User:Mark K. Jensen

I live in Tacoma, Washington. Photograph available. I was born on August 13, 1951, in Bethesda, Maryland. I am married and have one son. E-mail: jensenmk@plu.edu

My areas of specialization as a faculty member at Pacific Lutheran University, where I have taught since 1989, are 19th-century French literature and French. I have taught 18th-century and 20th-century French literature as well, as well as modern European literature generally. More broadly, I majored in history at Princeton University and am interested in modern European and American history, with additional interests in world history, the philosophy of history, and the history of ideas.

After briefly studying law, I pursued literary interests while working in a San Francisco bookstore and decided to return to graduate school in 1980. I hold a Ph.D. in French literature from the University of California, Berkeley. I find the Wikibook project interesting from every point of view. I had been contributing to Wikipedia for about a year when I became aware of Wikibooks in January 2006.

In recent years I have become politically active in the peace movement at the local level, and am involved in several groups in Pierce County, Washington. This has led me to develop new interests: national security, 20th-century U.S. history, media studies, etc.

I am fluent in French and am an experienced translator from French to English with have a particular interest in translating the work of the French literary historian and critic Paul B&eacute;nichou (1908-2001). I have published a translation of B&eacute;nichou's Le Sacre de l'&eacute;crivain (1973) entitled The Consecration of the Writer, 1750-1830 (U. Nebraska, 1999), and am currently at work on a translation of Le Temps des proph&egrave;tes (1977).

I maintain a home page. I also am active on the web on the pages of United for Peace of Pierce County and People for Peace, Justice, and Healing.