Welcome to my personal website!

I love religion, peace, understanding culture, writing and photography. I'm passionate about free software too (free as in freedom).

I am a PhD student in social anthropology at the University of Minnesota. I intend to research religion in Iran. I have an MA in Peace Studies from the Kroc Institute at the University of Notre Dame, also focusing on religion.

My blog is called On the Edge of Consciousness.

Photography

I photograph professionally. Clients who have commissioned me to do work have included the University of Notre Dame, the ABS-CBN Foundation and The Brooke.

My primary photographic subject is people. I have images online at pbase and flickr. Please contact me for permission to use these images, no matter your purpose.

Audio Slideshows

I especially enjoy the story telling element involved in the creation of audio slideshows, which combine still photography and audio.

Sample slideshows

  • Iran: A Riot of Color is my newest audio slideshow. It conveys the feeling I have for the land of Iran.
  • Understanding Peace is one of my early productions. In it I advance the idea that peace is not only a state of being but also a form of action.
  • Iran has proven my most popular slideshow. Many tens of thousands of people have viewed it. My blog entry on the show contains a variety of viewer's comments. The popular website Iranian.com also featured the show.
  • Gamot Cogon School is a fund-raising slideshow made for a private school operating in the midst of a poor, largely rural community near Iloilo, in the Philippines.
  • Bilin shows scenes from a September 2, 2005 protest by Palestinians against Israeli occupation and the security barrier in the village of Bilin in the West Bank.

Religion and Peace

I have long been interested in religious dimensions of peace. I maintain a website, Asian Reflection, that features writing on the magnificient nonviolent Muslim leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan.

Research Interests

  • The meaning religious devotees get from their relationships with their prophets and saints, and how it affects their ideas of interreligious acceptance and religious exclusivity
  • Understanding peace as not only a goal but also as a form of action; theories of time and peace (see this audio slideshow)
  • The development of a spiritual imagination
  • Nonviolence and Islam

Area Interests

  • Iran
  • Pakistan
  • Israel / Palestine
  • Philippines

Software Development

I support the use and development of free software. I've put a lot of time in 2009 into developing Rapid Photo Downloader for Linux, the leading photo downloader (importer) for the Linux Desktop.

Contact Me

You can email me at: