Steven Poe: Making peace studies more than just a career

	Peace studies is more than a career field for Steven Poe, associate professor of political science and director of the Peace Studies Program. It is a way of life that he seeks to pass on to his students.

The son of a high school educator and a Quaker pacifist, Steven Poe, associate professor of political science and director of the Peace Studies Program at UNT, is a product of the loves of education and peaceful existence that were so important to his parents.

Poe's mother, a Quaker, instilled in him a love for humankind and the desire to understand humanitarian issues.

And Poe spent his childhood watching his father, a high school principal and teacher in Wapello, Iowa, engage his students in the educational process with enthusiasm and dedication. At 3 years old, he visited his dad's classroom and knew from that moment on that he wanted to touch people the same way his father did.

"I try to make it fun for my students and intellectually challenging at the same time," he says.

He earned a bachelor of arts degree in social science from William Penn College in Oskaloosa, Iowa, then earned master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Iowa.

Between earning his undergraduate degree and beginning graduate school, Poe worked as a substitute teacher and track coach in the same school district where his father taught. He took over the instruction of a sixth-grade class when its teacher went on long-term leave after the birth of her child.

A few years ago, one of those sixth-graders appeared in one of Poe's political science classes at UNT.

"She had heard back home that I was teaching here, so when she got here, she looked me up and took my class," Poe says. "I remember, when she was in the sixth grade, that she'd sit on the front row of the classroom with this mischievous smile on her face, and she was still the same way in college."

After earning his doctorate, Poe returned to William Penn to teach and start a political science and peace studies program at the college. He remained there until 1989, when he came to UNT as an assistant professor of political science. Chosen to be the first Johnie Christian Family Professor of Peace Studies in 1998, he used the position to create a peace studies minor, add faculty and support other programs dealing with human rights issues. Poe says peace studies is the study of why violent conflict happens and how conflicts can be managed or resolved without violence. Students of peace studies take courses in the areas of conflict management, determinants of violence and issues of justice.

Students have also benefited from Poe's love for teaching and his commitment to them.

"It was not only very interesting, but, more importantly, also very rewarding to experience Dr. Poe as an adviser, teacher and researcher," says Sabine Carey, one of Poe's former students.

BY MELODY GILBERT kreese@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue:

• Board of Regents authorizes $31.5 million to finance residence hall
• EDS contributes $6.25 million software to UNT
• UNT's International Week begins April 7
• Parking lot 10 scheduled to close in May
• UNT departments on the move
• Staff Council elects replacement officer
• Nutrition course assisting U.S. Army Reservists
• 2003-04 Staff Council elections are this spring
• Outstanding staff, department awards presented at March 5 sack lunch
• Rafes gives Faculty Senate a campus development report

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