Welcome statement (teaching/research/personal interests): When baccalaureate degrees are conferred to undergraduates at commencement ceremonies, university presidents formally declare to these students that they are now “admitted into the company of scholars.” My aim in teaching students is to help give these words meaning. As
an English professor I aim at improving the quality of students’ ability to read, evaluate, and criticize literary works from various periods and cultures more closely, accurately, and comprehensively; and at demonstrating the ways different literary forms are capable of communicating with a particular rhetorical power, subtlety, and/or complexity. At present I am completing a paper on G.K. Chesterton’s novel, The Flying Inn; a book review for the editor of the University Bookman on Vigen Guroian’s Rallying the Really Permanent Things; a book review for the editor of The International Philosophical Quarterly on Juan F. Franck’s From the Nature of the Mind to Personal Dignity: The Significance of Rosmini’s Philosophy. Outside of Seattle University I enjoy cabinet making, trap and pistol shooting, growing dahlias and roses, and service as director of four civic and academic organizations.

Recent Courses: Senior Synthesis, 17th century Literature; Greek and Roman Literature(for the honors program and the English department); Clashes of Ideals in 19th Century Literature; Introduction to Literature; Composition: Language and Thought (for Matteo Ricci College)