Creative Writing Certificate

English is far more than just a language, it's a multitude of exciting genres waiting to be explored. A creative writing certificate is perfect if you envision a career as a professional writer, or if you are interested in bringing your love of language and writing to rewarding careers in business, industry, or public service.

Learn more about the English Department at Parkside.

DEPARTMENT CONTACT INFO

Literatures and Languages | Rita 278 | 262-595-2331

Josef Benson

Associate Professor - English

Josef Benson offers courses in contemporary literature, African American literature, film, gender studies, poetry writing, fiction writing, and composition. He is the author of Star Wars: The Triumph of Nerd Culture (Rowman & Littlefield 2020), J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye: A Cultural History (Rowman & Littlefield 2018), and Hypermasculinities in the Contemporary Novel: Cormac McCarthy, Toni Morrison, and James Baldwin (Rowman & Littlefield 2014). Additionally, his work has appeared or is forthcoming in over twenty publications, including: Modern Fiction Studies, American Literature in Transition, 1980-1990 (Cambridge UP), Journal of Medical Humanities, Journal of Bisexuality, Southwestern American Literature, The Raymond Carver Review, Saw Palm, Moon City Review, and The Adirondack Review. He holds creative writing degrees from Missouri State University and the University of South Florida as well as a Ph.D. in literature with a heavy emphasis in gender theory also from the University of South Florida, where he studied primarily with Susan Mooney, John Henry Fleming, and Jay Hopler. He is currently working on two books: The Invisible Costume: Whiteness and the Construction of Race in American Comics and Graphic Novels (UP of Mississippi 2022) and The Sniper: A Cultural Reading of Jeffrey Dahmer.

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Mary Lenard, Ph.D.

Director of Composition and Associate Professor - English

Mary Lenard grew up in Falls Church, Virginia, has a B.A. from the University of Virginia (1989) and a M.A. (1991) and Ph.D. (1996) from the University of Texas at Austin. She started at UW-Parkside in 1998, after having taught at Alma College in Michigan for two years. Her first book, Preaching Pity: Dickens, Gaskell, and Sentimentality in Victorian Culture, was published in 1999. She lives in Racine, has taught at UW-Parkside for almost twenty years, and is currently serving as the Chair of the English Department.

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Jay Mcroy

Professor - English

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Dana Oswald, Ph.D.

Associate Professor - English

Dana Oswald completed her Ph.D. in 2005 at The Ohio State University. She has published articles on monstrosity, gender, and sexuality in Old and Middle English literature, and on best teaching practices in the university literature and writing classrooms. Her book, Monsters, Gender and Sexuality in Medieval English Literature, was published in 2010. She is currently working on a book entitled Old English Maternal Bodies.

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Tara Pedersen, Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Department Chair

Tara E. Pedersen received her Ph.D. from The University of California at Davis. She teaches Shakespeare, literature surveys, courses in Early Modern literature, The Bible as Literature, Women and Literature, Literature of Science and Magic, Composition, and Advanced Composition (with a Health Humanities focus). Her research focuses on knowledge production in pre-modern England, and her book, _Mermaids and the Production of Knowledge in Early Modern England_, was published by Ashgate Press in 2015.

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Suzanne Swiderski

Associate Professor

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