Seemee Ali comes to Carthage from Loyola College (Md.), where she had been a visiting assistant professor teaching courses in literature. She is a 1989 graduate of Austin College, where she earned a B.A. in political science. She earned a master's degree and Ph.D. in literature, both from the University of Dallas, and was a post-doctoral fellow in the Core Humanities Seminar Program at Villanova University.

Maria Carrig earned her B.A. in English literature and Greek from Bryn Mawr College, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in English literature from Yale University. She also studied Latin and Italian in Italy, earning a certificate from the Università per stranieri in Siena. Before coming to Carthage, she was a teaching fellow at Yale University, and an assistant professor of English at Loyola University Chicago, where she helped start a great books program.

Ms. Carrig’s teaching and research focus on Shakespeare and Renaissance drama, as well as the religion and magic beliefs of the early modern period. She is currently working on a long-term project on Renaissance comic theory and its relation to theatrical practice in Shakespeare, Jonson and Middleton.

Outside the library, she loves to take students to theater in Chicago and Milwaukee, and on Carthage’s annual trip to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario. She recently completed an article on contemporary revivals of Renaissance comedies. She joined Carthage in 2002.

Mabel Benson DuPriest teaches courses in a variety of areas. One of the classes she is teaching this term is a Carthage Symposium titled The Seven Ages of Women. In this course she and a colleague in Social Work and the Women and Gender Studies Program will explore these stages of life as described by social science theory and as portrayed through fiction.

Recent conference presentations have included both academic papers and readings based on her creative writing. In May 2009, she presented a paper on Charles Frazier's novel Cold Mountain at the South Central Conference on Christianity and Literature. In 2008, she read a short story and a selection from a work of creative nonfiction at the annual conference of the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature at Michigan State University and also a selection of poems at the South Central Conference on Christianity and Literature. Also in 2008, she presented a program at the Swedish American Museum in Chicago on Swedish women writers of the 20th century.

Allison Gruber holds an M.F.A. in writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is a cross-genre writer whose poetry and prose have appeared in a variety of literary journals including Pindeldyboz, The Stickman Review, and 580-Split. Her plays and hybrid works have been shown at The Roger Brown Gallery, G2, and The Athenaeum Theater in Chicago. In addition to teaching creative writing and the Heritage Sequence at Carthage, Ms. Gruber has served as a poet-in-residence for The Poetry Center of Chicago's Hands on Stanzas program; is a member of the directorial team for Reconstruction Room, a literary performance series in Chicago; and is on faculty at The Illinois Institute of Art — Chicago and St. Augustine College.

Richard Meier held a full-time position as visiting poet at Columbia College in Chicago from 2005 to 2008. From 2002 to 2005, he was a visiting assistant professor of English and director of creative writing at Beloit College. Previously he was an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh, where he taught creative writing, and an instructor at the University of Alabama, where he taught creative writing and British literature since 1800. Two books of his collected poetry have been published: "Terrain Vague" (2000) and "Shelley Gave Jane a Guitar" (2006). He earned a B.A. in creative writing from Hamilton College in 1988, and an M.A. in English from Syracuse University in 1993.

Jean Preston earned her B.A. from Carthage College in English, with minors in Classics and Women’s/Gender Studies, and holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing/Poetry from The University of Southern Maine Stonecoast Writing Program. Ms. Preston has worked as a presenter, instructor and tutor for various academic and community organizations including the Kenosha Literacy Council and the Racine Odyssey Project, and has facilitated several seminars and workshops on writing poetry. Presently, Ms. Preston is the Director of the Carthage College Writing Center and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English.

Education:
B.A. University of Texas at Austin
M.A., The Johns Hopkins University
M.Phil., Yale University
Ph.D., Yale University
Additional studies at Alliance Francaise in Paris and the University of Zurich

In addition to his role as Professor of English, Leonard Schulze serves as Professor in the Department of Communication and Digital Media, where he teaches courses in Human Symbolic Activity, Rhetoric and Persuasion, Communication and Community, and cinema studies. He also serves as Chair of the Division of Fine Arts, which comprises the Departments of Art, Communication and Digital Media, Music, and Theatre. Dr. Schulze is the founding Director of Carthage's Augustine Institute, established in 2005 as an online forum dedicated to exploring the intellectual and spiritual resources of the Augustinian/Lutheran tradition.

In the Department of English, Professor Schulze has a special interest in the History and Structure of the English Language. He is also active in the core courses and Carthage Symposium courses of the College's general education curriculum.

Before joining the Carthage faculty in 2004, Dr. Schulze served as executive director of the Division for Higher Education and Schools of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He has taught German, English, philosophy, European and American literature, American studies, and communication studies at Yale University; the U.S. Military Academy at West Point; the University of Texas at Austin; Julius-Maximilians-Universitaet in Wuerzburg, Germany; and Texas Lutheran University, where he served as chair of the department of English and Communication, director of international education, vice president for academic affairs, and dean of the university.

Dozens of his articles and reviews have appeared in annual editions of The Romantic Movement: A Selective and Critical Biography, as well as in periodicals such as Studies in Romanticism, SubStance, Intersections, and the Journal of Lutheran Ethics. He is co-editor (with Walter Wetzels) of a volume of essays on historiography and literature (Literature and History, 1983). His interdisciplinary teaching and scholarship have been shaped by a lifelong interest in human beings as symbol-using creatures.

Dr. Schulze is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He is former chair of the National Conference of Academic Deans and a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International. He and his family reside in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, and are members of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Kenosha.

Pamela Smiley teaches American Literature, The Novel, Introduction to Literature, and Heritage Studies. From 1994 to 1995, she was a visiting Fulbright professor in Seoul, Korea. She has also taught at the college level in New Zealand, at the University of Maryland-European Division, and high school level English in Australia and New Zealand.

Smiley has conducted extensive research in literature and composition, expository writing, creative writing and women's studies. She is a creative writer and artist, and has had paintings and artwork exhibited in several juried shows. She joined the Carthage faculty in 1991.

David Steege, as Associate Dean of the College, directs January Term and is responsible for working with faculty committees on curriculum and general education. He teaches courses on American literature, Mark Twain, the novel, and the short story. He has had essays published in volumes on British children's literature of the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. In addition, he is faculty sponsor of the Wisconsin Delta chapter of Alpha Chi, a National Honors Scholarship society. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He joined the Carthage faculty in 1991.

Alan Wallace maintains a variety of interests including outdoor education, new course development, and writing. He has a strong background in education, coming to the faculty after teaching at the Prairie School (Racine, Wis.), University of Wisconsin-Parkside and Kansas University. His current course offerings include an introduction to American literature, an introduction to world literature, creative writing and advanced writing. He first suggested and strongly advocated the semester of Heritage in Japan. He is especially interested in creating innovative programs for J-term: In 1992 he introduced the Literature of Exploration and Adventure. In 1993 he led the backpacking and camping trip to the Big Bend National Park in Texas. He came to Carthage in 1989.