Who are the Instructors?

Stephen Doyle (Geography)

After leaving graduate school Stephen Doyle was hired by the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources in Victoria, British Columbia. His work at the Ministry was to apply the principles of sustainable development to the policies and procedures of the mineral, petroleum and natural gas industries of the province.

Professor Doyle returned to full-time teaching at Langara College in 1992 where he became the coordinator of the Environmental Studies Program. During his tenure at Langara he worked with the Departments of Biology and Chemistry to create ‘Fraser River Studies’, a program that delivered university credit courses in geography, anthropology, biology and chemistry while traveling in rafts down the Fraser River from Prince George to Vancouver.

Professor Doyle left Langara in 1995 to seek work in a more remote environment and spent 12 years teaching at Northwest College in Smithers, B.C. During that time he also took on a one-year temporary teaching position at Yavapai College in Prescott, Arizona where he taught geography and geology courses, some of which required week-long stays in the Grand Canyon. His work in Arizona has inspired him to return there each summer as an Adjunct Professor of Geography.

Rod Watkins (Philosophy)

Professor Watkins earned his M.A. in Philosophy from The Ohio State University with a thesis on Berkeley’s use of the Primary Quality/Secondary Quality distinction. After completing his Masters, he transferred to the University of Toronto where he specialized in Philosophy of Mind and Philosophy of Science. His dissertation, completed in 1996, investigated the metaphysical basis of our knowledge of our own thoughts.

After completing his PhD in Philosophy at the University of Toronto, Professor Watkins continued to teach as an Adjunct Professor at U of T for another six years. While at U of T, he taught courses in Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Sexuality, Logic and Critical Reasoning, and Introduction to Philosophy.

Seeking a better climate and lifestyle, he and his family moved to Salmon Arm, British Columbia in 2003. Soon after, Watkins accepted a position as College Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Okanagan College. At Okanagan College, he has taught Introduction to Philosophy, Ethics, Metaphysics, Business Ethics and Social/Political Philosophy. He is also in his third year as the Chair of Philosophy at Okanagan College.

As Chair, he has worked to expand the Philosophy department’s course offerings to include courses with a broader appeal, including Contemporary Moral Issues, Science and Pseudoscience, and Environmental Ethics—the Philosophy course included in Southwest Studies.

Tim Walters (English)

Professor Walters attained his PhD in English and Cultural Studies from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario in 2004. His dissertation explores the representation of, and  rationale for, radical modes of countercultural behavior in contemporary film and fiction. He taught a wide range of undergraduate courses—in Popular Culture, Consumer Culture, Modern Countercultures, History of Cultural Studies, Modernity, Postmodernity and Visuality, American and British 20th Century Literature, and Reading Film—at McMaster before moving to Salmon Arm in 2006 for a change of pace and scenery.

He now teaches film and literature courses at Okanagan College, and is desperately excited to return to the heat and light of the American Southwest.  He is teaching English 233: Studies in American Literature, which will consider 20th and 21st century literary and cinematic representations of this region and investigate issues raised by its unique environment.