Chris Prendergast describes himself as an unmotivated student before taking Social Problems at a small Catholic college in Brooklyn, New York in 1965. Principles of Sociology was even better, and a semester later he transferred to Brooklyn College, C.U.N.Y. There he encountered sociological theory, Continental philosophy, the New Left, Joyce, Fellini, and Coltrane--and a set of intellectual concerns which still echo in his courses. After a brief and frustrating career in public housing, Dr. Prendergast entered the graduate program in social theory at Southern Illinois University-- Carbondale, where he obtained his M.A in 1974 and Ph.D. in 1979. After six years at the University of Evansville, he came to Illinois Wesleyan in 1985, where he is responsible for courses in the History of Social Thought, Social Organization, Community and Urban Society, and American Social Institutions Today.  He became Chair of the department in 1995.