English
English Faculty
The English faculty at Elmhurst College consists of superb professionals with wide-ranging areas of expertise, representing an excellent cross-section of diverse fields of study. Approachable and energetic, our faculty employs a variety of teaching methods and tools to create a learning environment in which each student can rise to his or her potential. Our small classes and our family atmosphere guarantee that you will get the personal attention you need to develop your talents.
Want to know more? See our faculty profiles, below. Or, contact a professor directly.
Full-time Faculty
Ann Frank Wake
Tina S. Kazan
Nicholas Behm
Dianne L. Chambers
Janice Fodor
Janice Tuck Lively
Mary Kay Mulvaney
Bridget K. O’Rourke
Ron Wiginton
Lance Wilcox
Ann Frank Wake
Professor and Chair
Ph.D., University of Michigan
Ann Frank Wake’s interests range from poetry to literary theory to late British literature. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, she serves as poetry editor of River Oak Review and co-coordiated the College’s intercultural studies program. She is currently writing an essay on British women's aesthetics of the Romantic and Victorian periods.
Tina S. Kazan
Associate Professor, Writing Program Administrator
Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago
Dr. Kazan specializes in composition studies, contemporary rhetorical and critical theory, feminist pedagogy, popular culture, and business writing.
Nicholas Behm
Assistant Professor
Ph.D, Arizona State University
Dr. Behm studies composition pedagogy and theory, ancient rhetoric, postmodern rhetorical theory, and critical race theory. His dissertation applies critical race theory, whiteness theory, and critical discourse analysis to examine how first-year composition textbooks may reinforce white privilege and maintain white hegemony. Currently, Dr. Behm is working on several projects simultaneously, including book chapters on racism and writing assessment, an edited collection on writing program administration, and articles discussing the personal essay and critical race consciousness.
Dianne L. Chambers
Professor
Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Dr. Chambers specializes in the following areas: teaching of English, American literature, modernism and postmodernism, women’s writing, late 19th-century Chicago women’s clubs, literary theory, and young adult and children’s literature. She is also the program director for the Master of Arts in English Studies program.
Janice Fodor
Professor
D.Ed., Northern Illinois University
Dr. Fodor specializes in beginning writers and drama. She also serves as director of the College’s Learning Center.
Mary Kay Mulvaney
Professor
Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago
Dr. Mulvaney has published and presented numerous times on composition and rhetorical theory and on the nature of academic writing. Most recently, she co-authored the college-level textbook Academic Writing: Genres, Samples, and Resources. In addition to her teaching duties at Elmhurst, she serves as director of the College’s Honors Program. Dr. Mulvaney’s current research involves a longitudinal study of Honors Program participants.
Bridget K. O’Rourke
Associate Professor
Ph.D., Purdue University
Dr. O’Rourke’s scholarship investigates literacy practices in historical, political, and technological contexts. One of her recent articles, which appeared in Midwestern Folklore, uncovered little-known WPA writings by Hilda Satt Polacheck, a former sweatshop laborer whose urban folklore of Chicago’s Near West Side captured the experiences of immigrant and working-class men, women, and children who visited the Hull House settlement in the 1920s and 1930s. Dr. O’Rourke has developed new courses in literacy and writing at the graduate and undergraduate levels. In addition, she serves as director of the College’s Writing Center and as faculty advisor to the College’s chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, the English honor society.
Ron Wiginton
Professor
Ph.D., Florida State University
Dr. Wiginton serves as fiction editor of River Oak Review and as the faculty advisor to The Leader, The Elms, and MiddleWestern Voice. Among the subjects he teaches are journalism, creative writing, 20th-century American literature, and multicultural/postcolonial literature. Dr. Wiginton regularly publishes short fiction, magazine articles, and talks for radio.
Lance Wilcox
Professor
Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Dr. Wilcox’s interests include 18th-century British Literature, with a focus on Samuel Johnson and Elizabeth Inchbald, and the literature of the American Civil War. He recently took the new position as Editor of River Oak Review. He has written many articles, conference talks, and book reviews in British Literature and given presentations on Civil War writings, including the speeches of Lincoln. Dr. Wilcox’s poetry has been published in Measure and The South Carolina Review as well as other journals.
