The activist-minded professor
Poet, political advocate, educator: Jules Boykoff takes issues seriously

FOREST GROVE -- When a venerable political science professor retired at Pacific University a couple of years ago, department Chairman Bob Van Dyk went searching for someone with a broad background who was comfortable with the multitude of teaching assignments required of a four-person department.

He found Jules Boykoff.

Boykoff, 36, is a political scientist. He is a poet and social activist with an unquenchable curiosity. He played soccer for the University of Portland and professionally, and cheers for the Tottenham Hotspurs. He and brother Max researched media treatment of global warming, helping form the basis for the Al Gore documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth."

In one hand, Boykoff can hold his weighty scholarly book, "Suppression of Dissent: How the State and Mass Media Squelch USAmerican Social Movements," and, in the other, his third collection of poetry, "Once Upon a Neoliberal Rocket Badge."

He is finishing another book about case studies in global justice and the suppression of dissent. The new book is not directed at academia. "It's for my uncle, who drives a truck in Milwaukee," Boykoff said. "Or the people who aren't fortunate enough to go to a four-year college."

Boykoff also brought a cachet of international attention to Pacific when he participated in a panel discussion about global warming at the United Nations Climate Change Conference earlier this month in Nairobi, Kenya.

"There's just nothing stale about him," Van Dyk said. "There's a kind of intellectual freshness that he brings into his classroom, that he brings here each day. Where does the energy come from? It's terrific to work with him, but somewhat disconcerting."

Boykoff, a native of Wisconsin, has found an equally beneficial environment in his second year teaching at the small liberal arts university, with its history of fostering lively political debate through the annual Tom McCall Forum. His peers are supportive. His students are challenging -- and challenged to keep up with the intellectual and physical energy of their teacher.

"I think we're living in a very important moment, and there is no time to sit around," Boykoff said.

Soccer brought Boykoff to the University of Portland, where he earned his bachelor's degree in political science. He stayed after graduation, playing professionally with the Portland Pride for four years and, during the off season, with Milwaukee and Minnesota of the United Soccer Leagues.

Off the field, Boykoff completed his master's degree in teaching, with a focus on English and Spanish, at Lewis & Clark College and taught for a year at Pacific Crest Community School. He helped found Tangent, a politics-and-arts zine.

When his wife, Kaia Sand, found a professional opportunity at St. Mary's College in Maryland, Boykoff taught and completed his doctorate in political science at American University. He and Sand, also a poet, started a poetry series that they continued when they moved back to Portland.

The Boykoff brothers discussed media coverage of global warming while Jules was visiting Max in Honduras, where the younger Boykoff had started a nonprofit organization to help survivors of Hurricane Mitch.

"He's an environmental guy," Boykoff said of Max, a research fellow at Oxford University in England. "I'm a politics and media guy. We put our heads together."

Their work, first published in 2004 in the academic journal Global Environmental Change, was a statistical study of global warming coverage in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal. Despite overwhelming scientific opinion that global warming is a serious problem needing immediate attention, the brothers said, reporters gave equal weight to a small minority of opposing scientists who said global warming was a myth or not a threat.

"Balance is good," Boykoff said. "Bias is bad. But balance can sometimes become bias.

Gore learned of the Boykoffs' research and incorporated it into his book and film, "An Inconvenient Truth." The former vice president introduced Jules Boykoff during a presentation last month in Portland.

Boykoff said he appreciated Gore's efforts to raise awareness about global warming, adding that national leaders must take a more aggressive stand to protect the environment. He cited the United Nations' "Precautionary Principal," which states that a lack of full scientific support should not prevent governments from acting to prevent environmental degradation.

"Are you waiting for 100 percent (support)? We don't have time," Boykoff said. "Sometimes, you have to be a leader."

To that end, Boykoff and one of his students are evaluating contemporary media coverage of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., research that Boykoff says will give insight into how society changes its view of dissenters. He is also intrigued by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is beloved in South America despite an antagonistic media.

Boykoff carries a green notebook everywhere, to scribble ideas and images that will find their way into his poems.

Academic and artistic flow together, like life and politics.

His work as an educator is to help students understand what forces shape society -- what he described as "the octave humming at you from your breakfast cereal, that's normalcy."

"They will hopefully feel empowered to alter that social octave," Boykoff said, "refashioning a tune for a more just world."