Patrick Moser, Ph.D.

Dr. Moser enjoys teaching courses in Creative Writing, Literature, and French. A native Californian, much of his own writing focuses on the history of surfing and California beach culture. His latest book, Waikīkī Dreams: How California Appropriated Hawaiian Beach Culture, tells the story of California beach culture from 1920 through World War Two. The volume joins his Surf and Rescue: George Freeth and the Birth of California Beach Culture, which the Library Journal listed as one of the “Best Books of 2022” in the Arts and Humanities. Moser’s essays and stories also appear in TEXT, The Writing Disorder, Kurungabaa, The Surfer’s Journal, and Bamboo Ridge. An excerpt from his novel on George Freeth appears in The Hawaiì Review of Books. His  latest academic articles appear in The Journal of the Polynesian Society and Pacific Historical Review.

Moser has collaborated on two memoirs with world surfing champion Shaun Tomson: The Surfer’s Code, and The Code (for Young Adult readers). He is also the editor of Pacific Passages: An Anthology of Surf Writing, a recipient of the Carol Houck Smith Fellowship in nonfiction at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and of a Mayers Fellowship at the Huntington Library.

Dr. Moser has led numerous study abroad trips to Tours, France where students live with French families and enroll at the Institut de Touraine. He is the faculty advisor for the Drury Writing Club and the faculty coordinator for tutoring on campus.