Faculty & Staff Directory
Faculty
- Carrie Aldrich, Department Chair
Carrie Aldrich
Associate Professor
claldrich@alaska.edu
(907) 786-6480
ADM 103-ECarrie 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
Associate Professor
mjamore@alaska.edu
(907) 786-4381
ADM 101-LDr. 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
Douglass Bourne
Associate Professor
dabourne@alaska.edu
(907) 786-4380
ADM 101-PAfter 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
Jacqueline Cason
Chair, Professor
jecason@alaska.edu
(907) 786-4367
ADM 103-BJackie 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
Associate Professor
sdcastle@alaska.edu
(907) 786-6823
ADM 103-FShane 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
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
Assistant Professor
ajharnish@alaska.edu
(907) 786-0473Andrew 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
Associate Professor
gphartley@alaska.edu
(907) 786-6843
ADM 103-LGreg 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
Sarah Kirk
Professor
sjkirk@alaska.edu
(907) 786-6851
ADM 103-ASarah 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
Zebadiah Kraft
Assistant Professor
zrkraft@alaska.edu
(907) 786-6876
ADM 103-CZebadiah 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
Jennifer McClung
Instructor
jlmcclung@alaska.edu
(907) 786-0960
ADM 101-QJen 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
Katja Perat
Assistant Professor
kperat@alaska.edu
(907) 786-0530
ADM 103-KKatja 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
Don Rearden
Professor
djrearden@alaska.edu
(907) 786-6893
ADM 101-JAccording 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
Associate Professor
sjrufner@alaska.edu
(907) 786-6871
ADM 101-RSara 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
- Cassi Ricks
Cassi Ricks
Administrative Assistant
caricks@alaska.edu
(907) 786-6856
ADM 103-D