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Adney, Karley Assistant Professor
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Karley Adney specializes in 16th and 17th century British Literature, and is in the process of completing her dissertation at Northern Illinois University on adaptations of Shakespeare for children. Her greatest passion is teaching and the best reward she receives from that is observing student growth, whether it involves students developing writing techniques or finding a piece of literature that inspires them. She moved to Wausau with her three rabbits.
Ahrenhoerster, Gregory Associate Professor Waukesha
Greg worked in the Study Center as the TRIO writing specialist from 1997-2000 before moving across the hall and joining the English faculty. Greg earned his doctorate degree at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where his dissertation discussed sports references in 20th century American fiction. Greg spends most of his free time playing with his kids and fixing up his house, but he does manage to sneak off to play sports once in a while (justifying it as professional development—see dissertation topic). Greg’s favorite authors include William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, and Raymond Carver.Allen, M.D. Professor Fox Valley
Malcolm Allen earned a B.A. (Hons) in English and French Studies at the University of Lancaster (England), an M.A. in English at Louisiana State University, and a Ph.D. in English at the Pennsylvania State University, writing a dissertation on T. E. Lawrence’s interest in medieval literature and war. In addition to stints as a TA at LSU and Penn State, he has taught at a French lycée, the University of London, the Open University, Penn State Wilkes-Barre, and spent six years in the 1980s at the University of Jordan. He has taught a wide range of courses at UW Fox but seems now to have settled down to Composition II, the two halves of the English survey, “The Western Traditions in Literature,” “Contemporary Literature,” and “Twentieth-Century Novels of the World.” He is interested in English travel literature, especially the lives and writings of English travellers in the Middle East, but wants to learn as much as possible between now and the inevitable end about Dickens, Balzac, and Gissing.
He has been married since 1879—or rather 1979—to Susan, Publications Editor at St. Norbert College, and has four children. Phoebe is a junior at UW-Mason, Edward happily works locally, and twins Guy and Elizabeth, a.k.a. Tizzie, are sophomores in high school.
In his spare time he progresses with the best collection of the used stamps of French colonies ever made by a poor man, with a particular focus on sub-Saharan French Africa.
Ambrose,
Jennifer Lecturer Waukesha
Apfelbeck,
Laura Lecturer Manitowoc
Atwood, Karen Associate
Lecturer Rock
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Mathew J. Bartkowiak recently completed his PhD in the American Studies program at Michigan State University. His dissertation focused on a Detroit-based band in the late 1960s, the MC5. The dissertation combined his study interests including popular culture studies, music, social change, and American radicalism. Mat was the founding book review editor at the Journal for the Study of Radicalism and currently serves on the editorial board at The Journal of Popular Culture. Mat and his wife Sara are both Marshfield natives and are excited to be back in their hometown, now with the addition of their one-year old daughter, Ella.
Becker, Robert Associate Lecturer Marinette
Byrand, Sherri Lecturer Sheboygan
CSherri earned a B.A. in Theatre Arts and Psychology from Point Park College and an M.S. in Journalism from Syracuse University. In addition to teaching English 098 and English 102, Sherri serves as the advisor for the Sheboygan campus newspaper The Voice. She has more than 200 published works, including articles in The Washington Post, National Parks, and Science. She currently anchors the Sunday editorial page of The Sheboygan Press, and her work is periodically reprinted in The Capital Times and on various national web sites. Before moving to Sheboygan, she used to write regularly for the international journal of Science and the Children’s Defense Fund. She also ghostwrote for various policy players in Washington, D.C. Now, she has stepped back from a high-pressure professional life to have more time to play with her husband (a geography professor) and their five-year-old son, 100-pound Newfoundland/lab, 30-pound Scottie terrier mutt, 20-pound orange fatcat, and 6-pound tabby. Her hobbies include kayaking, rollerblading, skiing, rock climbing, and reading. Favorite writers include Mark Salzman, Helen Thomas, Molly Ivins, David Sedaris – well, the list goes on, from Asimov to Vonnegut.
Sheila earned her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Minnesota and her Master of Arts degree from Fresno State University. She divides her time between UW-Waukesha and MATC—Fort Atkinson, teaching a variety of English and Speech courses. A mother of two teenagers, she enjoys gardening, cooking, and home improvement projects in Lake Mills. Her favorite authors are Dickens, Eliot, and Hardy. She also enjoys reading noir fiction and mysteries.
Cole, Bevra Associate Lecturer BarabooNancy Chick earned her B.A. in English from the University of New Mexico in 1990 and her M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Georgia in 1992 and 1998, respectively. Nancy's research interests include the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), the discipline of literary studies, feminist pedagogy, and the intersections of the three. She's enjoyed getting involved locally (volunteering at the Rice Lake Public Library, driving to a nearby town every week to get the Rice Lake shares for The Good Luck Farm CSA so there's a local pickup point) and internationally (serving as the Communications Coordinator, member of the Board of Directors, and editor of The International Commons of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning [ISSOTL]). In recent years, she's worked on balancing work and life, so she enjoys summer gardening and winter knitting, reading nonfiction by day and mysteries by night (Nevada Barr and Harlan Coben are favorites), watching movies with her husband Peter as Netflix's best customers, playing with their cats (Jack, Grendel, Hobbes, and Hazel), and finding excuses to be outdoors.
Dresser, Marnie Bullock Professor RichlandRhonda grew up in Washington State, the youngest in a family of five. She graduated from Seattle University in 1997 and got her Master’s Degree at Oregon State University in 2001. She went on to get my PhD in English at Washington State University in 2005. She enjoys reading eighteenth and nineteenth century English literature, and her favorite poems are To a Skylark and Mont Blanc by Shelley, Autumn, The Eve of St. Agnes and Ode to a Nightingale, by Keats, The World is Too Much with Us, Tintern Abbey, By Wordsworth. Other favorites are The Ballad of Reading Gaol, The Lady of Shalott, The Songs of Innocence and Experience, The Raven. She has only lived in Wisconsin since August 2007, so she's getting used to the cold winters. She is enjoying the snow, however.
EMarnie Bullock Dresser grew up in Southern Illinois, and earned a B.A. and M.A. in literature from SIU. Then she set off for the wild west, a.k.a. Missoula, Montana, for an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Montana. There she (sort of) learned the art of fly-fishing, although a friend once told her that if she ever saw a bear she should wave her fly rod at it, since it seemed to repel all living things.
She's been teaching in the UW Colleges since 1991, and at UW-Richland since 1992. ("Where's my 15-year pin?!") She can say with all honesty that she loves her job. Great students, great colleagues, beautiful location.... She was honored to win the Alliant Energy/UW System Underkofler Excellence in Teaching Award in 2001.
She has published more poetry than any other genre, but she also works in fiction, creative nonfiction, drama, and more scholarly articles related to teaching/creative writing issues.
She lives in Spring Green, Wisconsin with her husband Nathanael, son Wendell, and their two cats. Nath's a talented singer / songwriter / photographer as well as an all-around good guy and stay-at-home dad for Wendell, whose current favorite word is, “Go!” The cats are, of course, very talented in the areas of body function, demolition, and the run-around-make-lots-of-noise game. Marnie has an organic garden, and her goal for the garden is always "an acceptable level of chaos." This might be her life motto, as well.
Emmett, Paul Professor ManitowocScott Emmert started teaching at Fox Valley in fall 2002. He has degrees from Minnesota State University – Moorhead, the University of Iowa, and Purdue University. His research interests include American literary realism and naturalism, the short story, fiction and film of the American West, and sports literature. Originally a suburbanite, he now lives in the country with his wife; their two sons; her two cats; his dog; the toads, frogs and bugs the boys drag into the house; and – for two months every summer – a flock of chickens, for which he serves as executioner. He calls the place Blithedale Farm, a joke that he finds quite amusing. He is likely the only one who does.
Jennifer Flatt earned a B.A. in English and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in 1993 (summa cum laude, con honore), an M.A. in English from the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 1996, and her Ph.D. in English from Loyola University Chicago in 2000. Her dissertation, Revisioning Christian Ministry: Women and Ministry in Agnes Grey, Ruth, Janet’s Repentance, and Adam Bede, focused on the ways in which these Victorian novels challenged patriarchal Christianity. Her publications have extended this research and examined other areas of interest in teaching and literature, including math and writing anxieties, foreign language education, and connections between music and literature. In addition to teaching English at UW-Marinette, Jennifer teaches intermediate Spanish. Outside of teaching, she enjoys studying languages and is an avid sports fan.
Friederich, Joel Assistant Professor Barron
GJoel Friederich grew up in rural Iowa and attended the University of Iowa and St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he received his BA. After completing a graduate program in teaching certification at the University of New Mexico, he taught high school in Santa Fe for several years and lived for a short time in New York City where he studied book arts. He moved north to study creative writing and poetry at the University of Montana in Missoula, and after receiving his MFA, he and his wife, Lee, accepted teaching positions at Chuo University outside Tokyo, Japan. While living in Japan for six years, they traveled around Asia and the Pacific.
Their two sons, Jackson and Tobias, were born in Tokyo, and they moved to northern Wisconsin in 1999 for no reason other than that they liked it. Joel has taught at the University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire, Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, Washington University in St. Louis, Fontbonne University in St. Louis, and University of Maryland University College (where he's taught online and at a military base near Yokohama, Japan). Joel is an Assistant Professor at UW-Barron County with a split appointment in English and Communication and Theater Arts (CTA is his home department), and he teaches writing, public speaking, and journalism, advising the campus newspaper. He writes poetry and tries to get it published, and some of his favorite poets are Elizabeth Bishop, Milosz, Hass, Basho, Buson & Issa, Hiromi Ito, Simic, James Wright, Sharon Olds, Eric Pankey. New poets: Dan Beachy-Quick and Ilya Kaminsky. He lives north of Rice Lake on a lake in the woods with his cat. In 06-07, Lee and his sons are in St. Louis so that Lee can continue work on her doctorate in Japanese women's poetry at Washington University, and in the spring they will move north to join him.
Bill lives in Appleton with his wife, Susan, and two daughters, Imogen and Gwendolyn. Bill was born and raised in northern New Jersey, just outside of New York City. Before coming to UW Fox, he taught at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey, where he was an administrator. Before that, he taught and coached ice hockey at Delbarton School in Morristown, New Jersey. His work--creative and scholarly--has appeared in Writer’s Chronicle, The Literary Review, Alimentum, The Leading Edge, Poetry Bay, Surprising Stories, Spitball, The Dictionary of Literary Biography, and The Encyclopedia of Native American Literature, among others. His research interests include science fiction, Native American literature, and Shakespeare. Bill is always working on a novel (or is it the other way around?), plays guitar, writes songs, designs board games, plays hockey in an old man league, and thinks a lot about time travel. He plans to remain in college forever.
Giordano, Joanne Associate
Lecturer Marathon
Grant, Ken Professor Baraboo
Ken Grant began teaching at the UW-Baraboo/Sauk campus in 1978. He received a B.A. from DePaul University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Marquette University with a specialty in Old and Middle English literature. He has regularly taught in the campus' prison education program at the Federal Correctional Institution at Oxford, Wisconsin. For the last decade, he has studied a number of contemporary novelists including John Fowles, John Crowley, Samuel R. Delany, Tim Robbins and August Derleth. He is presently at work on a biography of Wisconsin regionalist author August Derleth. Ken enjoys gardening and hates woodchucks.Gratz, David Professor Manitowoc
Jean Greenwood teaches English composition and coordinates the Lecture and Fine Arts Series. In her spare time, she spends what she would have spent getting a Ph.D. on her riding education. She has a graduate degree from the school of falls and hard knocks. Horses, like her English students, are her pupils AND her teachers – and both serve as perfectly inclusive and complete metaphors in her life.
Hebert, Eva Lecturer WaukeshaHolly Hassel is currently assistant professor of English at University of Wisconsin-Marathon County. Dr. Hassel hails from the snowy northwoods of Minnesota, coming to intellectual fruition in the resort community (and home to Paul Bunyan Amusement Center) of Brainerd, MN. She earned her B.A. in English (Creative Writing emphasis) with a philosophy minor from St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, MN in 1995 and continued at SCSU, earning an M.A. in English in 1997 with the obscurely titled “People Always Clap for the Wrong Things: A Comparative Analysis of Existentialist Themes in Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye and Camus' The Stranger.” She abandoned her native Nordic land for prairie and Husker country, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she studied twentieth-century American literature, writing centers, and composition. Besides teaching courses at UNL and Southeast Community College in basic writing, composition, twentieth-century women writers, 20th century fiction, and women in popular culture, Professor Hassel directed the Writing Assistance Center at UNL for the 2000-2001 school year. She most recently spent a year in the verdant hills of Fairmont, West Virginia, where she completed her dissertation entitled “Wine, Women, and Song: Gender and Alcohol in Twentieth-Century American Women’s Fiction,” and taught courses in writing and literature at Fairmont State College.She has shared her research at the Conference on College Composition and Communication, the Society for the Study of American Women Writers' International Conference, and the Feminism(s) and Rhetoric(s) Conference and has continuing scholarly interests include popular culture studies, feminist pedagogy, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and 20th century American literature.
Off-campus, Dr. Hassel enjoys a variety of activities: running the streets of Wausau (she has completed three marathons and is hoping to train for a fourth this year), cooking delightful vegetarian cuisine, playing with her two naughty cats, reading mystery novels, touring odd destinations of the Midwest, singing poorly-chosen karaoke selections at gritty, local bars, devouring action movies starring Vin Diesel, and watching crime dramas. She lives in Wausau with her husband, Jason, and her daughter, Beatrix Turtle Octavia Homsel, born 8-24-05.
Jennifer Heinert earned her B.A. in English and Spanish in 1998, her M.A. in British and American Literature in 2001, and her Ph.D. in Twentieth-Century American Literature in 2005 from Marquette University. Her dissertation, “(Re) Writing Genre: Narrative Conventions and Race in the Novels of Toni Morrison” is a study of the complex relationship between race and genre in The Bluest Eye, Tar Baby, Jazz, and Beloved. Jennifer’s research interests include Narrative and Genre Studies, Multicultural Literature (currently African-American author Ishmael Reed and American-Indian author Louise Erdrich), and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Her guilty pleasures include downloading podcasts of the NPR program A Way with Words and reading Real Simple magazine. At home, Jennifer enjoys reading, gardening, and cooking with her high school sweetheart (and husband of six years), Scott. Jennifer currently teaches Composition II, Multicultural American Literature, and Modern Literature at the UW – Rock County campus in Janesville.
Henderson, Dianne Associate
Lecturer Marshfield
Jahns, Valerie
Associate Lecturer Fox Valley
Jarvis, Zeke Lecturer
Marathon
Zeke Jarvis received his BA in Math and English from UW-Madison, and he received an MA from UW-Milwaukee, where he's finishing up his PhD this year. He's given papers, such as "Did Jesus Have a Sense of Humor?", at MMLA and other regional conferences, and he's had short stories and poems published in places like Bitter Oleander and Heliotrope. He also got married on the beach at sunset this past May. Sorry ladies.
Johannes, Helen Lecturer
Marshfield
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Kalish, Catherine Assistant
Professor Marshfield
Read Katie's
New Faculty
Bio!
Katie Kalish received her B.A. in English from the University of Wisconsin—Madison, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Marquette University. Katie’s dissertation examines the way that James Joyce uses clothing as a form of rhetoric in Finnegans Wake. She is particularly interested in the novels of James Joyce, Patrick McCabe, and Muriel Spark. Katie currently teaches Composition I and II as well as Introduction to Literature at the UW – Marshfield/Wood County campus. When she is not reading novels, using academic jargon, and citing authorities, you can find Katie spending time with her husband, Brian and daughter, Hadley.
Knol, Ann Associate Lecturer Marathon
Ann Knol, teaches English composition and business writing and tutors in the Writing Center. She received her Bachelor of Science in journalism and English and her Masters of English in English, with a creative writing specialty, from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. She currently is enrolled in a limited residency Master of Fine Arts program in fiction writing through Warren Wilson College. Before coming to UWMC in 2002, she had more than two decades of journalism experience, as a full-time reporter for the Southern Illinoisan and Wausau Daily Herald newspapers, as a correspondent on retainer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and as a correspondent and researcher for Money Magazine, Fortune, InStyle, and Real Simple. Ann also served as an associate editor at eBay Magazine and as a contributor to various other publications. She continues to work as a correspondent for Money Magazine during breaks from UWMC. Her husband, Douglas, is the principal of the Antigo Middle School and they have three children, Nicholas, Molly and Max. Nicholas and Molly are now in college, which may give Ann some special insights into the pressures of college life. She enjoys watching students grow as writers and as people.Kordus, Lynn Associate Lecturer Marathon
Lynn Kordus received her B.S. in Secondary Education, English, Writing, and Communication from UW--Stevens Point, and her M.A. in Communication from UWSP. She taught part-time at UWMC, Northcentral Technical College, and Wausau Insurance Companies in the early 1990s, and has significant experience in communication and public relations at Wausau Insurance, six years’ newspaper experience as an education reporter and youth page editor, and several years' experience freelancing in communication/public relations. Lynn also has managed media relations and special events for a women’s university in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; freelanced in Egypt; and is working on organizing tours to Egypt in 2007 and 2008. Her interests include Egyptology; the Middle East; international communication/public relations; needlework/beadwork; and studying Arabic, hieroglyphs, and Wisdom Literature of the ancient Egyptian Pharaonic period. She is also working on a manuscript relating to her career Army father's experiences in World War II.Kriewald, Gary Associate Lecturer Rock
Janet has previously worked at UW Colleges- Rock County and UW-Whitewater, teaching both English and Women's Studies. She earned her doctorate at UW-Madison, and her dissertation focuses on women writers and their frontier and rural fiction about women. Janet leads several ongoing book discussion groups, but her real interest is writing life history groups, which she has lead for years. She also played guitar in a church group for 18 years. Her fiction for fun interests include women's novels and mystery fiction.Langteau, Paula Campus Dean Marinette
Paula Langteau earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Eureka College in Illinois and a master’s degree in English from Ball State University in Indiana, where she also completed all of her doctoral coursework. Before becoming an administrator, she taught English full-time for 12 years in Atlanta, as an Associate Professor at Georgia Perimeter College. The focus of her graduate work—and her scholarly research—are the plays of Arthur Miller. She served in the founding of the Arthur Miller Society and as the Society’s 2nd president; she currently serves on the Executive Board. She has published on Miller, hosted an international conference on Miller, and refereed submissions on Miller for scholarly journals. Her interests also include the literature of the “Other,” including African American and Native American literatures as well as post-colonial studies and women’s studies. She enjoys teaching composition, American literature, and modern British literature. She says that while she finds administrative work very fulfilling, teaching feeds her soul, so she is always looking for an excuse to get back in the classroom!
Lansing, Margaret Lecturer
Waukesha
Lem,
Ellyn Assistant Professor
Waukesha
Ellyn is happy to have returned to her Midwest roots after living everywhere but the Midwest since graduating with a BA from University of WI-Madison in 1986. After receiving a Ph.D. in 1997 from NYU, Ellyn spent several years at DePaul University, teaching a wide-variety of undergraduate courses, many of which were geared for first-year students. At an almost glacial pace, she has been working on a book about ethnic identity and culinary texts. Early versions of several chapters have been published in journals and presented at many different conferences, most recently, the Popular Culture Association Conference. Lately, from a GISE grant, Ellyn and colleague John Allen just orchestrated UW-Waukesha’s first ever “Immersion Excursions,” which involved faculty, staff, and student field trips throughout the Milwaukee area, followed by a BBQ. When Ellyn is not being a teacher, she is usually being “mama” to two really cute boys, who have even more energy than she does.
Janice Marshall earned a B.A. in English from Wartburg College and an M.A. in English from Marquette University. Her award-winning writing includes the Fayette County American Legion's "What America Means to Me" essay contest as an eighth grader, the Hardee's Employee Labor Day Essay Contest and most recently, the Outstanding English Graduate award at Wartburg. Besides teaching writing, literature, and public speaking for the last 13 years, she has served as a high school speech judge for 10 years. Off-campus, Janice is a kamikaze gardener who is in the process of ridding her lawn of grass, which delights her loving husband of four years. Her unflappable cats Cyrus (12) and Cinnamon (2) are unimpressed, as usual.Martin, Lisa Associate Lecturer Baraboo
Lisa Martin received both her BA in her MA in English from California State University of Hayward/East Bay. She began teaching remedial composition level courses in the fall of 1999 as a graduate student. Upon graduation in 2000, she was promptly booted out of the nest and forced to find a position elsewhere. In the last seven years, Lisa has had the privilege of teaching transfer-level composition at three two-year colleges, including UWC Baraboo/Sauk County. When she is not with her students, she is at home with her two active, small children, Noah and Maggie.
Mattek, Michael Lecturer Washington
I received my B.A. in English with a minor in History from University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, which makes me a product of the UW system! After that, I got my M.A. in English and American Literature from Marquette University (Milwaukee); I guess I liked studying so much that I stayed there for my Ph.D. also. The primary focus of my doctoral studies was American Literature (with a little more Medieval British and Sociolinguistics sprinkled in as well). The topic of my dissertation was Albert Brisbane, and the Associationist movement—an 1840s social reform group—and their influence on Emerson, Hawthorne, and Fuller. I also did a chapter on “Ceresco,” a utopian community that later became Ripon, WI. This interest in social issues still comes in handy when I teach composition and literature. I also emphasize genre conventions and the ideals of a liberal arts education in my classes, and always find a way to introduce my students to the wonders of juggling and the fun of ballroom dancing. My list of favorite authors include: James Agee, Anne Fadiman, Rose McCauley, Phillis Wheatley, William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, the writers, musicians, and Lindy-Hoppers of the Harlem Renaissance, and Adam Smith for his “Theory of Moral Sentiments.”McCaslin, Christina Associate Lecturer Marathon
Christina McCaslin earned her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts from Western Illinois University. For her concentration in literature during graduate study, Christina McCaslin wrote a thesis on The Scarlet Letter's Hester Prynne as a "prophetess." She enjoys teaching composition but sees it more as "coaching," and frequently incorporates literature and current events into her courses. According to Ann, people say winters in Wisconsin are cold, but since she chills easily, 45 degrees might as well be 90 below. You'll recognize her as the gal in the sweaters and snow boots at all times.McLeer, Karen Associate Professor Richland
Joe Milicia received his B.A. from Case Western Reserve University and his M.A./Ph.D. from Columbia University, where his area of study was Modern Literature; dissertation on the fiction of H.D. (Hilda Doolittle). He has taught at Colgate University, Columbia (as a “preceptor,” i.e., part-time graduate-student instructor), Stevens Institute of Technology, and Northwestern University. Though he has published articles on Henry James and H.D., and an introduction to Ann Radcliffe’s The Romance of the Forest, he has in recent years concentrated on science fiction (reviews for The New York Review of Science Fiction), cinema (essays for the 4-volume International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, now in its fourth edition), or both (co-author of the chapter on “Science Fiction Film” for the reference volume Anatomy of Wonder, 5th Edition, 2005), plus reviews for Multicultural Review (with emphasis on literature of Hawai’i). Side interest, music: playing clarinet in the Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra, writing CD reviews for Enjoythemusic.com.Mills, Laurel Senior Lecturer Fox Valley
Laurel Mills teaches has a BS and an MA in English from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. At Fox, she teaches creative writing, administers the Shirley Anders Creative Writing Scholarship, and is editor of the literary magazine Fox Cry Review. In 2001, she received the Marilee White Instructional Academic Staff Award. Laurel’s novel Undercurrents was published by Rising Tide Press, and she is currently at work on a second novel. She is also the author of four award-winning collections of poems. I Sing Back won the Pippistrelle Best of Small Press Award. The Gull Is My Divining Rod was awarded Outstanding Achievement Honors from the Wisconsin Library Association. Troika IV: Hidden Seed won the Posner Poetry Award. Canada Geese Coming Home earned an award from the Council for Wisconsin Writers. Her poems have been published in many magazines, including Ms., Yankee, Kalliope, and Calyx, and in several anthologies, including Sweeping Beauty: Contemporary Women Poets Do Housework and Boomer Girls: Poems by Women from the Baby Boom Generation, both from the University of Iowa Press. She has been the recipient of several writing residencies at the Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, Illinois, is listed in Who’s Who in America (Marquis), and is a member of the Authors Guild. She and her partner of 25 years, Lynn, enjoy biking. They are the parents of three grown children, enjoy their lovely granddaughter, and are very busy raising a teen-age nephew.Mistele, Linda Lecturer Waukesha
Mofle, Susan Senior
Lecturer Barron
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Nelson, Gregg Lecturer
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Pagliaroni, Sara OWL Director Waukesha
Similar to Professor Ahrenhoerster, Sara also has a long, unpronounceable German name and currently works in the Study Center as the TRIO writing specialist and director of the Online Writing Lab. Sara earned her masters degree at Marquette University (emphasis on modern British and American literature) while teaching freshman composition courses. She enjoys the great outdoors, will partake in any activity requiring movement, skill, and entertainment, and can out-eat most people twice her size. Sara’s favorite writers include Jane Austen, Louise Erdrich, and Kyoko Mori.
Mark Parman, Lecturer, Marathon, serves as the faculty advisor for UWMC's always irreverent student newspaper, the Forum, Mark Parman teaches Basic Writing skills, Composition I, and Composition II. He also teaches News Writing and Applied Journalism. In addition to his work as bicycling editor for Silent Sports he is the media director for the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival and the 24 Hours of Nine Mile. He has written for Sports Afield, Outdoor World, the Bark, Mushing, Gun Dog, Pointing Dog Journal, the Upland Almanac, the Boundary Waters Journal, Fur-Fish-Game, Wisconsin Outdoor Journal as well as for Ducks Unlimited and the Ruffed Grouse Society.Pavesic, Christine Lecturer Waukesha
Alayne Peterson received her BA in Philosophy and English Literature from Hiram College (Ohio). After a year shoveling horse manure on a farm in northeast Ohio, she went on for her MA in English Literature from the University of Toledo (concentration in 19th & 20th century British and American); her master’s thesis covered Alice Walker’s use of the blues in her novel The Color Purple. After a year as an adjunct teaching 6 classes per quarter, she decided to go back to school, this time for an MFA in Creative Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.Phillips, Cassandra Associate Professor WaukeshaShe became a faculty member at UW-Fond du Lac in the fall of 2005. Prior to that time she taught for one year as an English lecturer at UW-Fond du Lac and has also taught at Marquette University, UW-Waukesha, UW-Washington County, Columbia College in Chicago, Terra Community College in Ohio and the University of Toledo.
She is a member of the Engaging Students in the First Year (ESFY) committee on campus and was one of the faculty members who taught the two day LEC 100 seminar class "Frankenstein" in the fall of 2005. She is currently writing a one-woman show on the life of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley--an offshoot of the work she did on the Frankenstein LEC-100 course.
Though not a "techie," Alayne is interested in Artificial Intelligence, nanotechnology, genetic engineering, and robotics as they impact our society--her English 102 class is called "Considering the Future" and deals with some of these so-called "science fiction" issues.
Cassandra (Cassie) previously taught DePaul University in Chicago where she received her masters, and at The University of Louisville in Kentucky where she received her doctorate. Her dissertation work focused on the study of multiple literacies in the college classroom. As such, her research interests are in literacy studies and biography. Cassie lives in Milwaukee where she spends most of her time chasing after son Charlie, 2, and preparing for the arrival of his sibling this summer. In the rare moments reading is possible, she enjoys best-selling authors like Patricia Cornwall, Carl Hiassen, and A.S. Byatt.Popko, Mike Associate Lecturer Barron
John Pruitt recently graduated from Ohio University as has gradually grown to accept a mid-west way of life. Now with degree in hand, John is writing and publishing articles on critical pedagogy and on the literature of the long eighteenth century while contemplating a critical edition of Elizabeth Inchbald’s Memoirs. John’s also been appointed to the National Council of Teachers of English Advisory Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues in Academic Studies. Otherwise, his guilty pleasures include gory slasher movies and smoky pool halls. We all know the importance of being well rounded.Q
Elizabeth Owen was at Iowa State, the UW Eau Claire, the U. of Minnesota/Duluth, and the U. of Arizona before coming to UW Barron County. She earned an MA in English (from the U. of Iowa) and a BJ in Journalism (from the U. of Missouri/Columbia). Working part-time for UWBC, she teaches the Internship and Service Learning courses offered by the English Department, and coordinates the Federal Work Study program for Student Services.The majority of her time, however, is spent as a working writer of magazine articles, books, and federal grant proposals. One of her latest projects, a proposal to the U.S. Dept. of Education Fund for Improvement in Postsecondary Education, won a $780,000 award from FIPSE for the Consortium for Innovative Learning Environments, a group of eight colleges known for their unique approaches to student learning, assessment, learning communities, curricular structure, and governance. She is also facilitator for the Western New York Coalition for Service Learning, a group of 6 liberal arts colleges and 8 service providers in the Buffalo-Niagara area. Another recent grantwriting project brought in $1.66 million to the UW System for one of only 6 Star Schools awarded by the U.S. Dept. of Education in 2005. In the grant, faculty at UW, Harvard and MIT will collaborate through the UW System's Academic Advanced Distributive Learning Co-Laboratory to leverage the effectiveness of augmented reality simulation games on mobile computers with global positioning systems to improve under-served urban middle school mathematics and literacy instruction and student achievement in those fields.R
Amy Reddinger comes to us from the University of Washington in Seattle where she just completed her PhD. Her dissertation (and area of continued interest) focuses on postwar American culture -- an interest that spans textual studies (she has written a lot about cookbooks), the history of Basic Writing, and the work of James Baldwin. She is particularly excited about teaching writing in a more intimate and student-centered teaching environment. Amy is moving to Marinette with her partner Rhonda and her dog Buddy.
Reitter, James Assistant Professor Sheboygan Read James's New Faculty Bio!
James Reitter earned his PhD from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and also has an MFA in poetry from CUNY Brooklyn. He is very excited to be teaching at UW-Sheboygan and is currently working on a co-authored ethnography about a houseboat community on the Atchafalaya Basin. Coming from a generalist degree, his areas of interest include American and British nineteenth-century literature, film studies, and folklore, all of which are present in his dissertation on the history of the crocodilian in Western culture. James and his partner Ann Gaygan have relocated to Shorewood with their two cats, Lexi and Lali.
Roby,
Patricia Associate Professor Washington
Rozga, Margaret Professor
Waukesha
Margaret (Peggy) Rozga’s essays have appeared recently in Wisconsin Magazine of History, The Humanist, The Rambler, and Focus. Her play March On Milwaukee: A Memoir of the Open Housing Protests enjoyed a successful premier production at UW Waukesha in April 2007. She publishes her poems in many literary journals, most recently Nimrod, Out of Line and the 2008 Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets calendar. Her work has also been included in exhibits with visual art shown at UW Waukesha, the UW Milwaukee art history gallery, in Waukesha, Milwaukee, and Chicago galleries, and at the University of West Florida. She has held residencies at the Ragdale Foundation and the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, where she has also taught poetry workshops. She currently serves as adviser to UW-Waukesha’s Students for Peace and is helping to organize events to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Milwaukee’s open housing marches. For more information about these events, see www.marchonmilwaukee.org
Chuck received his PhD from the University of Cincinnati in 2003 and then immediately relocated to the coldest location possible: Green Bay. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, he wanders toward the snow like Melville’s characters wander toward the sea. His first collection of poems, Nickel and Diming My Way Through, is due out this winter, and Chuck was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2004. Chuck’s main literary interests are 20th century American poetry and fiction, as well as any and all literary theory. He is also involved with Oneiros Press, which specializes in letterpress broadsides; thus far, Oneiros has published the work of Albert Goldbarth, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jane Mead, Ai, and also has a forthcoming broadside by Michael Ondaatje. Other than working on his own creative writing, Chuck’s current research interests include William Faulkner and conceptions of whiteness. Chuck has two cats (Paris and Odysseus) and his recent marriage has merged his Homeric household with the world of Tennessee Williams—his wife’s dog is “Stella.”S
Mary Schiltz received a BA in Art from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. She taught watercolors and drawing at the college level in Alaska at Matanuska Susitna College, in addition to her 18-year high school teaching career in Art and English. Further, Mary has taught painting and writing classes on and off for 22 years, as well as memoir writing and family history research. She has completed graduate work in English at UW--Green Bay, UW--Stevens Point and Concordia College. She homesteaded in Alaska for eight years, enjoying wilderness living. Off-campus, Mary is married to a wonderful guy and has two grown sons. Her hobbies are reading and writing; she is currently working on an Alaskan memoir and a historical novel based on Norwegian ancestry.
Schreibersdorf, Lisa Assistant Professor Fond du Lac Read Lisa's New Faculty Bio!
Lisa Schreibersdorf is returning to Wisconsin after a year as Visiting Assistant Professor at the State University of New York at Binghamton. She completed her PhD. at UW Madison with a dissertation titled "Hyphens on the Home Front: Imagining American Culture through the German-American Hyphen, 1911-1919," arguing that the German-American ethnic hyphen became a key term for discussions of a modern, cosmopolitan American literature during World War I. Teaching and research interests include service learning, the intersections of literature and politics, and the theory of race and gender. When not working, she keeps busy rock climbing and mountain biking.
Lisa Seale (Professor, Department of English), received her Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1991, with a dissertation on the later works of Robert Frost. She continues to research the public talks and readings of Robert Frost, with publications in The Robert Frost Review, The New England Quarterly, and Roads Not Taken: Rereading Robert Frost (University of Missouri, 2000). Her area of expertise is American Literature, with specializations in Modern American Poetry and Asian American literature. She has taught Composition, Introduction to Literature, American Literature before and after 1865, Shakespeare, Literature about the Vietnam War, Asian American Literature, Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson, and Freshman Seminar at the UW Marathon County campus (Wausau) since 1993. Currently, she has a two-year (2007-2009) interim appointment in the Central Office of the UW Colleges in Madison.
Seals, Marc Assistant Professor Baraboo Read Marc's New Faculty Bio!
Prior to coming to UW-Baraboo/Sauk County, Marc Seals was a member of the English faculty at the University of South Florida. At U.S.F., Marc primarily taught courses in American literature, composition, and Cultural Studies & the Popular Arts, though he has also taught modern drama, contemporary literature, and modern British literature. Marc received his Ph.D. from U.S.F. in 2004, his M.A. from University College London in 1996, and his B.Sc. from Florida State University in 1989. In addition to teaching at U.S.F. for the past seven years, he taught middle school language arts (in Tallahassee, Florida) for three years and high school English (in Bainbridge, Georgia) for six years. During his nine years of teaching public school, he taught literature in the Upward Bound summer program at Florida A&M University.
Marc has published articles and presented conference papers on the works of Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Chandler, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Horatio Alger, and Dashiell Hammett.
Marc lives in Baraboo with his wife, Bridget, and his Sheltie, Logan.
Skibba, Sheryl Lecture Richland and
Baraboo
Straubel, Linda Lecturer
Rock
Chris Taylor grew up in extreme northwestern Illinois, secretly wishing that her family lived 10 minutes north in the state of Wisconsin because it had so many more trees and lakes. She graduated from a community college before heading off to Illinois State University for her bachelor’s and graduate degrees. After teaching for 11 years at a community college in the St. Louis area (great city with humid summers and not enough snow), she was delighted when her husband’s job took her to the state where she had wanted to live as a child.
Having done her graduate work by researching the uses of reading the college writing classroom, her current emphasis is on students’ transition from high school to college—both in writing classes and in a more general sense. She is actively involved in the UW Colleges Engaging Students in the First Year (ESFY) Initiative at Waukesha and throughout the institution.
Chris uses her free time to hang out with her family (one husband, three kids, one cat, one dog, and lots and lots of chaos), read romance novels and sci-fi/fantasy fiction, play on the computer, daydream, and actively avoid housework whenever possible. Fortunately, she also enjoys reading student writing and has frequently amazed people with her grasp of knowledge of such diverse topics as health care, bass fishing lures, and free trade coffee—all of which she learned about from her students’ papers.
After graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1992, Julie Tharp accepted a position in the UW-Colleges. Since then, she has taught English, Women’s Studies and American Indian Studies courses. Her area of specialty from graduate school was multicultural women’s literature. She continues to write and publish in that area, but has tended to focus most on American Indian literature and film. In 2001 she had the opportunity to teach and study in Singapore, thanks to the Fulbright Scholar Program.Thom, Pat Lecturer Rock
Van Slooten, Jessica Assistant Professor Manitowoc Read Jessica's New Faculty Bio!
Growing up just north of Holland, Michigan, I fell in love with Lake Michigan and dreamed of the day I could live near the lake again. Higher education took me away from the Lake's sandy shores--to Alma College (BA), Michigan State University (MA), and Auburn University (PhD). I completed my PhD in 2003 (writing a dissertation on the Beat Generation), and have since taught at the University of West Georgia and Michigan State. My current scholarly and personal interests in foodie writing, fashion, and romance overlap in interesting ways. I have published/am working on several articles on fashion, romance, and/or food in twentieth-century American Literature, and I'm currently writing a chick lit/romance novel featuring a baker heroine. Teaching at UW-Manitowoc represents a dream come true--lakeside living and a small, intimate campus community.
W
Whalen, Peter Lecturer
Waukesha
Whitney, J.D. Professor MarathonPeter Whalen has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha for three years with courses in College Composition, Introduction to Literature and The Literature of Nature, which is offered at the UWW Field Station in Fall 2007. Previously, Dr. Whalen taught writing and literature at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Mount Mary College. He earned a Ph.D. in English/Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in May 2000.
Dr. Whalen is a published writer and poet with work in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Waukesha County Freeman, InSpirit Journal, and The UWM Post and poetry in Barrow Street, Reed, Modern Haiku, Free Verse, The Southeast Review, Poetry Motel, The Wisconsin Poets Calendar and other journals. Formerly, Dr. Whalen served as Editor-in-Chief of The Cream City Review and Education Coordinator at Woodland Pattern Book Center of Milwaukee. In 1993, he won an Academy of American Poets Prize from UW-Milwaukee for his poetic series “The Mayan Way.”
Mr. Whalen lives in Greendale with his wife, Kari, their two daughters, Savannah and Alice, and a Springer spaniel named Klode.
J.D. Whitney was partially educated at the University of Michigan. Author of 14 published books/chapbooks of poetry, his most recent is WHAT GRANDMOTHER SAYS. He has received fellowships from the Wisconsin Arts Board and the National Endowment for the Arts. He teaches composition, creative writing, the Literature of Nature, and Native American Mythology & Legend. He occasionally teaches at the College of the Menominee Nation as well as regularly at U.W.Marathon County. He's been riding American and British motorcycles since the mid-60's.Widmayer, Anne F. Lecturer Washington
Elizabeth came to the UW-Waukesha campus in 1993, after a brief gig at UW Platteville and graduate teaching in English and Women's Studies at UW-Madison. She got her doctorate at UW-Madison, with a dissertation that examined the British and American novel of manners. Elizabeth is interested in design, whether of shoes or buildings, and likes to read about art and cities, as well as fiction and the occasional book about cooking. Elizabeth spends much of her time with her kids, and loves to cook or go cycling on one of her bikes (she prefers the skinny tires and the longish treks). Her favorite writers include Jane Austen, Toni Morrison, and John Berger.
Phil earned his Ph.D. at UW-Madison in 1975, specializing in American literature and writing his dissertation on the works of Mark Twain, and he began teaching English at UW-Waukesha in 1976. Since 1995 he's also been serving as Associate Campus Dean while continuing to teach courses in Creative Writing and Jazz in Literature. When he's not on campus, he can usually be found playing golf or attending to his duties as Director and CEO of the UW-Waukesha Golf Association.
