B.A. History, Stanford University, 1974
M.A. History of Science, University of California
at Berkeley, 1991
Ph.D. History of Science, University of California
at Berkeley, 1997
Coming of age during the Vietnam War era, I struggled to avoid
becoming a cog in the "system," and subsequently spent
half of my graduate career studying "systems theory,"
exploring ways of thinking about complex systems that might support
more participatory and inclusive forms of social organization.
All my life I have been committed to education as a means of
achieving social justice, tutoring adults in minority communities
during my high school years and teaching junior high math on
the Hopi Reservation before I returned to graduate school in
1989. I also spent five years teaching at an alternative boarding
school in southwest Colorado with a creative and holistic approach
to education, including extended backpacking trips into the surrounding
mountains and high desert country.
Spending time in the wilderness has become increasingly important
to me - the accompanying picture was taken on a kayaking trip
down the Green River in Canyonlands National Park - and is reflected
in my second major area of interest, environmental philosophy
and ethics. I believe that social justice depends upon our ability
to find more harmonious ways of living with the natural world.
Other passions include music (I play folk harp and other instruments
well enough to amuse myself), meditation, Native American philosophy,
and earth-based spirituality.
