Gainesville State College

Faculty Member, Political Science, Philosophy and Criminal Justice

Professor of Political Science, Philosophy and Environmental Studies

School of Social Sciences

About

I have been at Gainesville State College since 1999 in the School of Social Sciences. I became associated with the Institute of Environmental and Spatial Analysis beginning in 2002 which is considered one of 5 regional centers for GIS in the United States.

We have a unique program in that our degrees have a core of GIS with several possible tracks students can pursue including Environmental Science, Environmental Studies, Technology and Engineering. We have a variety of tracks that can be pursued including Environmental History, Environmental Policy, Politics and Law, Environmental Communication, Environmental Health and Environmental Ethics.

I have a variety of interests from public policy to history, from environmental issues to philosophy. As I worked toward my Ph.D. I interned for the Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities in the mid 1990's and was hired for a year as a policy analyst and lobbyist at the Georgia State Legisature. Thus my dissertation topic - "Housing the Disabled: The New Segregation." I also have Masters degrees in both Philosophy and Policy History to go with my B.A.s in History and Philosophy. My interests are varied but in recent years have settled primarily on policy and politics with a particular interest in the enviroment as well as looking at the ethical implications of the actions of both government agencies and ngos, both on a national and international scale.

Recently my interests have turned to Just War Theory and it's application to terrorism. My contention is the necessity to amend just war ideas to include the possiblity there are truly no non-combatants other than possibly children and that might come into question if we look at the use of children in war. I believe terrorism is another policy tool used by those in charge to produce optimum results for their particular issues. Ideology may play a role to those in the "trenches" but not so as you go up the management ladder so to speak. I also consider whether of not groups look across national borders to determine the effectiveness of tactics. I use a version of innovation diffusion theory to do this. I find it very ... revealing. I just completed (June, 2011)an academic fellowship with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. I spent several weeks in Israel at a variety of locations including Tel Aviv University.

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