Professor David Overly is a man of many talents and interests and once again he put them to use.
Overly is a professor in the English and humanities programs at Citrus College and has been teaching at Citrus since 1991.
Overly has various interests, but he is especially interested in peace studies and human storytelling. He has had chapters in textbooks and academic articles published. In addition, he has also written plays.
For the first time, Overly has written a whole book, titled “Tales of the Migration: How Our Ancestors Walked around the World and What They Can Teach Us About Our Human Family.” He has worked on this book for several years, and now his hard work has finally paid off and is being shared with the world.
The book tells stories of how humans long ago ventured from continent to continent and walked across the world. Sea levels were much lower than they are now, exposing land that today is underwater.
“Each of these major steps, I try to humanize it by telling stories,” Overly said.
Overly said he wants to teach people that we have a shared humanity.
Overly said peace studies is an area in which he can use his various talents. He said he is interested in how humans can create stories.
Professor Dale Salwak, a fellow English professor at Citrus, served on Overly’s doctoral committee. They have known each other since Overly began his journey at Citrus in 1991.
“How fortunate we are that he chose to teach at Citrus,” Salwak said of Overly, via email. “I was impressed then and continue to be impressed by his depth of knowledge in many areas of study, his focus and dedication in class, and his active participation on campus committees, including most notably curriculum.”
“His achievements cover many areas on campus including publications and research, committee assignments (notably the curriculum committee), innovations to his teaching strategies,” Salwak said via email.
Overly said he hopes that his story will teach people that humans have more in common than they think.
