Ever since graduating from college, immediately entering the Peace Corps and serving on the Island of Yap in Micronesia for two years, I have been interested in the role the United States has played, and continues to play in the world. As a matter of fact, I eventually went to graduate school, where I specialized in American Diplomatic History, for the specific purpose of trying to develop a better understanding of my experience in the Peace Corps.
Everything I have researched and published since that time has stemmed from that original experience of an intense, extended immersion in another culture, a culture that was slowly being undermined by the influence of American power, strategy and priorities.
In addition, my more recent interest in Brazil has its roots in the same early experience. Because I learned so much about myself while living in another culture, and about what it means to be an American in a foreign land, I am currently interested in exploring what “foreigners” or “outsiders” who visited the United States have to say about the nature of American history, culture and society.
The individual we all go back to for brilliant insights on the subject was an early 19th century French aristocrat, Alexis De Tocqueville. He was able to develop a penetrating analysis of the culture then extant in the United States because of the fact that he hailed from a very different culture and therefore did not take for granted the same things that Americans did. I am now interested in exploring the insights and ideas Latin Americans, particularly Brazilians, have had about the United States.
As with most all faculty at the University of New England, I enjoy sharing the ideas which come out of my reading and research with students in a variety of my classes. It is part of the joy of being a university professor.
