DR. MARK ALAN FOSTER

Overland Park KS USA 66210
URL 1: http://www.markfoster.net
URL 2: http://bahaistudies.net
Vision Statement: http://structurization.com
Email subscription: Yes
Faith: Baha'i
Relationship status: Single
Profession: (Full) Professor of Sociology
Organization: Johnson County Comm. College
UCS Member since: 7/11/1997
Last login: 6/17/2008
Last update: 6/17/2008

Personal Introduction

I am a tenured (full) professor of sociology and a member of the Bahá'í Faith.

I have previously been an academic department chair at one university (a branch campus of the University of Virginia) and at one four-year college (New York City area).

I am a former president of the Kansas Sociological Society and former member of the board of trustees (and current academic advisor for) the Foundation for the Investigation of Reality. My views have changed somewhat since I served on that board.

While a student, I was inducted into lifetime membership in three international honor societies:

• Phi Theta Kappa (Community College), 1975
• Phi Alpha Theta (History), 1982
• Alpha Kappa Delta (Sociology), 1983

My Ph.D. is in sociology (religion, theory, and family), with a minor in history (historiography and historical method, science and technology, and the French Revolution), and my M.A. is also in sociology (religion, political, development, and human ecology). However, my Associate in Arts (A.A.) degree is in English, and my Bachelor of Arts in Journalism (A.B.J.) degree is in magazines, with minors in sociology and English.

I have certifications in numerous areas, including human resource development, humanistic counseling, Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), stress management, the treatment of child abuse, genogramming, etc.

I have several years of professional theatrical training and have worked professionally as a ventriloquist and in radio (newscasting, writing, producing, and reporting).

These days, I use my journalism training (including my knowledge of magazines, writing, and editing) as the author and publisher of 18 web sites and 27 domains in the e-journal of the MarkFoster.NETwork™, as an editorialist and pundit (journalistic functions), and as the publisher of fourteen Internet email listservs, and as the owner of three businesses.

My main interests in sociology are in the sociology of religion (alternative religious movements and theory). In the Bahá'í Faith, I am primarily interested in Bahá'í metaphysical nominalism, science-religion issues, and hermeneutics.

Web Site
Name: The Divine Philosophy Society Site
URL: http://jccc.net/~mfoster/dps/
Description:

This site includes my various Bahá'í-related services, including eight email lists, an ICQ users' list, an online bookstore, and much more!

Skills
- Running fourteen Internet lists
- Managing cyberspace forums
- Conducting online chat sessions
- Teaching college courses over Internet
- Designing web sites
- writing professional papers

Interests
-

- The sociology of religion - especially the study of alternative religious movements
- Bahá'í studies (including studying Arabic)
- Working as the Bahá'í Faith forum manager on America Online
- Operating the Bahá'íStudies.NETwork™

Goals
- --------

- The Bahá'íStudies.NETwork™, owned and managed by myself, operates fourteen Bahá'í-focused email lists.
- It is the first affiliated community of the United Communities of Spirit.
- An on-site institute in the Kansas City area is being planned. There are also numerous other services, including a free Baha'i text search system for Windows.
- It offers users numerous web-based services at Bahá'íSite
- It hosts the Bahá'í ICQ Users' List.

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