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After graduation, I moved to Ames, Iowa in August 1989 to attend college at Iowa State University, along with a few others from our class, like Eric Barsness and Scott Jenkins, who lived just a floor above me in my dorm. I began as an engineer, switched to computer science for most of my undergraduate career, but eventually ended up my senior year, surprisingly, as a history major. One of my best friends at ISU was a Turkish student named Tamer Sozbir. As it was impossible for him to go home for holidays, my family and I would have him stay with us when the dorms closed for breaks. He also came with us when we visited other relatives, so that he would have the opportunity to see other parts of the US. Over the years, we've been such places as Chicago, San Francisco, and Orlando. One summer, he invited my entire family to come visit him in Turkey, so we did exactly that, and we ended up spending two weeks traveling throughout the western half of the nation, and an additional 10 days at his home in Istanbul. It was this eventful trip, and the massive amount of history that I was able to see first-hand, that inspired me to change my major and become an historian.
Upon my graduation in 1994, I was accepted into the Masters program in history at The University of Alabama, which I attended for two years, working as a teaching assistant to put me through school. I moved to Tuscaloosa, and ended up, interestingly enough, with a group of carpetbagger friends that represented the old NFC Central perfectly (Wisconsin, Chicago, Detroit...)! When I completed my Masters, I decided to go all the way and become a college professor. So, I joined the Ph.D. program at U of A and moved up to the rank of full instructor. I received my degree in history (specialty in Latin America) in 2003. Over the years, my studies have allowed me to travel a lot. I've made it to Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Morocco, Mexico, and Spain (3 times, including research at the Palacio Real). I also had a very memorable research trip to Washington D.C., where I worked at the Library of Congress and National Archives. I'm currently trying to get into Cuba to do research, which is now legal for me since the recent improvement of relations. Two previous research trips were stymied due to some *incredibly* bad luck (who knew that when Senator Wellstone died in that terrible plane crash that my clearance papers were with him?)!
It was while at Alabama that I met my wife, Paula. She was also a student at the college, from a small town just 30 minutes away from campus. We got married in October of 2003, just after I graduated, and we have been married eleven years.
Just before the wedding, in August, I was hired as an Assistant Professor of History at Stillman College, a private, historically black college just two miles from the U of A campus across town. This, of course, worked out perfect, since I didn't even have to move (other than out of my apartment and into a townhouse). I have now been working at Stillman for eleven years, and one of my good friends from U of A is now my colleague there. I recently received tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor. I also still teach occasional classes at the University of Alabama.
