I like to learn from people as they learn from me. I learn from the stories people tell me and the influential experiences that they recount. Exchanges with people give me insight into the intricacies of social relations in our conflicted world. Through the sharing of ideas I have learned of the struggles that people experience and how they find strength to overcome challenges. Life stories and diverse perspectives help shape my understanding of the human condition and the ultimate quest for peace that we each strive for. Like all people who are in the business of working with ideas and thus live in their own minds I often feel despair about the state of affairs in this troubled world, and yet I have hope about the possibility of change. This feeling of hope, this active yearning is reflected in my scholarly work which is based on the foundational premise of critical theory: that life is ultimately worth living, and that engaging in negative critique of the forms of domination that surround us is essentially a positive act that affirms all life forms on this earth. Oh, and of course I like learning from good books as well, especially when they are written by magnificent minds like Theodor Adorno, Michel Foucault, Simone De Beauvoir, Edward Said, Sigmund Freud, Rachel Carson, Vandana Shiva, Jean Baudrillard, Krishnamurti and many others…