Q: When you were growing up, did you picture yourself becoming a professor?
A: No, but- I was at least 12 years old- I thought it would be nice to be a teacher and a coach. I thought that would be fun, rewarding.
Q: What is your favorite class to teach and why?
A: At Western we only teach classes that we really want to teach... I've got two favorites. Social Problems, because we do a critical analysis of society- and a lot of people have never been exposed to a critical analysis of society before -get people a little better in touch with reality- Poverty, hunger, destruction of the environment, not to mention wars that are questionable.... People need to have a class- where they confront those kinds of issues... I also like-a class called Service Learning in Community Praxis, and it's about people doing volunteer projects- They set up a project-and they help people who need help. They go every where, Head Start, Boys and Girls Clubs, senior centers, hospices, they do mentoring. I mean they're all over the place doing good work for the community- I don't do a lot for that class, but I like it because it gets people in touch with their community.
Q: What was your favorite thing about college?
A: I had a lot of fun at college-I liked being a student. I'm one of those nerds that like books -I especially liked learning to do research... So I really liked the academic part, but I had a good time too. I did my masters and Ph.D. at the University of Kansas where we were basketball crazy-it's like a religion at Kansas. People show up three hours before tip-off time- It was craziness. Our favorite saying is "basketball is not a matter of life and death, it's a lot more important than that."
Q: What do you like doing when you're not working?
A: Well I read a lot-I like good films... I like to fly fish... I have a 14-year-old that's involved in sports and [all] kinds of stuff, so I do a lot of chauffeuring... He plays on a tournament team in basketball. We go all over the state to play basketball.
Q: Is there anything you've wanted to do for a long time, but never had a chance to do?
A: I'd like to travel more. There's two places in the world, one I've been to, and one I've not been to. Ireland, I did field work in Ireland for my master's thesis- in a place called Donegal and I loved it. I like to go back, maybe teach or just travel somewhere in Ireland. I'd love to go to Italy- I'd love to find a village up in the Apennines full of radical Italians, where we could sit out in the beautiful sun and drink wine, and talk radical politics.
Q: Why should sociology be important to people?
A: Sociology is the critical social science. That's- one of the missions of sociology, to provide a critique of society, inequality, poverty, a critique of whatever. Racism, sexism, anything that dehumanizes people, sociologists oppose- We take the value stand... And not many people get that kind of knowledge or analysis in their life- so maybe that's not the only thing that we do but one of the important things that we do.
Q: What do you think is the biggest problem with our society?
A: We have growing inequality growing poverty- growing hunger- more and more people can not afford health care. We're sending lots of good jobs to China and everywhere else- We're losing our industrial capacity, and that's bad news for everybody because that's jobs and tax base that we need for things like universities... I am really upset about- accelerating our destruction of the environment. I hope everyone takes time to see Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth." Every scientist in the world worth spit has confirmed the greenhouse effect and are trying to tell people we must do something.
Q: If you could travel to any place in any point in history, where and when would it be?
A: It might be a dangerous place, but- I would have loved to have been around in the French Revolution- just be able to observe, maybe participate- Maybe the Russian Revolution, because I have a feeling that that revolution was betrayed. It went from a genuine people's effort to free themselves to a form of totalitarianism.... So that might have been interesting. But I'd pick the French Revolution.
Q: What is something your students would be surprised to learn about you?
A: I love classical music- Beethoven, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky. I like the Romantic period, and the Baroque period too, I like chamber music. I also enjoy opera... I listen to some of the great Tenors of the world-Pavarotti, Placido Domingo.
Q: Do you have any advice for Western Students?
A: Absolutely. Lots of important political stuff going on... Get involved with the Oregon Student Association, get familiar with the Legislature-talk to your representatives, your senators. It affects public schools, universities, jobs, health care. In Oregon we're going to see some health care bills designed for Oregonians- There's lots of really important legislative things coming up... Get involved with your- OSA people and help them out because their trying to do good things for students and universities.
