Dr. Joseph Myers (History)

Dr. Joe Myers has a son. A baby boy was brought into his family in October 2008, though he was 3 and a half weeks early. The event dominated his semester and he had to fight to keep on track. Over the winter break he spruced up an article for a peer reviewed publication which should go out shortly – a deadline that has been pushed back over a year now – on a member of the Continental Congress, “David Howell Comes to Philadelphia: The Impost Crisis of 1781 and the Most Significant Member of the Continental Congress.” While Howell’s impact helped create the necessity of the movement towards a new constitutional framework, he was more significant in noting certain cultural and identity patterns that went into the making of a Federal Union. Most of Dr. Myer's research, writing and teaching focuses on how cultures construct themselves and the mentality behind words, ideas and actions as they display identity features. This process of analysis will be employed in DCCC’s newest history offering in the Spring 2009 Semester, “The History of Modern Islam and the Middle East,” where his class will explore how the Islamic cultural construct is developed and the further development of institutions, like government, business and educational systems, support the maintenance and alteration of that culture.