Nathan Palmer
Nathan Palmer is an educator, writer, speaker, editor, and incessant fountain of ideas1. I pride myself in creatively solving interesting problems and leading. I’m half as arrogant as my writing makes me sound and twice as personable.
Educator
America’s eye for life at the social level is like a feeble muscle atrophied from disuse. We are all experts of our personal experience, but very few of us are able to see the connections between our lives and the people and institutions that surround us. Students who can see at both the individual and social level become better leaders, better citizens, and better professionals regardless of their discipline.
I believe that education is a platform for social change, one student and then one community at a time. However, I don’t create the change, only students can do that. I am only honored to be in the room when it happens and at best am a catalyst for it. My proudest moments as an educator are when students tell me how our time together changed their lives, their families, or their communities for the better.
Presently I have the privilege of teaching at Georgia Southern University.
Writer
I write for SociologySource.com and SociologyInFocus.com. The former is focused on providing resources and ideas for teaching sociology and the later uses pop culture, the media, and news events to take sociology out of textbooks and put it into the readers daily lives. My writing has been featured on numerous websites including SocImages, Scatterplot, Teaching The Social World, and The Sociological Cinema.
Speaker
My talks focus on how technology can be leveraged to make it easier to teach, do research, and be a better academic. I also have spoke about how web technology can be used by publishers and academics alike to increase student learning and how publishers can improve the usefulness of their text resources.
Most recently I spoke at the Midwest Sociological Society meeting about How to Leverage Technology to Increase Student Engagement and Teach with Humanity. I have also spoke about Overcoming Learning Disabilities and Barriers to Being a Successful Student at multiple TRIO events for low income, first generation, and underrepresented students.
Public speaking is my favorite medium, so it’s no surprise that I’ve done a fair amount of it. If you would like me to come speak at your event, to your college/department, or just your team click here to make that happen.
Editor
I am editor-in-chief of SociologyInFocus.com (sponsored by Pearson)and I’ve been the coordinating editor for W.W. Norton’s Sociology Mix. As an editor I love the process of developing a vision for a project, the collaboration with other authors, and establishing a project or team’s culture. I want to thank all the peers I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with on the work I am so proud of.
Incessant Fountain of Ideas
Can’t stop, won’t stop. I am passionate about everything I do. That’s not a mantra or what my coffee cup says, it’s my affliction. I love teaching, writing, and web development. I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t sleep because I can’t stop thinking about all the awesome opportunities I’ll have in the morning. If you think about teaching, book publishing, and the wave of changes coming to higher education and you want to talk about them, I’m your huckleberry.
I do consulting for hire on lots of topics. If you like what I do on the web and feel you, your team, or your business would benefit from spending time with me hit me up here.
Personal Bio:
I am a lucky man with a wonderful wife and daughter who I get to spend my non-work time with. I love teaching, technology, and where they collide. In previous iterations of myself I’ve been a web content developer, a podcaster, a researcher, and even worked at a mental health hospital. Presently I am eating off of my teaching, my writing, my speaking/consulting, and podcasting. I’m basically a digital hobo who travels from interesting job to interesting job and leaving behind me a wake of projects I’m proud of. I was born and raised in Lincoln, NE and currently resides in Statesboro, GA where I am faculty in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Georgia Southern University.
