PLEASE NOTE: A faculty member may not always be available for each student inquiring about an independent study or internship project. Those listed below have expressed willingness to discuss possible independent studies or internships with individual Master of Liberal Studies Program students. It is essential that the Master of Liberal Studies Program student have sufficient academic preparation for the SDIS or internship.
Professor Nancy Black
Graduate SDIS's
- Gender and culture
- Anthropological area studies: Mexico and Central American anthropology
Professor Monte Bute
Graduate SDIS's
- Classical social theory
- Contemporary social theory
- Modern political thought
- Existentialism
- Social movements
- The Sixties
- Anarchism and nonviolence
Professor Craig Calcaterra
Graduate SDIS's
- Mathematics
- The history of mathematics
- The philosophy of mathematics
- The history of science
- The philosophy of science
Professor Virginia Card
Graduate SDIS's
- Research in ecology: diatom ecology, historical limnology, and effects of climate change on aquatic ecosystems.
Professor Helen Correll
Graduate SDIS's
- Environmental communication
- Women's studies
- Technical communication, especially international and document design
- Change
Professor Ramin Daghigh
Graduate Internships
- Research in the pedagogy of physics lab manuals
- Writing physics lab manuals
Professor Aureliano DeSoto
Graduate SDIS's
- Chicana/o-Latina/o narrative, autobiography, and visual culture
- LGBT socio-cultural formation in the United States
- Theories and histories of race
- Race, representation, and visual culture (film, video)
Professor Tammy Durant
Graduate SDIS's
- Studies in Romanticism (poetry, novels, drama)
- Studies in Victorian poetry
- Studies in the Victorian novel
- Interdisciplinary studies, especially involving the relationships between art and/or literature and/or film
Professor Juan Estrada
Graduate SDIS's
- Mathematics
- The history of mathematics
Professor Larry Gottschalk
Graduate SDIS's and/or Internships
- Computer technology and getting out the vote
- Online news sources-vs-traditional news media
- Identity theft
- "Smart agents" and other trends in workplace computing
- Will technology lengthen or shorten the workweek?
- Computer technology and momentum to a global society
Professor Craig Hansen
Graduate SDIS's
- Studies in professional communication (qualitative research design, history of technology, emerging communication technology)
- Studies in media (early broadcast media, early film history)
Professor Beverly Hill
Graduate SDIS's
- Studies in classics
- Studies in German literature or language (any period)
- Studies in linguistics
Professor Kuodi Jian
Graduate SDIS's or Internships
- Bioinformatics
- Studies in computer ethics
Professor Maythee Kantar
Graduate SDIS's
- Children and the media
- Children's literature
Professor Rhona Leibel
Graduate SDIS's
- Twentieth century analytic philosophy
- Philosophy of science
- Ethics in the global system
Professor Nantawan Lewis
Graduate SDIS's
- Asian American history
- Asian American women issues
- Race, religion, gender and violence
- Race, religion and colonization
- World religions and globalization
Professor Jigang Liu
Graduate SIDS's
- Studies in computer evolution
- Studies in computer ecology
- Studies in human and computer interaction
Professor David Means
Graduate SDIS's
- Studies in music theory and composition
- Studies in music history and literature
- Studies in electronic and computer music composition and production
- Studies in experimental intermedia performance history and practice
Professor Lawrence Moe
Graduate SDIS's
- Studies in Milton
- Studies in prosody
- Studies in Shakespeare
Graduate Internships
- Literary research in early regional poetry
Professor Brian Nerney
Graduate SDIS's
- Studies in American culture, mid-19th century to present, particularly either literary periodicals or nonfiction prose, especially nature writing.
- Studies in memoir and creative nonfiction, including family stories
Graduate Internships
- Interdisciplinary research
- Teaching college writing
Professor Thomas O'Connell
Graduate SDIS's
- American politics
- Urban studies
- Labor studies
- International studies
Graduate internships
- Community-based research
- Electoral politics
- Public policy
- Community organizing and development
Professor Sumiko Otsubo
Graduate SDIS's
- Studies in Japanese history, society, and culture
- Studies in comparative/world history of eugenics
- Studies in comparative history of reproductive politics
Professor Daryl Parks
Graduate SDIS's
- Studies in critical pedagogies
- Studies in literary theory (reader-response)
- Studies in critical literacy practices
- Studies in language use (critical discourse analysis)
Graduate internships
- Research in literacy practices and teaching
Professor Erica Rasmussen
Graduate SDIS's
- Studio arts
Graduate Internships
- Art gallery management
Professor Doug Rossinow
Graduate SDIS's
- Reform and radicalism in American history
- The 1960s as history
- The 1980s as history
- The United States as an empire
- Religion and politics in America
Professor Victoria Sadler
Graduate SDIS's
- Documentation, especially user-centered design/usability
- Rhetorical genre studies, especially governmental/bureaucratic discourse
- Online learning
Graduate Internships
- Creating and/or modifying online learning modules
Professor John F. Schneider
Graduate SDIS's
- Cancer biology
- Politics surrounding fisheries and wildlife [natural resources] management
- Human genetics, development, and cellular physiology
- Other topics in life sciences
Professor Shannon Skarphol-Kaml
Graduate SDIS's
- Rhetoric
- Persuasion
- Visual communication
Professor Gail Smogard
Graduate SDIS's
- Production/performance work within the university theater season and with a professional director
- Advanced playwriting with submission of an existing draft
Professor Randy Strobel
Graduate SDIS's
- Regional geology of a geological province in the Lake Superior region
- Regional geology of a geological province anywhere else on the Earth chosen by the student
- Regional geology of the mid-continent rift of North America
- Astrobiology
- Research in gene identification and characterization using bioinformatics
- Research in molecular taxonomy using bioinformatics
- Other topics in life and earth sciences
Professor Margaret Vaughan
Graduate SDIS's
- American Indian studies
- Ethnic studies
- Material culture
- Ethnic memoirs
- Environment
Professor Suzanne Walfoort
Graduate SDIS's
- Organizational communication
- Work group communication
Professor Carolyn Whitson
Graduate SDIS's
- GLBT literature and film
- American working-class literature
- Medieval literature
- Myth
- Nineteenth-century literature and culture
- Women writers
