This is David. He works in the Media Studies Department, Environmental Studies and Urban Agriculture. He's my Intro to Media Studies professor this semester and his class helped me find some direction in terms of my major and what I'm really interested in. When he told my class how many departments he works in at USF, I knew he could tell me a lot about the academics that hold our school together. I asked him my questions in his office in K-Hall and then we moved to the USF Community Garden where he works with the Urban Agriculture Department.
What's your education background?
I was an undergraduate at UCLA in 1986. I was an English major and an American Studies minor. I was just with a friend in a cafe and he was telling me about this great class in American Studies called American Jazz and I took that and got completely obsessed with American Studies -- mainly popular culture in the United States. I stayed in LA for two years and was a private tutor and then I went to graduate school at the University of Maryland and got my masters and PhD in American Studies. I went to school as a graduate student studying this very obscure small technology called the Internet in 1994. Then I got my PhD in the year 2000 in American Studies with an emphasis on the Internet and Internet culture. I think I might have been one of the first PhD's to study the Internet in all of the United States. I had a feeling it was going to be big.
What got you interested in Media Studies?
My last year at UCLA was one of the strangest years in LA. It was around the time when a man named Rodney King was beaten by about eight or nine cops. It was like 1992. What happened was that cops beat up on Black people all the time, but in this case it was recorded -- someone in a hotel room was recording the beat down. It was very clear that this was a defenseless man and they were just beating on him, and the cops all went free after that. What happened after was what some people called a riot and some people called it a rebellion. I was fascinated with that, LA was burning and you would see fires all over the place. But I was fascinated in that the only thing that set this off was someone recording this.
The other thing that was fascinating was that during this time I was really interested in hip hop and kind of like gangster rap. What I noticed was that songs by these new groups like NWA were all about everything that was happening, I got really interested in how can media be used for social change. I was really interested in the Internet because you don't need money to use the Internet. You don't need a Hollywood studio or a radio antenna, you can just do it from your computer. So I got into Media Studies through the LA Riots and the beginning of the Internet.
What about Environmental Studies and Urban Agriculture?
I've been studying the Internet for so long that when I began we all used computers, then laptops, then devices and our cell phones. What I noticed was as excited as I was for the Internet, I was getting very nervous about how much time most of us are spending on our devices. A lot of us are having a difficult time logging off. I remember the first time I saw someone crossing the street while on their cell phone and I thought it was obscene, and now everyone does it. I lived in this off the grid homestead and there was no electricity from the government for 10 days without technology and it blew my mind. I grew my own food, I cooked my own food, and I was able to function without the technology. It was really kind of an epiphany and I realized I needed more of this in my life.
I feel like Media Studies and Environmental Studies are on the opposite end of the major spectrum. Have you seen any overlap between all of the departments you work in?
On one side I got into agriculture because I was tired of technology, but then I started to find out that some of my favorite farmers were totally wired, some of my favorite cooks were super wired. I started to realize that you could do both. You could learn how to grow food and then make videos on how to grow potatoes, or learn how to bake bread and make social media so other people can do it. So recently what I've been doing is kind of food media or green media. I want to make media about making food. I bring both of these things together -- making food, something that's a very offline thing, and sharing it with a very online thing, the Internet and social media.
What makes USF unique?
I think there's a lot of reasons but it really comes down to the social justice mission. I've been at a lot of schools and a lot of the universities focus on the pursuit of knowledge. I think you have to pursue knowledge to try to change the world. I think with USF, it's allowed and almost required for social justice to be baked into everything we do. I really like that. The other thing is that we're the university of the best city ever. I love the Bay Area. It's beautiful place and people are more creative, experimental, and freaky. I think in a lot of places when people stand out they kind of hide it inside, but in San Francisco you get to wave your freak flag high. I think the creativity and intelligence level of this area is off the charts, and you see that in the students all the time. I would also like to add that as San Francisco gets so expensive, there's something great happening in Oakland, Berkeley, and the Peninsula.
What's your favorite thing about teaching?
Students. Period. I've taught every level from Kindergarten to graduate students. I've had a career of teaching and although I love teaching kids, they don't always have the knowledge to do some damage. I found the sweet spot with undergraduate students. On one side, they're so smart and on the other side, they haven't gone into the job world and gotten super jaded yet. Working every day with college students where ideas can be explored, that's the most exciting part of my job.
Lastly, what's a fun fact about yourself?
I have a couple of them! First, I have always loved animation, from high end animation to things like Zootopia and Frozen. Now having a 6-year-old daughter, I'm not sure who likes going to see these movies more. Also, I have to admit I make a really great homemade pizza from scratch with homemade sauce and vegetables straight from the garden.
