Geoffrey Vitale

The author is British by birth and was brought up in London. His military service involved translating Russian in Berlin, followed by financially tricky two years studying law at King's College. Lacking money, he found a job which was to teach in Morocco for four years. He subsequently did his BA with the University of Bordeaux and his MA and PhD at the Sorbonne. This was followed by him moving to Canada as a university professor and becoming involved with a considerable number of travel activities sponsored by federal and/or provincial government. This also included five months working as a curriculum advisor in the Comoro Islands in 1982, at a time when its professional army was controlled by mercenaries, headed by Bob Denard, a true and faithful 'white knight'. Other tasks over the past years have included a year with the University of Aveiro in Portugal (1985-86); two and a half months of lecture tour in Asia, sponsored by the Canadian Secretary of State (1990); four two-month working stays in Vietnam on behalf of the Canadian International Development Agency (1992-93); guest lecturer at University of Salamanca (1994); and two months teaching at a Japanese private school in Kyoto, an activity that provided the basis for his study of children historically and internationally, Anthropology of Childhood and Youth (1997); Period in Costa Rica, literary workshops and National University, Heredia (2001).