Who am I? Why am I here?
Despite the title, I have no desire to wax philosophic.
I am an accessibility advocate, design technologist, writer, and web developer. You can learn more about my professional life at Textivism. I’m a freelance “Web Engineer” with Arc Worldwide, although I’m also available for other (limited) engagements.
I had been pursuing a PhD in English literature at Loyola University Chicago. My areas of specialization were Old and Middle English literature, humanities computing, and textual criticism. My scholarly interests included crises of abandonment, exile, and apocalypse; medieval and early modern drama; textual revision and appropriation; and social religious expression. I intended to focus my dissertation on textual criticism (especially D. F. McKenzie’s work on the sociology of texts) and William Langland’s Piers Plowman, in order to study that poem in its manuscript and cultural contexts.
I was born in Lewiston, Idaho, and have lived near Portland, Oregon, and in Marinette, Wisconsin; Marquette and Grand Rapids, Michigan; Northfield, Minnesota; and Chicago.
I live in Saint Charles, Illinois, with my wife, Erica, and our daughter, Zora. Erica and I met at Saint Olaf College and got married after we graduated. We lived in Grand Rapids for a few years, where Erica received a MDiv at Calvin Theological Seminary. She serves as the minister to children and youth at Fox Valley Presbyterian Church. Zora joined our family (and made it less awkward to use that term) on 24 August 2006. She delights us with her eagerness to learn, her funny “words,” and her beautiful smile. We also live with a couple of cats, Sven & Ole, who are real jokers.