An Emeritus Professor of English at Indiana University South Bend, Tom moved south in 2002 and now teaches in UGA’s composition program and directs the Writing Center for the University of Georgia Athletics Association.

While it now seems long ago, Tom did once upon a time earn a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado. During his teaching career, he has published research on Robert Frost, published poems in several journals, and written twelve plays, performed in Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Virginia.

At Indiana, Tom taught 20th century American poetry, creative writing, the literature and history of the American Civil War, and, with a colleague in biology, he team-taught courses in literature and science. In 1985, Tom was awarded the all-Indiana University Herman F. Leiber Award for Distinguished Teaching.

Tom’s interests include the problem of human identity in religious texts, in literary narratives, and in scientific study, especially with regard to questions of our awareness of self, of our mortality, and of our interaction with and observation of the natural world.

Study abroad displaces us from our usual habitat, takes us even outside of ourselves, so that we can think and write with a more intense, focused questioning of our identities and the spaces we occupy.