Employee Directory

Jessica Ness

Academic Advisor

Jewett Science Center 117

I am academic advisor for science, math, global languages, English, and communication studies. With degrees in business management and English literature and creative writing from Northern, I have been on campus intermittently since 2002.

I grew up in the Aberdeen area and worked for the South Dakota Board of Regents for 10 years. As a lifelong learner, I have always been a great supporter of education from childhood to adulthood. My goal in advising is to help students plan their path to graduation and help them look outside their major to become well-rounded applicants for future opportunities. I hope students will be able to look to me for guidance and reassurance in reaching their goals. Whether it is a smile and an encouraging word, or a referral to a resource, I want my advisees to know I am here for them.

In my spare time, I can usually be found reading a book, writing, baking, or spending time with my nieces, nephews, and dog.

Pen Pearson

Professor of English

Technology Center 259

Resume/CV

Dr. Pen Pearson is a professor of English at Northern. Pearson also advises Northern Lights, Northern’s student literary magazine, and mentors high school English teachers in Northern’s Rising Scholar program.

Her novel about Edwardian poet Charlotte Mew, Bloomsbury’s Late Rose, was published in 2019 (Chickadee Prince Books). Dr. Pearson has also published two books of poetry: Trespass to Chattel (Atomic Press) and Poetry as Liturgy (Mellen Poetry Press). Her current project is a memoir about her late father. 

Dr. Peter Ramey, M.A., Ph.D.

Professor of English

Technology Center 254

Courses Taught

Research Interests

Publications

The Word-hoard Beowulf: A Translation with Commentary. Angelico Press, 2023.

“St. Beowulf: Hagiography and Heroic Identity in Beowulf.” Studies in Philology, 121/1, Winter 2024 (pp. 1-27).

“Reconstructing Early Beowulf: The Evidence from Andreas for the 9th-Century Form of the Text,” Modern Philology. February 2023 (volume 120, no. 3).  https://doi.org/10.1086/723178 

“Problems with the Dramatic Irony Theory of Beowulf,” ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews (Spring 2022). DOI: 10.1080/0895769X.2022.2043141

“Crafting Strangeness: Wonder Terminology in the Exeter Book Riddles and the Anglo-Latin Enigmata.” Review of English Studies 69.289 (2017): 201-15.

“The Riddle of Beauty: The Aesthetics of Wrætlic in Old English Verse.” Modern Philology 114.3 (2017): 457-81.

“The Poetics of Caxton’s ‘Publique’: The Construction of Audience in the Prologues of William Caxton.” English Studies 96.7 (2015): 731-46.

“Writing Speaks: Oral Poetics and Writing Technology in the Exeter Book Riddles.” Philological Quarterly 92.3 (2013): 335-56.

“The Audience-Interactive Games of the Middle English Religious Drama.” Comparative Drama 47.1 (2013): 55-83.

“Variation and the Poetics of Oral Performance in Cædmon’s Hymn.” Neophilologus 96.3 (2012): 441-56.

“Beowulf’s Singers of Tales as Hyperlinks.” Oral Tradition 26.2 (2011): 619-24.

“Oral Theory and Medieval Literature.” Co-authored with John Miles Foley. Medieval Oral Literature. Ed. Karl Reichl. 71-102. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2011.

Liz Sills

Associate Professor of Communication Studies, Director of Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

Technology Center 264

Tanya White

Instructor of Communication Studies and Spanish

Technology Center 250

M.A., Spanish, Arizona State University

M.A., Communication, University of North Dakota

B.A., Spanish and English Philology, Kiev National Linguistic University, Ukraine

Resume/CV

In her Spanish, linguistics, and communication classes, Tetiana (Tanya) White gives students opportunities to develop new and various lenses through which to see themselves and other cultures. She enjoys watching students gain the confidence to speak publicly and carry that skill into their future careers.

Ms. White’s research interests lie at the intersection of linguistics and communication. Her latest master’s thesis studied critical cultural awareness of students, the structure of their mental lexicon, and their cultural values and beliefs. Her scholarly writing has appeared in Across Languages and Cultures and The Journal of Developmental Communication.