photo of E. Barbara Phillips

Latitude's founder-director

E. Barbara Phillips, Ph.D., has been concerned with intercultural & interdisciplinary issues for many years.  Formerly a U.S. diplomat in Africa & India, a workshop leader for OECD in Central Europe, an antipoverty worker in Appalachia, a journalist, & editor of a social science journal and well-travelled curious person, she is Professor Emerita of Sociology & Urban Studies, San Francisco State University. She has also taught at Stanford University, SUNY-Oswego, Utica College, and Onondaga Community College.

Barbara attended the Institut des Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po) in Paris during her Sweetbriar Junior Year in France, holds a B.A. (Honors) in History from Northwestern University;  an M.A. (International Relations) from The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Medford, MA; a M.P.A. with distinction (Public Administration) from The Maxwell School, Syracuse University, & an interdisciplinary social science Ph.D. from the Maxwell School.  She studied ballet in Chicago, Bharat Natyam in New Delhi, and Bugaku in Tokyo.

One of Barbara's continuing  interests is storytelling as a community function. Her dissertation explored "The Storytellers of Everyday Life: Journalists, their Craft & their Consciousness." 

Recently, she published the 3rd edition of her college text, City Lights:Urban-Suburban Life in the Global Society (Oxford University Press, 2010)  and has started two new projects. A book project which is far along-- A Taste of Southwest France: an American who likes to cook and relate anecdotes. Plus, she is conducting research concerning why adults change their deeply-held opinions or ideas, particularly in the realm of politics and religion.

Until he died in January, 2012, she enjoyed walking along the banks of the river Lot in La Toulzanie with the nearly bilingual  and totally bicontinental dog, Jack la Lang-ue, a Coton du Tuléar rescued in California, and listening to authors talk about their books in Berkeley, California, where she lives 8.5 months each year. She looks forward to walking another doggie down by the Lot soon!

                                     The Officers & Staff of Latitude

Latitude's Board of Directors is composed of  the following people, all part-time or full-tiime residents of the  Departement du Lot:

Tim H. Teninty, Président/President, La Toulzanie (Lot) & Berkeley, CA, US
Christine DaBlanc,  Vice-presidente, St. Martin Labouval (Lot) & Beaumont, France
Bertrand Puel, Secretary/Secretaire, Faycelles, hameau de Gaillot (Lot), and Toulouse
Antoine Mercadié, Treasurer/Trésorier, St Martin Labouval (Lot) and Toulouse

Members of the Conseil d' Administration are part-time or full-time residents of the Lot: Françoise Mathon, Pierre Viarouge, Anne-Marie Duviau, and Hugues DaBlanc.

Mei Sun Li is assistant to the director in the Bay Area, California.


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