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Writing Arts Department
Writing Arts Faculty Jeffrey Maxson, Department Chair 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 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 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 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.
Professor Donahue teaches College Composition I and II, Advanced Writing, Business and Technical Writing, and Humanities. She is the author of three books. Her research interests include education for academic literacy, freedom, and American English grammar and style.
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 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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Frances S. Johnson joined the department in 1996. She holds a Ph.D. in English with a concentration in Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy Studies from the University of Oklahoma. An Honor Graduate from Old Dominion University where she obtained her Master in Arts, her studies at the time focused on American Literature and Creative Writing. She has been teaching writing in traditional and technology enhanced classrooms since 1984. Dr. Johnson was part of the team that developed the interdisciplinary engineering and writing course at Rowan and is currently developing a similar course for the College of Business. In addition to teaching in the First-Year Writing program, she teaches the graduate seminars, Contemporary Rhetoric and Issues in Composition. Her areas of expertise include classical rhetoric, rhetorical theory, interdisciplinary teaching, faculty development, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Author of several publications (most recently a chapter called "Productive Engineering: Teaching Writing in Collaborative Environments, On Becoming a Productive University, Anker Press, 2005), she regularly presents her work at national conferences. Currently, she is serving as Director of the Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. She lives in Pitman and enjoys the company of her two dogs, Daisy and Trixie.
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 Martin (website) joined the department in 2003. She holds a Ph.D. in Rhetoric from Texas Woman's University. In addition to teaching in the First-Year Writing program, she teaches The Writer's Mind, Evaluating Writing, and the graduate course, Assessing Writing. Her writing and research interests include disability studies, writing pedagogy, sociolinguistics, and writing assessment. Professor Martin's chapter "Add Disability and Stir" is featured in Teaching/ Writing/ Disabilities, currently in preparation for Bedford-St. Martin's Press. Deb Martin is also the teacher inquiry coordinator for the National Writing Project at Rowan.
Diane Penrod joined the department in 1994. She holds a PhD in English/ Composition and Cultural Rhetoric from Syracuse University, a M.A. in linguistic analysis from Syracuse, and a M.Ed. in English Education from SUNY Oswego. In the undergraduate program, Diane regularly teaches The Writer's Mind and Evaluating Writing. Some semesters, she does teach Writing, Research, and Technology. In the graduate program, she regularly teaches Core II: Research for Writers, Information Architecture, and supervises M.A. theses. Diane is the Site Director for the National Writing Project at Rowan University and Graduate Program Coordinator for the M.A. in Writing. In her spare time, Diane is the author of four books (most recent Composition and Convergence: The Impact of New Media on Writing Assessment, Lawrence Erlbaum 2005), twelve articles, and three book chapters. Currently she is at work on two scholarly books, Telos of Trust and Architextural Practices. She is also preparing two articles for publication, one focusing on "hipness envy" in composition and one centering on the difficulty teaching writing in the culture of accountability. Her research interests include writing assessment, qualitative and quantitative research methods, media literacy/ popular culture, and the "post" in postmodernism.
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.
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.
Sandra Smith received her M.A. from Rutgers, Camden. She teaches Improving Personal Writing Skills, for which she serves as coordinator, and Integrated College Composition I. She is the Department of Writing Arts liaison for the Camden campus--where she does most of her teaching. Her current research project focuses on American writing produced between 1790 and 1840.
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.
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.
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.
Professor Zehner teaches College Composition I and II. Her research interest is the articulation of English/Writing courses between high school and college.
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U.S. News & World Report ranks Rowan University 28th | 
Ron Block
