Faculty & Staff Directory

Faculty

  • Carrie Aldrich, Department Chair
    Carrie Aldrich

    Carrie Aldrich

    Associate Professor
    claldrich@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-6480
    ADM 103-E

    Carrie Aldrich is an Associate Professor in the Department of Writing. She earned a Ph.D. in Language, Literacy, and Culture from the University of Iowa, a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Bachelor’s degrees in English Education and Sociology from Indiana University. Carrie teaches a variety of writing courses, coordinates placement into first year writing, and serves as a member of the Alaska Native Study Initiative. Her research focuses on socio-cultural approaches to retention and success in first year writing. In all of her work, she strives to develop a healthy culture of literacy in homes, classrooms, and communities. She and her son live downtown Anchorage with two painted turtles and an ant farm.

    View Carrie's curriculum vitae. 

  • Martha Amore
    Martha Amore

    Martha Amore

    Associate Professor
    mjamore@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-4381
    ADM 101-L

    Dr. Martha Amore teaches writing at the University of Alaska Anchorage and holds a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction from the University of Alaska Anchorage and an Interdisciplinary Studies Ph.D. in Feminist Gothic Creative Writing from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Her most recent book is In the Quiet Season & Other Stories, and she is a contributing editor of Building Fires in the Snow: A Collection of Alaska LGBTQ Short Fiction and Poetry, which was a finalist for a LAMBDA Literary Award. Beyond the world of writing, her main joys in life are her family, friends, and the amazing sled dogs she fosters, adopts, and races.

  • Angela Andersen
     

    Angela Andersen

    Instructor
    asandersen@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-4372
    ADM 103-J

  • Douglass Bourne
    A headshot of Douglass Bourne, standing in front of trees

    Douglass Bourne

    Associate Professor
    dabourne@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-4380
    ADM 101-P

    After earning an MA in Literature and Composition and an MFA in Creative Writing, Douglass Bourne began teaching many writing/composition courses at UAA in 2011. During his free time, he enjoys working on his own writing projects, volunteering for the Anchorage International Film Festival, and spending time in the great outdoors of Alaska with his fiancé and their two dogs.

  • Jacqueline Cason
    A photo of Jackie Cason in ski gear with a winter woodsy background

    Jacqueline Cason

    Chair, Professor
    jecason@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-4367
    ADM 103-B

    Jackie grew up in Southern California, a network of sprawling suburbs where young people often feel anonymous. To escape the crowd and pursue higher education, she moved east and south, first to North Carolina and then to Arkansas, where she attended UNC Charlotte and the University of Arkansas Fayetteville (M.A. & Ph.D) before marrying an Alaskan and migrating to Anchorage in 1992. The southeast immersed her in regional identities, a sense of place, and storytelling. She enjoys Alaska’s lower population density and the close connections among people and places. Her research and teaching inquire into public forms of writing and rhetoric that allow citizens to engage one another on the issues they care about, through deliberation, dialogue, stories, and shared expertise. These capacities to engage are particularly relevant in Alaska, where key questions and issues often focus on natural resources and cultural diversity and the policies that allow residents to develop as well as sustain both natural and cultural resources over time. Her teaching emphasizes the power of language, multiple literacies, rhetoric, research, and the public understanding of science. Her service focuses on curriculum design, information literacy, and shared governance. She loves yoga, sewing, skiing, biking, hiking, and the many outdoor activities that Alaska provides.

  • Shane Castle
    Shane Castle

    Shane Castle

    Associate Professor
    sdcastle@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-0827
    ADM 103-F

    Shane Castle is a writer and a senior affiliate editor of Alaska Quarterly Review. His short fiction has been published in literary journals including West Branch, Black Warrior Review, Santa Monica Review, Indiana Review, Salamander, The Common, and Columbia Journal. His recent work focuses on coming-of-age stories, adoption, heredity, jouissance, and eros. He first started teaching writing at the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2004 and has also taught at Alaska Pacific University and Carroll College in Helena, Montana. He piloted and runs a program teaching a variety of credited college writing courses at McLaughlin Youth Center, Anchorage’s juvenile detention facility. He’s currently the chair of the Department of Writing’s antiracism committee and uses labor-based grading rooted in student-centered pedagogies in all of his classes. He holds a BA in Journalism from the University of Washington and an MFA in Creative Writing & Literary Arts from the University of Alaska Anchorage.

  • Shannon Gramse
    Photo of Shannon Gramse in front of a snowy background

    Shannon Gramse

    Associate Professor
    sggramse@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-6889
    ADM 103-H

    Shannon Gramse began teaching writing at UAA in 1996 while earning his M.F.A in poetry. When he is not teaching, writing, reading, or working to make UAA a better place for everyone, he loves to cross country ski and spend time with his family at their cabin on an island in the Susitna Valley. 

  • Andrew Harnish
     Andrew Harnish, a man with brown hair and glasses, standing in front of a bookshelf

    Andrew Harnish

    Assistant Professor
    ajharnish@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-0473

    Andrew Harnish holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of North Dakota. He specializes in cultural rhetorics in Writing Studies, including LGBTQIA+ rhetorics and rhetorics of disability, and is keenly interested in the relationship between cultural rhetorics and technical and professional writing. He regularly teaches Writing and the Professions and Introduction to Grant Writing. In 2023, he led the team that received a Faculty Initiative Fund award to develop a research and networking platform for Alaskan grant writers, and he’s excited to keep collaborating with colleagues across the UA system and beyond to build grant writing capacity in communities across the state. 

  • Greg Hartley
    Greg Hartley, wearing sunglasses and a hat

    Greg Hartley

    Associate Professor
    gphartley@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-6843
    ADM 103-L

    Greg fell into higher education at a ridiculously early age and eventually wound up with a PhD in English Literature from the University of South Florida. While initially a specialist in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, the long decades in academia have spawned a host of mini-professions as well: museum docent, children’s theatre, college registrar, even amateur travel agent. Greg won’t pursue anything that doesn't fascinate him, but fortunately nearly everything does.

  • Sarah Kirk
    A photo of Sarah Kirk standing in front of a lake with sunglasses

    Sarah Kirk

    Professor
    sjkirk@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-6851
    ADM 103-A

    Sarah Kirk began teaching reading and writing courses at UAA in 1994 for the Department of Developmental Education. Raised in Chugiak, Alaska, she completed college degrees at Willamette University and U of Oregon, Eugene. Sarah also holds national certifications in Development Education, Writing Center leadership, and TESOL for Adults. Sarah has lived in other countries: Australia, Italy, Norway, and most recently spent her sabbatical year in Vietnam. Currently, she focuses on community service through working with the Alaska Literacy Program. Most importantly, she enjoys her husband’s cooking, her daughter’s laughter, and watching UAA volleyball games.

  • Zebadiah Kraft
    A headshot of Zebadiah wearing a baseball cap and standing on a deck with mountains in the background

    Zebadiah Kraft

    Assistant Professor
    zrkraft@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-6876
    ADM 103-C

    Zebadiah is a combat veteran and holds a Ph.D. in English from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He specializes in contemporary literature, video games, and the undead. He has spent years studying the cultural turn to metamodernism and even longer pondering utopia. He is particularly interested in the most recent episteme of the zombie as the critical figure of shifting social and cultural landscapes in a climate-ravaged future. He is passionate about teaching and brings his interests to the writing classroom by incorporating the weird and quirky art that has become central to literary conversations. A lifelong Alaskan, he earned his undergraduate and Master's degrees at UAA, where he has taught since 2012. 

     

  • Jennifer McClung
    A headshot of Jennifer McClung

    Jennifer McClung

    Instructor
    jlmcclung@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-0960
    ADM 101-Q

    Jen has taught at UAA since her family moved to Anchorage in 2013. She is originally from Detroit, Michigan, and has studied and worked in Guangzhou, China; Taipei, Taiwan; and Vancouver, Canada. She holds two Masters degrees, one in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), the other in Theological Studies. Her interests include hiking, reading, journaling, getting to know people, and eating out (especially Chinese or Thai!). Jen treasures cross-cultural interactions, whether they happen overseas or right here in Alaska, and strives to make each class a real experience of community.

     

  • Katja Perat
    a headshot of Katja Perat, wearing a gray sweater

    Katja Perat

    Assistant Professor
    kperat@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-0530
    ADM 103-K

    Katja Perat is a Slovene immigrant and a minor language speaker with a PhD in Comparative Literature from Washington University in St. Louis. She likes to bring her transcultural and multilingual background to the writing classroom. Her novel The Masochist (translated into English by Michael Biggins) is living an international life of its own in translation. It has been nominated for the Dublin Literary Award. 

    As a scholar, author, and teacher she is interested in the relationship between complexity and accessibility. She likes to read, write, and teach unusual texts. 

    She has a very large dog that likes to photobomb her online classes.

     

  • Don Rearden
    A headshot of Don Rearden

    Don Rearden

    Professor
    djrearden@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-6893
    ADM 101-J

    According to The Washington Post, Don Rearden is “a master of suspense.” A novelist, screenwriter, and sometimes poet, his books include The Raven's Gift, Never Quit, and Warrior's Creed. When he's not hanging out with rock stars and celebrities, he spends time at an undisclosed location in the mountains with his family and a pair of ravens. 

  • Sara Rufner
    Sara Rufner

    Sara Rufner

    Associate Professor
    sjrufner@alaska.edu
    (907) 786-6871
    ADM 101-R

    Sara Rufner has lived in Alaska since 2001 and earned her MFA in creative nonfiction from UAA in 2004. In her free time, Sara enjoys running, and exploring the outdoors with her family.

 Staff