Marilyn Ward

  • Director, Center for Children’s Literature; Professor of Education
    Email Address:
    mward@carthage.edu
    Office location:
    Lentz Hall 321
    Phone
    262-551-5875

    Marilyn Ward grew up in a big white and red house on the Lake Michigan shoreline, reading “Cinderella,” “Dr. Seuss,” “Heidi,” “Eloise,” “Alice in Wonderland,” and books about ballet. Today, she teaches about those books and many more, two miles south of that house on Lake Michigan, at Carthage College.

    Prof. Ward joined the Carthage Education Faculty in 1990, where she teaches courses in Children’s and Young Adult Literature, Creative Arts, Social Studies Methods, and Poetry Theatre. She is Director of the Center for Children’s Literature in the Hedberg Library at Carthage. 

    Prof. Ward earned B.A.s in theatre, social studies, and education from the University of Wisconsin — Parkside, an M.A. in children’s theatre from Northwestern University, and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction (Children’s Literature and Gifted and Talented Education) from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

    She has published books and articles on international and multicultural children’s and young adult literature, children’s and young adult fiction on disabilities and differences, and social studies trade books. She runs OmniLibros.com, an annotated bibliography of international children’s and young adult literature. 

    When she is not traveling all over the world visiting schools, libraries, theatres, museums, bookstores, and conferences, she is at home one mile east of Lake Michigan, surrounded by wagon-loads of books.

    • Ph.D. — Curriculum and Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
    • M.A. — Children’s Theatre, Northwestern University
    • B.A. — Theatre, Social Studies and Education, University of Wisconsin-Parkside
    • EDU 2150 Creative Arts: Music and Art in the Elementary/Middle School
    • EDU 3160 Social Studies in the Elementary/Middle School
    • EDU 4130 Children’s and Early Adolescents’ Literature