Deborah Appleman received her doctorate in English Education at the University of Minnesota in 1986. At Carleton she is professor of educational studies, the Class of 1994 Chair in the Liberal Arts, and director of Carleton's Summer Writing Program, a three-week program for high school juniors and seniors). She also teaches the English section of Carleton's summer workshop for teachers, the Summer Teaching Institute. During 2003-2004 she is serving her second year as mentor for Carleton's second group of Posse students from the Chicago area. Professor Appleman's primary research interests include multicultural literature, adolescent response to literature, teaching literary theory to secondary students, and adolescent response to poetry. She was a high school teacher for nine years. She has written numerous book chapters and articles on adolescent response to literature and she co-edited Braided Lives,a multicultural literature anthology published by the Minnesota Humanities Commission. Her most recent book is, Reading for Themselves: How to Transform Adolescents into Lifelong Readers Through Out-of-Class Book Clubs. She is also the coauthor of Teaching Literature to Adolescents with Richard Beach, Susan Hynds, and Jeffrey Wilhelm. Her book, Critical Encounters in High School English: Teaching Literary Theory to Adolescents was published jointly by Teachers College Press and the National Council of Teachers of English and is widely used in methods classes across the country.

Anita Chikkatur received her PhD from the Education, Culture and Society program at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her B.A. in Sociology and Education at Swarthmore College, after which Anita taught English at a junior high school in a small town in Japan for two years. Her dissertation research, conducted at an urban public high school, examines processes of racialization as an integral part of creating American national identity, a project being reconfigured as a result of new immigration patterns. Her research interests include student and teacher perspectives on race, gender and sexuality and issues of diversity and difference in educational institutions.

Jessica Dockter is currently a doctoral candidate in Literacy Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Minnesota. She received her B.A. in English from Carleton College and M.A. in Literacy Education from the University of Minnesota. She taught English at a public middle school for eight years. She is currently conducting her dissertation research in an urban public high school. This study focuses on how literacy practices with media and text shape racial identities with an interest in helping students imagine themselves as allies in anti-racist and social justice work.

Professor Steve Jongewaard teaches full time in the School of Education at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. At Carleton, he is teaching EDU 242: Developing Education Policy for Access and Equity during the Fall Term, 2009. Professor Jongewaard completed his doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in global studies and social studies education. Prior to his working at Hamline he was director of the Model Cities Mini-School in Minneapolis (now the Southside Family School), taught elementary school in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and at two elementary schools in Minneapolis. Professor Jongewaard's research interests are currently focused on the role of public schools in citizenship education, understanding the causes and possible solutions to the achievement gap, and the development of global perspectives in teachers and students. He presented his most recent papers at the annual conferences of the Global Studies Association of the UK and Europe at Oxford-Brookes University, Oxford, UK (September 2008) and the Minnesota Council for the Social Studies (March 2009).

Cathy Tower Oehmke is a Visiting Assistant Professor. She received her B.A. from Wellesley College in Psychology and Education, her Master’s Degree in Literacy Education from the University of Maine, and her PhD in Educational Psychology from Michigan State University. In addition to her work at Carleton, Cathy teaches fourth and fifth grades at Prairie Creek Community School in Northfield.

Krista has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Her prior experience includes work in publishing, nonprofit administration, and environmental advocacy. Krista is responsible for administration of all department activities including student teaching, field experiences and teacher certification. She came to Carleton in 2006 shortly after moving to Northfield with her husband and two sons.