After a traveling year, I returned to the U of M's Engineering College to get a Masters in Water Resources Sciences (MSc '85).

Government years
In spring 1986, I took an internship at the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Federal Activities in Washington, DC.  Within a few months, I was on civil servant career path.  For 3-4 years, I was EPA's liaison to other Federal Agencies, including the US Forest Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.  After another 2-3 years, I transferred to the Office of Solid Waste, where I joined a new office to develop national waste reduction programs and policies.  From there, I was loaned out to Montgomery County, MD, to develop a waste reduction plan for the county.

Geography Years
In 1993, I left Washington, DC and my government career for Tucson to start the PhD program in geography at the University of Arizona.  It was a trusting move on the part of the Department of Geography and Regional Science (now the School of Geography & Development) -- I had not had a geography class since junior high school, in fact, I did not really know geography existed as something one could actually study, much less get a degree or job in.  But lucky me.  Seven years and two kids later, I received my PhD (2000) in Geography under the dear mentorship of Dr. Michael Bonine.

I got my first teaching job in Joplin, Missouri, where I spent two years as the lone geographer in the Department of Social Sciences at Missouri Southern State College (now University). It was a good experience that prepared me for the position at UWEC, where I started in Fall 2002.  

I am one of the Department of Geography and Anthropology's human/cultural geographers and regularly teach a section of our introduction to human geography (GEOG 111), the Geography of Food (GEOG 369), and the Geography of the Middle East and North Africa (GEOG 319) and occasional special topics or interdisciplinary seminars, such as a travel writing seminar with colleagues in English.  Among other things, I am advisor to the Foodlums student organization, take students on faculty-led immersions to Turkey, and serve on the University's Senate and Executive Committees.  Since Spring 2013, I have been the chair of UWEC's Council on Internationalization and Global Engagement.

Personal Background
Susa, our Finnish Lapland Dog




My parents immigrated to the United States in the 1950s to attend graduate school at the University of Michigan, where they met.  My father is an Armenian from Lebanon (historically from Aintab in SE Turkey) and my mother a Finn from Helsinki.  Both of my heritages are important to me, and are reflected in my work, interests and household. For example, I lived in Istanbul for a year to do my dissertation field work (1998-9) and have been back to Turkey for research or with students nearly every year since coming to UWEC.  In 2008-9, my family and I spent our sabbatical year in Helsinki.  I maintain close connections with friends, relatives and places in both of these countries and their regions.  We also brought a 10 week old Suomen Lapin Koira back with us.

I met my wife  Washington, DC. when she was working there as an intern with the Southeast Asian Resource Action Center, a not-for-profit refugee advocacy organization. Since those days, she has become an experienced middle school social science teacher and developed into a librarian with specialties in children's and adolescent literature.  We have two children, one currently in middle school and the other off at college.  Both went through the Eau Claire Area School District's Montessori elementary school.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

UW-Eau Claire Geographer 2016 Regent Scholar

So, who was Henry Kolka, anyway?

That's what Fluvial Geomorphologists do