Faculty Feature: Steven Horn

Ph.D. holder and political science instructor Steven Horn always thought that he would end up playing baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers. It wasn’t until he had an exceptional learning experience from a community college instructor that he found where his passion lay.

Steven Horn is knowledgeable in all things
politics and enjoys keeping up to date
with political media. 

“My parents were teachers and I actually resisted that for a long time,” said Horn “To be a teacher was kind of an evolution over time. The first thing I think of is the teacher who really made me sit up and take interest and that was a community college teacher that I had at the Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, California.”

According to Horn, his teacher was so compelling in the way he presented the material and in the way he made him think about the subject.

“Even though I could not, by any stretch of the imagination, be thought of as a serious student at that time of my life that is when a kind of spark started and I luckily became more serious as a student,” Horn said.

Horn loves to develop his knowledge relative to his political science materials and relative to his teaching. His primary areas of interest include political economy, health care policy, and racial politics in the United States.

“Mostly, I am either doing something relative to my classes or thinking about the subjects that I teach six or seven days a week. This is who I am at this point. I really love that,” said Horn.

To Horn, teaching does not feel like a job. Instead, it feels like a passion.

Q & A:

Q: What is your favorite TV show?

A: My all-time favorite show I have to say is Breaking Bed.

Q: What is your favorite musical band?

A: I don’t have a favorite band anymore. It is pretty sad. My favorite band used to be Pearl Jam. They are old now. I like all kinds of music though.

Q: What is your favorite food?

A: I’m trying to expand the kind of food that I like. My significant other, Marla, and I try to go to a new place and try something, but Greek and Italian foods are my favorite.

Q: What would you do in the world to make a change?

A: I hope I’m doing that in my small way already. I have this faith that my teacher had an impact on me so that tells me that I can make that kind of change too.

Q: Do you have a fovorite book?

A: I don’t have a favorite book that I have read a number of times. Noam Chomsky is my favorite author.

Q: What is your favorite outdoor activity?

A: My favorite outdoor activity is biking. I love biking in the summer on the Burke Gilman trail in Seattle and on Sentinel Trial. I like doing water rafting to some extent.

Q: What class is your favorite to teach?

A: It changes depending upon the day and the time of the quarter. Sometimes I am more into my Intro to Political Science class and sometimes I am more into the American Government class and I am also teaching International Relations.

Q: What is one thing you really like to do?

A: I should probably think about that more than I do. I want to write more, I want to publish some of the things on some of the subjects I care about. I want to start with publishing my dissertation which I am getting back into, of late. I want to make sure I travel more than I already have.

Q: What are some of your ideologies?

A: I think it would not be shocking to my students to learn that I tend to follow the Liberal Democrats side of politics. I am not religious so that takes care of that. I grew up going to a Catholic high school and I grew up in fairly a religious family, but I am not religious. As far as religions’ effects on the world, I think it depends upon what religion, in what context and which part of the world we are talking about. It is a mixed bag for sure.

 

A day in the life of Steven Horn: 

"I get up around 7. Get ready to come to school. There are number of media outlets that I take a look at before I get out of the door including a number of political blogs that I follow such as the New York Times or whatever my attention is drawn to on that morning. I live in Seattle. I actually drive from Seattle to Everett. I enjoy listening to lectures from a company called The Teaching Company. Currently, I am listening to a class on Diplomatic History of the U.S. It takes about half an hour. All my students have to listen to this program called Democracy Now. When my lecture is over then I listen to that so I could know what my students get to listen to. I arrive at school, I check my emails, I put out any files in my various classes that are going on. Maybe students need my help. I prepare for my classes that I am going to teach. I turn my attention to grading or posting stuff on Angel. My significant other usually does her business till very late in the evening and that allows me to continue doing what I want to do. Often times, I am watching the news, reading a journal article or watching baseball. One thing that Marla and I have started doing when we go to sleep at night; we watch an hour of television series, which we are following. Then I go to bed and start doing over it again the next day."

Story by Adnan Ali