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John Sumser is currently a professor in the Department of Communication Studies at California State University, Stanislaus. A sociologist, with a background in philosophy, Sumser is interested in the way certain ideas and views of the world dominate a culture during a given time. As a result of these interests, Sumser’s main academic areas are mass media and popular culture.
He also travels widely, both within and outside of the United States. Inside the United States, Sumser’s preferred mode of travel is by motorcycle, and he takes long annual trips through the back country of the American West, camping and stopping in as many small towns as possible. Traveling doesn’t always work out quite as he plans. In addition to serving in the Army in Vietnam and in the Peace Corps in Afghanistan, Sumser has been deported from Scandinavia and briefly kidnapped somewhere in Nebraska.
Sumser is currently working on a book of theories of meaning, and a book about the people who live in the marginal, empty spaces of the American landscape.
Sumser lives in Turlock, California with his wife, Helen, an overly large sheltie named Charlie, and a black-and-white cat named Biscotti.
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