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Writing Arts Department
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Writing Arts Faculty

Jeffrey Maxson, Department Chair
Jeffrey Maxsonmaxson@rowan.edu
856-256-4106

B.A. Yale University
M.A. University of California at Berkeley
Ph.D. University of California at Berkeley

Dr. Maxson teaches Integrated College Composition I and II, Writing for Electronic Communities, and Writing Difference.

His research interests include computer-mediated composition, writing of linguistic minorities, and alternative discourses.


Ron BlockKelly Adams
M.A. Montclair University

Kelly Adams is finishing her Ph.D. from Arizona State University in Rhetoric, Composition and Linguistics.

Her current research focuses on the literate practices of women writers of the civil rights movement. She holds an M.A. from Montclair University in Writing Studies with particular emphasis on basic writers and writing. Kelly teaches Improving Personal Writing Skills and Integrated College Composition I.

 


Ron BlockRon Block
B.A. University of Nebraska-Lincoln
M.A. Syracuse University
M.S. Syracuse University

Ron Block teaches undergraduate and graduate-level creative writing, focusing on poetry and the short story. His books include The Dirty Shame Hotel and Other Stories and a collection of poetry Dismal River. His work has also been published in numerous anthologies and journals, including Epoch, Prairie Schooner, Iowa Review, and Ploughshares.

In addition to being a two-time winner in the Minnesota Voices Project, he received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Nebraska Arts Council in 2000. In 2002, he was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fiction Fellowship. He has an MA in Creative Writing and an MS in Television-Radio-Film, both from Syracuse University. Currently, he's at work on a second collection of poetry as well as a novel.


Julia McDonnell ChangJulia McDonnell Chang
B.A. Stonehill College
M.S. Columbia University
M.A. Temple

Julia MacDonnell Chang is a novelist, short story writer, journalist, essayist and book reviewer with graduate degrees in journalism from Columbia University, and one in creative writing from Temple University. She has had five short stories published this year in literary journals, among them: "Red Stain on Yellow Dress in Mangrove", spring 2004; "Weapons of War", Briar Cliff Review, spring 2004; "The Topography of Hidden Stories", Paper Street, fall 2004, and "Nativity", North Dakota Quarterly, Winter 2004. Her short story Whistle Stop is scheduled for publication in the Spring '05 edition of the journal Happy. She has recently completed her first story collection, Going South and Other Sorrows, which includes the titular novella.

The poet Molly Peacock has said of MacDonnell's work, "She writes with a psychological savvy and family wisdom few other have. Her words vibrate to the thought waves between sisters, mothers and daughters, parents and children, wives and husbands. MacDonnell's stories tug at a single thread until a whole fabric unravels, and then they work the miracle of reweaving."

A tenured associate professor, she teaches in both the undergraduate and graduate creative writing programs, specializing in fiction and creative nonfiction. She also teaches Writing Children's Stories, and serves as advisor to the undergraduate literary magazine, Avant. During her sabbatical this year, MacDonnell Chang is completing her second novel, Mimi Molloy By Herself, and beginning work on a third.

Her first novel, A Year of Favor, published by William Morrow & Co. in 1994, was called a "compelling debut" by Publisher's Weekly. Kirkus Reviews said it was "powerful first fiction...A convincing evocation of life in a Central American country and a compelling portrait of a gutsy, post feminist heroine."

A former newspaper reporter and editor, MacDonnell is the recipient of two fiction fellowships from the N. J. State Council on the Arts, two Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation fellowships for residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, a Pulitzer Traveling fellowship, and numerous other awards for her journalism and fiction. A passionate reader with an abiding love of story, she lives in southern New Jersey with her three children.


Jennifer CourtneyJennifer Courtney
B.A. Duquesne University
M.A. Western Michigan University
Ph.D. Purdue University

Jennifer Courtney earned a PhD from Purdue in 2004.

She teaches College Composition I and II, Sophomore Clinic, and Evaluating Writing. Her research interests include gender and communication, writing program administration, and cultural studies.

 


Loriann FellLoriann Fell

Loriann Fell teaches College Composition I and II. She earned an M.A. in English-Creative Writing from Rutgers University in Camden, and a B.A. in Journalism from Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

She works as a writer and editor; The Newark Star Ledger and The New York Times are among the publications in which her work has appeared. She writes plays, essays, and fiction and is currently at work on a screenplay.

 


Denise Gess

Denise Gess
B.A. LaSalle University
M.A. Rutgers University, Camden

Assistant Professor Denise Gess has a B.A. in Psychology from LaSalle University and an M.A. in English from Rutgers University, Camden. She is the author of the novels, Good Deeds and Red Whiskey Blues and the co-author of the nonfiction book, Firestorm At Peshtigo: A Town, Its People and The Deadliest Fire in American History. Her short fiction has been published in The North American Review, and her personal essays have been published in the anthologies Remarkable Reads: 34 Writers and Their Adventures in Reading, The Horizon Reader, The Sun magazine and the anthology CHOICE; others have appeared in Philadelphia Stories and Wild River Review. Her book reviews have appeared in Book Magazine, Kirkus Reviews, The New York Times, San Jose Mercury News, Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Philadelphia Inquirer and the Raleigh News&Observer. She has served as Advisory Editor for Story Quarterly magazine, as a member of The National Book Critics Circle, and since 2004 serves on the editorial board of Philadelphia Stories magazine. She is the recipient of a New Jersey Council On The Arts Fellowship for Fiction. Before coming to Rowan University in 2004, she was Visiting Professor of Creative Writing in the MFA program at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, and has taught composition, literature and creative writing at the undergraduate and graduate levels at Rutgers, Arcadia and Temple Universities.  


Joseph GiampalmiJoseph Giampalmi
B.A. Widener University
M.Ed. Widener University
Ed.D. Temple University

Dr. Joseph Giampalmi, Assistant Professor at Rowan University's Department of Writing Arts, has been teaching writing for forty-two years. He has taught grades six through graduate school. He has been teaching in higher education since 1985. His public school experience includes thirty-four years as an English teacher and English Supervisor. He earned his B.A. in English and his M.Ed. from Widener University, and his Ed.D. from Temple University. His master's focus was reading and his doctorate concentration was curriculum and development.

On the college level, he taught at Widener University, Neumann College, Delaware County Community College, and Immaculata University. He has been teaching at Rowan University for the past eight years with a concentration of courses in College Composition I and College Composition II. He also teaches a business-writing course titled Writing for the Workplace.

Dr. Giampalmi has written three sports books (Parker Publishing Company and MacGregor Sports Education) and dozens of articles for national publications such as Essence, The Star, Living with Children, Instructor, English Journal, Scholastic Coach, and Young Athlete. Since 1985, he has been writing a semi-monthly education column ("Conversations in Education") for Town Talk Newspapers (Media, PA) and has published more than 500 columns.

In addition to consulting with K-12 schools on writing topics, he has presented over a hundred workshops to teachers, professional writers, and business people. He has presented seminars at regional writing conferences and to national audiences at the Philadelphia Writers' Conference and the National Council of Teachers of English.

He currently serves as co-director of Rowan's WAC (Writing Across the Campus) Program. His recent presentations to Rowan faculty include Short Assignments for Writing to Learn, Commenting on Student Writing, Designing Better Writing Assignments, Journaling and Letter Writing, Evaluating Writing in the Disciplines, Write-to-Learn Strategies, Developing Inquiry-Based Assignments, Integrating Writing into Course Objectives, Peer Editing and Group Revision, and Creating A Positive Classroom Climate.

Dr. Giampalmi and his wife Carole have traveled worldwide and searched for the perfect beach. They think they have found it in the Seychelles Islands. He completes much of his thinking and prewriting while walking the beaches in Cape May.


Ai Guo HanAi Guo Han
B.A. Xian Foreign Language University
M.A. Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Han teaches College Composition I and II, English as a Second Language I and II, and Elementary Chinese.

His research interests are teaching and learning in the classroom and Daoism and ­ its applications.


Roberta HarveyRoberta Harvey
B.A. University of North Dakota
B.S. University of North Dakota
M.A. University of North Dakota
Ph.D. University of Wisconsin ­ Milwaukee

Roberta Harvey has been a member of the department since 1998. She teaches courses in the First-year Writing Program, including specialized versions of College Composition II for engineering and biology students, and technical writing. Her research interests also include assessment, information literacy, feminism, and how people learn.

She received her Ph.D. in English with a specialization in Composition and Rhetoric from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2001. She also holds an M.A. in English Language and Literature, a B.A. in Anthropology, and a B.S. in Biology from the University of North Dakota.


Erin HerbergErin Herberg
B.S. Western Carolina University
M.A. Western Carolina University
Ph.D. Georgia State University

Dr. Herberg teaches College Composition I and II, Writing for the Workplace, Writing, Research and Technology, Contemporary Rhetoric, and Managerial Communication.

Her research interests are the history of rhetoric, women and rhetoric, and assessment.

 


Martin ItzkowitzMartin Itzkowitz
B.A. Brooklyn College
M.A. New York University
Ph.D. New York University

Dr. Itzkowitz teaches College Composition, Writing with Style, Assessment of Writing, Semantics, Humanities, Creative Writing, and Special Topics Honors. He is the editor of Glassworks and the non-fiction editor for Asphodel. He is also Associate Editor of New Jersey Journal of Communication.

His research interests are general composition, stylistics, and creative writing.


Ron BlockDrew Kopp
Ph.D. University of Arizona

Drew Kopp (kopp@rowan.edu) received his Ph.D in Rhetoric, Composition, and the Teaching of English from the University of Arizona in 2009. His research interests include sophistic approaches to writing instruction, such as writing with new media (especially digital video), and using writing situations to examine and challenge everyday practices and values.

Professor Kopp is currently preparing an article for publication that examines how using digital video to help students identify themselves as college writers may also serve to effectively represent the work of writing programs to the university community. This extends the argument he developed in his published article “Computer Game Play as Grunt and Reflection” (Works and Days 2004), which discusses how computer game players undergo a sequence of transformations through encountering the spatial challenges a computer game arranges.


Susan MannionSusan Mannion
B.A. The College of New Jersey
M.A. Rowan University

Professor Mannion teaches College Composition I and II and Public Speaking. Her research interests include portfolio use, writing across the curriculum and collaborative learning.

 

 


Deb MartinDeb Martin
B.S. Western Michigan University
M.A. Texas Woman's University
Ph.D. Texas Woman's University

Deb Martin joined the department in 2003. She received her PhD in Rhetoric from Texas Woman’s University. She currently teaches courses in the undergraduate major; The Writer’s Mind, Tutoring Writing, Evaluating Writing, and occasionally Assessment in the graduate program. Her research areas include writing assessment, writing pedagogy, critical thinking, and disability studies. Her work has been published in various books and journals including Middle School Journal, Writing Program Administration, Disability Studies Quarterly, and Assessing Writing. Deb presents, consults, and leads workshops on literacy and is most interested in developing new, sustainable, and integrated models for teacher professional development. Her professional ethos comes from twelve years of teaching in the middle and high school English/Language Arts classroom.


Roberta ReaveyRoberta Reavey
B.A. Westfield State College
M.A.T. Westfield State College

Professor Reavey teaches Improving Personal Writing Skills, Integrated College Composition I, College Composition I and II.

Her research interests include left brain/right brain theory and learning theory.

 


Janice RowanJanice Rowan
B.A. Rutgers University
M.A. University of Michigan

Professor Janice Rowan is serving her third term as Chair of the Department of Writing Arts. She has held teaching positions at Illinois Wesleyan University, Rutgers University, and Southern Methodist University- where she was also an Assistant to the Dean of Women.

Her areas of research and interest include portfolio assessment, peer groups in writing, cooperative learning, faculty development, film and literature, and academic leadership. She has delivered more than forty presentations to professional groups. She has been editor of five volumes of The Hollybush Series of Occasional Papers; co-editor of a text, Works In Progress; editor of the Write to Learn newsletter; and reviewer of eight texts. She was awarded research fellowships by the Newberry Library and the Lilly Foundation.

At Rowan University, she has served as Co-Chair of the Middle States Review (2002-04); Coordinator of the College of Communication Internship Program (2001-03); Coordinator of Rowan's Writing Across the Curriculum Program (1991-93); and Professional Programs Coordinator of the University's Challenge Grant (1987-91).

Professor Rowan holds a B.A. in English from Rutgers and an M.A. in Language and Literature from the University of Michigan. She completed doctoral work in nineteenth and twentieth century British and American literature at the University of Pennsylvania. 


Don StollDon Stoll
B.A. Valparaiso University
M.F.A. University of Texas
Ph.D. Indiana University

Dr. Stoll teaches College Composition I and II, Writing for the Workplace, Writing, Research, and Technology, and Magazine Article Writing.

He participates in the Visions of the Future Learning Community. His research interests include student learning assessment, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and the scholarship of engagement.


Erin HerbergChrista B. Teston
B.A. Kent State University
M.A. Kent State University
Ph.D. Kent State University

Dr. Teston (teston@rowan.edu) earned her Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition from Kent State University’s Literacy, Rhetoric, and Social Practice program in 2009. Christa enjoys teaching courses that take as their focus writing for the workplace, visual rhetoric, qualitative research methods, classical and contemporary rhetorical theory, and writing technologies. Her current research interests include deliberative rhetoric, visual communication, and technical writing. More details about Christa’s teaching and research can be found at <www.christateston.com>.


Sanford TweedieSanford Tweedie
B.A. University of Michigan
M.A. Eastern Michigan University
Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Tweedie teaches the in the first-year writing program, undergraduate major, and M.A. in Writing. He has taught at the University of Erfurt in Germany as a Fulbright Scholar and received Rowan's Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award. His research interests include students in transition, classroom-based research, genre-stretching writing, and pedagogy that matters.

His writing has appeared in College Composition and Communication, English Journal, Exquisite Corpse, and Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, among others.


Bill WolffBill Wolff
B.A. Union College
M.A. University of Cincinnati
Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin

Dr. Wolff teaches Writing, Research, and Technology; and Engineering Clinic II.

His current research includes learning space design, educational technology pedagogy, departmental assessment, electronic portfolios, and communities of practice.

 


Roberta ZehnerRoberta Zehner
A.B. Rosemont College
M.A. Rowan University

Professor Zehner teaches College Composition I and II. Her research interest is the articulation of English/Writing courses between high school and college.