For the last two decades, Michael Niemann has written and taught about the places where the paths of ordinary human beings intersect larger social and political structures.
He is the author of A Spatial Approach to Regionalism in the Global Economy (2000) and numerous articles on global and African issues that have appeared in mainstream publications and academic journals. Currently, he is working on a novel about corrupt dealings at the United Nations Mission in Darfur featuring his protagonist Valentin Vermeulen. He is also exploring a multimedia project on the global cocoa and chocolate chain. Finally, he is thinking about starting an open-source online textbook on world politics.
He has helped students of all ages and backgrounds understand their role in constructing the world in which they live and to take this role seriously.
Born in 1956, he grew up in a small town in western Germany before moving to the United States. He was educated at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität in Bonn, Germany, and the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver where he received his PhD in International Studies. He lives in southern Oregon with his wife Joanna.