As a poet, writing instructor, educator and qualitative arts-based researcher, Elise knows our personal and communal storylines are more complex than we let on. We experience relief when we learn theories, structural explanations and collective stories that help us understand our struggles, successes, and stuck points in a larger social context.

In her poetry, curriculum development, research, and theoretical writing, Elise is interested in questions like:

• How do we account for care work in social and political contexts?

• How can we create more feasible systems for family and work?

• How can we practically engage in practices that counter capitalist commitments to hyper production, fear of rest, and overuse of the earth?

• How can we cultivate an ethics of care based on slower, reasonable, reciprocal and fairly compensated networks of relationality at work and home?

Elise’s has her PhD Literacy, Language and Culture in the field of Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Minnesota. She also has her MA in Critical Literacy from the University of Minnesota. 

In her early career, Elise taught high school for eight years outside Jakarta, Indonesia and in the Twin Cities. She was tenured in the Minneapolis Public Schools. Elise has also taught English for Upward Bound at Century College and Metro State. She is currently a lecturer in the Department of Writing Studies at the University of Minnesota.

Elise is invested in and committed to education and writing projects that engage intersectional justice. Her home for many years has been the Twin Cities and she is invested in community life and advocacy work there.