Cincinnatus
I am a firm believer that while specialization in an area of study is important, it is not important for the purpose of narrowing one's horizon once and for all, but for serving as a vantage point, a reference area, from which to approach other areas of knowledge and understanding.
As a political theorist I am (happily and thankfully) "condemned" to be nomadic, and have interests in a variety of areas: politics, philosophy, history, literature, relgion and mythology, as well as the social sciences generally.
My passion is to teach and help students develop their their ability to think anew-and in the process help myself to do the same. Cultivating the ability to be reflective is to me the most important job I have as a teacher, and the students have done more to help me understand what it is I am teaching and doing than I them. With any luck, I hope to be able to bridge that gap someday. My inspiration comes from Nietzsche, who says (approximately) in the Use and Abuse of History from Untimely Meditations, that the purpose of knowledge is not to ossify life but instead to be one more inducement to live, one more "temptation" to advance life.