Who is Jeff Irvin?

I was born in 1966 at the Great Lakes Naval Hospital in Illinois.

My childhood was quite peripatetic. I attended--by my own count--fourteen different schools prior to graduating from high school. By the time I matriculated at university I had lived in seven states of the Union (California, Iowa, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Illinois, Florida). This made for a haphazard early educational experience leaving me largely unprepared for higher education; and, my naturally autodidactic proclivity led me to believe I could not be taught by another.

In 1984 I entered The University of Toledo where I remained uncertain about what to major in for several years. I entered "undecided", and declared majors in engineering and business prior to settling on the study of history. I did this primarily because I was convinced that formal education would not benefit me economically. I was the only one of five siblings to graduate from high school, and I was passively and actively discouraged by my family from going on to higher education. I had also experienced, in 1980, a religious conversion that left me decidedly anti-intellectual--even though I remained fascinated with science, and conflicted by my continuing interest in it.

In 1986 I dropped out of college and took a full-time job with a local savings and loan. I worked in the banking industry until the end of 1989 when I returned to finish my bachelor's degree in history. After graduating in March of 1992 I spent another year working in the banking industry, then I applied and was accepted to the master's program in history at The University of Toledo. I finished this degree in August of 1996 and started my Ph.D. work in the fall of 1996.

While doing my master's degree I began working for The University of Toledo's IT department. In 1996 I became a Senior Software Specialist assigned to various departments in the College of Arts and Sciences. For the past twelve years I have been pursuing my Ph.D. in history while working for various companies in the IT field, and teaching history. I plan to complete my Ph.D. in early modern European history later this fall (2008).

For more information on my educational achievements and my work history, click on the following links: History Teaching CV and IT Resume.