I’m an American ex-pat living and working in the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland (aka. Ticino | Tessin). I have a PhD, which probably suggests that I think too much, read too often, and exercise too little. Furthermore, I’ll openly admit: I have my fair share of concerns.

The financial crisis of 2007-08 fundamentally altered my sense of reality and I must confess I’ve been shit-scared ever since. As if that maelstrom wasn’t enough, I–or rather, we–must now learn to live not only within the uncertain shadows cast by the Great Acceleration, human-induced climate change and the sixth mass extinction, but also with the deeply disconcerting knowledge that human activities are responsible for ushering in an entirely new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. Taken collectively, these harrowing events underscore a deeply pressing need to reimagine the world. This work must be done by everyone. Although not entirely dedicated to this task, parts of this website constitute a modest attempt to contribute to that collective and urgent reimagination.

My past professional activities have assumed the form of more traditional scholarly activities such as teaching (at the secondary and tertiary levels), researching (both in the natural and social sciences), publishing (e.g., journal articles, book chapters, science curriculum), and presenting (e.g., at national and international academic conferences), but starting in 2024 my intent is to take my professional energies in some new directions. In this work I aim to bring together practices that might normally be considered strange bedfellows: pedagogy + gastronomy, for example, but also pedagogy + anthropology. We left normal long ago, however, so I enthusiastically alchemize such practices for the explicit purpose of breathing new life, as well as new pleasures, into particular educational practices and environments. In January 2024, I also started a modest-but-earnest Blog project, Bruno + me, dedicated to presenting and exploring the work of Bruno Latour, a highly influential–yet often misunderstood–French philosopher and anthropologist who sought to revolutionize our ideas about science, modernity, and more. Sadly, Monsieur/Professeur Latour passed away in October 2002.

What else to know about me?

Truth be told, I prefer noticing over counting, opening over closing, exploring over explaining, expanding over exhausting, and existence over essence. I also find great pleasure in photography (go ahead, browse my photo galleries). If I were to be reincarnated as another human I should like to be Bruno Latour or Anna Tsing. If my future destiny is to take a non-human form, well then let me be a European larch tree (Larix decidua) perched high in a remote valley somewhere in the European Alps or an arcus cloud formation (a roll or shelf cloud, I haven’t a strong preference for one or the other) lingering just off of the coast of Michigan’s Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

While I am the sole builder and maintainer of this website, it utilizes the now-defunct Faculty academic personal profile WordPress theme by owwwlab.

• I created my larch tree logo at LogoMakr.com.
• I created the various autobiographical visual graphics on the Bio page with Google Slides (clearly, I am not a graphics designer).
• Most of the banner/header photos used throughout this site are my own.
• The atmospheric CO2 numbers (ppm) displayed in the “My education” graphic were taken from data provided by NOAA’s Mauna Loa Observatory.
• In making this site, I was inspired by many other personal/professional websites but in particular those by Bret Victor, Anna Funk, Bruno Latour, and the elBullifoundation.