Associate Professor
E-mail: leere@stolaf.edu
Phone: x3245
Dr. Elizabeth Leer says, "I enjoyed an idyllic childhood growing up on the shores of one of the 10,000 lakes in Minnesota. For my undergraduate education, I ventured three hours northwest to Concordia College in Moorhead, which, despite the profound lack of lakes and trees in the area, led me to the belief that St. Olaf must be the second best school in the MIAC. After graduation, I spent six years in Albany, MN, teaching English and German to middle- and high-schoolers and coaching track and cross-country. The fact that every single student I taught during my public school tenure was white eventually led to my research interest in how to infuse multicultural education (especially multicultural literature) effectively into largely homogeneous environments. After secondary school teaching came a two-year stint at Northern Illinois University earning a M.A. in English literature, then back in Minnesota I completed doctoral work in English education at the University of Minnesota. For two years I taught in the education department at the U of M in Duluth before settling in Northfield with my husband, Joel, and three young sons, Elijah, Isaac, and Silas. At St. Olaf I have taught Principles of Education, the Communication Arts and Literature methods courses, and the interim courses Perspectives on Teaching and Multicultural Education in Hawaii.”
