Janet Blank-Libra Associate Professor of English/Journalism Chair, Department of English and Journalism Office:  112 Humanities  Phone: 605-274-5436 E-mail: janet.blank-libra@augie.edu

Biography
After earning a BA in English and Journalism from South Dakota State University in 1981, Dr. Blank-Libra taught high school and junior high in Mitchell, South Dakota, for two and a half years. In 1988 she finished a master's degree in journalism at the University of Montana, Missoula.  While finishing her thesis, she explored life as a newspaper reporter and editor and as a member of a public relations team. She received her PhD in journalism from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in spring 2000. Today, as a member of Augustana College's English/Journalism Department, she teaches literature and writing courses in a liberal arts setting. 

Courses

• Ethics and Law of the Press
• News Reporting and Writing
• Advanced Journalism
• Literary Journalism
• Writing for Magazines
• Photojournalism
• The Literary Experience

In addition, Dr. Blank-Libra has co-taught a course titled Poets and Their Places for a study-abroad course in Ireland. She also co-teaches a workshop focused on Writing Across the Curriculum for her colleagues at Augustana.

Research Interests
Dr. Blank-Libra's dissertation looks at the way in which the press (namely four newspapers) characterized single mothers on welfare during the reform period of the mid-90s. Using ethnographic content analysis, she found that mothers were characterized to varying degrees according to myth.

Augustana College, 2001 S. Summit Avenue, Sioux Falls, SD 57197
Ph: 1-800-727-2844 / 605-274-5430