Abbey Schneider is a social sciences lecturer at the American College of Norway and Bjørnholt videregående skole in Oslo. She is from Washington, DC where she taught for several years in Maryland high schools, the American University and Georgetown University before coming to Norway as a Fulbright Roving Scholar in American Studies in 2007. For the last twelve years she has been teaching psychology in Oslo. Abbey is passionate about equity in education, student well-being and the role of education in democracy. Outside of her professional interests, Abbey is active in the international community in Oslo. She spends her free time trying to keep up with her daughter and the family dog.

Michael Nitz is Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Augustana University (SD). He has over 25 years of international higher education experience in the areas of PR and strategic communication. He has been a Fulbright Scholar in Germany and this is his 2nd time teaching at American College of Norway. He has led almost a dozen courses on strategic communication in Norway and Central Europe.  At Augustana, he also is Coordinator of Norwegian Programs which establishes and maintains academic partnerships with Norway.  His two daughters are alums of Skarmyra School in Moss. Professor Nitz highly recommends students study in Norway for a like always like never before experience.

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K. M. Powell is a Senior Lecturer at the University of North Dakota where she has taught since 2006.  She has a two Masters Degrees, one in Counseling & College Student Personnel, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Maine.  She holds two certifications in project management called a CAPM® and DASM®.  Her areas of expertise include teaching Leadership and has taught a course on that each and every semester at UND since 2008. Recently, she created a course on Project Management and teaches it each Spring semester.

Kay wants you to know that she is obsessed with popular culture, including social media, films, and TV shows (especially about business).  She is proud of her Jewish roots and her membership with the B'nai Israel synagogue in Grand Forks, North Dakota.  She is a founding member and the current president of her local Rotary (service) club.  Her hobbies include science fiction, debating with students about the best directors in film right now (by the way, the answer is "Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve"), and taking students abroad.  She's taken UND Honors college students to Ireland one year, and Italy a couple of years later.  She also took Business students for summer research and classes on mainland China back in 2018.  Unfortunately, COVID changed so much, so she was excited about the opportunity to teach and research abroad.

She invites you to connect with her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmpowell/ where she will give you unsolicited advice about your leadership journey.

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Turk Rhen is professor of Integrative Biology at the University of North Dakota (UND). He has taught genetics, genomics, molecular and cell biology, endocrinology, animal behavior, and scientific writing. He strives to provide his students a rigorous education so they become broad, integrative thinkers. His undergraduate and Masters degrees are from UND. After earning his Ph.D. at the University of Texas-Austin, he did postdoctoral research at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Dr. Rhen has developed expertise in areas of biology ranging from molecular biology to ecology and evolution. He is particularly interested in sexual differentiation as well as how genes and the environment interact to influence animal development. Dr. Rhen has published 56 peer-reviewed papers on these topics and secured over $2 million in funding from the US National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health to support his research. In his free time, he enjoys traveling the world with his wife and children.

Tami is a Professor of English, Theatre Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of North Dakota (UND). In addition, she coordinates the university’s American College of Norway collaboration. She has taught at ACN many times and visits frequently. Carmichael received her Master’s degree and her Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. Currently, in both her teaching and research, she focuses on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. She enjoys working with students and creating student-centered learning projects that integrate issues, ideas, and data across the disciplines so that students can gain a wider perspective on areas of real-world significance.

Cecilie Olandersson teaches English at the American College of Norway. She started her Higher Education journey at ACN in 2010 and continued her studies at the University of North Dakota, along with several friends she gained while studying abroad in high school. Olandersson simultaneously worked as a journalist, and continued doing so when returning to Norway. She studied to become a teacher and later taught Norwegian and English in various levels. In 2019, Olandersson received her Master’s degree in Pedagogy and Leadership in Education from the University of South-Eastern Norway. She is currently teaching Pedagogy at the Teacher Education Program at Østfold University College. She is an avid sports fan, has a heart for languages, and enjoys spending time with her husband and three kids.

Joshua Hunter is an Associate Professor at the University of North Dakota. He works in a graduate studies department, teaching qualitative research methods, and directs an undergraduate program in Outdoor Leadership and Environmental Education. Both of these programs are in the College of Education. Prior to becoming a professor he spent several years as an environmental educator in elementary schools, a park ranger and naturalist and as a wilderness guide. All of these experiences allowed him to work full time in the outdoors and with people, introducing them to different ecological and natural history settings. It also allowed him the opportunity to work on his own leadership skills, observe small group dynamics in often extreme environments and experience diverse and beautiful places. These days, Joshua works with several non-profit environmental and education focused groups helping to develop experiences and learning opportunities for children and adults in the outdoors. He has a partner, who is also an academic and two daughters, one who is in high school and the other just starting university. We travel, camp and enjoy hiking and kayaking and paddleboarding, often bringing our two dogs along. His favorite places include high alpine regions, the sea and most anywhere there is not mobile phone service.

John Ross, a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, took his MSc and PhD at the London School of Economics. He specializes in international and European/comparative politics and offers courses in both fields. Another of his offerings is The Arctic in Global Perspective, and in conjunction with that he has been pleased to lead experiential study groups to the far-north archipelago of Svalbard in 2016 and 2017. Dr. Ross previously taught at universities in Sweden (Stockholm), Finland (Tampere, on a Fulbright professorship) and the US (Northeastern University in Boston). He has also been a researcher at Uppsala University in Sweden and a faculty associate at Harvard University. He has penned five books and numerous articles and writes widely for general as well as specialist audiences, focusing recently on EU policy-making, Nordic society and Olympic history. Away from work he loves hiking in the Norwegian countryside, camera in hand.

Lainey Jenks is a Professor of Communication and Media at West Chester University. She teaches courses in interpersonal communication, friendship communication, communication and disability, public speaking, and film. Lainey has won three teaching and two service awards. Her scholarship focuses on interpersonal communication and disability from an ethnographic perspective. Lainey has researched the communicative behaviors of individuals who are blind or visually impaired in summer camp, friendship, family, and athletic settings.

Lillian is a native New Yorker, born and raised. She began her higher education studies in New York, but moved to Norway in the interim.  She went on to complete her BA at the University of Cambridge, UK, and her MPhil in Religion, Society and Global Issues from the Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society (MF) in Oslo, Norway. Her passions are women’s issues, philosophy of religion, and art, and she has combined all three in the practice of her strongest passion, which is writing. She has penned articles about the power of image as insight as pertains to the religious views about women throughout history.  She has taught English/Writing throughout many years at all levels of the education spectrum. Lillian teaches English Composition I and II.

Rebecca is an assistant professor in the Humanities & Integrated Studies Department at the University of North Dakota. She has both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Wyoming in International Relations and International Development and her Doctorate from the University of North Dakota (UND) in History. She currently teaching Humanities and Integrated Studies Courses at UND, both online and in a traditional classroom. Her focus in her teaching and research is on developing student-centred learning opportunities within the curriculum that integrate issues, ideas and information across many different disciplines. She is interested in helping students develop a “big picture” of world events and how these issues affect all aspects of society and life.

She currently lives in Minnesota with her husband and son, and has a daughter that attends Clemson University in South Carolina. She loves to travel and experience new things, as well as cooking and reading. This year, her travel took her to Thailand for the first time, where her daughter is studying abroad for the semester. Rebecca has a special fondness for Norway as she did a study abroad experience in Sortland, Norway after her High School graduation and she is always excited for an opportunity to come teach at ACN.

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Pamela is an Associate Professor of Health Sciences at Springfield College. Her professional focus is in public health research, program development, implementation, and evaluation. She has been involved in national and local primary care evidenced-based practice implementation efforts for screening and brief intervention studies and pediatric asthma management, and has led community-based health care needs assessments in the state of Connecticut. Pamela has a Master of Science degree in Rehabilitation from Springfield College, a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Connecticut, and is Certified in Public Health through the National Board of Public Health Examiners. A Connecticut native, she enjoys golfing, biking, and cross-country skiing, though her favorite activities include spending time with her husband Sean and their daughters Katelyn and Sarah. Pamela is the first visiting faculty member from ACN partner school, Springfield College.

Joshua Hunter is an Associate Professor at the University of North Dakota. He works in a graduate studies department, teaching qualitative research methods, and directs an undergraduate program in Outdoor Leadership and Environmental Education. Both of these programs are in the College of Education. Prior to becoming a professor he spent several years as an environmental educator in elementary schools, a park ranger and naturalist and as a wilderness guide. All of these experiences allowed him to work full time in the outdoors and with people, introducing them to different ecological and natural history settings. It also allowed him the opportunity to work on his own leadership skills, observe small group dynamics in often extreme environments and experience diverse and beautiful places. These days, Joshua works with several non-profit environmental and education focused groups helping to develop experiences and learning opportunities for children and adults in the outdoors. He has a partner, who is also an academic and two daughters, one who is in high school and the other just starting university. We travel, camp and enjoy hiking and kayaking and paddleboarding, often bringing our two dogs along. His favorite places include high alpine regions, the sea and most anywhere there is not mobile phone service.

I am interested in all aspects of plant biology that emphasize plant structure and function. Most recently, I have been studying the development of gametes in plants that appear to form embryos asexually. Sperm and eggs are formed, but they don’t seem to fuse during the fertilization process. Instead, unfertilized egg cells develop into embryos after pollination takes place. These types of studies are aimed at increasing our understanding of the development and role of gametes during the reproductive process in higher plants.

This is my third semester teaching at ACN and I am looking forward to reconnecting with American and Norwegian students this summer.

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Adam Kitzes began adult life in Chicago, with a not too promising career in the fast-paced world of investor relations research. In a tremendous turn of good fortune, he began his graduate studies of English and American literature, first at the University of Illinois-Chicago, then at the University of Madison, where he concentrated on Shakespeare and his contemporaries. After teaching at various institutions, he settled at the University of North Dakota, where he is a professor of English, former director of the Communication program, and current director of English graduate studies. Adam enjoys discussing literature, both in the classroom and out, with particular interests in the development of English literature, its distributions and its receptions among an international audience, and studies of English customs by early American writers. Adam enjoys cooking: Sunday mornings are for rolling home-made pasta, but there is never a bad time to make chocolate mousse. He also enjoys running – mostly marathons, but a knee or two might disagree. He still actively considers what it would be like to become a foreign service officer.

Daphne Pedersen is a Professor of Sociology at the University of North Dakota.  With UND since 2004, Pedersen studies gender issues, the sociology of health, and how work shapes individual well-being.  Her research has focused on dual-career couples, working parents, college students, and STEM faculty.  She’s particularly interested in stress processes and how different aspects of people’s lives intersect to affect well-being.  An engaged researcher and teacher, Pedersen has published more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters.  She earned the UND Foundation’s Bertin C. Gamble Award for Individual Excellence in Teaching in 2007, and was the recent recipient of the 2018 Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, Research or Creative Activity, and Service at UND.  Pedersen stays actively involved in pedagogical circles, and is the current President of Alpha Kappa Delta, the international honor society for sociology.  A Utah native, she loves running, hiking, backpacking, biking, skiing, and pretty much anything that takes her outdoors (and especially in the mountains).  She has run six marathons to date and many half marathons, and has plans to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail with one of her four children.  Other favorite pursuits include travel and visiting the public library.

Tami Carmichael is professor and director of the Humanities & Integrated Studies unit at the University of North Dakota (UND). In addition, she coordinates the university’s American College of Norway collaboration. Carmichael received her Master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Georgia where she specialized in issues of women’s writing in early American literature. Currently, in both her teaching and research, she focuses on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. She enjoys working with students and creating student-centered learning projects that integrate issues, ideas, and data across the disciplines so that students can gain a wider perspective on areas of real-world significance. Dr. Carmichael publishes and speaks extensively on interdisciplinary education, integrative general education, learning communities, the assessment of student learning, and international teaching collaboration. She believes that students should be given every opportunity to develop the skill sets that are essential in the real world: critical and creative thinking, evidence-based reasoning, collaboration, and integrative thinking. In 2008, Carmichael was named a CASE/Carnegie state Professor of the Year. In 2014 she was selected as a national STIRS (Scientific Thinking and Reasoning Scholar) Scholar by the Association of American Colleges & Universities, and in 2015 she was named as one of five U.S. AAC&U STIRS Fellows. She will work with this national group of scholars to create vertically integrated undergraduate curricula that emphasize evidence based reasoning. She and her husband and son live in Grand Forks, ND where they enjoying skiing, hiking, and kayaking.

Yashari is a PhD candidate at the University of North Dakota with interests in Popular Culture, Gender, and Latinx Diaspora studies. Originally from New York City, she received her Masters from Brooklyn College (CUNY) in English Literature. She enjoys all things Harry Potter related, traveling, as well as editing and cutting films in her free time.

Robin Smith has won the Academy of American Poet’s Prize and her poetry has been published world wide. She is currently pursuing her PhD in English at the University of North Dakota. She is an avid fan of Reality TV and pasta.

Dr. Lauri Hyers is a Social Psychologist in the Psychology Department of West Chester University of Pennsylvania, USA (in the Philadelphia area). She is also an affiliate of the Women’s and Gender Studies Department at WCU. Her teaching expertise and published scholarship focus on diversity and social justice, gender socialization, animal welfare, and utopian communities. She conducts primarily qualitative narrative research, about which she has recently published a book, Diary Methods: Understanding Qualitative Research (Oxford University Press, 2018). Her course offerings at American College of Norway include Social Psychology (2011), Positive Psychology (2011 & 2018), Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies (2011 & 2018), and Multicultural Psychology (2018).

Darin Kerr is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Theatre Arts at Bowling Green State University. He is also Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities and Integrated Studies at the University of North Dakota. His fields of interest include contemporary performance, gender studies, and poststructuralist theory. His most recent publication, “‘A Whole Hundred Years of Questionable Behavior’: Wainwright/Garland/Jolson and Performance as Palimpsest,” appeared in Theatre Annual. A professional actor and director, he recently appeared in Doubt and A Bright New Boise with the Empire Theatre Company, as well as directing The Glory of Living for the University of North Dakota Department of Theatre Arts. He enjoys cult cinema, gaming, and discovering new music and artists on tumblr.

Emily is currently an associate professor at the University of North Dakota where she teaches theatre specializing in musical theatre and directing. Originally from Texas she received her BFA in Musical Theatre from Texas Wesleyan University and her MFA in Directing from Western Illinois University. Emily has directed and performed in several productions professionally and in academia some of her favorites have been Shrek, The Secret Garden, Three Days of Rain, Into the Woods, The Sweet Stuff (World Premier), Assassins and several others.

Emily is thrilled to be teaching at ACN this semester and looks forward to exploring Norway.

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Brittney is a doctoral student at the University of North Dakota with a focus in rhetoric and composition. She received her double bachelor’s in English and French from Concordia College, Moorhead in 2008. She is also a creative writer who works primarily in short fiction and poetry. Reading and traveling are her passions, and she rarely meets a new place or a book she doesn’t like.

For more information about Brittney’s professional and creative work, visit www.brittneychristy.com

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Ashleah is a M.A. candidate at the University of North Dakota with an interests in Pedagogy, Popular Culture, and Postcolonial Studies. Originally from south Mississippi, she received her B.A. in English Literature from Mississippi State University in 2015. Her favorite types of books include fantasy and science fiction and she loves to play both video and tabletop games. She also enjoys traveling and seeing new places and is incredibly excited to teach in another country this semester.

Raymond Goldsteen is Founding Director of the Master of Public Health (MPH) program and Professor of Population Health at the University of North Dakota, School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He joined UND in 2012, and before that, he was the Founding Director of the MPH program at Stony Brook University in New York, which he led to accreditation in 2008 by the Council on Education for Public Health. He received his B.A. degree from Columbia University in 1972, his M.A. degree in Sociology from Brown University in 1974, and his Dr.P.H. degree from the Columbia University School of Public Health in 1984. Dr. Goldsteen has taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Oklahoma College of Public Health, Clemson University, and West Virginia University’s School of Medicine. He has a career-long interest in public health, particularly issues of equity in access and quality to medical care and to the conditions that facilitate health. These include the basic physical requirements of health such as clean water, nutritious food, and safe housing and workplaces, as well as social determinants such as education, health information, and social support. Dr. Goldsteen is very pleased to be joining the faculty of the American College of Norway and looking forward to spending time with students and faculty on issues of ethics and human rights related to public health, globally.

Bridget Tetteh-Batsa is a PhD Candidate and Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Department of English at the University of North Dakota. She has a BA degree in English from the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, West Africa. She earned her MA degree in African Studies in 2009, and a second MA degree in English Language and Literature in 2011 from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. Bridget specializes in Critical Race Theory, African American Literature, and Postcolonial Literature and Theory. She is especially interested in the scholarship on teaching English to linguistic minorities and ESL/EFL learners, postcolonial disenchantment in African Literature, African trickster tales and ways of knowing, black feminist criticism and theory, and in James Baldwin’s work. Bridget has taught for nine years. She taught elementary and intermediate level African Language courses for the African Studies Department at Ohio University. She has also taught and continues to teach courses in Rhetoric and Composition, Composition and Research, Technical and Business Writing, Writing for Public Audiences, Diversity in US Literatures, and courses in Literature and Culture. In the Spring 2016 semester, Bridget will teach ENGL 229, a diversity in US literature course that will explore the intersections of race, class, and gender: we will specifically ask questions about the texts that train our gazes for what is beautiful, and explore concepts that will help us analyze the complex connections between notions of feminine beauty, race, and class.Bridget is an avid “time traveler”—-well, technically—-who sees opportunities for international engagements as unique moments in time and space. She is therefore excited about the opportunity to be part of the ACN family!

Dexter Perkins is a Professor of Geology and Associate Director of the Harold Hamm School of Geology and Geological Engineering at the University of North Dakota. He received a B.S. degree from the University of Rochester in 1973, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1977 and 1979. After two years on the faculty at the University of Chicago, he came to UND in 1981.

Perkins teaches a wide variety of classes including introductory geology, mineralogy and petrology, environmental science, and economic geology. In the past, his research focus has been on mineral thermodynamics and metamorphic petrology. More recently, most of his research is on geoscience education.

Perkins has published three books and many scientific papers. He has been editor of several different professional journals, has organized and conducted many teaching-related workshops, and has participated in many national and international organizations. He has received many research grants and has received several professional awards and recognitions. Most recently, he was recognized as the Case/Carnegie North Dakota Professor of the Year.

Link to Dexter Perkins’s Personal Homepage: http://geology.und.edu/perkins/

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Sam Johnson teaches English, humanities, and communication courses for the University of North Dakota, and is an associate professor of English and humanities at Lake Region State College in North Dakota. Johnson has also served as Director for Technology and Media Services for Devils Lake, ND Public Schools, and as the Curriculum and Instructional Design Coord. for online learning at Lake Region State College. In addition to teaching a wide variety of courses in English and humanities, communication, print and broadcast journalism, multimedia and information technology, Johnson has been an active advocate for public humanities, organizing and leading special programs, book discussion groups, and student-faculty-community travel adventures such as his “American Sojourn.” In all his activities, Johnson tries to incorporate his love for music, film, nature, and travel.

Elizabeth Munz is an Assistant Professor and Graduate Coordinator in the Department of Communication Studies at West Chester University. She earned a B.A. from the University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Communication Studies from what is now the Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue University. Her research interests are in interpersonal and family communication with a focus on parent-child communication during times of transition. Dr. Munz regularly teaches Public Speaking, Interpersonal Communication, Family Communication, Nonverbal Communication, and Research Methods. She has recent publications in Communication Research, the Journal of Applied Communication Research, and the Journal of Family Communication. Dr. Munz and her husband served as Peace Corps volunteers in Suriname, South America and she and her family are excited about their upcoming semester in Norway. She lives in West Chester, Pennsylvania with her husband and three children. Outside of teaching and research, Dr. Munz enjoys hiking, biking, swimming, and soccer.

Ben thoroughly enjoys traveling. He has been to New Zealand, Australia, Africa, Italy, Holland, Germany, Czech Republic, Scotland, and Great Britain. In 2006 he studied Renaissance Art abroad at the University of Northampton in England. Ben earned a BFA in fiction from Penn State, Behrend in 2008 and an MFA in fiction from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2012. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the English department at the University of North Dakota. He mostly writes short stories and poetry with a special interest in the American rural. His academic interests include contemporary fiction and poetry, film, adaptation, culture studies, gender and body theory in the horror film, and postmodernism. He currently resides in North Dakota with his partner Beverly and their two children, Gracelyn and Henrik.

Dr. Paul Todhunter is Professor of Geography at the University of North Dakota. He received his Ph.D. in Geography from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1986. He is in his 26th year at UND. He is a physical geographer with interests is climatology, hydrology, environmental hazards, and global change. At UND he teaches classes in Global Physical Environment, Introduction to Global Climate, Climatology, Environmental Hazards, Water Resources, and Human Impact on the Environment.

His current research focuses upon (1) the hydroclimatology and lake hydrology of Devils Lake, North Dakota, (2) the flood disaster at Devils Lake, (3) the soil-thermal regime of seasonally frozen prairie soils in the northern Great Plains, and (4) flood hazard, flood mitigation, and floodplain management.

His family (wife – Debbie; four children – Nathan, Emily, Ryan, and Rachel) lived in Moss during the spring semester 2002 when he previously taught at ACN. Only he and Debbie will be in Moss in spring 2015. They love to travel, and hope to see a lot of Europe. A closet Norvegophile, he is looking forward to living in Norway again. He has taken several Norwegian classes at UND, and is anxious to attempt to develop an ear for the language.

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Dr. Sami Abdel-Salam is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at West Chester University (WCU). He earned his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA in 2011. Prior to joining the faculty at WCU, Sami was a Research Scientist at the Center for Drug and Alcohol Studies at the University of Delaware where he was involved in national collaborative research project focused on improving substance abuse treatment services provided to offenders involved in the U.S. correctional system. He has a number of publications related to the findings from this project and has presented at several national conferences.

In terms of teaching, Sami enjoys working with students and challenging them to try and tackle
the difficult issues involved with crime prevention. At WCU he regularly teaches courses such as, “Introduction to Criminal Justice”, “Research Methods”, “Drugs and Crime”, and “Comparative Criminal Justice Systems”. Sami is joined in Norway this fall with his wife, Vicky, and their two children, Lena and Eoin. Sami hopes to use this experience to learn about the Norwegian criminal justice system and how it compares to that of the United States.

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Kimberly Stewart completed her M.A. in English from the University of North Dakota, where she studied composition, creative writing, and literature. She is a lecturer in the English Department at the University of North Dakota and served as Acting Coordinator of the Writing Center and University Writing Program from January of 2014 to July 2015. Kim’s classes incorporate a process-oriented approach to writing and revision. She also enjoys the opportunity to encourage her students to consider the ways in which their own lives and perspectives influence their reading and interpretation of the texts they read, write, and study in class. Though a native Californian, Kim moved to Grand Forks, North Dakota in 2005 where, undaunted by the climate, she continues to live with her husband and their two children.

Paul E. Sum received his PhD in Political Science from Northwestern University in 1996. He came to the University of North Dakota in fall 2000. He teaches courses in Comparative Politics, Democratization, Human Rights, Research Methodology, and Social Entrepreneurship. Sum also is an accomplished international evaluator and consultant. He has worked with the U.S. Agency for International Development, World Bank, Council of Europe, OSCE, Democracy International, National Democratic Institute, World Learning, International Research & Exchanges Board, and the American Council for Learned Societies.

Sum’s research agenda addresses the role of political culture and mobilizing efforts in processes of democratization. His region of expertise is post-communist Europe. His current interests explore determinants of generalized trust in terms of dispositions, experiences, and contexts. Toward this end, he is involved in two projects: one evaluates trust among Romanian migrants; the second considers the formation of trust among high school students using panel data. He also continues to be interested in the effectiveness of civil society development assistance, especially the extent to which such assistance furthers the development of social capital though non-governmental organizations.

Sum maintains a special relationship with Romania. He held the position of Lecturer and Fellow at the Faculty of Political Science and Public Administration at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania (1996-1998) under a program funded by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Since 2007, he has held an academic appointment at the same faculty for the Masters in Research Design and Data Analysis Program. In 2009-2010, Sum was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholar Award to Romania where he lectured and conducted research. He is the Chair for the Society for Romanian Studies related groups section of the American Political Science Association.

Steve Rendahl, currently Coordinator of the UND Communication Program, grew up on a farm in North Dakota. He has strong ties to his Norwegian ancestry and lives on the the homesteads where his Norwegian grandparents lived. His family encouraged him to attend Concordia College in Moorhead, which has strong historical Norwegian roots. Later he received a Masters degree from the University of North Dakota and a PhD. from the University of Minnesota. In 1998, Dr. Rendahl traveled to Norway for the first time to teach at the American College of Norway and has returned to ACN several times since.

Professor Rendahl’s teaching and research have a strong international component. He has contact with scholars and universities abroad, having taught at the American College of Norway in Moss, Norway, the University of Shanghai Science and Technology in China, the University of Bucharest in Romania, University of the Philippines Los Banos, Philippines and he has lectured many times in Malaysia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Romania and throughout the Philippines.

Dr. Jane Jeffrey has been Professor of English at West Chester University for twenty-two years. She teaches courses in medieval literature, film, and the King James Bible. She has published articles on medieval women, including Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, Radegunde, Heloise, and Julian of Norwich, She has also written Blicking Spirituality and the Old English Vernacular Homily and, with Professors Laurie Churchill and Phyllis Brown, edited the three volume Women Writing in Latin. Outside the classroom, she enjoys walking, traveling, and learning Norwegian.

Musab Bajaber is a Doctorate Student and a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the English Department at the University of North Dakota. His fields of interest are utopianism, science fiction, comparative literature and postcolonial theory. Bajaber has earned his MA in English literature in 2008 from the University of Regina and his BA in English Literature in 2000 from King Saud University. Throughout his more than 10 year career, he has taught courses in critical theory, Postcolonial literature, translation, utopia, science fiction, in addition to various English composition courses and Arabic in different places including USA, Saudi Arabia, and Canada.

Bajaber enjoys a variety of activities beside academia. In his free time, he writes short stories, sketches, camps, and trains in Karate. He also enjoys meeting new people, learning about different cultures, engaging in social activities, having fun and drinking coffee. Bajaber has also done a lot of travelling. Amongst the countries and places he visited or lived in are India, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Singapore, and many West European countries.

This Spring semester, Bajaber will be teaching an introduction to science fiction film, which is an extension of his interest in Utopian Science Fiction. In this course, he will guide his students through the history of the genre and allow them to explore its emergence, its achievements and its potentials.

Deanne Sparks is a Ph.D. candidate and a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the English Department at the University of North Dakota. Her fields of interest are multicultural American literatures, Native American Studies, sexuality and queer theories, and transnationalism. Sparks earned a MA in English in 2012 from La Sierra University, a MA in History in 2004 from Rutgers University, and a BS in Social Studies in 2000 from Pacific Union College. Throughout her teaching career at both the college and high school levels, she has taught courses in American History, (American) Women’s History, Religious History, British and American literatures, Native American Literatures, and Composition and Research Writing. Her research focuses on cultural hybridity or pluralities, especially experienced within interracial relationships and/or multi-lingual characters, in American literatures published between 1865-1945. Because of her experiences living on the US-Mexico border and the US-Canada border for many years, she has a keen interest in borderlands and the culture clash or burring that occurs along and within politicized geographies. In the Fall 2014 semester, Sparks will teach ENGL 227, a special topics course focused on im/migration in North American literatures.

Dr. Jason Phillips, Ph.D., C.T.L. earned a Ph.D. in Management Science, Operations, and Logistics from the Pennsylvania State University, a M.B.A. from Texas A&M University, and a B.S. in Business Logistics from the Pennsylvania State University. His research has appeared in numerous prestigious international journals including the Journal of Business Logistics, the International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, the Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, and the Transportation Journal. He has made presentations of his research at academic conferences in both Europe and the United States and has over a decade of experience consulting with government and business firms.

With over fifteen years of teaching experience, Dr. Phillips is currently a tenured Professor of Marketing at West Chester University where he was instrumental in achieving AACSB accreditation for the University’s School of Business. In addition, he has received a number of student-sponsored awards naming him an outstanding teacher and faculty member.

Dr. Phillips has developed and administered numerous highly successful student study tours, both international and domestic, using his extensive international experience and contacts from around the globe. He is also a PADI-certified.

As the Honors Program’s Undergraduate Research Coordinator Brian Schill primarily assist seniors with their Senior Honors Theses, helping them transition out of undergraduate study and typically into graduate or professional school. He also teach several courses each semester and am involved in undergraduate research initiatives across campus. His academic and research interests include Literary Theory and Criticism, Media Studies, and issues in Healthcare history, policy, and administration. Brian will be teaching at ACN during the summer 2013 semester.

Robin is the Associate Director of the University of North Dakota’s Honors Program. Her primary academic interest areas include refugee/immigrant integration, socioeconomic class, war, politics, and consumption. She teaches social science and humanities courses on these subjects, and frequently use service-learning in doing so. She also coordinates service-learning for the Honors Program and is responsible for general administration.

Outside of academia, Robin is the president of a grassroots non-profit organization which helps to foster the integration of resettled refugees in Grand Forks, ND. Robin and her husband, Brian Schill, are very much looking forward to teaching at ACN’s 2013 summer school.

Errin Jordan is a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of North Dakota. She is currently working on her doctorate in English Literature. Her research interests include contemporary American fiction, minority American literature, and American satire. She has a particular interest in political satire and pop-culture, focusing on television’s use of political satire in shows such as South Park and The Colbert Report. The spring 2013 ENGL 227 course, “Political Satire and Humor in US Fiction,” will focus on the way in which shows such as these implement the traditions of humor and satire for both political and entertainment purposes.

Luckily, Errin’s research areas work well with her hobbies outside the classroom. Her interest in satire and humor stems from the countless hours she spent as a young girl watching television shows, listening to comedians, and reading books that are generally considered wildly inappropriate for children. Her passion for everything funny and irreverent continues today. She also loves travelling and meeting new people, so she is very excited to come to Norway and meet all the ACN students and staff.

Kate is a Senior Lecturer at the University of North Dakota and Managing Editor of the North Dakota Quarterly. She has been a journalist, a technical writer, and an editor in addition to teaching various English and Humanities at UND. She taught at A.C.N. in 2007 and for the 2009-2010 academic year. Kate teaches Integrated Social Science & General Science as well as Integrated Cultural Experience: Drama & Poetry at A.C.N.

Kirby Lund is a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of North Dakota. Currently, he is working on his Master’s degree in English literature. His research focuses on medieval literature with emphases on gender theory and spatial theory. These interests culminated in his Master’s thesis where he examined the Middle English poem Pearl. In the Fall 2013 semester, Lund will teach ENGL 227, a special topics course devoted to the Arthurian legends and their occurrence in modern culture.

In his spare time, Lund enjoys afternoons in his garage woodworking various projects. He creates decorative signs for friends and family, constructs and restores his own furniture, and even carves archery bows. He also enjoys watching movies of all genres, yet his favorites are the Lord of the Rings trilogy and anything set in the Middle Ages.

Burt Thorp is currently Director of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of North Dakota where he has taught a variety of courses. Burt and his wife Melinda Leach previously taught at American College during the fall 2006 semester; their son Leo attended school in Moss during that time and also took music lessons from two excellent local teachers. This time Melinda has responsibilities at UND and Leo is at the University of Miami in Florida, but they plan to come for a visit. Burt earned his PhD at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he completed an interdisciplinary doctoral program focusing on the ancient world, South Asia, and History of Religions. A native of California and Los Angeles, Burt came to North Dakota in 1992; for a number of years he has been teaching ancient history courses. Burt enjoys interacting with Norwegian and international students and is interested to see how Moss and Norway have changed in recent years. His overall educational goal is to foster life-long learning in the liberal arts as well as to prepare students for higher education in the United States.

Tito Correa is a lecturer at the American College, Kongsberg vgs. and at the University of Oslo. Tito has been teaching at the American College since 2008, lecturing religion and  political science courses. Tito received his bachelor ‘s degree in history and religion from Atlantic Union College in Massachusetts, U.S.A., and his MPhil degree is from the University of Oslo. Tito completed his PhD in history from the University of Cambridge in the UK in 2013. Tito grew up in Queens, New York, has two boys, Gabriel and Samuel, and is married to Lillian.

Dr. Adonica Schultz Aune has taught in China, Korea, Taiwan, Norway, in Native American schools, and in several American universities. She holds a Ph. D. in Teaching and Learning with a minor in English. Her second Ph. D. is in Mass Communication and Public Discourse with a cogate in Instructional Design and Technology. With her Master of Arts in Communication, she holds a minor in Educational Administration. Her Bachelor of Science major is English with minors in French and Mathematics. Besides her love of teaching and learning, special interests for Dr. Aune are traveling, golf, theater, writing, and film. She lives in The Village, Florida with her husband and has taught online courses for over a decade. Dr. Schultz Aune teaches Mass Communication and Interpersonal Communication at the American College of Norway.

Beth is a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of North Dakota. She is currently working on her doctorate in English literature. Her research interests include modernism and epistemology, and she especially enjoys reading Robert Frost and Nikos Kazantzakis. She’s presented on both Frost and Kazantzakis at the University of Wisconsin’s MADLIT conference and at the 2011 Midwest Modern Language Association’s conference, respectively. At the University of North Dakota, Beth teaches Introduction to College Writing, Business and Technical Writing, and Research Writing. Recently, she taught a version of this fall’s Myth, Literature, and Film course that focused primarily on texts and films based on the United States. She’s excited to expand that course this year at A.C.N. to include more texts and films from outside the U.S. She will also be teaching a film course at A.C.N this fall that explores why and how reality is altered in films like Star Wars, The Matrix, and the Hunger Games.When not researching or teaching, Beth enjoys fishing and camping. She makes a trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota every year and almost never gets lost. She’s excited to hike and explore in Norway this fall, but is most excited about having some great conversations with her new students at A.C.N.