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Faculty: Elizabeth Vander Lei

Elizabeth Vander LeiElizabeth Vander Lei, Professor, co-chair, English

616-526-6434
bvlei@calvin.edu
Office: CFAC 273

Weekly Schedule (Portal login required)

Educational Background

Professor Vander Lei graduated from Calvin College with a degree in English in 1985. She then attended Arizona State University, where she received an MA in English as a second language in 1987 and a PhD in rhetoric and composition in 1995.

Research Interests

  • The rhetoric of Martin Luther King
  • negotiating faith in the classroom
  • writing across the disciplines

Recent Activities

Professor Vander Lei is the co-chair of the English department. She is also the departmental director for the English 101: Written Rhetoric program, a part of Calvin's core curriculum. Professor Vander Lei recently co-authored a book, Real Texts: Reading and Writing Across the Disciplines with Dean Ward (New York: Pearson Longman, 2008). Another book, Inquiries into Rhetoric and Christian Tradition (co-edited with Tom Amorose, Beth Daniell and Anne Gere) is forthcoming from Utah State University Press.

Hobbies

  • Baking cookies for her four kids
  • taking her Pembroke Welsh Corgi named Kevin on walks
  • traveling with her spouse

Favorite Books

  • Thomas Lynch's creative non-fiction—"Bodies in Motion and at Rest" and "The Undertaking"
  • all of Annie Dillard's non-fiction
  • Stanley Wiersma's poetry in Purpaleanie and Other Permutations and Style and Class

Additional Information