Tom spent a highly politicized childhood in the California Central Valley, New York, Arizona, Los Angeles, Mississippi, Mexico and the Bay Area. He has hitchhiked across Israel and Alaska and spent his formative years looking for Thoreau in Bonners Ferry and Lao Tsu in China; running a chain saw in the Selkirks; and generally wandering around looking at things. Whether exploring political philosophy in literature or the nature of true love and happiness, his courses focus on making often abstract and difficult intellectual concepts accessible, relevant and applicable to all of his students, regardless of their backgrounds and interests. Recently he has spent parts of his summers traveling to Spain to better understand the Moorish influence on the Renaissance.

• Drake is interested in showing the farm kid in the back row that Homer, Voltaire, Keats, Marx, Sartre and Foucault are all relevant to how he will spend the rest of his life. Toward that end, he’s interested in teaching students how to seek out, identify and challenge assumptions, and how to examine the histories of those beliefs they assume are inherently “True”.

• “It’s Alive! The Life Span of an Interdisciplinary Course in the Humanities”. Journal of General Education, V 57, No. 4 2008

• Travel to Italy researching Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance art, architecture and literature as relevant to teaching curriculum. 2007, 2008, 2009
• FIDA grant to study Spanish language, history, art and culture in Madrid, Spain. Summer 2012
• Travel to Spain researching Arabic influence on the Early Renaissance. Summer 2013

• Alumni Award for Excellence, 2003, 2010
• Naval ROTC Certificate of Appreciation, 2002
• Nominee: University of Idaho's Annual Award for Teaching Excellence, 2011