Biographical Information: William E. Loges

You may ask yourself, "How did I get here?"

--David Byrne

I was born in Chicago, where my mother was born and my father lived since he was a small boy. At the time my family lived in Rockford, Illinois, about 90 miles from Chicago, but my mom insisted that each of her children be born in Chicago so that we could say "I was born in Chicago." She hated Rockford and figured everyone would know where Chicago is. She was right. I have found it very valuable when meeting people to be able to say "I was born in Chicago." I was the middle child in my large family. I had three brothers and three sisters; my mother’s first child Gregory died young, before I was born.

From my mom’s point of view, another advantage to giving birth in Chicago is that there was an OB/GYN there who would induce labor. My mom liked that idea compared to waiting for some yokel in Rockford to decide if she (or I, for that matter) was ready.

When I was 11 I got a guitar. Until my daughter Jessica was born, it was the best thing that ever happened to me.

In 1977 my family moved to California. I loved California (still do). I went to college at the University of California at San Diego, and studied communication. I spent my senior year as an exchange student at the University of Sussex in the south of England, studying politics and history.

After I graduated I spent three years working for the Travelers Insurance Company. I supervised the timely and accurate payment of group health claims. It was interesting work for a while. I met Jessica's mom there, and played guitar with some guys from the sales division. But after a couple of years I was getting bored. A friend from high school was contemplating grad school, and she showed me a brochure for the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California. More or less on a whim, I applied.

In 1986 I started grad school at Annenberg. Late in my first year I heard a lecture by Sandra Ball-Rokeach and her husband Milton Rokeach. I was drawn to their work in the communication of human values. Sandra became my dissertation advisor, mentor, and friend. I graduated with my Ph.D. in 1992.

Also in 1986, about a month after I entered USC, my daughter Jessie was born. She is an excellent daughter. If we’re all lucky, her ideals will guide the future.

After leaving USC in 1992 I taught for two years at the University of Denver, spending the summers working in the Human Resources Division of Montgomery Ward in Chicago. Then I returned to Los Angeles for a year to teach at the Annenberg School, primarily in their MA program. I enjoyed that a great deal.

In September of 1995 I was hired on a tenure track at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. I taught there for five years, but felt increasingly uncomfortable with the way the university’s policies regarding religion were being implemented (Baylor is a Baptist university).

Also in 1995 I was contacted by the Institute for Global Ethics. They were looking for someone with a social science background to help with research they wished to conduct into global values (i.e., values shared by human communities worldwide). Since then I have been consulting to the Institute on a variety of fascinating studies, and I value my relationship with them a great deal.

Also in 1995 I began playing music with a Baylor colleague, Jon Bruschke. As Mary's Garage Band, we recorded scores of songs in Jon's home recording studio and played a few live gigs in Waco. The band was temporarily disintegrated when Jon moved to California in 1997, but the legacy endured in the recordings, much to my delight and occasional embarrassment. When I returned to USC in 2000, the band was reunited, to the perpetual dismay of Jon’s neighbors but to my considerable pleasure. We spent some time in a recording studio in Victorville called Road Records in the summers of 2002 and 2003, and are now frantically making copies of the Mary’s Garage Band Anthology. Visit the website and demand your copy now!

After leaving Baylor I was hired back at the Annenberg School in 2000 as a lecturer and research associate, and appointed Faculty Master of the Annenberg House. While I lived in the Annenberg House I coordinated programs and events related to communication for the students who lived there. At the Annenberg School I was affiliated with the Communication Technology and Community Program, which conducts research into the role of communication in forging community ties. It’s a great group of scholars and I’m proud to be associated with them. I also worked with another great team, the Neighborhood Participation Project. They study the way people find ways to exercise their democratic rights in a bureaucratic tangle the size of Los Angeles. My stint at USC from 2000-2003 also allowed me to teach a talented group of MA students as they completed their graduate degrees. It was a challenge to me, but that is because the students were so good.

In the summer of 2003 I moved north to Oregon State University, where I teach in the brand-spanking-new New Media Communications Program, with an appointment to the Sociology Department. My duties include designing courses that teach the impact of new media on social life. It is delightful to be designing a new curriculum in a beautiful environment.

Jon Bruschke and I published a book in 2004 called Free Press vs. Fair Trials: Examining Publicity’s Role in Trial Outcomes. It is the finest document in the English language.

My research remains centered on the social implications of media.