Retired Lieutenant Colonel and Associate Professor of Political Science at the U.S. Air Force Academy
James "Pigeon" Fielder (Ph.D., The University of Iowa, 2012) joined CSU as an Instructor after retiring from the U.S. Air Force as a Lieutenant Colonel and Associate Professor of Political Science at the U.S. Air Force Academy. He is also serving as a Marine Corps University Non-Resident Krulak Fellow for academic years 2021-2023, develops organizational wargames under the name Liminal Operations, and is a roleplaying game content creator for Evil Beagle Games.
Fielder researches interpersonal trust and emergent political processes through cyber-based interaction, and through tabletop and live-action gaming as natural experiments (also known as ludology, or the study of games and gameplay). He also has over two decades of experience designing, executing, and assessing training exercises and wargames, from small-group tabletop discussions to multi-day exercises engaging 5,000+ participants.
He is a member of the Game's Manufacturing Association, Manchester Game Studies Network, the Midwest Political Science Association, the Military Operations Research Society, the North American Simulation and Gaming Association, and Pi Sigma Alpha, and peer reviews for the Journal of Information Technology & Politics, the Journal of Political Science Education, Media War & Conflict, Simulation & Gaming, and Social Movement Studies.
He received his military callsign (or nickname) for having pet pigeons, including one bird (Heathcliff) that he's had since 1996!