Dr. James „Pigeon“ Fielder joined Colorado State University as an Instructorafter 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 2021-2026 and consults on organizational wargaming. He holds a Ph.D. inPolitical Science from The University of Iowa.
He researches interpersonal trust and emergent political processes through tabletop and live-action gaming as natural experiments. He has over 25 years of experience designing training exercises and wargames, from small-group tabletop discussions to multi-day exercises engaging 5,000+ participants.
He is a managing editor of Active Learning in Political Science, associate editor of Simulation & Gaming, on the editorial board of The MORS Journal of Wargaming, was a TEDx speaker on games, and has been interviewed on game-related topics by Reuters,USA Today, and NBC News. Pigeon is also a topic instructor for the MORSCertificates in Wargaming and Cyber Wargaming.
He received his militarycallsign (or nickname) for having pet pigeons.