Bill Meulemans

The primary academic focus for Bill Meulemans has been the study of opposing political militant groups in the United States, Israel. and Northern Ireland. At the beginning of his career, he was appointed to a post at Southern Oregon College (now Southern Oregon University) where he brought extremist activists of the left and right into his classroom. Meulemans developed models that illustrated the sources of their attitudes and methods for resolving community conflicts. His early research was centered in Oregon and California, but later he moved into the southern and eastern areas of the United States where he did a series of interviews with the Ku Klux Klan and various racial and ethnic groups in urban areas.

After a long tenure as a professor of political science at Southern Oregon University, Bill Meulemans was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Israel. He spent his days with the Israelis in Jerusalem and his evenings with Palestinians in Ramallah. One year later, he accepted a teaching post as a professor of politics at The Queen's University of Belfast where he split his teaching duties with his research on paramilitary units in Northern Ireland. He conducted on-the-ground research on a daily basis in both Catholic and Protestant working-class neighborhoods. After a decade in Ulster, he returned to the US as a professor of political science at Portland State University where he offered a course titled "War and Peace in Northern Ireland."

Currently, Bill Meulemans is devoting full-time to writing short stories about his experiences with extremist groups in the United States, Israel, and Northern Ireland. His most recent book is "Dynamiting the Siskiyou Pass" in which he discusses his personal involvement in political events around the world.