New CLS Faculty
New faculty include:
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More photos and biographies will be included as they become available.
Margaret (Peg) Finders
Margaret Finders
Director of the School of Education / Associate Dean
Dean's Office ~ College of Liberal Studies
235 Thomas Morris Hall
(608) 785-8134
finders.marg@uwlax.edu
Margaret J. Finders is Director of School of Education and Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Studies. As a researcher and teacher educator, she is interested in the sociopolitical dimensions of schooling. She contributes to understandings about language, literacy and social life, specifically regarding gender and adolescence. Her research interests include adolescents’ literacy practices and teacher education, specifically in regard to issues of equity and social justice. Recent publications include the following:
Finders, M, and Hynds, S. (2007) Language Arts and Literacy in the Middle Grades: Planning, Teaching and Assessing Learning. Columbus, OH: Pearson Merrill/Prentice Hall.
Cheville, J and Finders. M. (2007) Defining Adolescent and Adult Writing Development: A Contest of Empirical and Federal Will. In C. Bazerman, C. (Ed.) Handbook of Research on Writing: History, Society, School, Individual, Text. Mahwah, NJ:Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Academic Background: Ph.D. The University of Iowa, 1994
Eric Brunsell
Eric
Brunsell
Assistant Professor, Science Education
Educational Studies
300C Thomas Morris Hall
608-785-8121
brunsell.eric@uwlax.edu
Academic Background:
Ed.D., Montana State University, M.S. University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh, B.S.
University of Wisconsin – Madison.
Research Interests:
Industry – School Partnerships to Improve STEM Education
Effects of Science Inquiry Teaching on Student Learning
Effective Professional Development for Science Educators
Other Interests / Activities:
Director, Wisconsin Institute for Robotics in Education (www.wirobotics.org);
Executive Board, RoboEducators; Co-Director Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium - Western Wisconsin Region; NSTA Science Scope Magazine, Manuscript
Review Panel
Matt Cashion
Matt Cashion
English Department
425K Wimberly Hall
cashion.matt@uwlax.edu
608-785-8297
Academic background: B.A. in English from University of North Carolina-Charlotte, MFA in Creative Writing from University of Oregon.
Publications include: A novel—How the Sun Shines on Noise (2004), a finalist in the William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition and the Ironweed Press novel competition. Various poems and stories in The Asheville Poetry Review, The Sun: A magazine of Ideas, Hawaii Review, Wisconsin Review, Wind Magazine.
Research specialties: Creative Writing Pedagogy. Contemporary fiction and poetry, Literature of the American South, Working Class Literature.
Classes taught:
Creative Writing
American Literature II, since 1865
College-Writing
Faculty Advisor for literary magazine Steam Ticket: A Third Coast Review.
Other interests: Running, biking, kayaking, jazz-drumming, blues-harmonica blowing, photography.
Walter Elder
Walter
Elder
Theatre Arts
160 Center For The Arts
elder.walt@uwlax.edu
608-785-6694
Walter Elder is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre Arts at the
University of Wisconsin – La Crosse teaching Movement, Voice and Acting. He has
a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.F.A. in
Directing from the University of Oklahoma. His movement work has been heavily
influenced by Le Coq’s style of physical theatre, stage combat and several dance
forms. His voice training is based in the Central School tradition and he
studied speech under Edith Skinner’s pupil, Elizabeth Himelstein.
He believes strongly that theatre is capable of transforming an audience and sees the actor as both artist and craftsman to that end. He strives to inspire his students to creative heights while teaching them the skills they need to create the work they envision for themselves and our society.
Previous to coming to UW-L he taught acting at Juniata College in Pennsylvania where he was also the co-administrator for The Gravity Project, a newly formed ensemble-based professional theatre company exploring the intersection of voice and body in performance. He has for the past several years taught acting and directed at Interlochen Center for the Arts during the summers. He has guest taught at both the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and Charles Sturt University in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. His directing credits at UW-L have included Marisol and The Underpants. Other directing credits include Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, Colleen Wagner’s The Monument and Christopher Durang’s Baby with the Bathwater, as well as the world premiers of Anne Marie Oomen’s Barta’s Path and Erik Jensen’s Tin Pen and Rum. As an actor he has played Macbeth, Romeo, Antonio in The Merchant of Venice, Buckingham in Richard III, Ferdinand in The Tempest as well as Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jimmy in 110˚ in the Shade and Dick in Dames at Sea. He is a member of Actors’ Equity Association and the Society of American Fight Directors.
Dr. David Hart
Dr. David Hart
English Department
431 F Wimberly Hall
hart.davi@uwlax.edu
608-785-8302
Academic background: PhD in English (Cultural Studies), University of Florida; MA in English (Literary Theory and Cultural Studies), Carnegie Mellon University; MA in English, Angelo State University; Secondary Teacher Certification in English, University of Texas at Austin; BBA in Management, University of North Texas
Research specialties: Postcolonial Studies, Anglophone Caribbean Literature and Culture
Classes taught:
ENG 110 College Writing
ENG 200 Caribbean Literature and Culture
Other interests: Globalization studies, folklore, exilic narratives, creative writing, much American and British literature, CSI: Miami, guitar, biking
Please visit his faculty website.
Vincent K. Her, PhD
Vincent K. Her, PhD
Ethnic & Racial Studies
224B Wimberly Hall
her.vinc@uwlax.edu
608-785-6632
Vincent is a new faculty in the Institute for Ethnic and Racial Studies. He holds a Ph. D. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His research focuses on Hmong American funeral text, songs and performances as cultural memory.
He has presented on a wide range of topics related to the Hmong American experience, including:
- “Searching For Identities, Redefining Leadership Roles: Bamboo Among the Oaks: Contemporary Writing By Hmong Americans” (Hmong National Development, April 2006)
- “Animal Sacrifice and Social Meanings in Hmong American Funerals” (First International Conference on Hmong Studies, March 2006)
- “Hmong Cosmology: Talking Across Religious Divides” (Common Ground Conference: Building Coalitions Against Racism and Privilege in Greater Milwaukee, February 2006)
- and “Identities Under Construction: Bamboo Among the Oaks: Contemporary Writing by Hmong Americans” (MMLA, November 2005).
He currently teaches two sections of ERS 100: Introduction to Minority Cultures in the U.S. In Spring 2007, he will begin offering a course on the Hmong American experience.
Mark Malisa
Mark
Malisa
Assistant Professor
Educational Studies
160B Thomas Morris Hall
malisa.mark@uwlax.edu
608-785-8666
Academic Background:
Ph.D. University of Nevada, 2004
Teaching & Research Interests:
History/Philosophy of Education
Critical Theory/Critical Pedagogy
Comparative/International Education
Globalism/Globalization/Glocalization
Other Research Interests:
Pan-Africanism/Post-Colonialism
Peace Studies/Alternative Justice
Cultural Studies/Qualitative Research
Inter-Religious Dialogue/ Liberation Theology
Interests Deterring Interests:
Chess/Tennis/Music/Authentic Football
Enaldo Oliveira, DMA
Enaldo Oliveira, DMA
Music Department
242 Center For The Arts
oliveira.enal@uwlax.edu
608-785-6725
Enaldo Oliveira was recently appointed as the Director of Orchestral Studies and Violin Teacher at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse starting in the 2006-2007 season.
Oliveira is a native of Brazil. He completed his DMA in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Iowa under tutelage of William LaRue Jones, DMA. He has a bachelor of music degree from Santa Marcelina College in violin performance and a master of musicology degree from São Paulo University where his major area of study was string pedagogy.
For five years, Oliveira was the conductor and pedagogical coordinator for the Guri Project for the Cultural State Secretary of São Paulo-Brazil. His responsibilities were to create music centers in socio-economically underprivileged communities, as well as train and coordinate the teaching techniques of one hundred teachers. In this position, he helped to develop the program from two centers and 450 students to 30 centers and 22,000 students.
Also in Brazil, Oliveira was a member of the São Caetano do Sul Art Foundation String Quartet. He served as violin teacher and string coordinator at Tom Jobim School of Music and as professional violinist/violist in orchestras in his native country.
During his doctoral degree, Oliveira was manager of the University of Iowa Orchestras and co-director of the All-University String Orchestra. He was also the music director of the Greater Cedar Rapids Youth Symphony Orchestras after serving one year as conductor of their Philharmonic orchestra. In addition, Oliveira served as music director of Saint Ambrose University Community Symphony Orchestra. At the University of Iowa, he was privileged to conduct each of the four orchestras including The University of Iowa Symphony Orchestra, as well as the UI Dance Gala and Mostly Mozart – concert production of scenes from four Mozart’s operas. Oliveira was recently an active member in the Gustav Meyer Masterclass with the Göttingen Symphony Orchestra, Germany. Oliveira also has had the privilege of participating in masterclasses with Marvin Rabin,DMA and Henry Charles Smith.
Dr. Margarita Refugia Olivas
Dr. Margarita Refugia Olivas
Communication Studies
346 Center For The Arts
olivas.marg@uwlax.edu
608-785-8519
The Department of Communication Studies welcomes Dr. Margarita Refugia Olivas, who joined us as an assistant professor in Fall 2006. Her areas of expertise include public speaking, organizational communication, small group process, language and social interaction, gender communication and theory & methods.
Dr. Olivas earned her Ph.D at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2006. Her dissertation was a study of 33 Latina greek letter organizations. Using a critical postmodern Chicana feminist perspective, the ethnographic study explored the race/ethnicity negotiation of LGLOs and their memberships through interviews and a collection of data spanning a ten-year time frame.
Since 1999, Dr. Olivas has been teaching at California State University-Northridge. She has extensive classroom teaching experience in both the areas of communication studies and Chicano/ Chicana studies. One of Dr. Olivas’ colleagues at Boulder described her as “a person of great energy and self-discipline who is deeply committed to her work.”