Doctoral alumni transform the literary landscape

Union Institute & University (UI&U) together with the American Library Association (ALA) is celebrating National Library Week, April 9-15, 2017. This year’s theme is “Libraries Transform.”

This celebration reminds us that a UI&U degree transforms too. Below is a list of UI&U doctoral alumni who have transformed the literary landscape as well-known authors.

Karen A. McClintock, Ph.D. 2001, is a psychologist, adjunct professor at Southern Oregon University and author of My Father’s Closet, a memoir. She is also the author of Shameless Lives, Grace-Full Congregations, Sexual Shame: An Urgent Call to Healing, and Preventing Sexual Abuse in Congregations.

Joseph Bruchac, Ph.D. 1975, considered a seminal presence in Native American literature. Award winning storyteller, founder of Greenfield Press publisher for authors from under published ethnic groups; entire family works to preserve the Abenaki culture and traditional skills, language and linguistics, also performing traditional and contemporary Abenaki music.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes Ph.D. 1981: Best-selling author of Women Who Run With the Wolves; and The Faithful Gardner; social activist, Jungian psychologist, cantadora (storyteller) in the Latin tradition, post-traumas specialist, and educator-in-residence at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.

Clarence Major Ph.D. 1978: Prize-winning author, essayist, educator (Temple, University of Washington, University of California, Davis) poet, and artist. Author of short story collections and several novels including Dirty Bird Blues and Painted Turtle: Woman with Guitar. Also subject of monograph on his work, Clarence Major and His Art.

Joyce Tenneson, Ph.D. 1978, world-renowned photographer and author of six books, including Illuminations, Light Warriors, and Flower Portraits (Bullfinch Press). Her Wise Women (Bullfinch Press, 2002) inspired a series on NBC’s “Today Show,” celebrating vital, energetic, and beautiful authors, activists, and actors as well as teachers, Supreme Court justices, and just “everyday mothers and grandmothers.” Tenneson traveled throughout America, seeking, interviewing, and photographing 80 women ages 65 to l00.

Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D. 1976 was interviewed by Morley Safer on 60 Minutes January 12, 2003. Bestselling author of the books, Age Wave, Bodymind, and Age Power: How the 21st Century Will Be Ruled by the New Old, Dychtwald is the founding president of Age Wave, LLC, a firm created to guide Fortune 500 companies and government groups in product/service development for baby boomers and mature adults.

Robert K. Cooper, Ph.D. 1990 sought-after motivational speaker and author of Executive EQ and coauthor with Leslie L. Cooper, Low-Fat Living: Skillpower Not Willpower (Rodale Press, 1996), “highly recommended” by Dean Ornish, M.D.

Rita Mae Brown Ph.D. 1976: Best-selling author of Rubyfruit Jungle; Alma Mater; Six of One; Southern Discomfort; Outfoxed; Loose Lips; and the Sneaky Pie Brown series.

Michael T. Klare, Ph.D. 1976 Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict
(Henry Holt and Company, 2001); director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies. He spends half his time teaching in the program which includes Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He’s also contributed to 12 books on United States defense policy, the arms trade, and world security affairs.

Phillip Lopate Ph.D. 1979: Author (The Art of the Personal Essay, Writing New York: A Literary Anthology), educator (Columbia, NYU, Bennington, Hofstra); film critic and essayists for the New York Times.

Colin Greer Ph.D. 1973: President, New World Foundation; author, with Herbert Kohl of The Plain Truth of Things (1997) and books on the history of public education, including The Great School Legend. Co-author of Choosing Equality: The Case for Democratic Schooling, winner of the American Library Association’s 1988 Eli M. Oboler Intellectual Freedom Award; regular author for Parade magazine.

Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D. 2002, founder of the Natural Gourmet Cookery School in New York City in 1977, author of four books, including The Natural Gourmet (Ballantine Books, 1989, 1991), first runner-up prize in the IACP/Seagram national cookbook awards in 1989; Food and Healing (Ballantine Books, 1986), translated into Spanish, Italian, Polish, and Chinese and reissued in a 10th Anniversary edition in 1996; and Food and Our Bones: How to Prevent Osteoporosis Naturally (Dutton, 1998).

Louise Diamond Ph.D. 1990, The Courage for Peace: Daring to Create Harmony in Ourselves and the World (Conari Press, 2000), co-founder and president emeritus of the Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy; her new organization, Peace-Tech, will provide tools that empower people to work for a culture of peace in their lives and in the world.

Phillip Obermiller Ph.D. 1982 (has published numerous books) African American Miners and Migrants: The Eastern Kentucky Social Club was published by the University of Illinois Press.

Tanya Higgins, Ph.D. 1994 and Nancy Diggs, Ph.D. 1994 A Look at Life in Northern Ireland: How Do Women Live in a Culture Driven by Conflict? (The Edwin Mellon Press, 2000), anthropological examination of the enduring efforts of women in Northern Ireland to facilitate peace in the face of daily conflict, evolved from Higgins’ Project Demonstrating Excellence.

Sidney Harman, Ph.D. Mind Your Own Business (ISBN: 0385509596 Doubleday & Company, 2003), Executive Chairman of Harman International Industries, Inc., a leading manufacturer of high-quality, high-fidelity audio products and electronic systems for the consumer and professional markets include Harman Kardon, JBL, Infinity, undersecretary of commerce under President Carter Apr 21 1977 to 1979.

Undergrad alumnus: Barrymore A. Bogues, B.A. 1989, Florida Center: Chair of the Africana Studies Department at Brown University, Bogues earned a Ph.D. at the University of the West Indies, where he taught courses in radical political theory. Black Heretics, Black Prophets: Radical Political Intellectuals (Routledge, 2003) examines the political thought of influential black thinkers in the radical tradition. Figures include the slave Cugoano, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, C.L.R. James, and W.E.B. DuBois.

Bernie Krause Ph.D. 1981: Very well known in new music and environmental/natural science fields for his recordings of nature and animals; worked with Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey.

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