My Background
I was born and raised in Jackson, Michigan -- the home of Ted Nugent and his bow-hunting shop, the NFL's Tony Dungy, Southern Michigan Prison, Michigan International Speedway, the Michigan Space Center and several astronauts, the "world-famous illuminated Cascades Falls," two pro golfers (Dave and Mike Hill), and more than twenty public golf courses, as well as birthplace of the Republican Party. My birthday, February 12, is the same day on which both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born in 1809 (see also Abraham Lincoln Online and The History Place's Lincoln feature, as well as The Darwin Page).
Some might argue that being born on Lincoln's birthday predisposed me to a career in Political Science, and that being born on Darwin's birthday predisposed me to pursuing an evolutionary approach in studying international conflict and rivalry. Others, of course, might be a bit more skeptical. Along these same lines, I have ancestors from almost every territory that Germany has ever lost, including Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia), Posen [map] (now Ksiestwo Poznanskie, Poland), and Pommern/Pomerania [map] (now Pomorze, Poland), as well as both Elsass/Alsace and Lothringen/Lorraine [map] (now Haut-Rhin, Bas-Rhin, and Moselle, France). Some might suggest that this family history predisposed me to studying territorial disputes for a living; again, others might be a bit more skeptical.
I earned my B.A. degree in 1991 at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. While at Michigan, I studied Political Science and worked for the Correlates of War research project. I also played trombone in the Michigan Marching Band for four years.
Three generations of the Correlates of War Project: J. David Singer, James Lee Ray, and Paul Hensel (picture taken February 1996 at Florida State University)
I then went to graduate school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I studied Political Science, and worked at the Merriam Lab for Analytic Political Research. My main field in Political Science was International Relations, with minor fields in Methodology and Comparative Politics. I received my M.A. in 1993 and my Ph.D. in 1996.
I am currently a professor in the Department of Political Science at Florida State University in Tallahassee. My research focuses on international conflict, with an emphasis on conflict over territory and on the evolution of rivalries between nation-states. I teach courses in international relations theory, international conflict, and research methods. My curriculum vitae on the Web includes syllabi for classes I have taught at Florida State, abstracts from my recent publications, and a listing of my current research projects; I also have separate web pages devoted to my teaching, research, and the ICOW Project, a research project that takes up much of my time.
Outside of work, and probably the main reason that FSU hired me, I used to play on several (now-defunct) department athletic teams. I played fullback for our city league soccer team, The Machine, for fifteen semester-long seasons (during which I only scored one goal, but I rarely gave up goals to opposing players). I also played a variety of positions for our coed and men's intramural and city league softball teams, The Outliers and Standard Error, over a total of eighteen seasons (during which I was an average fielder and batted well over .500, although with only three home runs and five triples in over 150 games). I am married and have a son as well as two dogs, an Australian Cattle Dog mix named Wilbur and a Border Collie - Black Lab mix named Jack, both of whom were adopted through the Gadsden County Humane Society.
Other Hensels on the Web
Besides my own web site, there are a number of Hensels and Hensel-related sites on the Web. As far as I can tell, none of them are related to me, but there is always some remote chance. Here are some of the most interesting:
Hensel People
- Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805-1847): A Romantic composer,and the sister of the better-known Felix Mendelssohn (under whose name many of her works were published). (see also another brief biography)
- Kurt Hensel (1861-1941): A mathematician from Konigsberg, Germany, best known for developing the algebraic theory of p-adic numbers.
Hensel Places
- Hensel, North Dakota (population 64! See it on a USGS map and a topographical map)
- Hensel, Pennsylvania (see it on a USGS map and a topographical map)
- Hensel Hall at Franklin and Marshall University is the home of a world-class concert hall
- Hensel Hall at Woodbury University is named for Woodbury alumnus Dr. George Hensel
- Hensel Park, Hensel Park Greenhouse, and Hensel Terrace Apartments are all located at Texas A & M University
Other Pauls on the Web
Royal Pauls
- Crown Prince Pavlos of Denmark
- Czar Paul I of Russia (ruled 1796-1801)
- Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia (lived 1860-1919)
- King Paul I of the Greeks (ruled Greece 1947-1964)
- Prince Paul of Yugoslavia (regent from 1934-1941)
- Prince Paul of Romania
- Prince Paul Chavchavadze of Russia (lived 1889-1971)
- Prince Paul P. Demidoff of San Donato
Religious Pauls
- The Apostle Paul
- Pope Paul I (Pope from 757-767)
- Pope Paul II (1464-1471)
- Pope Paul III (1534-1549)
- Pope Paul IV (1555-1559)
- Pope Paul V (1605-1621)
- Pope Paul VI (1963-1978)
- Pope John Paul I (1978-1978)
- Pope John Paul II (1978-)
- There are also more than twenty saints named Paul.
Other Pauls
- Hurricane Paul (a 1982 Pacific hurricane -- see also its tracking data; there have also been Tropical Storm Pauls in August 1999, September 1994, and September 1978)
- Don Pablo Cigar Company (in Las Vegas)
- Don Pablo's Mexican Kitchen
Entertainment
- My all-time favorite newspaper comic strips include Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes, Dilbert, and Doonesbury.
- Because so much of my career depends on science, I enjoy the Journal of Irreproducible Results and The Annals of Improbable Research.
- Any list of the best online news sources is incomplete without The Onion, News of the Weird, or SportsPickle.
- It's also interesting to see what happened This Day in History.
- One of the true all-time classic websites is The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia, an online version of the Kevin Bacon game.
- A newer site, taking advantage of the latest military technology, is the NORAD Tracks Santa site, where air defense radar allows us to track the progress of Santa's sleigh each December 24.
- And given the ease with which rumors spread on the Internet, it's often worth checking the Urban Legends Reference Pages at Snopes.com.
http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~phensel/prh.html
Last updated: 5 August 2005
This site © copyright 1996-present,
Paul R. Hensel. All rights reserved.