The Lodestar – Spring 2024 | Valparaiso University

Welcome From the Chair Students

Greetings to all our alumni and friends from the Valparaiso University department of English. We are happy for the opportunity to share our faculty and student endeavors with you, and to thank you for your ongoing support of English studies at Valpo.

In this issue of The Lodestar, we welcome our newest faculty member, Christine Maul Rice, who now anchors our creative writing program. A Valpo alum, Professor Rice comes to us from the Chicago literary scene where she is a successful novelist and literary editor. She is already having a big impact on our students. The alumnus spotlight features Brooke Regier, a 2022 graduate of our English studies and communication M.A. program. She has become a valued contributor to our department, coordinating the Writing Center and teaching courses.

Valpo English alumni also contribute to the department in other valuable ways. In this issue, we gratefully acknowledge the sizable gift made to the department by the estate of Paul M. and Gloria M. (’58) Schultz. The Schultzes’ kind generosity will serve the University English students for years to come.

Senior research Professor John Ruff continues to celebrate literature and the arts at Valpo, recently hosting the 50th season of the Books & Coffee review series, and now leading the Thursdays

at the Brauer talks on notable works from the Brauer Museum of Art. Professor Martin Buinicki is spearheading the creation of the new Center for Games and Interactive Entertainment, which will provide students with tools to experience and design new games of all types. And Professor Elizabeth Burow-Flak recently highlighted her dynamic Shakespearean Dilemmas course with a class trip to Chicago to see Richard III.

Valpo English students always do more than excel in the classroom. They not only enliven our campus culture through activities sponsored by the new Inklish Literary Society, they also produce this newsletter. I especially would like to acknowledge this year’s graduating seniors—an exceptionally talented group of writers, editors, and creators—who, like all of our English studies alumni, enrich the world around them through the power of language.

Professor Carter Hanson, Chair of the English Department. Photo from valpo.edu.

Students

Senior Spotlights

Grace Aurand Political Science, English

After graduation, I will be attending Western Michigan University to get a Master of Public Administration degree and use the rest of my NCAA eligibility on their cross country and track teams. My favorite memory is making new friends who share my love for English!

Caitlynn Shipe Communications, Public & Professional Writing Public Relations

I plan to continue telling stories that matter and connecting local media with their consumers. My favorite memory of being a Valpo English student was getting inducted into Sigma Tau Delta!

Zion

Gifford Studio Art English, Psychology

My plan is to explore graduate programs and finally clean my room... My favorite memories are playtesting my tabletop roleplaying game module for Professor Buinicki’s Writing RPGs course and getting to see both family and strangers enjoy the game I had spent all semester writing!

Mikayla Ruzicka Public & Professional Writing Communications

Following graduation, I’m not completely sure what I will be doing, but I’m currently looking at different jobs in libraries in the Chicago area. My favorite memory of being a Valpo English student is getting to actually interact with people in the same field of study as me.

Cori Laatsch

Public & Professional Writing Business

I am pursuing a career in publishing following graduation. My favorite memory as an English student is the 2022 Cabaret, when Professors Kamperman and Morrisey read hilarious stories they wrote as teenagers.

Danielle Kneusel Pyschology English

Post graduation, I am pursuing a Masters degree in the field of criminology and intelligence studies. My favorite memory is publishing my book and all of the support I received from the English department and people in it!

Faculty

Welcoming Professor Christine Rice to the English Department FacultySpotlight

We would like to welcome (back) Professor Christine Maul Rice as she begins yet another journey at Valparaiso University. Professor Rice is from Grand Blanc, Michigan, but found her way to Valparaiso University in 1981 to study English and journalism. Professor Rice shares that she was drawn to Valpo because of its reputation as a strong liberal arts school with a good ratio of students to teachers. She graduated with her Bachelor’s in 1985 and attended Columbia College Chicago from 1996-2000, where she received a Master of Fine Arts in fiction writing.

Following her graduation, Professor Rice secured a full-time position at a consulting firm where she previously had interned. In her time at Valpo, she worked with WVUR and wrote for The Torch. She says, “All the leadership that I learned here and all the practical experience with communications really helped me in my job because I had been producing videos and writing scripts and doing a lot of professional writing.” Now, being able to return to Valpo, Professor Rice feels grateful. Though she formerly taught in the fiction writing department at Columbia College Chicago for twenty years, in recent years she took a break from teaching.. Now, she will return to instruct creative writing here at her alma mater.

Professor Rice has published several works, including “Guilty as Sin,” “Atmospheric Disturbances,” “Exacting Revenge,” “Undesirable Interruptions,”

by Ben Fields & Cori Laatsch

and her latest work from the University of Hell Press in 2016, SwarmTheory. Her novel SwarmTheory has received multiple awards, including PANK’s The Best Books of 2016. The novel was also an honorable mention of the Book of the Year award from the Chicago Writers Association.

She is also the founder, executive director, and editor of Hypertext Magazine & Studio. The magazine was founded in 2010 and proudly publishes local and national works of fiction, nonfiction, visual art, and interviews, which Professor Rice is featured in. Hypertext Magazine & Studio became a nonprofit in 2017 and highlights the works of LGBTQ+ and other minority writers, which allows them the creative freedom and opportunity to share their voices. Professor Rice shares that before COVID-19, Hypertext worked with other nonprofits in Chicago to teach adults writing and communication skills, including those who were recently incarcerated or might not have access to that type of education.

On being back at Valpo, Rice says, “The excellence in teaching is something that really takes my attention here, that the teachers are really devoted to their students and also really devoted to the art and vocation of teaching.” We are so excited for Professor Rice to join our department and to see what new creative passions she will bring to the students and to Valpo.

Professor Rice (left) interviewing writer Ana Castillo (right) at the Chicago Writers Conference.

Professor Rice (left) with writer Cyn Vargas (right) at the Hypertext table at Printers Lit Row Festival.

Alumni

Alumnus Spotlight

Meet VU alumnus, Brooke Regier

by Carmen Hernandez

Valpo alumnus Brooke Regier, falls nothing short of extraordinary in her commitment to education and learning. Regier, ‘22, graduated from Valpo’s Masters program, earning a degree in English studies and communication. Following her time at Valpo, Regier focused on her professional development. She says, “I love writing and I love learning. So combining those two really felt...it feels exciting that I get to do that every day, you know?”

When the opportunity arose to work with the University, Regier thought, “Yeah, that’s it! And I stopped looking for other jobs.”

Regier teaches graduate-level courses like Professional Writing & Research, as well as undergrad courses like Writing for the Health Sciences and Intro to Business & Professional Writing. Along with teaching, Regier trains interns at the Writing Center. Prior to returning to Valpo, Regier taught 100-level English courses at Purdue Northwest.

While studying at Valpo, Regier admired Dr. Sean Kamperman’s teaching vision, as well as his writing process. Regier notes, “He taught his classes in a way that was very collaborative and engaging. He would often ask a prompting question and have us break up and discuss it and work on it and write. I do think I run my classes in a similar way to him because it worked so well for me, and so I want to, you know, try to use the same techniques.” Regier shares that her favorite part about teaching is seeing when students “get it,” when they have the moment that clicks, and when, “they’re working hard and it’s paying off and they’re creating something that they’re really proud of.”

Regier’s advice to students is lucrative, as well as highly applicable. She recommends, “Any chance you get to work with a professor, take that opportunity. I learned so much from the professors that I worked with, even just visiting with them in their office hours or scheduling a one-on-one meeting with them.” Having this face to face with her professors showed Regier how to have this same time with her students. Now, more than ever, she is surrounded by this community of people who focus on writing and the writing process. Regier states, “And now I talk in front of classes everyday, and so I feel very proud of younger Brooke for being brave and engaging in that process, even though I was so terrified, because now I think she would be proud of current me.”

Regier presenting her research at the FIRES Conference.

Brooke Regier (right) at her Masters Graduation in 2022 with her sister, Bailey (left).

Students

Student Spotlight

Secretary Jon Hurtado leads

Inklish Literary Society

by Zion Gifford

The Inklish Literary Society is not a book club, nor is it a writing club. In the words of secretary Jon Hurtado ‘25, Inklish is simply about “having fun with books!” Officially recognized in 2023, Inklish is a place for Valpo students to have casual conversations with other book lovers. Every meeting starts with a book recommendation session, where members talk about what they have been reading recently and try to convince each other to pick it up. Meeting agendas vary widely: some meetings are devoted to creating poems from magazine clippings, some feature Kahoot! quizzes on literary knowledge, and some are projected picture slideshows of members’ favorite places to read and write. Inklish puts on special holiday events, too, like on Valentine’s Day when members repurposed old book pages into flowers or the Christmas white elephant book exchange. Inklish also hosted the 2024 annual Cabaret, which was titled “Through the Looking Glass” and themed around Alice in Wonderland.

The meetings maintain a relaxed atmosphere, often with music from video games like Animal Crossing playing quietly in the background. Hurtado emphasizes that the club is a friendly and welcoming place for anyone and everyone who enjoys reading, despite the somewhat serious tone of “Literary

Society,” and that their favorite part of the club has been seeing Valpo students come together and get more comfortable with each other over time. Members start out shy, but once those who know each other start talking, everyone else joins in on the fun. “Sometimes the conversation isn’t even about books; it will turn into something else, and we can all somehow talk about it, too,” Hurtado shares.

Inklish meets every Wednesday from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Arts and Sciences building room 240, in the back of the Language Resource Center. You can also reach them at inklish@valpo.edu.

Inklish e-board members from left to right: Caitlynn Shipe, Jackie O’Hara, Katie Oehmke, Alex Pawlowski, Jonathan Hurtado, and Jay Bradley (below). Photo by Zoey North.

Professor Martin Buinicki performing an original song at the 2024 Cabaret.

Valpo English department receives generous donation Donors

Donor Spotlight

The English department is excited to announce that it has received a $10,000 donation issued by the Special Gift Fund from the estate of Paul M. and Gloria M. Schultz. Gloria ‘58 (1936-2019) was from Bemidji, MN, and graduated from Valparaiso University with a Bachelor’s degree in English. At the time of her death, aged 83, she was residing in Midland, Michigan.

During her time at Valpo, Gloria served on The Torch staff and The Beacon. After graduating from Valpo, Gloria moved to Chicago to take on the position of editorial assistant for Encyclopedia Britannica. It was in 1959 that she met her husband, Paul M. Schultz, and the two were married July 1, 1962 in Chicago. Immediately upon their marriage, they moved to the Yakota-Johnson Air Force Base in Japan, where her husband took a position as a teacher to American students. Gloria began teaching English in the Lutheran school, at her own home, and the Lutheran Center in Tokyo. In addition, she taught Effective Writing to the Airmen. While in Japan, Gloria and Paul traveled extensively through the islands of Japan and Okinawa and into Korea.

In 1964, the couple returned to the states and settled in Midland, Michigan. Shortly after, they adopted their daughter Laura. The family continued

by Ben Fields

to grow in the form of two sons, Timothy and Michael. Gloria entered the workforce again in 1979, working for the DOW Chemical Company. After almost sixteen years with the company, she retired in 1995.

Despite Gloria’s love for travel, she enjoyed her time at home just as much. She was passionate about helping those with developmental disabilities and, as such, was a member of the Arc of Midland for over 50 years. She was proud to be a member of the American Association of Undergraduate Women and a sister of Valparaiso University’s chapter of the Phi Beta Sorority. Gloria was a great woman of faith and spent her life as a devout Lutheran. This led her to become an active member of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Midland, where she served on the Stewardship and Mission committees and as a member in the choir.

Gloria was an eager reader and her interest spanned across multiple book clubs. Her love for literature and teaching English impacted people in numerous areas of her life. Through her generous donation to the English department, many more will continue to be positively impacted. It is gifts such as Gloria’s that give students opportunities to pursue their passions.

Gloria Schultz. Photo provided by her obituarary.

Gloria (left) in the 1957 Beacon yearbook, pictured with fellow Beacon staff. Photo from the University Archives.

Event Spotlight Events Events

John Ruff organizes Thursdays at the Brauer

by Analiese Heissenbuettel

After COVID-19 shut down the Brauer Museum of Art for a significant amount of time, Senior Research Professor of English, John Ruff, searched for a way to bring people back into the space. In his teaching career, Professor Ruff explained that he often used the art in his teaching to “use the images and learn how to read the rhetorics.” Professor Ruff calls the Brauer Valpo’s “best kept secret.”

Back in August of 2021, Professor Ruff met with Provost Eric Johnson and proposed the idea of starting Thrursdays at the Brauer. Professor Ruff had been meeting with two geographers, a meteorologist, an environmental scientist, and professors from history, bioengineering, and economics, who used their specialties to look at art. But he wanted to take it further. He saw that each person had a way of using their own field of study to see different concepts in the art pieces, and from that experience, Professor Ruff curated the concept for Thursdays at the Brauer. He says he started this event to “reawaken interest in the collection for teaching and learning.”

Thursdays at the Brauer is an event that meets on Thursdays at 4 p.m. in the museum each spring semester. Every week, Professor Ruff convenes a colloquium where there are different sets of art pieces that Ruff and other speakers discuss. His goal is “not to

teach art appreciation necessarily, but to show faculty, students and community members how rich our collection is for teaching and learning.” Professor Ruff looks to “work against the perception that art museums are for old, rich white people” and finds it “deeply satisfying to get people in there and provide a good experience,” an idea clearly communicated throughout this event and its speakers. The talks give interesting pieces of history and stories surrounding the art pieces, as well as cultivate conversation and ideas of interpretations of the art in the audience. Professor Ruff states that from this event, attendees will “learn a particular way to look at art.”

This event is free to all students, and Professor Ruff encourages students, along with faculty and other community members, to join him on Thurdays to look at “incredible art and see what it’s about!

John Ruff (right) in front of an exhibit piece.

Professor Ben Brobst-Renaud next to a piece he spoke about.

Christ College Dean Jennifer Prough speaking at a 2024 Thursdays at the Brauer event.

Event EventsSpotlight

Professor Buinicki heads

new Center for Games and Interactive Entertainment

Valparaiso University’s gaming program continues to grow with the ongoing development of the new gaming center, currently called the Center for Games and Interactive Entertainment. After the success of Professor Martin Buinicki’s first course on video games and literature in the fall of 2021, Professor Buinicki and then-chair Dr. Richard Sévère began discussing how to better meet the increasing demand from students for games representation within the English department. In the summer of 2022, Professor Buinicki met with others in the community to discuss how Valparaiso University could meet this demand. The conclusion of this meeting was not only to offer the nowimplemented gaming minor, but to also create a center that could facilitate and encourage the playing and development of games by all in the community. One year later, having been selected as recipient of the Ball Venture Fund Grant, Professor Buinicki brought together another working group containing local school teachers, librarians, live-streamers, and game designers to discuss how the center could best serve the larger Valpo city community as well as the University.

Proposed elements for the completed gaming center include a live-streaming studio, couch co-op room, tabletop roleplaying game library, workshop offerings, and materials for board and card game design. Funds for all of the latest gaming consoles and two sets of Meta

by Zion Gifford

Quest 3 virtual reality headsets have been set aside in the budget, and care is being taken to make all games required in the gamingrelated class curricula available to play. The center strives to become a friendly and accessible gaming space—not only a “home away from home” for the gaming minors of Valparaiso University, but a place where anyone can come to learn, play, create, and have fun. The center will have a code of conduct to ensure that all visitors, both students and the wider Valpo community, feel safe and welcome in the space.

Opening the doors to new career paths and encouraging the development of new ideas through the power of games, VU’s gaming center is currently identifying the perfect location for the space’s establishment.

Professor Martin Buinicki. Photo provided by Professor Buinicki.

Student Jonathan Hurtado ‘ 25 leading his game, Through Ash and Dust at a playtest for the English minor requirement. Photo by AJ Stevens.

Professor BurrowFlak offers new Shakespeare course Classes

Classroom Spotlight

Shakespearean Dilemmas, offered in the spring 2024 semester, has garnered interest from many students. Its focus on the dilemmas that Shakespeare presents his characters with has offered students a vast array of perspectives. This course garners inspiration from roleplaying classes like Writing RPGs and Video Games: Playing with Stories that have appeared in recent years at Valpo. Professor Elizabeth Burow-Flak states, “You often have a character who has made a choice.” It is through these choices and dilemmas that students gain an in-depth look at the characters and the story.

While Shakespeare’s plays are over four hundred years old, they still resonate with people today. Because these plays feel more contemporary Professor Burow-Flak states, “a lot of these things transfer to other times and places really well” allowing people the opportunity to “find something that they relate to.”

Live performances are an important aspect of this course. With the generosity of donors, the class had the opportunity to see Richard III at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. When discussing the importance of live performances, Professor Burow-Flak emphasizes that experiencing them as a class strengthens understanding. She states, “Something happens when we do it together. I suppose we learn from each other.”

by Katie Oehmke

Tabi Porter ‘26, a creative writing major with a minor in technical theater and psychology, expresses their experience with the course stating, “It’s so focused on learning what Shakespeare is about and the things he does” along with “nuances in his plays that people wouldn’t really get if they just read it.”

Approaching Shakespeare may be intimidating; however, Professor BurowFlak stresses that studying these works is very rewarding. Through reading and watching them performed, the audience gets a better understanding of these texts. She states, “We kind of feel it. And I think we all feel like we know more.”

Students from the Shakesperean Dilemmas class on a field trip to see Richard III at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier.

Professor Elizabeth Burrow-Flak. Photo from valpo.edu.

Meet the Editor

Ben Fields

English

Ben is a junior English major. He is an athlete and runs cross country and track for the University. This is his second year writing for The Lodestar, and he also writes for The Torch. This is Ben’s first issue taking over as editor for The Lodestar, which he will continue leading the upcoming year. He is interested in pursuing writing and editing.

Our Writers

Cori Laatsch Public & Professional Writing

Zion Gifford

Carmen Hernandez Studio Art

Analiese Heissenbuettel

Katie Oehmke

We offer special thanks to the Brauer Museum for the cover image and Matt Ross for designing The Lodestar logo.