Debating Myself

The Basics

My name is Jared Knowles and I’m a twenty-something soon to be college graduate. I was born and raised in Montana and have since emigrated to western Oregon to attend college and complete two Bachelor’s degrees—in Political Science and German Studies. In between I spent a year living in Munich, Germany as an exchange student where I made some friends, saw lots of Europe, and learned two foreign languages: German and Beer. My current research interests include: federalism (both comparative and American), rural policy and policy processes, education policy, European integration, and the role of the internet in democratic rule.

This spring I will complete my senior theses at Pacific University. In Political Science my thesis is titled: The Myth of the Oak Tree: The Hidden Complexities of Rural Education Policy and my German Studies thesis is tentatively titled: “Purely Administrative Entities?” The Role of German Länder in the European Union.

After graduation, next fall, I will be enrolling in the Political Science PhD program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I plan to pursue a broad research agenda there and grab all of the knowledge I can get my hands on.

Interests

To sum up my interests worth mentioning should be pretty easy:

• News – I am a news and politics junkie. I’m not a fan of television news and prefer to read newspapers. I read the Economist weekly, Foreign Affairs when I can, and prefer the Washington Post over the New York Times.
• Politics – I’m a radical moderate. I try to keep the both sides of the issue balanced in my head until I can make a fair decision about the right course of action. That said, I tend to be more libertarian than I would like to admit, but I constantly feel as if our society is lacking a feeling of responsibility to one another. See? In the middle. I really enjoy playing devil’s advocate to other’s ideas and opinions — hence this blog.
• Books – I am a bookworm as well. I read a lot of stuff, but since I am in school I am restricted to mostly academic things. I used to love literature and hope to find my way back into reading more of it soon. You can check out my Shelfari! account to see what I’ve been reading.
• Debate — I was a debater in high school and college (mildly successful) and have always been fascinated by the art of argumentation. I am intrigued by the ways that certain issues are framed and the different frames that persuade different kinds of people
• Sports — I am a sports-a-holic. Ever since I was a little kid I read the sports page of the newspaper daily and I am borderline obsessed with most American professional sports (baseball is the exception, sorry). That said, my favorite sport is ice hockey and my favorite team is and will always be the Detroit Red Wings
• Music — I play the guitar, although much less frequently than I used to. I wish I had more of an ear for music, but I do what I can. I am more fascinated by the production of recorded and live music — mixing, layering of instruments and the combination of subtle tones that combine to make that song that gets stuck in my head. I don’t have enough time to really pursue this passion at the moment, unfortunately. You can check out my music tastes on Last.fm, but it is not really reflective of my whole collection just yet…
• Gizmos, Gadgetry, and Technology — I’m not quite fluent in Geek, but I know my way around lots of major computer software, and rather enjoy producing things with my computer. Web design, graphic design, and blogging are all things I have enjoyed experimenting with over the last several years. Proof of my geeky status? I’m eagerly awaiting the release of Firefox 3, and even ran a couple different beta versions.

Contact Me

I’m a likable guy and wouldn’t mind answering any questions you have about this site.

E-mail: jaredATdebateman.com

Twitter: jknowles

Homepage: http://www.debateman.com