Archives

Mollie Oblinger

• M.F.A., University of California – Davis
• B.F.A., Syracuse University

Travis Nygard

• Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh
• M.A., University of Pittsburgh
• B.A., Gustavus Adolphus College

I teach art history and museum studies classes. For me studying art is fascinating because it shows how humans have interacted with each other over the centuries, and it also enables us to see the world in new ways. My art history classes cover all time periods and places, from prehistoric cave art to computer-generated art of today, but my favorite time periods to think about are modern and ancient. I also team-teach a travel course in Rome, Italy, and I love to show students how the grandeur of the ancient Roman architecture mixes with the fast-paced world of today.

I am a museum enthusiast, and I oversee the college’s museum studies program. My museum studies classes are both hands-on and research-based, as I enjoy teaching students how to curate the college’s collections of art and artifacts. We display items across campus, including in the Ripon College Museum in West Hall. Hosting artists when they display their work in the Caestecker Gallery is another highlight of my work in the art department. I am also involved with the Ripon Historical Society, and I am looking forward to connecting students with that institution for internships and volunteer work.

When I am not in the classroom I enjoy researching modern American art, especially as it relates to food and farming, as well as ancient Maya art from the UNESCO world-heritages sites Palenque and Chichen Itza. You can learn more about that research on my website: https://ripon.academia.edu/TravisNygard

Rebecca Berens Matzke

• Ph.D. in modern British history, modern European history, United States diplomatic history, Cornell University
• M.A. in history, Cornell University
• B.A. in history and English, University of Nebraska

Hi! I’m Professor Matzke, and I’ve taught history at Ripon College since 2003. While my PhD is in the history of modern Britain and Europe, I teach a variety of courses, including World History, the Cold War, and World War I, and Catalyst classes. I really enjoy teaching Public History, in which students think critically about all the ways non-academics learn about history (including museums and movies) and learn skills to create their own special public history projects. My scholarly interests include the role of Britain’s naval power in its foreign policy in the 19th century, British propaganda to the U.S. in World War I, and the reception of Atlas missiles in Nebraska during the Cold War. I love history, and I hope my enthusiasm makes my students love history as well!

Steven Martin

• Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University
• M.A., Colorado State University
• A.B., Ripon College

Kristine Kovack-Lesh

• Ph.D., University of Iowa
• B.A., Valparaiso University

I have been teaching at Ripon College since January 2008. My area of specialization is developmental psychology and within that area I teach classes on PSC 234: Infant Development, PSC 235: Child Development, and PSC 242: Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood. I also regularly teach PSC 339: Cognitive Processes and PSC 212: Research Design and Statistics II. My other course offerings during my time at Ripon include other courses in the PSC department and courses in our Catalyst curriculum (e.g., CTL 120 and 300).

I am also the Director of the Infant Cognition Lab. Over the years, I have been able to work with about 20 different Ripon College students on research projects in my lab. Early in my career at Ripon, my research focused on infant categorization and memory. More recently, I have begun working with younger and older children (e.g., 2.5-10 years of age) to study aspects of attention with collaborators at other universities.

Memuna Khan

• Ph.D., Virginia Polytechnic & State University , Blacksburg, Virginia (biology)
• B.A., University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois (biology with honors)

I joined the faculty as an avian ecologist in 2006. My education started in Brooklyn, New York reading Ranger Rick, watching urban wildlife, and learning about the outdoors as a Girl Scout. I landed in Wisconsin after earning an undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago (B.A. Biology 1992), a doctorate at Virginia Tech (Ph.D. 1999), and a post-doctoral position at Princeton University. As an undergraduate, courses in Field Ecology and Animal Behavior introduced me to the wonderful world of birds and I haven’t gotten bored yet.

At Ripon my students and I study the behavior and ecology of a local population of Eastern Bluebirds. Since 2007, we have individually color-marked adult and nestling bluebirds and tracked their histories of movement and reproduction. My students have examined the impact of mealworm supplementation on nestling growth rates, double brooding, and overwintering behavior. These students have presented their work at undergraduate research symposia held by Sigma Xi and Beta Beta Beta, national science and biological honor societies. My current research interests include a study of the movement of overwintering bluebirds at feeders in Ripon, and the efficacy of wren guards in preventing House Wren predation on bluebird nests.

At Ripon I teach Vertebrate Zoology, Biology of Birds, Animal Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, Scientific Writing, Environmental Studies, and Catalyst 120. I also take students on In Focus courses on Conservation and Biodiveristy in Costa Rica.

Thomas Keuler

• B.B.A. Accounting, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Professional Certification
• Certified Public Accountant

Mark Kainz

• Postdoctoral scientist (plant virology), University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Postdoctoral fellow (bacteriology), University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Ph.D., Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (biochemistry, molecular and cell biology)
• M.S., Washington State University, Pullman, Washington (plant pathology)
• B.S., University of Portland, Portland, Oregon (biology)

I have been a faculty member at Ripon since 2008 and I love my job. I am interested in molecular biology and virology. My research students and I study the mechanics of how RNA is synthesized in bacteria and the factors that control how new virus particles are assembled in a virus infected cell. I teach Genetics and Microbiology every year and Molecular Biology and Virology every few years. I am also a member of the staff that teach our Introductory Biology and our Scientific Writing & Communication classes. I am a mentor for the Applied Innovation Seminar that is the capstone of our Catalyst curriculum. I teach another Catalyst class called “Bring out your dead: Infectious disease through history” that Professor Matzke from our history department and I developed together. I am part of the team that oversees the Catalyst curriculum, Ripon’s skill-based general education curriculum.

Paul Jeffries

• Ph.D. in Philosophy, University of Minnesota
• M.A. in Philosophy, University of Minnesota
• M.A.R. in Theological Ethics, Yale Divinity School, Yale University

Soren Hauge

• Ph.D. in Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• M.A. in Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• B.A., in Economics, Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota

I’m an applied microeconomist with a liberal arts background who likes to connect the theories and data of economics with the wider world of people and ideas. I grew up mainly in Pennsylvania and Upper Michigan before studying in a liberal arts college in Minnesota and graduate school in Wisconsin. Travel across the world and research in several Latin American countries inform my teaching of international and development economics courses. In environmental economics and history of economic thought, I connect economics with other ways of seeing the world in natural science and history. I also dig into the big picture of economic concepts and data with students in principles of macroeconomics and intermediate macroeconomics, as well as Catalyst seminars. My two children grew up in Ripon where my wife and I enjoy living.

Geoff Guevara-Geer

• Postdoctoral work: Northwestern University
• Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University
• M.A., Pennsylvania State University
• B.A., Ripon College

At Ripon College, I’m the Latin Americanist who works with literature. Because we’re small, I teach a very broad range of courses from our beginning language sequence to our culminating courses in literature from Spanish America. I often teach advanced writing in Spanish, and return to teaching favorite writers–like Cortázar, Peri Rossi, García Márquez, and Luiselli. I love seeing how cultures self-define, while being transformed, through their artists. I also enjoy returning to favorite problems, like issues of magical realism, the political engagements of artists, and indigenous representation. Many ideas and expressions start out as abstractions, and then show themselves at work in how we face the world, and each other.

Megan Gannon

• Ph.D. in English, University of Nebraska
• M.F.A. in Creative Writing-Poetry, University of Montana
• B.A. in English, Vassar College

Fiction is my favorite recreation; Poetry is my religion. I write in both genres to keep myself grounded and energized. I’m also interested in exploring Creative Nonfiction and Poetry Translation someday soon, but first I’d like to finish writing a new book of poems and a novel or two. I have developed and taught sixteen different classes at Ripon College, ranging in subjects from coming-of-age stories, dystopian narratives, fairy tales, Virginia Woolf, and most recently, the Gothic literary tradition.

Sarah Frohardt-Lane

• Ph.D., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
• B.A., Swarthmore College

I teach a variety of courses in United States history and global environmental history. I got interested in history when I realized that people could have different interpretations about historical developments and that those varying interpretations could shape how we view ourselves and our relation to one another. I decided I wanted to be a history professor before I headed off to a liberal arts college, and then got interested in other pursuits, including anti-poverty work and being a park ranger. When I figured out that I could combine these interests in the study of US history, I decided I wanted to go into history after all. I’m thrilled to be working at Ripon, as part of a wonderful college community, teaching history and environmental studies. One of my favorite aspects of teaching at Ripon is when I get to know students over multiple courses during their college experience. My research interests combine my background in race and environmental history in 20th century U.S. history, and I’m currently examining the history of lead poisoning from drinking water. Some of the courses I teach include U.S. History 1815-1914, U.S. History 1914-Present, United States Environmental History, Prisons and Punishment in American History, The Civil Rights Movement, Natural Disasters in World History, and World War II Home Fronts.

Marc Eaton

• Ph.D., University of Colorado-Boulder, Boulder, Colorado (sociology)
• B.A., Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington (sociology and psychology)

I have been a professor of sociology at Ripon since Fall 2011. I arrived only a few months after earning my PhD at University of Colorado-Boulder, where I studied how a progressive political organization, MoveOn.org, used the internet to mobilize both online and offline grassroots activism. My most recent research examined something quite different: paranormal investigators (aka, “ghost hunters”). Through participation in paranormal investigations as well as interviews with investigators, I explored investigators’ reasons for getting involved, their methods of determining whether a location was “haunted,” and what meanings they ultimately derived through their participation. This project culminated in a book entitled Sensing Spirits: Paranormal Investigation and the Social Construction of Ghosts.

While at Ripon, I have taught the following sociology courses: Introduction to the Sociological Imagination, Social Problems, Deviance, Sociology of the Paranormal, Social Movements, Self and Society, Criminology, Public Sociology and Activism, Sociology of Religion, Sociological Theories, and Senior Research Seminar. In addition, I have taught two courses in the Catalyst curriculum: Weird Wisconsin (a CTL 110 course focused on Wisconsin folklore) and U.S. History as Intercultural Conflict (a CTL 210 course focused on America’s history of slavery, economic exploitation, colonialism, expansionism, and interventionism).

My scholarly interests are rooted in symbolic interactionism, which theorizes how meanings and identities are created and changed through interpersonal interaction and communication. I also have an abiding interest in examining how systemic power inequities (poverty, racism, sexism, heterosexism, etc.) affect individual life courses, and how, in turn, people organize to resist these injustices.

Sarah Desotell

• Ph.D., mechanical engineering with a minor in nanoparticle science and engineering, University of Minnesota
• B.S., mechanical engineering, mathematics, University of Wisconsin-Platteville

I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville with degrees in mechanical engineering and mathematics. I earned a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering with a minor in nanoparticle science and engineering from the University of Minnesota. I previously taught in the Department of Physics at Ripon College from 2006 to 2016.

John Dalziel

• M.F.A. Scenic Design, University of Arkansas
• B.A. Theatre, Ripon College
• A.A., Sauk Valley Community College

I serve as the main designer and technical director for all of the theatre department productions, and I am also currently the chair of the theatre department. I have an MFA form the University if Arkansas in scenic design with a secondary emphasis in lighting design. I teach intro to theatre, stagecraft, lighting design, scenic design, and digital art and animation. My areas of interest are theatre design, as well as technology, and how to integrate technology in both the classroom, and on the stage.