Project Team

All members listed are faculty and staff at Eastern Illinois University.

Suzie Park (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley) is Professor of English, President of the Phi Beta Kappa Alumni Association of East Central Illinois, and a newly elected Phi Beta Kappa National Senator. In eight years as Association President, Dr. Park has had extensive experience in programming public events. The recipient of multiple fellowships and awards, including NEH, Mellon, and National Humanities Center research awards, Dr. Park has published in the fields of 18^th-century and Romantic British literature, science, information studies, and women’s studies, and is currently at work on two monographs, Compulsory Narration and Preparing for Eventualities.

C.C. Wharram (Ph.D., University of Minnesota) is Director of the Center for the Humanities and Professor of English. Having taught and studied in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, and Canada, Dr. Wharram has published widely in translation studies, global Romanticisms, and the intersections of philosophy, literature, and science. Besides his many programming initiatives as Humanities Center Director, he is completing a  a new translation of and critical introduction to Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther.

Michael Babcock (B.A., Southern Illinois University) is a university Videographer who produces promotional videos for all departments and programs on campus. He has worked with Dr. Wharram on the production of The Close Reading Cooperative video podcast series.

Rehema Barber (M.A., The School of the Art Institute of Chicago) is Director of the Tarble Arts Center. Most recently, Ms. Barber was Visiting Coordinator of Figure One Gallery in Urbana, Illinois, and Independent Curator and Museum Consultant at Barber Curatorial.

John Bickford (Ph.D., University of Iowa) is Associate Professor of Education, with research interests in the methodology and assessment of social studies and history education, history literacy, and historical argumentation. He will spearhead our curriculum development efforts and award grants.

Steve Brantley (M.L.S., Indiana University) is Associate Professor and Head of Reference Services at Booth Library and is a member of the Digital Humanities Group.

Todd Bruns (M.A., University of Wisconsin, Madison) is the university’s Institutional Repository Librarian. His research interests include open access and scholarly communication coaching.

Lynne Curry (Ph.D., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) is Professor of History and the author of The DeShaney Case: Child Abuse, Family Rights, and the Dilemma of State Intervention (2007), The Human Body on Trial: A Sourcebook with Cases, Law, and Documents (2002), and Modern Mothers in the Heartland: Gender, Health, and Progress in Illinois, 1900-1930 (1999). Her current work examines the history of medicine and culture, including histories of medical neglect in the early twentieth century, faith healing, and reproduction.

Bradley Decker (D.M.A., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) teaches music composition and musicianship. He recently composed a fixed-media, electroacoustic piece titled “Sudden Death,” a “pensive work about inner thoughts, dread, joy, doubt, inspiration” written on the occasion of a friend’s sudden death: https://soundcloud.com/bdecker/sudden-death.

Jonelle DePetro (Ph.D., University of Arizona) is Professor of Philosophy, and the Chair of the Department, specializing in applied and medical ethics.

Julie Dietz (Ph.D. Illinois-UC), Chair of Health Promotion, will lend their extensive experiences in the healthcare profession and in community health.

J. Kevin Doolen (M.F.A., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) is Chair of Theatre Arts and has directed more than a hundred productions of plays at universities and colleges.

Richard England (Ph.D. University of Toronto) is Professor of Philosophy and Dean of the Honors College and will lead many lunch discussions and oversee the undergraduate research awards. His research interests include cultural and scientific controversies in the nineteenth century, contemporary debates involving competing claims for cultural authority, and Honors pedagogy.

Elizabeth Gill (Ph.D., Purdue University) is Assistant Professor of Communications Studies, specializing in the communication of end-of-life decisions. She is also a member of EIU’s Health Studies major.

Suzanne Gosse (Ph.D., Ohio State University, Nursing) is Assistant Professor of Nursing, and will be a vital contributor to the team, lending her extensive experiences in the healthcare profession.

James Hildebrandt (D.O., Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine) has served the healthcare needs of our region for over twenty years, and was named Vice President of Medical Affairs at Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center in 2012.

Jeannie Ludlow (Ph.D., Bowling Green State University) is Coordinator of Women’s Studies and Associate Professor of English and has published extensively on Native American literature, feminist theory, women’s rights, and biopolitical debates.

Marita Metzke, is the Project Coordinator of the Academy of Lifelong Learning, will lead many of the Community Discussions and Lunch Discussions.

Britto Nathan (Ph.D., University of Kansas) is Professor of Biological Sciences and a leading researcher in neurological diseases, particularly Alzheimer’s. Winner of multiple National Institute of Health research grants, Dr. Nathan has published extensively in Science, Experimental Neurology, Brain Research, Frontiers in Bioscience, and many other journals.

Alan Pocaro (M.F.A., Miami University, Ohio) is Assistant Professor of Printmaking and Foundations, and is part of the New Aesthetics movement.

Dana Ringuette (Ph.D., University of Washington) is Professor of English and Chair of the Department, with teaching and research interests in 19th- and early 20th-century American and British literature, literary theory and criticism.

Michael Schuetz (M.F.A., SUNY-Albany) is Assistant Director of the Tarble Arts Center. Mr. Schuetz has worked as Collections Technician at SPNEA’s Historic New England and as Assistant Curator and Collections Manager at Frelinghuysen Morris House and Studio.