David O'Brien

collaboratory
Portrait of David O'Brien
David O'Brien
Email
david.obrien [at] mohawkcollege.ca (david[dot]obrien[at]mohawkcollege[dot]ca)
Discipline
History/ Philosophy

David O’Brien holds a BA and PhD from the University of Toronto and an MA from Queens University. All his degrees are in history, and he published in a minor way in that field before shifting his professional focus to teaching. As an undergraduate, he minored in philosophy and maintains a strong interest in the history of ideas. He taught briefly at Queens and then for many years at U of T before coming to Mohawk, where he has worked since 2003, mainly in the areas of history, philosophy, religion, politics, mythology, and art. Over the course of his more than thirty years in post-secondary teaching, David has created or substantially revised nearly a dozen courses, writing textbooks and/or other course material for several of them; he’s also collaboratively developed several others. He has lived for extended periods in Italy, France, and the USA, and he maintains a great interest in those and other cultures. And although he has also worked in fields as varied as real estate, landscaping, software sales, and translation, his true passion is teaching. David always strives to be both engaging and clear, while sharing his love of his subjects with his students.