Thomas Drake
College of Letters, Arts & Social Sciences
Department of English
Instructor
With UI Since 1997
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M.A., English Literature and Writing, University of Idaho, 1996
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B.A., English, University of Idaho, 1994
Tom spent a highly politicized childhood in the California Central Valley, New York, Arizona, Los Angeles, Mississippi, Mexico and the Bay Area. He has slam danced to the Clash in San Francisco, hitch hiked across Israel and Alaska and spent his formative years looking for Thoreau in Bonners Ferry and Lao Tsu in China, running chain saw in the Selkirks, and generally wandering around looking at things. These days he is passionate about his wife and daughter, teaching, studying religion, politics and science, Italy, playing music with his friends and mountain biking.
- “It’s Alive! The Life Span of an Interdisciplinary Course in the Humanities”. Journal of General Education, V 57, No. 4 2008
- Travel to Italy researching Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance art, architecture and literature as relevant to teaching curriculum. 2007, 2008, 2009
- FIDA grant to study Spanish language, history, art and culture in Madrid, Spain. Summer 2012
AREA OF SPECIAL INTEREST
- Drake is interested in showing the farm kid in the back row that Homer, Voltaire, Keats, Marx, Sartre and Foucault are all relevant to how he will spend the rest of his life. Toward that end, he’s interested in teaching students how to seek out, identify and challenge assumptions, and how to examine the histories of those beliefs they assume are inherently “True”.
- Alumni Award for Excellence, 2003, 2010
- Naval ROTC Certificate of Appreciation, 2002
- Nominee: University of Idaho's Annual Award for Teaching Excellence. 2011
