He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Simpson College, Indianola, a Masters of Arts in German with a minor on Journalism from University of Minnesota, and he studied his Ph.D. in German and Comparative Literature also in this university. He currently in the Associate Dean of the School of Innovation and the executive director of Confucius Institute, both at Texas A&M University. He has a long trajectory as professor of german and film studies at Texas A&M University. He has written several books, such as Hogan’s Heroes (2011), Rubble Films: German Cinema in the Shadow of the Third Reich (2001) and Runaway Romances: Hollywood’s Postwar Tour of Europe (2009)