"Hello! My name is Jack B. I'm currently a third year doctoral student in the interdisciplinary ASPECT program at Virginia Tech. In a time where the value of the Humanities in universities has largely diminished, I am passionate about reconnecting the study of history and religion with the major political and philosophical questions of our own time. For students who are struggling with material which seems foreign, antiquated, or archaic, I hope to help draw out practical lessons which they might apply in their other areas of life, work, and study.

In addition to two years as a Graduate Teaching Assistant, I have served as Instructor of Record for courses on Abrahamic and World Religions. However, the large course enrollment sizes do not always offer the opportunity for the sort of dialogic engagement that these subjects require. In my approach to these subjects, I draw on political and economic history in order to give context often overlooked by more mainstream scholarship.

This passion for drawing connections between areas of scholarship is the recurring theme in my studies. Although "on paper" my Undergraduate degree was in Pure Mathematics, for me it was an education in philosophy and formal logic. Since then, in the course of my MA and current PhD coursework, largely concentrated in religious and medieval history, I brought in more contemporary work on monetary and financial systems, something which has paid dividends in understanding the ancient world.

Students unsatisfied or left baffled by their coursework, whether in history, literature, politics, or religion, are encouraged to inquire." less...