Archives

Andrew Prellwitz

As Director of Lane Library I connect students to the collections, spaces and library services they need for academic growth and success. This means providing books and articles from the world’s best scholars, making innovative spaces like the Franzen Center possible, and working with students to help them navigate the flood of information available. Like many Ripon students, I was the first in my family to go to college. That’s one of the many reasons I find the additional services we provide, like chromebook and textbook check-outs as well as supporting open-educational resources so essential.

I currently teach information literacy as part of the Catalyst curriculum and have also taught courses on German language, culture and literature, the digital humanities, oral history as well as a half-marathon course.

Professionally, I am an active member of the Wisconsin Library Association as current co-chair of the Leadership Committee, co-chair of the Literary Awards committee as well as a past chair of the Wisconsin Association of Academic Librarians. I also serve on two public library boards. My scholarship focuses on local history and culture.

Nicholas Eastman

• Ph.D., Georgia State University
• M.A.T., Southern Illinois University
• B.A., Southern Illinois University

Matthew Knoester

• Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Ed.M., Harvard University
• B.A., St. Olaf College

I became an educator because I find it endlessly fascinating. There are so many angles to think about teaching and education at all levels, from how to build trusting relationships with students, to thinking about ways to pursue research and inquiry with students, to analyzing educational policy. I began my career as a teacher at the high school level, then later became an elementary school teacher, then pursued a Ph.D. and became a college professor. Most of my K-12 teaching was in the Boston Public Schools. But my graduate work, research, and family connections brought me back to the midwest, and to a focus on educational research and teaching pre-service teachers. I teach courses generally focusing on literacy, elementary curricula, differentiating instruction, and educational assessment.

Touorizou Hervé Somé

• Ph.D. Social Foundations of Education, State University of New York at Buffalo
• Master’s degree in business with a specialization in project management (online), Aspen University
• M.A. African Literature
• B.A. Sociology-Anthropology, University of Ouagadougou
• B.A. African Literature

Rafael Francisco Salas

• M.F.A., The New York Academy of Art
• B.A., Macalester College

I am a Wisconsin-based artist. My artwork combines landscape, the legacy of portraiture, architecture, and country music into artwork evoking a strange, rural poetry. I am represented by Portrait Society Gallery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

I am also an arts writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Newcity Art Chicago, The Isthmus Magazine and Urban Milwaukee.

In 2022, Governor Tony Evers appointed me to the Wisconsin Arts Board, the state agency responsible for the support and development of the arts throughout Wisconsin. I also serve on the Executive Board of the Museum of Wisconsin Art and the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.

I am a Professor of Art and Chair of the Department of Art and Art History here at Ripon College.

Ann Pleiss Morris

• Ph.D. in English, University of Iowa (2011)
• M. Litt in Shakespeare & Renaissance Literature in Performance, Mary Baldwin College (2005)
• B.A. in English & Speech-Drama, Mount Mercy University (2002)

I teach courses in British literary history, women’s literature, theatre history, contemporary drama, Shakespeare, and composition. My current book project re-evaluates the place of women dramatists in the time of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Outside of work, I enjoy being a part of community theater projects, playing piano, working my way through my ever expanding to-be-read pile, and cross stitching.

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

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