Barbara Jalon Hiles Mesle, Ph.D.
Professor of EnglishGraceland University, Lamoni, IA
Professional Address:
Graceland University
Department of Humanities
1 University Place
Lamoni, Iowa 50140
641-784-5153
mesle@graceland.edu
Home Address:
Evening Star Lane
10003 290th Street
Lamoni, IA 50140
641-784-3722EDUCATION
- University of Kansas, Ph.D. with honors, 1992
4.0 in all course work, honors on dissertation
Department of English - University of Chicago, MA, 1975
"A" on M.A. exams, Department of English - Graceland University, BA, 1972, summa cum laude
Majored in English and secondary education
Minored in German
- Excellence in Teaching Award. Spring, 2000 Graceland University
- Nominated, March 1999. Graceland's Annual Excellence in Teaching Award
- National Endowment for the Humanities, UCLA, Summer, 19944. Gender and Romanticism
- Nominated by the University of Kansas for a special dissertation award. One of six dissertations university-wide out of 87 candidates to be nominated, May, 1993
- Sears-Roebuck Award for Teaching and Leadership Excellence, May, 1991
- Professor of English, Spring 2000 to present.
- Spring, 2003. Visiting scholar, Claremont University, Claremont, CA.
Co-taught a graduate class. - 1986 - present Graceland College, Lamoni, IA. Division of Humanities, Full-time faculty,
Special administration assignments in strategic planning (1991), and as acting department coordinator, 1990-1, 1998 - 1979 - 1986 Graceland College Department of English, Part-time faculty.
Taught 39 semester hours total from '79'86 - 1982 - 1986 Graceland College, Director Educational Talent Search
Wrote succesful annual grants - 1972 - 1979 Rich Township High School. Richton Park, IL.
Department of English and Assistant Speech Coach
- Forthcoming Chapter, Trauma, Re-Memory, and Cultural Identity: Storytelling in Toni Morrison's Beloved, in as yet unnamed new book.
Editor, John Taylor - January, 2005, GALA newsletter, Find Hope in the Child.sermon with Bob Mesle.
- Tangled, Muddy, Painful, and Perplexed: Pragmatism, Feminism, and Life, American Journal of Theology and Philosophy, January, 2003, with Bob Mesle.
- Mars Hill Review, Spring, 1999
Beloved: a fine, fine film--so why was it predicted that "in six months Beloved will be in the 99 cent box at Blockbuster"? - Theology: Justice or Just Us? Volume 4,
Response to the Testimony of Seven Neighbors: Towards a Theology of Human Sexuality,
Printed by Graceland/Park Press, 1996. - All of my Midlands Conference Papers (see presentations) have been printed in The Conference Proceedings
- Feeding the Spirit with Books, Saints' Herald, April, 1995. Saints' Herald article on Walker, Hurston, Angelou and Morrison.
- Perfection: An Inperfect Objective. Saints' Herald, 1989.
- William Dean, Process Thought and Deconstruction, abstract, Process Studies, Summer, 1988.
- Ambivalence in Byron's Beppo and 'The Lament of Tasso', Palimpsests, University of Kansas Publication, 1985.
- Editorial Advisory Board for Business Communication, Krizan, Merrier, and Jones, 6th edition, Summer 2004, (stipend). Name appears in textbook.
- Team member of Honors scholarship evaluation committee, November, 2003 and 2004. Worked with Graceland Admissions Office.
- Co-taught Honors Seminar, Fall 2002, as an overload.
- Reviewer for text, Business Communication, Krizan, Merrier, and Jones, 5th edition, April 2002 (stipend).
- Taught Senior Seminar as an overload, Spring 2004.
- Most recent Graceland committees, CSW, Alumni Board, and multiple search committees.
- Preaching on Graceland campus, fall 2003, spring, 2004, in Independence, MO, December 2005.
- Created courses on these topics--
- Literature by Women
- Business and
- Professional Writing
- Gender and
- Communication
- The British Renaissance,
- 19th Century Novels by British Women
- Junior Seminar in Literary Criticism
- World Literature
- Toni Morrison
- Routinely teach nine courses a year, with usually seven separate preparations plus winter term, independent student and often summer school &/or outreach.
- Average 75= students per semester plus students in Humanitites I (team taught course) in fall semester.
- Revised two learning guides for the outreach program, Rhetoric and Literature by Women, Routinely co-teach Humanities Honors as an overload.
- August 2003 in Budapest, Hungary, “Trauma, Re-Memory, and Cultural Identity: Storytelling in Toni Morrison’s Beloved.
- April 8, 2003, Claremont University Consortium and Process Center Seminar, Toni Morrison, Evil and Meaning.
- October, 2001, American Women Writers of Colors, presented a paper on Toni Morrison’s novel Jazz.
- February, 2000, presented a paper at the University of Texas San Antonio, Conference of the Representation of Food in the Arts.
- March, 1999: “Manlio Argueta’s One Day Of Life,” Creighton University, Midlands Conference, Omaha, Nebraska. A Graceland Senior from El Salvador, Tania Gonzalez, translated another novel by Argueta which is not available in English. I used Tania’s work in my presentation.
- “Cuzcatlan:” March, 1998, Creighton University Midlands Conference, Omaha, Nebraska.
- “Alterity in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye,” March, 1997. Creighton University, Midlands Conference, Omaha, Nebraska.
- “Images of the Body in Nawal El Saadawi’s Memoirs of a Woman Doctor and The Circling Song,”
- April 18-19, 1996, Creighton University Midlands Conference, Omaha, Nebraska.
- “The Meaning of Life?” Last Lectures Series, Graceland College, LEAD program, March 7, 1996.
- “Ordinary Woman, Extraordinary Lives, “ week long class at Sports Spectacular, August, 1995.
- “The Representation of Incest in Mary Shelley’s Mathilda and Percy Shelley’s The Cenci,” March 31, 1995. Creighton University, Midlands Conference, Omaha, Nebraska.
- “Committed Relativism: Post-Modern Ethics and Storytelling,” The Ends of Post-Modernism conference presented with Bob Mesle, September 15-16, 1994.
- “Deborah Tannen: Female and Male Communication Styles,” RLDS Singles Retreat, September 10, 1994
- "Walker, Hurston, Morrison, and Angelou: Four African-American Women Writers," RLDS High Priests' Conference, October 22, 1993, Independence, MO
- "Teaching: What Really, Truly Works," Panel RLDS High Priests' Conference, October 23, 1993
- "Gender and Communication: Deborah Tannen," RLDS Women's Conference, June 19, 1993
- "The Crisis of Modernity: Nineteenth Century Prophetic Voices, Mary Shelley and FRANKENSTEIN," June 19, 1992, Kansas Board of Humanities, Lawrence, KS
- Visiting Scholar, Iowa Humanities Board Presentations, March, 1992 Clarinda, Iowa, and October-December 1991, Albia, Iowa
- The Power of Ideology: the Ideology of Power--a Feminist Reading of Byron's Eastern Tales," Iowa Council of Teacher's of English, October 25, 1991
- "Interdisciplinary Humanities Courses," Region, November 2, 1990, with three colleagues
- "'Oral-Style' Writers: The Oral/Literate Continuum," Iowa Council of Teachers of English, October, 1989
- Theology and Ministry Forum, Independence, MO, Feb 2005.
- Peace Colloquy, Independence, MO, Nov 2004.
- Process Studies and Metanexus Institute’s Local Societies Initiative, Claremont, CA, October 2004.
- APA, Pasadena, CA, March 2004. Sessions on Martha Nussbaum.
- HIART Conference, Budapest, Hungary, summer 2003.
- World Congress of Philosophy, Istanbul, summer 2003.
- Schleiermacher and Whitehead conference, Claremont, CA, winter 2003.
- Paper Accepted: June, 2002, HIARPT conference Feminism and Pragmatism, with Bob Mesle. This presentation was a plenary session.
- 22nd International Byron Conference, Boston, MA, August, 2001.
- American Philosophical Society, Midwest Meeting, October, 2000. Martha Nussbaum, Keynote speaker.
- HIARPT conference in Highlands, North Carolina, June, 2000.
- Bad Boll, Germany, July, 1998, Chaired a Session on Mark Twain’s idea of Eve, HIART conference.
- Assessment Conference, Minneapolis, MN, February, 1996.
- “The Faces and Voices of Diversity,” Maya Angelou, September 30, 1994, The University of Iowa.
- "Integrating Women's Studies Across the Curriculum," KCRCHE Conference, Kansas City, MO, February 16, 1994.
- 19th International Byron Conference, July 16-19, 1993, Nottingham, England.
- Penn Sate Seminar in Feminist Criticism, June 24, 29, 1991, State College, PA.
- "Vision 2000," June 16-22, 1991, Strategic Planning for RLDS Church, Estes Park, Colorado.
- Strategic Planning Seminar, Association of Governing Boards, February 21-22, 1991, Washington, D.C.
- January, 1991, ELTA University, Budapest, Hungary, sponsored three week winter term.
- Modern Language Association, Chicago, IL, December 17-19, 1990.
- "Integrating Cross-Cultural Perspectives Into the Literature Classroom," June, 1990, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina,
- "Teaching Writing and Higher Order Reasoning," University of Chicago's Institute on Issues in Teaching, June 18-21, 1989.
- Modern Language Association, New Orleans, Decembe,r 1988.
- The International Byron Society
- The Modern Language Association
- The National Council of Teachers of English
- Iowa Council of Teachers of English
- The Kansas City Human Rights Project
- The Good Samaritan Project
- Southern Poverty Law Association
- Dr. Bernard A. Hirsch, Dissertation
Director, English Department
The University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS - Dr. Steve Anders, Dean of Faculty
Graceland University
Lamoni, IA 50140 - Dr. Jerome DeNuccio, Division Chair
Department of Humanities
Graceland University
Lamoni, IA 50140 - Dr. James Woelfel, Chair
Department of Western Civilization and Department of Religion and Philosophy
The University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS - Dr. G. Thomas Mann
President, Davis and Elkins College
Elkins, WV
