About Roy casagranda

I successfully defended my dissertation with the Department of Germanic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin on May Day 2017. I am proud to be a Longhorn and grateful to Katie Arens, PhD and the rest of my committee for the opportunity.

I am happily married and the proud father of two boys and a German shepherd dog.

I am Professor of Government at Austin Community College (ACC).

My research interests lie at the intersection of politics, history, economics, psychology, and philosophy. I am a firm believer in a multidisciplinary approach.  Circa 1025 A.D. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) said, "The knowledge of anything, since all things have causes, is not acquired or complete unless it is known by its causes."  It is my belief that only a multidisciplinary approach can understand the causes of human behavior.

I have been a teacher since spring of 1995. I began teaching at the college level in spring of 2002. There is nothing else that I would rather be doing.

I have been giving monthly public lectures since summer 2006.

I am ACC's Middle East Affairs expert and have been doing local news interviews since December 2008.

I am the founder and operator of the Austin School, a lecture series on YouTube.

From September 2010 until early 2012 I wrote regularly for Merhnameh, a leading Tehran-based reformist socio-political monthly on US and Arab politics and history. I produced approximately one article every two to three months until the magazine was shut down by the Islamic Republic.  I have also written one article for Hamshahri and another for Donya-e-Eqtesad Daily newspaper. 

In the US I have written a piece for the Austin American Statesman as well as three articles for TODO Austin, each about the Arab Spring. 

I wrote the University of Maryland University College's WWII classroom modules and I have edited two of Jason Mark's books on WWII: Island of Fire and Besieged.

I have written the novel The Blood Throne of Caria.

I serve on the Faculty Evaluation Committee for the Department of Government at ACC.

Personal interests include travel, backpacking, camping, gardening, role playing (especially Rolemaster) and playing Advanced Squad Leader.