"I was and continue to be fascinated by how it is that one day someone decides to engage in revolutionary activity," explains Eric Selbin.

Since Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys captured his interest in elementary school, revolutionaries have become Selbin's abiding interest and academic focus.

As a specialist in comparative revolutions, Latin American and Caribbean politics, contentious politics-resistance, rebellion, social movements, and political sociology, Selbin teaches courses on these topics.

He also has translated a fascination with the history we don't know—the "secret history"—into a summer-term and First-Year Seminar course called "Secret History of the 20th Century," which he describes as "ridiculously cross-listed, highly idiosyncratic, and randomly structured."

His approach is to prod students to "consider how they know what they know, what it means that they know what they do know, what it means that they do not know what they don't know, how to find out what they don't know and do something with it, and that they can change the world, every day, in myriad ways large and small.

"I expect them to be menschs," he says, "but then I think we should expect that of everybody."

His selection in 1999 as a Brown Distinguished Research Professor honors his body of research, published in texts and journals, and presentations, mostly on the future of revolution, throughout the United States and internationally.

Selbin's Modern Latin American Revolutions, now in its second edition, is used in courses around the country, as well as Canada, Wales and England. His piece, "Zapata's White Horse and Che's Beret: Theses on the Future of Revolution," is forthcoming in John Foran's The Future of Revolutions in the Context of Globalization.

He also has co-authored with spouse Helen Cordes and their children, Jesse and Zoe Cordes Selbin, a critical examination of the public educational system's effect on girls, based on their personal experiences. "Is This the Educational System You Wanted? Feminism and Homeschooling," appears in Feminist Approaches to Social Movements, Community, and Power, Vol. 2, which was edited by Robin Teske and Mary Ann Tétreault.

"I am most smitten with this article, since it is likely the only thing the four of us will ever write together," he says.

Selbin was recently named the Southwestern University 2001-2002 Exemplary Teacher. The Exemplary Teacher Award program is sponsored by the Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church and includes a certificate of appreciation and a $500 award. Individuals chosen are characterized by "excellence in teaching; civility and concern for students and colleagues; commitment to values-centered education; and service to students, the institution and the community."

Selbin holds a B.A. from UT-Austin, an M.A. from Louisiana State Univ. and a Ph.D. from the Univ. of Minnesota. Besides "hanging out" with his family, he is passionate about music, reading, the NCAA basketball tournament and, not surprisingly, "secret history."