User:Jerry L. Summers

I have completed my nineteenth year of teaching at East Texas Baptist University, where I have also served as chair of the Department of History and Political Science (continuing) and since 2006 as Dean of the School of Humanities. After receiving my undergraduate degree from Baylor University in 1976, I completed a Master of Divinity at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (1979) and, subsequently, the Ph.D. at the University of North Texas. My dissertation was entitled "The Implications of Postmodernism for the College-Level Teaching of History." That dissertation topic has yielded information useful in a couple of published articles; I have found over time that my grasp of matters "postmodern" required much more time and study, the topical field being so large and complex! My colleagues and I are necessarily generalists as historians, and I enjoy teaching and writing in world, Chinese, medieval and early modern European, and British history, with occasional returns into American (United States) history. I am active in the international education programs of my university and have led student travel study trips to Britain and China since the year 2000. Born and raised a second-generation native Californian, I received my schooling there and in New Jersey and have resided continuously in Texas since 1980, following three and one-half years in Kentucky. My wife and I have two married children, two granddaughters, and a perpetual feline guest, Lucille McGillicatty.