institute 2009
Faculty Biographies
Program Co-Director, Dr. Susan Shillinglaw
Susan Shillinglaw is a professor of English at San José State University and Scholar in Residence at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas. A noted Steinbeck scholar, she has published several articles on the author and edited Steinbeck’s journalism (America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction) and collections of essays. She has also written introductions to Penguin editions of Cannery Row and Of Mice and Men, A Russian Journal, and most recently, The Winter of Our Discontent (2008). Her most recent book is A Journey Into Steinbeck’s California (2006).
Program Co-Director, Dr. Mary Adler
Mary Adler is an associate professor of English at California State University Channel Islands. A researcher in the field of English Education, she is the author of the forthcoming book, Writers at Play: Making the Space for Adolescents to Balance Imagination and Craft (Heinemann). She has also written about the importance of dialogic approaches to literature instruction in Building Literacy Through Classroom Discussion (2005, with Eija Rougle). Dr. Adler is a National Writing Project fellow from the University at California, Los Angeles.
Presenter, Dr. Robert DeMott
Robert DeMott received his Ph.D. in American Literature from Kent State University, Ohio. He is the Edwin and Ruth Kennedy Distinguished Professor of English at Ohio University. Author of Steinbeck’s Typewriter: Essays on His Art, he also edited Conversations with Jim Harrison; Steinbeck: Novels, 1942-1952; and John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath and Other Writings 1936-1941 (with Elaine Steinbeck). Steinbeck’s Typewriter was a co-winner of the Nancy Dasher Book Award from the College English Association of Ohio. He is a past director of the Steinbeck Research Center at San Jose State University.
Presenter, Dr. Chris Fink
Chris Fink is associate professor of English and creative writing at Beloit College and editor-in-chief of the Beloit Fiction Journal. Since 2000, he has published more than twenty stories in various US and Canadian journals, as well as several poems and essays. He was a founding faculty member of the Master of Fine Arts program at San Jose State University and founder of the John Steinbeck Award for the Short Story. Since 2000 he has been contributing editor of Steinbeck Studies. His stories have been nominated four times for the Pushcart Prize.
Master Teacher, Nancy Harray
Nancy Harray recently retired from teaching literature and science at Monterey High School in a special program focusing on the marine sciences.
Project Coordinator, Maria Judnick
Maria Judnick is a recent graduate of San Jose State’s MA program, where she focused on American literature and explored environmental concerns in everything she read — from Dickens to Shakespeare to Dana. She is particularly excited to be helping with the Steinbeck Institute since Cannery Row is one of her favorite books (and, thanks to her persuasion, a well-perused text for her MA exam study group!) She hopes to have a long career as an educator in the Bay Area, either at the high school or college level. In her spare time, Maria is an avid swimmer, reader, knitter, and gardener.
Presenter, Dr. Persis Karim
Persis Karim is an associate professor of literature and creative writing at San Jose State University. She teaches American, ethnic and world literature and is the editor and contributing poet to Let Me Tell You Where I’ve Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora (2006). She is married to an ocean scientist, Craig Strang, and she credits him with her deepened appreciation for the ocean, and the beauty of California.
Presenter, Anthony Newfield
Anthony Newfield, originally from Northern California, is a professional actor based in New York City whose appearances on stage, film, and television have taken him from New York to California to Ireland and Russia. Broadway credits include Tartuffe and Waiting for Godot. For his work in the play Bent, he won Florida’s Carbonell Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2002, he created his one-man show, Steinbeck and the Land, and performed it in New York and in Salinas, California, at the Steinbeck Festival. Since then, he has created new pieces for the Festival, including The Dog Ate My Manuscript: Of Mice and Men Onstage, A Box of Glory… An Armful of Garbage, and Tortilla Flat: How Danny and His Friends Found Their Way from the Page to the Stage. He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and earned an MFA in Acting from Carnegie Mellon University in conjunction with the Moscow Art Theatre.
Presenter, Dr. Matthew Spangler
Matthew Spangler is an assistant professor of Communication and Performance Studies at San Jose State University. He has written and directed over thirty adaptations of literature for the stage, including works by Ernest Hemingway, John Cheever, James Joyce, and Delmira Augustini (an Uruguayan poet). Recently he produced and directed a stage adaptation of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s letters at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland and at the Avignon Theatre Festival in France. He will be joined by Elizabeth Lee Barber to present his adaptation of Steinbeck’s short story, "The Chrysanthemums." His adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner was produced by the San Jose Repertory Theatre and Arizona Theatre Company.
Master Teacher, Debora Stonich
Debora Stonich is the secondary English Language Arts curriculum specialist for Lovejoy Independent School District in Lucas, Texas. She is a graduate of San Jose State University and received her Master’s of Science in Education/Curriculum and Instruction through the University of Scranton. Debora is a writing specialist for her school district and presents workshops throughout the United States on using Steinbeck’s novels and short stories to teach students how to develop and deepen their own writing styles.
Presenter, Dr. Craig Strang
Craig is associate director of Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) at the University of California, Berkeley. He is founding director of MARE: Marine Activities, Resources & Education, a K-8 interdisciplinary professional development and curriculum development program focused specifically on implementing schoolwide marine science programs that increase learning and language acquisition for English Language Learners. He is the lead principal investigator of the multi-institution, NSF-funded Center for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence—California. He is a member of the National Marine Educators Association Board of Directors Executive Committee. He has co-led the Ocean Literacy Campaign in the US since 2003 resulting in the development of Ocean Literacy: The Essential Principles of Ocean Sciences Grades K-12. He is co-author of three multi-volume sets of science & environmental education curriculum materials for grades K-8.