Dr. Joel J. Kassiola received his B.A. with Honors in Political Science and election to PHI BETA KAPPA from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the Political Philosophy Program at Princeton University. He was selected an American Council of Education Fellow and served this position at Haverford College in Haverford, PA. He has been Dean of Undergraduate Studies at Brooklyn College for 3 years and Dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences for 11 years at San Francisco State University.

His research program after several publications in various political theory themes: the conduct of normative inquiry, politics and literature, the justification for affirmative action, political violence, turned to the intersection of the environmental crisis, political theory and modernity about 25 years ago. He published one of the first books in the emerging field of environmental political theory in 1990: THE DEATH OF INDUSTRIAL CIVILIZATION (SUNY Press), and more recently, edited EXPLORATIONS IN ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICAL THEORY (M.E.Sharpe, 2003). His book The Death of Industrial Civilization is to be published in Chinese in late 2007. He has published several articles on the nature of environmental political theory and environmental ethics. Most recently, he has had accepted for publication an article in the flagship political science journal published by the American Political Science Association on the teaching of Introductory Political Theory courses, and an article on the need for M.A. Universities to have their faculty conduct research in order to be excellent teachers in the 21st century. 

His most recent research has turned to China's political thought and development pertaining to green political theory, environmental policy, and China's development. His article titled "The Dilemma of Western Industrial Civilization and China's Path in the 21st Century" is published in Challenges Facing Chinese Political Development (Rowman & Littlefield-Lexington, 2007), pp. 144-153. In June 2007, he was invited to visit Peking University and Central Party School and delivered a public speech titled "Confucianizing Modernity and Modernizing Confucianism: China's Development and Green Political Theory." The paper flowing from the speech will be presented at Western Political Science Association Annual Meeting in March 2008, and then submitted to a journal for consideration of publication.

 For more information on Dean Kassiola, please visit his website:
http:bss.sfsu.edu/kassiola