Dr. James M. Skelly is Director of the Centre on Critical Thinking, which he founded, and a faculty member at the Institute for Social and European Studies in Köszeg, Hungary, where he recently received a New Central Europe 2 Fellowship for research on “Constructing European Identity and Citizenship” from the University of Pannonia. His work builds on his previous research as a TAMOP Fellow in 2012 for research on a new conceptual basis for identity. He served as the Director of the Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies and Professor of Peace Studies at Juniata College in Pennsylvania from 2012 to 2015. As well as serving as Director, he was a Senior Fellow of the Institute from 2000 to 2015, and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Peace Studies between 2000 and 2005. Prior to his return to direct the Baker Institute, he was Visiting Professor of Peace Studies at the Magee Campus of the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland from 2007 to 2012. His academic career also includes service as Associate Director of the University of California's Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation; New York University's Center for War, Peace and the News Media; the Irish Peace Institute at the University of Limerick. He has also been professionally active as: a founder of the Peace Studies Association; Chair of the American Sociological Association's Section on Peace and War; a Fellow of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society; Senior Fellow at the Center for European Studies in Budapest; a Patron of the AEGEE-Europe project “Beyond Europe“; a member of the International Advisory Board of the Institute for Global and European Integration Studies at Corvinus University in Budapest; and in NAFSA-Association of International Educators, where he was Chair of the Peace and Justice Special Interest Group. He has held teaching posts and lectured in countries throughout the world, including China, Japan, Russia, the United States, and across Europe. In addition, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of International Studies of the University of California, Berkeley, with sponsorship from the MacArthur Foundation for research on the transformation of American political culture during the Cold War. His research and teaching interests continue to be rooted in the sociology of knowledge and focus on reality construction related to identity, nationalism, and other issues related to peace and conflict. As a young U.S. military officer, his refusal to serve in Vietnam led to his federal law suit, Skelly v. Laird, against the United States Secretary of Defense which helped to redefine the criteria for in-service conscientious objection. During this period, he worked actively against the war in South East Asia through several groups which he helped to found including the Concerned Officers' Movement. Following his honorable discharge, he worked with Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, and other entertainment industry figures, as the advance man and political coordinator for the “FTA“ show which was designed to encourage U.S. soldiers and sailors to freely express their opposition to continuation of the war in South East Asia. He subsequently served in Washington as Executive Director of The G.I. Office, Inc., an organization that had been established to support soldiers, and then as a Special Assistant to the U.S. Senator from California, John Tunney.
“This is a rich and thoughtful assembly of reflections on the author's experiences as a questioning younger person and his reach into a remarkable array of relevant literature for answers. The trip Skelly takes us on is like sailing from one compelling island to another in an effort to find just the right place to anchor. The result is a wonderful journey into the meaning of words, the meaning of life, and the meaning of meaning. A rare and special gathering of sanity.” —Kai Erikson, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor Emeritus of Sociology and American Studies, Yale University, and author of Wayward Puritans, Everything in its Path, and A New Species of Trouble, among others.
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