The following professors from the English Department are available for free speaking engagements and workshops.
Dr. Jason Snart
Professor of English
Chair of Literature, Creative Writing, and Film
Presentation and Workshop Topics
- Generative AI and Writing
- British Literature
- Creative Writing
Professor Snart earned his Ph.D from the University of Florida. He teaches composition, creative writing, and literature courses. His publishing focuses primarily on generative AI and its intersection with writing. He has published multiple books and many articles, including Making Hybrids Work: An Institutional Framework for Blending Online and Face-to-Face Instruction in Higher Education. In 2020/21 Snart was awarded a League for Innovation Excellence award and also won the Outstanding Full-time Faculty award at College of DuPage.
Contact: snartj@cod.edu
Dr. Steven Accardi
Professor of English
Program Chair of Writing Studies
Presentation Topics
- Disagreements
- Argumentation
- Persuasion
Dr. Accardi earned his PhD in Rhetoric and Composition from Arizona State University, specializing in rhetorical theory. He has published in WPA: Writing Program Administration, Composition Studies, Teaching English in the Two-Year College, and Journal of Second Language Writing. Dr. Accardi was awarded Outstanding Honors Faculty by the College of DuPage Honors Student Advisory Committee. He helped create the Writing Studies program and Professional Writing Certificate, which have each won national awards. He teaches several courses in the Writing Studies program, such as Advanced Composition, Argumentative Writing, Writing in the Professions, Writing for Nonprofits, Technical Writing, Workplace Writing, as well as Composition I and Composition II.
Contact: accardis@cod.edu
Dr. Alejandra Ortega
Professor of English
Presentation Topics
- Ecocriticism
- Spatiality (our engagements with spaces/places)
- Graphic Novels/Manga
- Genre Fiction
- Multicultural Literature and Postcolonial Studies
Alejandra Ortega is Assistant Professor of English at the College of DuPage. She previously held a fellowship with the Association of American University Women (AAUW). A scholar of twentieth- and twenty-first-century literature, her work has been published in academic journals like Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (ISLE), Rhizomes, and Studies in the Novel, among other venues. She is currently completing a monograph on examinations of ecofeminism in genre literature that will be published by Lexington Books as part of their Ecocritical Theory and Practice series.
Contact: ortegaa406@cod.edu
Brian Brems
Professor of English
Co-chair of Film Studies
Presentation Topics
- Film History
- World Cinema
- Documentary
- Film and/as Popular Culture
Professor Brian Brems is the co-chair of Film Studies at the College of DuPage, where he teaches classes in film history, the study of film adaptations, film analysis, important film directors, and film genres. He is the author of The Films of Walter Hill: Another Time, Another Place (Lexington Books, 2022) and the co-editor of ReFocus: The Films of Paul Schrader (EUP, 2020)
Contact: bremsb@cod.edu
Dr. Michelle E. Moore
Professor of English
Co-chair of Film Studies
Presentation Topics
- Chicago Literature and Literary History
- Modernist Thought, Literature, and Film
- Horror Literature and Film (with subspeciality in Vampires)
- Documentary Film and TV
- Women’s writing, filmmaking, and gender studies
- Archival Research
Dr. Moore is author of Chicago and the Making of American Modernism (Bloomsbury Academic 2019, Paperback 2021); coeditor of Refocus: The Films of Paul Schrader (Edinburgh University Press 2020, Paperback 2022); Coeditor of Refocus: The FIlms of John Waters (Edinburgh University Press 2025, Paper back 2026); has published academic articles/chapters and given talks on Modernism, Literature, and Film. Her work is based in the archive and she loves to talk about archival research, copyright, and fun things I've found in the archive. Recent local talks include those for the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame; Hemingway Society; Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park; Oak Park Public Library; and Global Flicks film festival at COD. Dr. Moore has been interviewed on WGN and on NW Purdue's Roundtable Perspective.
Contact: moorem@cod.edu
Dr. Timothy Henningsen
Professor of English
Dual Credit Faculty Liaison
Presentation and Workshop Topics
- Caribbean history, literature, and culture
- 19th century American literature
- The merits (and pitfalls) of Wikipedia
- The literature of Chicago
Professor Henningsen teaches literature and composition at College of DuPage. He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his master's and doctorate degrees in literary studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago. His scholarly expertise is in Caribbean literature and culture during the World War II era, having written a dissertation entitled "Feeling American: Caribbean Petitions for a New World Literary Ethos." His work has been showcased in a variety of academic publications, and he works with the WikiEdu organization, a nonprofit which builds connections between colleges and Wikipedia. In 2024, Henningsen was awarded the college's Outstanding Faculty member in Liberal Arts, and in 2022 received the Excellence Award from the League for Innovation in the Community College.
Contact: henningsent@cod.edu