Dr. Gary Kieffner

Dr. Gary L. Kieffner is a Humanities adjunct faculty member and an academic consultant. He earned a B.A. Magna Cum Laude and an M.A. degree with Distinction in History from Northern Arizona University, then a Ph.D. from UTEP in Borderlands History. His areas of teaching and academic consultancy expertise in the disciplines of humanities, history, ethics and governance are in ancient, Medieval and Renaissance European architecture, arts, music, literature and thought, contemporary México-U.S. Borderlands history, Indigenous land tenure and governance, indigenist methodology and praxis.

Dr. Kieffner has served several colleges and universities in the U.S. and abroad, teaching or advising thousands of undergraduate and post-graduate students in face-to-face, online or blended modalities as well as in course development and administration.

As a visiting assistant professor of ethics and governance, he collaborated with his cadre of academics recruited by Fiji Island universities after the last military coup d’état, aiding transition of that nation’s authoritarian political and socioeconomic governance, helping to restore civil society and parliamentary democracy under a new constitution. After the regime suspended its “Public Emergency Regulations,” allowing public gatherings for the first time in years, Kieffner promptly reorganized and chaired the Suva Philosophy Club, convening the first public meetings in the nation. Months later, he served as “Submittee Number 1” among academics summoned to make suggestions for a new national constitution. All of Kieffner’s and his cadre’s suggestions were subsequently included in the first and final drafts of the 2013 Fiji Constitution, among the most progressive constitutions in the world. On these occasions and others, he and his colleagues helped to enable prerequisite conditions necessary for suspension of international sanctions, readmission of the Fiji Republic into active Commonwealth status and normalization of international relations.

Kieffner also serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Motorcycle Studies (2005—present) and is the author or editor of many articles. He likes to spend quality time with family. They are fútbol and rugby fans who enjoy traveling, camping and various water sports.

Class Taught:

HUMN 3302: Faith and Reason