Aside from the research...
Outside of my academic work, my three main hobbies are travel, sports, and graphic design/architecture.
I have traveled to 185 countries, flying nearly one million miles on 134 airlines to over 300 airports since 2002. I am a definite airline geek, one of those people who is excited to fly from Nukus, Uzbekistan because it's possible to fly on a rare Ilyushin Il-114.
My favorite destinations include: Slovenia, Burma (before its democratic opening), the Loire valley, Gozo, Iceland, Dominica, Kyoto, Oaxaca, Sana'a, Georgian Svaneti, Benin, Istanbul, the Hunza Valley.
The most obscure trips: Burundi, Transnistrian Moldova, Nauru, Chad, East Timor, the Dempster Highway up to the Arctic Ocean, Brunei, Equatorial Guinea, Comoros, the Paraguayan Gran Chaco, The Marshall Islands.
The ones that everyone always asks about: North Korea (in late 2005, with the third group of Americans given visas post-1950), Iraq (during the week of Obama's first election), Somalia, DR Congo, South Sudan, crossing from Cameroon to the CAR then to Congo by motorized pirogue, and the incredibly friendly pre-war Syria.
The best part of all of these trips is long, rambling walks, which are, and I am being quite serious, the source of all of my best research ideas: Thoreau was right! You can safely assume that I am always willing to come visit for an academic talk no matter how obscurely located your university or institute might be!
As I was born in Dorchester, Mass., I have an undying love for Boston's professional sports teams, especially the Patriots. For a brief spell during and after college, I played semipro football; my teams the Boston Bandits and the Virginia Ravens, respectively, won the New England and Mid-Atlantic championships. I am still willing to play essentially any sport at the drop of a hat.
I originally planned to major in graphic design as a student, and I still like to follow graphic art and architecture. As a graduate student in Chicago, I lived in Mies van der Rohe's famous Lake Shore Drive apartments. I love the photographs of Michael Wolf, the architectural work of Julius Shulman and the color field paintings of people like Gene Davis, and the furniture of people like Ib Kofod-Larsen, Jean Gillon, and Arne Vodder.
