Name: Raja S. Tanas
Job title: Professor and Chair
Department: Sociology
How long have you worked at Whitworth? 28 years
What do you like best about your job? Learning never ceases; it is new every morning.
In what ways do your gifts and abilities help meet the needs of the campus community you serve? I serve as builder of bridges for understanding between the American and Middle Eastern societies.
Favorite book: The Crescent through the Eyes of the Cross: Insights from an Arab Christian (NavPress, 2008)
Favorite movie: “Grease”
Favorite food: Fish prepared any way, anywhere, and by anyone
Favorite quote: "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts. (From "As You Like It" by William Shakespeare)
Favorite music: Listening to the lute
Favorite animal: Lemur
Guilty pleasure: I scream for ice cream
Hobbies: Carpentry, gardening and playing chess
Best vacation ever: Climbing the Rock of Gibraltar, on the Mediterranean Sea, with my wife, Amal
Birthplace: Jaffa (the biblical city of Joppa), Palestine
We’d be surprised to know that…I play the diatonic button accordion.
I collect… stamps.
If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go? Easter Island
What puppet character best describes you? Cookie Monster
If you could try anything and not fail, what dream would you attempt? Establish a Middle East Studies Center at Whitworth University
That is your favorite sound? The sound of the ocean
What is your life motto? Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.
If the whole world was listening, what would you say? “Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly.”
Favorite childhood book: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Favorite childhood TV show: Did not have TV during childhood
Least favorite word: Absolutely
If you could go on a road trip with anyone (from the past or present), who would you choose and where would you go? I would go on a road trip with Amal to Alaska.
Best high school class subject: Math
