JA Hanssen Promotion - Department of English

Hanssen Promoted to Professor

The Department of English congratulates our colleague Jessica Allen Hanssen on her promotion to Professor of English Subject Pedagogy. Hanssen has been teaching British and American Literature, Research and Writing, and English Subject Pedagogy at Nord University since 2007. Her research documents her capacity for combining wide-ranging content knowledge with pedagogical skill, and demonstrates the power of treating early secondary ELT classrooms as inclusive interpretative communities where “aesthetic reading is taught from the ground up with language itself.” Her research argues that young people deserve to read, write and discuss texts that will challenge their potential as human beings rather than simply as exam takers, thus working towards a more humanistically and holistically focused approach to English education in Norway.

Hanssen’s professional profile includes a background in 19^th century American literature and narratology, which she uses when working with teacher students to develop awareness and understanding of the cultural and historical contexts for the subject of English. Hanssen’s work with students as study programme coordinator of Bachelor of English has inspired her to experiment with different approaches to enhance student engagement and learning. Hanssen was awarded Nord’s Learning Environment prize in 2014, and in 2021 Hanssen received the prestigious Merited Teacher distinction.

Hanssen wishes to continue to explore the connections between literature and pedagogy in her forthcoming research, which includes an in-development monograph on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s literature for children and a book chapter on the aesthetic dimensions of literature teaching. She welcomes the increased opportunity to serve as a mentor to MA and PhD students that her promotion represents.