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Dominique Poncelet

• Ph.D. in French, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• “Licence en Philologie Romane”, University of Louvain at Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
• “Agrégation en Philologie Romane”, University of Louvain at Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

I teach all levels of French, from the elementary to the advanced courses. French is my native language; I grew up near Bastogne in south-east Belgium and moved to the U.S. in 1991. I received my PhD in French from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1999, and at about that time I joined the Ripon College faculty.

I am fascinated by cultures, languages, literature, and intercultural encounters and I share these interests with my students in my French courses, as well as in other classes I teach: Catalyst 110 and 210, linguistics, and elementary Latin.

I serve as an advisor for minors in French and multi-interested students; I also help students prepare for study-abroad programs in Paris, Montpellier (France), and Dakar (Senegal).

My research interests include 20th and 21st- century French poetry and the themes of memory and death in contemporary French novels.

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.

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

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