Faculty and Staff

Education

• Ph.D., English Studies, Illinois State University
• M.A., English and American Studies, Michigan State University
• B.A., English and History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Education

• Ph.D. in Writing Studies, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, 2023 
• M.A. in English, South Dakota State University, 2015 
• B.A. in English, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, 2011

Research Interests

Mark’s research fits broadly into the discipline of Rhetoric and Composition, and specifically explores the uses of literacy in changing technological, cultural, pedagogical, professional, and creative contexts. His work has appeared in Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Language, Literature, and Culture (Duke University Press, 2023), The Minnesota Writing and English Journal (2023), as well as various edited collections such as The Twenty-First Century Western (Lexington Books, 2020). Works in progress include an essay on agonistic rhetorics in writing pedagogy, as well as an interview-based exploration into the fading literacy work of typewriter repairers. At UWRF, he teaches a variety of writing courses, including the Practicum for Peer Tutoring and Writing Instruction, Cyberliteracy, Technical Writing, Editing, and Rhetorical Theory. 

Mark is an emotionally invested follower of the Minnesota Twins. He collects (and uses!) manual typewriters. He listens to old folk and country music. Lefse is his favorite food.

Education

• M.A., University of Texas Austin
• B.A., Macalester College

Areas of Specialization

• Poetry
• Literature

Courses Taught at UWRF:

• ENGL 162: Introduction to Creative Writing
• ENGL 100: Academic Reading & Writing

Education

• Ph.D., State University of New York at Buffalo

Certification

• Secondary School Teaching Certification in English, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, South Korea  
• TESOL Certificate, California State University, Eastbay, CA

Courses Taught

• ENGL 211 Introduction to Linguistics
• ENGL 360/ENGL 560 Theory and Methodology of TESOL 
• ENGL 373 Techniques in Tutoring: TESOL Practicum 
• ENGL 420/ENGL 620 Pedagogical Grammar
• ENGL 475 Assessment and Testing in TESOL
• TESL 720 Educational Linguistics 
• TESL 763 Words, Meaning, and Vocabulary Teaching 
• TESL 767 Teaching ESOL Reading

Research Interests

• Equity-oriented language and literacy education for multilingual learners 
• Multilingual and multicultural literacy
• Teacher education for linguistically diverse classrooms
• Translanguaging in children’s picturebooks
• Reading engagement (Reading motivation and metacognitive strategies)
• Quantitative analysis of large-scale educational assessments

Fellowships, Scholarships, and Awards

• Scholars of Color Transitioning into Academic Research institutions (STAR) Fellowship, Literacy Research Association (2024–2026)
• Robert P. Knowles International Education Grant, University of Wisconsin-River Falls (2024)
• Faculty and Instructional Academic Staff Professional Development Grant, University of Wisconsin-River Falls (2023)
• Research Foundation Tuition Scholarship, SUNY Research Foundation (2019)

Publications

• Jang, E., Seo, Y. S., & Jang, B. G. (2026). Building multicultural teaching self-efficacy: Key factors of secondary teachers' confidence in diverse classrooms, Teaching and Teacher Education, 171, 105332. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2025.105332 
• Brutt-Griffler, J., & Jang, E. (2026). Children’s bilingual identity and early biliteracy development in a dual language bilingual education program. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2026.2619171
• Jang, E., Seo, Y. S., & Brutt-Griffler, J. (2025). The mediating effect of metacognitive strategies on the relationship between reading motivation and reading achievement in multilingual and English-dominant students. Reading and Writing, 38, 1271-1289. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-024-10555-2 
• Jang, E., Seo, Y. S., & Brutt-Griffler, J. (2023). Building academic resilience in literacy: Digital reading practices and motivational and cognitive engagement. Reading Research Quarterly, 58(1), 160-176.https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.486 (Top cited article 2022–2023 | Official Journal of the International Literacy Association)
• Jang, E., & Brutt-Griffler, J. (2023). Between- and within-school tracking and literacy skills of multilingual young adults: Across-national comparative study. International Journal of Educational Research, 120, 102210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2023.102210 
• Brutt-Griffler, J., & Jang, E. (2022). Dual language programs: An exploration of bilingual students’ academic achievement, language proficiencies and engagement using a mixed methods approach. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 25(1), 1­–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2019.1616670 
• Jang, E., & Brutt-Griffler, J. (2019). Language as a bridge to higher education: A large-scale empirical study of heritage language proficiency on language minority students’ academic success. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 40(4), 322–337. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2018.1518451 
• Jang, E., & Kim, J. (2015). Uses of smartphone apps for English listening practice. Studies in English Education, 20(1), 27-53. 
• Jang, E., & Kim, J. (2012). The effects of task types on English writing performance in social media-based learning environments. English Language & Literature Teaching, 8(2), 45-66.
• Jang, E., Won, E., & Jeong, D. (2011). The effects of using smartphones to assist lexical inferencing strategies in vocabulary learning. Modern English Education, 12(3), 342-367. 
• Jang, E., Won, E., Kang, K., & Jeong, D. (2010). The university learner responses to mobile social media-based vocabulary learning. English Language & Literature, 15(2), 145-165.
   

Invited Presentations

• Invited Keynote Speaker, Fostering reading engagement among socioeconomically and linguistically minoritized students, WITESOL Mini Conference for ELL Professionals, Wausau, WI, 2025, May
   

Conference Presentations

• Goldfine, D., & Jang, E. (2025, October). Bridging classrooms and cultures: A collaborative approach to preparing future teachers of Spanish and TESOL, Symposium on Language Pedagogy in Higher Education, Online 
• Sung, Y. K., Jang, E., & Seo, Y. S. (2025, June). Critical review of Korean culture and language depictions in children's and young adult literature, International Research Society for Children's Literature (IRSCL) Congress, Salamanca, Spain.
• Jang, E., & Cho, H. (2025, April). Applying and transferring teachers' linguistic knowledge into practice for multilingual students, American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, Denver, CO. 
• Jang, E. (2024, December). A critical examination of authenticity and power in Korean English bilingual picture books for children, Literacy Research Association (LRA), Atlanta, GA. 
• Jang, E., Seo, Y. S., & Brutt-Griffler, J. (2024, April). Exploring reading motivation, metacognitive strategies, and achievement among multilingual and English-dominant students. American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.
• Jang, E., & Seo, Y. S. (2023, March). The effects of motivational and cognitive engagement on multilingual students’ reading achievement. American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Annual Conference, Portland, OR. 
• Brutt-Griffler, J., & Jang, E. (2021, April). Early biliteracy development: Key factors that facilitate its development in a dual language program. American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, Virtual conference.
• Brutt-Griffler, J., & Jang, E. (2019, April). Dual language programs: An exploration of students’ academic achievement, bilingual proficiencies and school identification. American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada.
• Jang, E. (2017, April). Exploring language program pipelines to bachelor’s degree attainment. Graduate School of Education Symposium, SUNY at Buffalo, NY.
• Jang, E. (2017, March). Heritage language as a bridge to higher education. American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Annual Conference, Portland, OR.
• Riazantseva, A., & Jang. E. (2016, April). The relationship between L2 English proficiency and academic success in higher education. American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Annual Conference, Orlando, FL.
• Jang, E., & Han, Y. (2015, March). EFL graduate students’ socialization into academic discourse in American university. TESOL International Convention & English Language Expo, Toronto, Canada.
   

Professional Associations

• American Association for Applied Linguistics
• American Educational Research Association
• Literacy Research Association 
• TESOL International Associations
   

About Eunjee

Eunjee Jang joined the English Department as an assistant professor of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in 2023. She earned her Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Her research centers on equity-oriented language and literacy education for multilingual learners. Her work has been published in Reading Research Quarterly, Teaching and Teacher Education, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, and among others. She is a Scholar of Color Transitioning into Academic Research Institutions (STAR) Fellow with the Literacy Research Association and serves on the editorial board of Multimedia-Assisted Language Learning. In her free time, she enjoys collecting fridge magnets, stickers, and pins. She is bilingual, speaking Korean and English.

Education

• Ph.D., University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa
• M.A., B.A., Winona State University

Erik's research is wide-ranging, but primarily focuses on disability, trauma, addiction and religious experience in American fiction and creative nonfiction. His work has appeared in The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review (Penn State University Press) and Let Us Now Praise Famous Men at 75: Anniversary Essays (University of Tennessee Press). A member of the 2020 cohort of the American Examples workshop, a working group aimed at scholarship in American religious history and sponsored by the Henry Luce Foundation, Erik has a forthcoming essay, which focuses on the influence of psychedelia in American religion in the workshop’s second volume of essays, and he will be a co-editor of Volume 3.

He teaches a variety of literature courses in UWRF’s English program, including American literature surveys, African American literature, International Short Fiction, Contemporary American literature, and Literature of War.

A native of the Twin Cities, Erik is grateful to return to the upper Midwest as an educator at UWRF.

Education

• B.A., M.A., Utah State University
• Ph.D., English Literature, Purdue University.

Areas of Specialization

• English Renaissance Literature
• Early Modern Cultural Studies
• Shakespeare
• Literary Theory
• Gender and Sexuality Studies

Publications

• "La Jupe Blanch: (Ad)dressing ElizabethI". Prose Studies 28 (2006): 168-83.
• Rev. of Shakespear's Violated Bodies: Stage and Screen Performance, by Pascale Aebischer.The Sixteenth Century Journal: The Journal of Early Modern Studies 37 (2006): 617-18.
• Rev. of Words That Count: Early Modern Authorship: Essays in Honor of MacDonald P. Jackson, Edited by Brian Boyd. The Sixteenth Century Journal of Early Modern Studies 37 (2006): 617-18.

Autobiographical Information

Michelle Parkinson has published critical works in Prose Studies and The Sixteenth Century Journal. Her creative work has appeared in The Sycamore Review and Utah State University Magazine. Her dissertation focused on sexuality politics in early modern England through readings of the letters and speeches of Elizabeth I and the plays of John Lyly and Christopher Marlowe. She has attended numerous conferences in the United States and the U.K. Recently, she traveled to Scotland as an invited speaker at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow to deliver a talk on the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. Her current research centers on the political, religious, social and legal rhetoric surrounding the phenomenon of execution in early modern England. She teaches Shakespeare, Introduction to Literary Studies, British Literature Survey I, Shakespeare on Film and Human Issues in Literature.

Education

• B.A., University of Minnesota
• M.A., University of Nebraska
• Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Research Interests

• Creative Writing
• Creative Writing Pedagogy
• Fiction Writing
• World Literatures in English
• Contemporary Novels

Joe Rein is a Wisconsin native and taught at five other midwestern institutions before coming to UWRF in 2012. He currently serves as faculty advisor to Prologue, UWRF's student-run literary magazine, and has editorial experience with a variety of literary journals including Prairie Schooner and cream city review. He is co-editor of the book Dispatches from the Classroom: Graduate Students on Creative Writing Pedagogy. His fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in over fifteen journals and anthologies, most recently The Pinch Literary Journal, Hawai'i Review, Laurel Review, and Beyond the Workshop. His screenplay, 15 Minutes with Jacob, was produced into a short film in 2013.

Education

• B.A., University of Wisconsin-River Falls
• M.A., University of St. Thomas

Education

• B.S., M.A., St. Cloud State University

Education

• B.S., University of Wisconsin-River Falls
• M.A., University of Arkansas-Fayetteville

Education

• B.S., University of Wisconsin-River Falls
• M.F.A., University of Arkansas-Fayetteville

Education

• M.A., ESL, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, 2010
• B.A., History and Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1999

Courses Taught

• ENGL 100 Academic Reading and Writing
• ENGL 101 English for International Students
• ENGL 200 Investigating Ideas: Reading, Writing, and the Disciplines
• ENGL 201 Investigating Ideas: Reading, Writing, and the Disciplines for English Language Learners
• ENGL 211 Introduction to TESOL: Reading and Writing
• ENGL 252 Multicultural Education: Language, Media, and Philosophy
• ENGL 321 English Language: History and Culture
• ENGL 322 Language Acquisition
• ENGL 355 Literature-Based Reading Methods for Adolescents
• ENGL 360 Theory and Methodology of TESOL
• ENGL 373 Techniques in Tutoring: TESOL Practicum
• TED 432 Techniques in English
• ENGL 450 Non-Native speakers in the Midwest
• TED 428 TESOL Techniques
• ESL courses in the English Language Transition Program

Professional Affiliations

• American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
• International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL)
• Fulbright Association
• Minnesota TESOL (MinneTESOL)
• Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
• Wisconsin Association of International Educators (WAIE)
• Wisconsin Association for Talented & Gifted (WATG)
• Wisconsin TESOL (WITESOL)

Professional Awards

• U.S. Fulbright Scholar, Narva Collage, University of Tartu, Estonia, 2018-2019
• UWRF Evidence-Based Teaching Fellow, 2017-2018
• UWRF College of Arts and Sciences Excellence in Service Award, 2015
• Ruth Crymes TESOL Academy Fellowship, 2013
• UWRF Compass Award for Outstanding Advising and Support for First Year Students, 2012

Research Interests

• Teaching and learning strategies
• English language learners
• Teacher education
• Professional development