Faculty

Background: Dr. Anastasia received his Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and specializes in LGBTQ+ rhetorics and social justice-focused, trauma-informed pedagogy. His current work centers on merging best practices from counseling psychology and post-secondary education in order to maximize student bandwidth recovery. He is currently pursuing a master's degree in clinical professional counseling at Mount Mary University.

Background: Brian Cremins is a Professor of English at Harper College, where he began teaching in 2008. He received his BA in English and Creative Writing from Dartmouth College in 1995, his MA in English from the University of Connecticut in 1997, and his Ph.D. in English (with a concentration in early twentieth century African American literature and film) in 2004. For more information on his publications, please visit his website at www.brianwcremins.com

Publications:

Captain Marvel and the Art of Nostalgia. University Press of Mississippi, 2016.

The Other 1980s: Reframing Comics' Crucial Decade. Co-Edited with Brannon Costello, Louisiana State University Press, 2021. 

Biography: Caroline Harris is an Adjunct Professor of English at Harper College, where she began teaching in 2022. She is a working author and writer with a collection of publications and a novel in the works. She received her BA in English and Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University in 2018 and her MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia College Chicago in 2022. For more information on her publications, please visit her website at https://carolineharriswrites.wixsite.com/author

Publications:

Sondor Vignettes from the Subway - 2020, Sondor Midwest Journal

Among the Bed of Flowers - June 2020, Underwood Press

Dreams Built from Papers and Angels - Dec. 2019, High Plains Register

Alchemist's Coffee - Nov 2019, Showbear Family Circus Magazine

What did I lose - Nov. 2019, Bluntly Magazine Inc.

From the Grotto - Jan 2019, Acorn Review

Just a Formality - 2018, iOLiterary

Empty Nesters - 2018, The Helix Magazine

Biography: Kurt Hemmer has been a Professor of English at Harper College since 2001. He is the editor of the Encyclopedia of Beat Literature (Facts On File, 2007). With filmmaker Tom Knoff, he produced several award-winning films: Janine Pommy Vega: As We Cover the Streets (2003), Rebel Roar: The Sound of Michael McClure (2004), Wow! Ted Joans Lives! (2010), Keenan (2011), Love Janine Pommy Vega (2014), and American Joyride (2022). His essays have appeared in Naked Lunch@50: Anniversary Essays (Southern Illinois UP, 2009), A History of California Literature (Cambridge UP, 2015), Beat Drama (Bloomsbury, 2016), The Cambridge Companion to the Beats (Cambridge UP, 2017), Approaches to Teaching Baraka’s Dutchman (MLA, 2018), William S. Burroughs: Cutting Up the Century (Indiana UP, 2019), The Beats, Black Mountain, and New Modes in American Poetry (Clemson UP, 2021), Harold Norse: Poet Maverick, Gay Laureate (Clemson UP, 2022), The Cambridge Companion to Jack Kerouac (Cambridge UP, 2024), and Critical Interpretations on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (White Fields Press, 2025).  In November 2022, he organized The Jack Kerouac Centenary Conference. He is currently the Secretary of the Beat Studies Association and working on a biography of Gregory Corso.

Recent Publications:

“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as Counterpoint to Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.” Critical Interpretations on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Edited by Kent Fielding and Ron Whitehead, White Fields Press, 2025, pp. 323-46.

“Recovering Jack Kerouac’s Blackface Novel Pic.” Rethinking Kerouac: Afterlives, Continuities, Reappraisals. Edited by Erik Mortenson and Tomasz Sawczuk, Bloomsbury, 2025, pp. 129-41.

“The Impact of On the Road on the 1960s Counterculture.” The Cambridge Companion to Jack Kerouac. Edited by Steven Belletto, Cambridge University Press, 2024, pp. 96-109.

“Gregory Corso’s Forgotten Harvard Education.” Twelve Winters Miscellany, 23 August 2026, https://twelvewinters.com/hemmer-gregory-corsos- forgotten-harvard-education/

“Cynthia Clark: Gregory Corso’s ‘Swan Girl.’” The Beat Museum, 20 June 2024, https://www.kerouac.com/kurt-hemmer-cynthia-clark-corsos-swan-girl/

“I Knew I Should’ve Taken That Left Turn at Albuquerque: Gregory Corso Meets  Charles Bukowski in New Mexico.” Beat Scene 110 (Spring 2024): 48-50.

“Lisa Says: Lisa Brinker, Gregory Corso, & Max.” Beatdom 24 (2024): 79-83.

Recent Conferences:

“Rethinking Kerouac Roundtable.” 36th Annual American Literature Association Conference in Boston, MA, 24 May 2025.

“Visit to William S. Burroughs House in Algiers, New Orleans.” GonzoFest 2025 in New Orleans, LA, 17 May 2025.

“The Living Theatre, 1959.” GonzoFest 2025 in New Orleans, LA, 17 May 2025.

“Roundtable on Critical Interpretations on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” GonzoFest 2025 in New Orleans, LA 17 May 2025.

“The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship: Gregory Corso Meets Allen Ginsberg.” 35th Annual American Literature Association Conference in Chicago, IL, 25 May 2024.

Chaired “Discovering Some New Unspeakable Visions: Kerouac, Burroughs, Ginsberg.” 35th Annual American Literature Association Conference in Chicago, IL, 25 May 2024.

“The Vestal Lady on Brattle and Other Poems: The Strange and Forgotten History of the First Book of Beat Poetry.” The 51st Annual Louisville Conference on  Literature and Culture, Louisville, Kentucky, 24 February 2024.

Biography: Amanda Hirsch earned her Ph.D. in English from Northern Illinois University in 2016. She has been part-time English Faculty at Harper College since 2015, and she has been teaching college English since 2008. Her focus is on equitable teaching and integrating social justice education and inclusive practices into her courses. She is also the Assistant Director of Teaching Excellence and Support in the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL) at Northern Illinois University.

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahirsch1/ 

Publications:

Peer Reviewer for Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education Textbook Reviewer, post-secondary composition textbook, Six Red Marbles Instructional Guide for University Faculty and Teaching Assistants, Faculty Development, Northern Illinois University, revised and updated 2019-2021.

Edited Collection:

“The Real Thing”: Essays in Celebration of Tom Stoppard’s 75th Birthday, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013. Co-edited with William Baker.

Studies in Victorian and Modern Literature: A Tribute to John Sutherland, Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. Assistant Editor.

Book Chapter:

“The Search for Truth in Arcadia,” in “The Real Thing”: Essays in Celebration of Tom Stoppard’s 75th Birthday, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013.

Journal:

“Where Are We: My Mundane Professional Life,” Contributor, Composition Studies, Spring 47.1 (2019).

Bibliographical Review:

“XIV: The Victorian Period (1830-1900)”: Year’s Work in English Studies 96:1 (2017; Covering work pub. in 2015): 703–915. Assisted William Baker.

"XIV: The Victorian Period (1830-1900)”: “1. Cultural Studies and Prose” and “2. The Novel.” Year’s Work in English Studies 94:1 (2015; Covering work pub. in 2013): 712-838. Assisted W. Baker.

“XIII: The Nineteenth Century: The Victorian Period”: “1. Cultural Studies and Prose” and “2. The Novel.” Year’s Work in English Studies 92:1 (2013; Covering work pub. in 2011): 647-706. Co-authored with W. Baker.

Blog and Newsletter:

Editor, Coordinator, and Contributor, Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL) Blog (formerly Faculty Development Blog), Northern Illinois University (Oct. 2019-present).

Editor, Spectrum online newsletter (Faculty Development, Northern Illinois University, Fall 2019-present).

Biography: Meg King has been a faculty member at Harper College since 2013. She fell in love with teaching as a Teaching Assistant at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Over the years, Dr. King routinely revises and re-thinks her class policies and themes. As a result of recent coursework on Trauma Informed Teaching and Equity Course ReDesign, she focuses on finding new ways for the classroom and course policies to support all students. Her courses have focused on a variety of themes, including: Freedom of Speech and Cancel Culture; the American Food System; Post-apocalyptic Novels and Films; and Metamorphosis.

Dr. King received her B.A. in English and Economics from Northwestern University, and her M.A. and PhD in American Literature (her dissertation focused on late 20th century American novels, the depiction of the return to pre-modern societies, and masculinity) from University of Illinois at Chicago.

Publications:

“Father Knows Best: Manhood in David Bradley and Philip Roth.”  Philip Roth Studies (Fall 2013).

“‘Where is Your Country?’: Locating White Masculinity in All the Pretty Horses.”  The Cormac McCarthy Journal (Spring 2014).

"Graphic Representations of ‘Vietnam Syndrome’: Race and Masculinity in The ‘Nam.” The Other 1980s: Reframing Comics’ Crucial Decade, edited by Brian Cremins and Brannon Costello (LSU Press, 2021).

Background: Dr. Nitsch is dedicated to equitable, socially-just teaching in all of her writing courses. She believes that curriculum should be continually revised to meet the varied and amazing students who enter her virtual or physical classrooms, and she works hard at educating herself on how to better serve her students. She is grateful for her students' energy and generosity, and she loves learning from them.

Dr. Nitsch earned her Ph.D. in Postcolonial Anglophone Fiction from Indiana University in 2010. She lives with her wonderful partner and their vivacious child in Chicago.

Publications:

Nitsch, Mary J. “At Home in the Free-Market World: The Neoliberal Cosmopolitian Man in Salman Rushdie’s Fury.” DisClosure, vol. 25, no. 1, 2016, pp. 27–41.

Nitsch, Judi. “Like Nowhere Else: Tourism and the Remaking of Place in Julian Barnes’s ‘England, England.’” The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, vol. 48, no. 1, Spring 2015, pp. 45–65.

Nitsch, Judi. “Illusion 2: We Fight to Defend Our Personal Freedoms.” American Wars: Illusions and Realities, 1st ed., Clarity Press, 2008, pp. 27–35.

Biography: Graduated from Northwestern. Have over 30 years of teaching experience especially with special needs students. Married to wife, Kathy for also 30 years. Maybe there's a connection there? Dr. P also teaches in the Psychology Dept at Harper as well as the College of Lake County. I've also always been ager to assist students to reach their full potential using a unique combination of training and educational experience coupled with real world business experience.

Biography: Pearl Ratunil, Ph.D. earned her B.A. in Literature from Antioch College (Ohio), and her Masters and Doctorate from the University of Illinois at Chicago where she specialized in Medieval Literature and African American studies. Her dissertation studied images of blackness in 13th century medieval hagiography. She served as Chair of harper's Academy for teaching and Learning from 2015-2016, and as Special Assistant to the President for Diversity and inclusion from 2016-2019. her research and teaching interests include mindfulness, contemplative pedagogy, women of color in higher education, social justice, and diversity and inclusion.

Publications:

Review of Growing Up Filipino, edited by Cecilia Brainard, Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States 29.1 (Winter 2004).

"A Letter from Benjamin Thorpe to George Oliver concerning John Mitchell Kemble and Beowulf," Notes & Queries (June 2004).

Review of Theory and the Premodern Text by Paul Strohm, Symploke10.1-2 (2002): 224-25.

“Is This What We Came For? Costco Cards and AAA Memberships?” Review of the Chicago Asian American Film Showcase, Journal of Asian American Studies 3.4 (Fall 2000): 397-99.

Biography: I graduated with a Master's in English at Northern Illinois University in 2016. While at Northern Illinois University, I studied a wide range of literature stretching from Medieval Lit and Victorian Prose to Ethnic American Lit and Modern American Literature. However, my focus was on British Renaissance poetry and Classical Mythology. In my research, I enjoy drawing connections between between the classical and the renaissance world and focus on themes of heroism, morality, and creation. We examine these themes (and more) in my ENG courses by exploring several different science fiction and fantasy stories by the likes of Edgar Allen Poe, Shirley Jackson, and Ursula K LeGuin.

Biography: My core belief as an educational developer is that we strengthen community by providing meaningful and enjoyable experiences for educators that enrich students' experiences. In my current role, I provide leadership for the Academy for Teaching Excellence in collaboration with the Dean of Teaching and Learning and other staff, faculty, and administrative leaders. I continue to find great purpose and joy teaching English and college success courses while designing and facilitating faculty professional learning opportunities as part of the Academy team.  My doctoral research on culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy in the community college classroom helps inform many of our inclusive teaching programs. I relish the interconnectedness of all that we do to help students succeed at Harper and beyond.

Education:

Ed.D. Curriculum Leadership, Northern Illinois University

M.Ed. Curriculum and Instruction, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

B.A. English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Select Publications:

Equity Literacy Project

A collaborative group of area educators have been working since 2017 to develop the Equity Literacy Project, an online resource of terms, research, narratives, and resources to create a shared lexicon for engaging in meaningful dialogue and accelerating progress toward addressing school inequities.

The group of more than 30 educators from Harper College, Northern Illinois University, Township High School Districts 211 and 214, and Barrington Community Unit 220 School District established the initiative to build toward an environment in which students and educators can thrive.

OER Link: Equity Literacy Project – Simple Book Publishing

Dissertation:

Dreamkeepers at the gate: Culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy in the community college classroom 

This study was inspired by Gloria Ladson-Billings's work on culturally relevant pedagogy, which examined the common conceptions and shared aims of "Dreamkeepers" who were identified as particularly effective instructors of African American students. In addition to exploring the dispositions of Dreamkeeper faculty at the community college, the instructional practices of these faculty members were analyzed using the descriptive characteristics of culturally responsive pedagogy according to Geneva Gay. The implications of the study include a deeper understanding of a culturally relevant pedagogy and cultural integrity as foundations for cultural responsiveness in the community college classroom. These concepts are clarified through qualitative analyses of the data from interviews and observations of faculty, followed by collaborative interpretation sessions with faculty, staff, and administrators at the research site. The findings show a variety of culturally relevant and responsive dispositions and pedagogical approaches that offer engaging and supportive environments for students from diverse backgrounds. Ways to identify and develop characteristics of culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy for the recruitment and training of community college faculty members are also explored as efforts to support the American dreams of freedom and social mobility.