Biographical Statement

Dan Steward
September 2017

(The following blurb is from my Profile page in Moodle.)

My name is Daniel John Steward. I've traveled under many names, but prefer "Dan" and hope that my students are comfortable using my first name. (If not, then I will answer to "Professor" or other honorifics, though probably not to "Hey You!" or "Yo Prof!".)

I am a sociologist interested in cyberspace, among other things. This is important not only as a subject for sociological inquiry, but also as a tool for progressive pedagogy. I have used a number of different tools for teaching courses in cyberspace and/or meatspace, including MOOs, blogs, learning management systems (e.g., Moodle), wikis, Second Life, etc.

I am very interested in how our communications differ depending upon whether we are interacting synchronously (at the same time) or asynchronously, face-to-face or at a distance, textually or audio-visually, anonymously/pseudonymously or identifiably/accountably. I find that some students are empowered by asynchronous communications (like discussion threads) even if they are still identifiable. Others blossom only when they can wear a mask. Unfortunately, still others use anonymity and pseudonymity to flame their interlocutors. As for me, I find that composing a written post/reply asynchronously helps me to clarify my thinking about the subject matter of a discussion, and (at the risk of sounding old-fashioned) I think more text-based interfaces would do us some good.

Indeed, I confess that I would like to have a good old-fashioned MOO to teach my classes in, rather than a mere Moodle, but we are moving into an extremely GUI (pronounced "gooey") world where textual expression is overshadowed by graphics and sound. (Sigh...) I am likely to be teaching in a Sloodle world (Second Life plus Moodle) before I see a MOO that isn't a ghost-town. Be that as it may, Moodle is a very cool tool, and I am very much looking forward to how our discussions unfold here this term.

My research interests include cyberspace technologies and open source/open access initiatives, as well as the history of censorship both online and offline. When I'm not introducing students to the "sociological imagination" (Mills [1959] 2000) in introductory classes, I teach research methods, science/technology studies, social theory, law and society, and various other topics too numerous to list.

I did my undergraduate work at the University of North Carolina (GO HEELS!), where I studied philosophy and economics. (When mixed in just the right proportions, you can get something that looks like the proto-sociology known as "political economy.") I took a law degree from Columbia University in the Big Apple before heading west as a young man to play lawyer in the San Francisco Bay Area and Tokyo, Japan. After that, and after traveling the country with my dog Panda Bear in an old VW bus, I decided to do some graduate work in sociology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

I left Madison somewhere around the time of the Y2K scare, just before the beer and cheese curds ran out. Since then, I've been on an extended tour as an itinerant-journeyman-scholar, teaching at Montana State University, Oberlin College, Ohio Wesleyan University, and now here at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I've lived a blessed life thus far, making my home in beautiful places and meeting wonderful people. I hope to keep it up as long as I live.