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Biography |
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Thomas Dean is a writer and editor with a deep interest in our connections to place, our relationship with the natural world, and the cultural life of the Midwest. A Pushcart Prize nominee, Dean has recently published a book of personal essays, Under a Midland Sky (Ice Cube Press, 2008). This collection focuses on Midwestern life through the experience of seasons, weather, and other phenomena in the sky, exploring Dean’s personal efforts at finding home, as well as ruminations on what it means for all of us to seek a sense of place. Dean’s edited books include The Grass of Grass and Water: Writing in Honor of Paul Gruchow (Ice Cube Press, 2007), a tribute book to the famed Minnesota writer who passed away in 2004, and Live Well, Live Wild (Ice Cube Press, 2006), a brief collection of essays by Bill McKibben and Stephanie Mills prepared for the Second Iowa Conference on the Wild. Dean has published creative nonfiction in Little Village, The Wapsipinicon Almanac, here: the stories behind where you are, The Iowa Source, and several book anthologies from the Ice Cube Press. He has published academic essays and reviews in such publications as American Literary Naturalism, American Literature, Literature/Film Quarterly, Frank Norris Studies, Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning, Annals of Iowa, and several book essay collections, encyclopedias, and dictionaries. Dean earned a Ph.D. in English from The University of Iowa. He received an M.A. in English, a B.A. in English, and a B.M. in Music History and Literature from Northern Illinois University, graduating summa cum laude. He also completed doctoral work in English and film studies at The University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has received a National Endowment for the Humanities Study Grant and grant awards from the Michigan Humanities Council, the Minnesota Humanities Center, the North Dakota Humanities Council, and Humanities Iowa. Dean currently serves as Special Assistant to the President for Communications and Research at The University of Iowa. His duties include speechwriting, other writing and editing, and research. He co-organizes the annual Presidential Lecture and coordinates and administers the annual President’s Award for State Outreach and Public Engagement. In 2005-2006, he chaired and coordinated the UI’s Year of Public Engagement, a Presidential initiative that celebrated and developed the University’s commitment to volunteerism, public service, and engagement with the greater community and citizenry. Dean founded and directs the Iowa Project on Place Studies at the UI and is adjunct assistant professor of Literature, Science, and the Arts and Leisure Studies, for which he teaches such courses as “Introduction to Place Studies” and “The Good Society.” He also teaches in the College Transition Program through the UI’s University College. Prior to returning to Iowa, Dean taught in English and interdisciplinary humanities departments at Cardinal Stritch University (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), Michigan State University, and Minnesota State University Moorhead. A strong believer in community and continuing education, he also has taught writing and humanities with Fargo/Moorhead Communiversity, the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, the University of Iowa Senior College, and the Iowa City Senior Center. Dean currently serves as President of the Iowa City Public Library Board of Trustees and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Standing By Words Center, Nature in Legend and Story (NILAS), and Humanities Iowa, Iowa’s state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. For Humanities Iowa, he is currently serving on a blue ribbon selection committee for the Iowa History Prize, a biennial award to honor an Iowa history scholar and to promote a general public conversation about Iowa history. Dean also founded and directs Midland Roots Regional Culture Initiative, an organization that promotes Midwestern cultural expressions of place. Dean was born and raised in Rockford, Illinois and now makes his home in Iowa City, Iowa. He is married to Susan Prepejchal, and they have two children, Nathaniel and Sylvia. The family makes annual trips to the Minnesota North Woods. The Prepejchal Deans are active in greyhound rescue and have adopted five retired racers. |
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