Academic Leadership and Service
Service is a participation in leadership. And leadership is a form of service.
These both can take flashy or mundane forms. Over the years, I have served on many committees and in various capacities of service in the university and academia. A couple highlights on the quieter side of things for me have been serving as a faculty mentor of students for the Oakland University Bachelor of Integrative Studies Program (2011- 2016; 2019-2020; 2022) and as a committee member for the Oakland University Writing Excellence Award competition (Department of Writing & Rhetoric, 2013-2020; 2026-pres.).
Yet beyond these, several particular highlights emerge. Over the years, there have been occasions in which I was pursuing a love, a mission, and an obsession for inquiry, yet it turned out to be service to the profession as well. These turned out to operate at the highest levels / front-most edge of discourse, research, and creative work.
• In 2006, I organized a panel for researchers/scholars called “A Conversation with Daniel C. Dennett's Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon”. This was for his book, which had just been published, and was gaining national (and international) attention. This was for the 2006 North American Association for the Study of Religion (NAASR) national meeting in Washington DC, in conjunction with the national meeting of the American Academy of Religion. He later came to the University of Michigan and Oakland University, where I met him briefly. Among other things, he has been a leader in the discussion of “memes” and the question of how we may understand units of cultural information.
• In 2012, I invited, hosted, organized, and convened/moderated for Nick Sousanis from Teacher's College, Columbia University, to visit and talk/present on his comic book dissertation work for the Oakland University, College of Arts & Sciences (CAS) theme, "Creative and Critical Minds", sponsored by CAS and the Department of Writing and Rhetoric. This dissertation is thought to be the first known dissertation in the form of a comic book and had endorsements from Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. Sousanis went on to publish this work later as Unflattening (2015) with Harvard University Press.
• Another highlight came in 2023. I invited, hosted, organized, and convened/moderated for the Los Angeles-based interdisciplinary sound artist Alan Nakagawa’s visit and talk/presentation on digital composition, art, and community for the “Writing for Digital Media” course, Department of Writing and Rhetoric at Oakland University. Nakagawa is especially known for his work involving sound recordings of the interiors of the Hiroshima Atomic Dome (Hiroshima, Japan), the Wendover Hangar (Utah), and the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia (Barcelona). For more on Nakagawa’s work, see my 2025 article/book chapter, “Sound Experience, Feeling Sound: About Alan Nakagawa,” in L.A. (SO) the Story Goes: Los Angeles Artists on Fiction, Identity, and Transformation (Mexico City: Gato Negro Ediciones / Prospect Art), also under publications on c.v.
Many of the most compelling, rewarding service roles I have had are like these. They come from taking the initiative to fill a need for starting something new. I am able to do the mundane and necessary committee work. And, meanwhile, sometimes something new is needed as well. For example, in 2010, I was invited and founded a new Interdisciplinary Studies section of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts & Letters. From 2010 to 2016, I grew the section from scratch (0) to around thirty (30) members in attendance, which included a full day of presentations from across disciplines, fields, and domains, but with special attention to self-conscious “inter-disciplinary” work. The section continues to be one of the mostly lively and active in the Michigan Academy.
Additionally, in 2015, I founded a new section of the Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, an international organization of leading interdisciplinary studies researchers, scholars, and theorists such as Julie Thompson Klein, Bill Newell, and Rick Szostak. This new section – the Interdisciplinary Study of Religions section – quickly became one of the most well-attended. A highpoint was the 2018 conference at Wayne State University where my sections gained the most contributors/presenters of any other section in the association/conference. My section included presentations by up-and-coming leaders in religion studies and in the philosophy of interdisciplinary studies. The section continues on to this day.
Lastly, I will mention that I am a long-time leading member of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters, a regional interdisciplinary organization. I served on the Executive Committee from 2012-2015 and am currently the president-elect (2025-present).
Whether inspiring or mundane, desirable or simply necessary, I continue to be compelled by mission and what may be needed for service.
Further Service details may be found on the c.v. under the bio.
Service is a participation in leadership. And leadership is a form of service.
These both can take flashy or mundane forms. Over the years, I have served on many committees and in various capacities of service in the university and academia. A couple highlights on the quieter side of things for me have been serving as a faculty mentor of students for the Oakland University Bachelor of Integrative Studies Program (2011- 2016; 2019-2020; 2022) and as a committee member for the Oakland University Writing Excellence Award competition (Department of Writing & Rhetoric, 2013-2020; 2026-pres.).
Yet beyond these, several particular highlights emerge. Over the years, there have been occasions in which I was pursuing a love, a mission, and an obsession for inquiry, yet it turned out to be service to the profession as well. These turned out to operate at the highest levels / front-most edge of discourse, research, and creative work.
• In 2006, I organized a panel for researchers/scholars called “A Conversation with Daniel C. Dennett's Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon”. This was for his book, which had just been published, and was gaining national (and international) attention. This was for the 2006 North American Association for the Study of Religion (NAASR) national meeting in Washington DC, in conjunction with the national meeting of the American Academy of Religion. He later came to the University of Michigan and Oakland University, where I met him briefly. Among other things, he has been a leader in the discussion of “memes” and the question of how we may understand units of cultural information.
• In 2012, I invited, hosted, organized, and convened/moderated for Nick Sousanis from Teacher's College, Columbia University, to visit and talk/present on his comic book dissertation work for the Oakland University, College of Arts & Sciences (CAS) theme, "Creative and Critical Minds", sponsored by CAS and the Department of Writing and Rhetoric. This dissertation is thought to be the first known dissertation in the form of a comic book and had endorsements from Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. Sousanis went on to publish this work later as Unflattening (2015) with Harvard University Press.
• Another highlight came in 2023. I invited, hosted, organized, and convened/moderated for the Los Angeles-based interdisciplinary sound artist Alan Nakagawa’s visit and talk/presentation on digital composition, art, and community for the “Writing for Digital Media” course, Department of Writing and Rhetoric at Oakland University. Nakagawa is especially known for his work involving sound recordings of the interiors of the Hiroshima Atomic Dome (Hiroshima, Japan), the Wendover Hangar (Utah), and the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia (Barcelona). For more on Nakagawa’s work, see my 2025 article/book chapter, “Sound Experience, Feeling Sound: About Alan Nakagawa,” in L.A. (SO) the Story Goes: Los Angeles Artists on Fiction, Identity, and Transformation (Mexico City: Gato Negro Ediciones / Prospect Art), also under publications on c.v.
Many of the most compelling, rewarding service roles I have had are like these. They come from taking the initiative to fill a need for starting something new. I am able to do the mundane and necessary committee work. And, meanwhile, sometimes something new is needed as well. For example, in 2010, I was invited and founded a new Interdisciplinary Studies section of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts & Letters. From 2010 to 2016, I grew the section from scratch (0) to around thirty (30) members in attendance, which included a full day of presentations from across disciplines, fields, and domains, but with special attention to self-conscious “inter-disciplinary” work. The section continues to be one of the mostly lively and active in the Michigan Academy.
Additionally, in 2015, I founded a new section of the Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, an international organization of leading interdisciplinary studies researchers, scholars, and theorists such as Julie Thompson Klein, Bill Newell, and Rick Szostak. This new section – the Interdisciplinary Study of Religions section – quickly became one of the most well-attended. A highpoint was the 2018 conference at Wayne State University where my sections gained the most contributors/presenters of any other section in the association/conference. My section included presentations by up-and-coming leaders in religion studies and in the philosophy of interdisciplinary studies. The section continues on to this day.
Lastly, I will mention that I am a long-time leading member of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters, a regional interdisciplinary organization. I served on the Executive Committee from 2012-2015 and am currently the president-elect (2025-present).
Whether inspiring or mundane, desirable or simply necessary, I continue to be compelled by mission and what may be needed for service.
Further Service details may be found on the c.v. under the bio.