Dr. Benjamin R. Jordan

Dr. Ben Jordan, Professor of History & Political Science, grew up in the shadow of the Appalachian Mountains in Knoxville and is happy to have adopted the “flat side” of Tennessee as his new home. He and his wife, Heather, who also grew up in Knoxville, have three young, wonderful children who keep them on their toes. Dr. Jordan received his PhD from the University of California San Diego, and has also taught at Kenyon College and Whitman College. He has previously worked with young adults in a variety of educational settings: as a counselor at a “rustic” drug and behavioral rehabilitation center, as a Resident Counselor at an international boarding high school in Austria, and as Director of western horseback riding at a traditional youth summer camp. “These jobs have led me to approach college teaching from a broader interest in character development and holistic education.” He offers advanced classes in environmental, women’s and gender, urban and suburban, and childhood and youth history, and recently published a book entitled, Modern Manhood and the Boy Scouts of America: Citizenship, Race, and the Environment, 1910-1930 that examines the relationship between gender and racial concepts and natural and human-built environments in early American Boy Scouting. Dr. Jordan has also served as the director of CBU’s interdisciplinary Sustainability Studies academic program and as Director of the university’s Living Learning Communities. “Sustainability is an exciting new interdisciplinary field that will allow our university and students to engage with important environmental and urban issues in Memphis,” he says. The program facilitates service learning and exposes students to different community organizations, businesses, and government agencies involved with making Memphis and our world a more sustainable, healthy, and enjoyable place to live.