Director
Lawrence Moe
Dr. Lawrence Moe is Professor of English and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He holds the Ph.D. in English from the University of Minnesota, where he also earned the B.A. with summa cum laude honors in each of his two majors, English and philosophy. His academic interests include medieval and Renaissance studies, the history of English literature and language, and poetry.
Since 1987, Professor Moe has been on the faculty of Metropolitan State University, where he was the 1993 Outstanding Teacher of the Year. In 1994, the Minnesota House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring Dr. Moe for "his exceptional teaching skills." In 1997, he received the Metropolitan State Ongoing Achievement Award for "exemplary teaching," one of two such special teaching awards given during the institution's thirty-eight year history.
The Old English poem Beowulf was the topic of Dr. Moe's Ph.D. dissertation. In recent years he has undertaken a study of the early poetry of the Red River Valley of the North, and has located and analyzed thousands of poems from that region. He has shared his research in poetry through numerous scholarly and community presentations, on television, and in various publications.
Faculty
Tammy Durant
Dr. Tammy L. Durant specializes in the field of British Romanticism, but she enjoys British Literature from all periods. A true generalist, she's excited about Humanities projects and courses that explore the interconnectedness of ideas across such varied disciplines as art, literature, philosophy, music, film, and new media. Her current research interests have been taking off in wildly disparate directions: a paper presented at the University of London's Evidence of Reading Conference focused on the critical reception of Romantic dramatist Joanna Baillie's Plays on the Passions. A more recent undertaking has been the development of a Humanities course in Postmodernism, inspiring a paper about generic instability in certain novelistic computer games (Sierra's Gabriel Knight Trilogy), presented at the University of Aberdeen's Center for the Novel in Scotland. Since she was five years old, Prof. Durant has assiduously pursued her interest in children's literature, an interest which has recently included trying her hand at creative writing projects. She earned her B.A. in English and Art History at Centre College and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Literature at the University of Kentucky.
Margot Galt
Dr. Margot Fortunato Galt writes about blending writing instruction with other disciplines (notably history in the broadest sense--see her books The Story in History, 1992, and Circuit Writer, 2006, both published by Teachers & Writers Collaborative, in New York). She also writes nonfiction--see Up to the Plate: The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, 1995, and Stop This War: Americans Protest the Vietnam Conflict, 2000, both Lerner. Her writing about the visual arts includes many articles and catalog essays, and the book Turning the Feather Around: My Life in Art, with Minnesota Ojibway artist George Morrison, 1998, Minnesota Historical Society Press. Her books of poetry are the full-length collection Between the Houses (Laurel Poetry Collective, 2006) and a fine-art chapbook of poems based on anonymous family photographs, The Country's Way with Rain (Kutenai Press, 1994). She holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Minnesota. Currently she is researching the lives of Elizabeth and James Jackson Jarves, from Boston, who traveled the world (Hawaii, Paris, Florence), the first-half of the 19th century. James amassed the earliest American collection of Italian primitive art (early Renaissance), which was eventually acquired by Yale. Elizabeth, Libby, died in Florence, penniless, with an illegitimate child--shocking then and today. Margot plans to write a fictional account of Libby's life.
Ed Bok Lee
Ed Bok Lee is the author of Real Karaoke People: Poems & Prose, winner of the PEN Open Book Award, an Asian American Literary Award, and in 2007 a national poetry bestseller. In 2008 - 2009, he received a McKnight Artist Fellowship in Poetry, and he has also received awards for his writings from the Loft Literary Center, the New York Theater Workshop, the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, SASE, and the National Endowment for the Arts. His areas of Interest include Creative Writing, Contemporary Literature, Comparative and Post-Colonial Literature. He holds an M.F.A. from Brown University.
Tori Sadler
Tori Sadler has a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Scientific and Technical Communication from the University of Minnesota. She has taught courses in Document Design, Online Learning, Usability and User Research, and Technical Communication. Her research interests are military discourse, gender, and technological agency; usability; and activity theory/communities of practice. Her scholarship investigates the concept of military cyborg and how agency is affected by the presence of cyborgs and investigates the rhetoric of user-centered design methodologies. She also investigates how communities of practice influence perceptions of agency.
Lori Schroeder
Dr. Lori Schroeder is a community faculty member in the Communication, Writing and the Arts Department at Metropolitan State University. Since 1976, she has taught university-level public speaking courses. Two of her favorite courses are Public Speaking for the Highly Anxious and Public Speaking for Non-Native English Speakers. She also serves as the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system Institutional eFolio Trainer.
In 2000, Lori's academic interests turned to faculty development. From 2002-2004, she served as faculty development coordinator at the Minnesota State Colleges & Universities Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). She is a frequent facilitator of teaching and learning workshops. Lori earned her B.A. in speech communication education and a Master's degree in speech communication with an emphasis in rhetoric from Northern Illinois University. She holds a Ph.D. in education with an emphasis on postsecondary and adult education from Capella University. Her dissertation examined the factors that facilitate and inhibit adjunct faculty participation in online instruction. Dr. Schroeder's scholarly interests lie in the spirituality of education, wisdom education, authenticity in teaching, the role of fear in teaching and learning, adjunct faculty issues, and the use of electronic portfolios in education.
Carolyn Whitson
Carolyn Whitson is a Professor of English in the Literature and Languages Program at Metropolitan State University, where she teaches in humanities, literature, film, and women's studies. Her special areas of interest include ancient and medieval culture, art history, working-class literature, gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender studies, and African-American women writers. She is currently editing a co-authored manuscript called, American Nightmare, American Dream: Twentieth Century Working-Class Literature.
Bob Gremore
Bob Gremore teaches courses in literature, humanities, and film. Since completing a Ph.D. in American Studies at the University of Minnesota in 1982, he has taught as a faculty member in Metropolitan State University's departments of communications, of history, and over the last sixteen years, in literature/humanities and media studies. His research and teaching interests grew out of his dissertation work on the ways people within a community use symbols and symbolic action to resolve issues of personal and group identity. His work is based partly in "neo-structuralist" approaches and draws significantly on post-colonial, Marxist, and contemporary psychological theory. In any given course, he likes working with a wide range of artifacts, running from classic Greek sculpture, say, to Tin Pan Alley songs and existentialist philosophy. He has a particular interest in issues of gender and of social class. His recent courses include a seminar on "The Gothic in American Literature and Culture" for graduating seniors in the literature department. Courses that he regularly enjoys teaching include "American Nature Writing," "American Film: Tradition and Trends," "Western Civilization I and II," "Humanities: Modernism," and "Contemporary Literary Theory."
Ronald Frazzini
Following retirement from the Honeywell Technology Center in 1998, Ron Frazzini did consulting work in Aircraft Controls and completed the requirements for a Ph.D. He also works for the Charles Babbage Institute for the History of Computing at the University of Minnesota. Experience prior to the recent graduate work was research and design of digital control systems for commercial and military vehicles. His educational background includes: Ph.D. History of Science and Technology, M.A. Liberal Studies, M. S. Systems Engineering and B.S. in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. He also coaches fencing, sings in a community chorus and is involved with mentoring programs on the University of Minnesota campus.