Biography

Elizabeth J. Ciner has been at Carleton since 1982. She earned her B.A. with honors in English from the University of Pennsylvania and her M.A. and Ph.D in English from the University of Washington. Her dissertation was entitled “The Problem of Freedom in Richard Wright’s Fiction,” and most of her teaching has been in the area of American multicultural literature. She has served as Associate Dean of the College and Senior Lecturer in English at Carleton College since 1987. Prior to that, she ran the college writing center, directed the writing program, supervised the tutoring office and Math Skills Center and coordinated a Student Observer Program. For the past twenty years, she has had oversight responsibilities for the off-campus studies, the Registrar’s Office, academic advising, including pre-health advising, and the college writing program. As a standing member of both the college’s Education and Curriculum Committee and Academic Standing Committee, she has been deeply involved in the assessment of academic programs and in students’ academic progress. Elizabeth is the principle investigator for the Collaborative Assessment for Liberal Learning (CALL), a four-college consortial grant funded by the Teagle Foundation to explore and evaluate a variety of value-added assessment instruments, and is on the steering committees for Carleton's Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education and of a second Teagle grant.

Dean Ciner was a fellow at the first Institute on Writing, a joint project of The National Endowment for the Humanities and The University of Iowa designed to train a new generation of writing program directors. She was also one of the first Midwest representatives to the Academic Affairs Assembly of The College Board. She serves as a test consultant for ACT, a board member for The Collaboration for the Advancement of College Teaching and Learning and consults on writing programs, learning disabilities services and faculty development. She is also involved in an on-going research project concerning students with language learning disabilities.

Bibliography

With Scott Bierman, "Administrators as Collaborators in Support of Faculty collaboration," Building Intellectual Community Through Collaboration. Eds. Carol Rutz and Mary Savina. Northfield, MN: College City Press, 2007.

With Kathleen M. Galotti, H. E. Altenbaumer, H. J. Geerts, A. Rupp, & J. Woulfe, "Decision-making styles in a real-life decision: Choosing a college major." Personality and Individual Differences, 41, 629-639.

With Scott Bierman, , Jacqulyn Lauer-Glebov, Carol Rutz and Mary Savina. "Integrative Learning: Coherence out of Chaos." Peer Review, Summer/Fall 2005, 18-20.

"A Major Decision." Advising and Learning: Academic Advising from the Perspective of Small Colleges and Universities, Martha K. Hemwall and Kent C. Trachte, eds. NACADA Mongraph Series, 2003, 8: 25-30.

"Richard Wright's Struggle With Fathers." James Trotman, editor. Richard Wright: Myths and Realities. New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1988.

"Writing Across the Disciplines: A Faculty Development Program." Carl Klause and Nancy Jones, editors. Courses for Change in Writing. New Jersey: Boynton/Cook Publishers, Inc., 1984.