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Beth Harrison - College of San Mateo
Beth teaches composition and literature at the College of San Mateo. She earned her BA in English from Stanford University and a PhD from Columbia University. Her areas of interest and expertise include British and American literature, composition, and creative writing. She has enjoyed teaching students from all walks of life and backgrounds including places as remote as rural West Virginia, Kentucky, New York City, China, and England, and for the past six years in the San Francisco Bay Area. She values diversity and new experiences. In her courses she leads lively discussions of literature and encourages students to develop their own interpretations both orally and in writing. She is eager to introduce her students to the vibrant city of London, which she knows well, and will use excursions through the city as an integral part of her teaching.
Beth can’t wait to have this opportunity to teach community college students abroad to share her love of British literature and culture. As a college student she studied in France and lived with a French family—a life changing experience, which gave her the opportunity to make lasting friendships and infected her with a permanent “travel bug.” More recently, she and her family (who will accompany her for the semester) spent a total of six years living overseas in Beijing, China and Kent, England. She knows that the students in the AIFS program will maximize their learning inside the classroom of London!
Paul Bethel - Cosumnes River College
Paul Bethel is very excited to have the opportunity to teach in London in the Fall of 2011, and is eager to share his love of teaching with an enthusiastic and adventurous group of college students in an exciting and culturally rich city.
Paul Bethel has been a full-time Professor in the History Department at American River College since 2003, having taught many years prior to that as an adjunct in the Los Rios and Sierra College districts, and for many years before that at the high school level in Northern and Southern California. Paul’s primary teaching responsibilities have been in both United States History and Western Civilization. Paul earned a Master’s Degree in History from California State University Long Beach in 1990, with emphases in both Modern American and Modern European History; his Bachelor’s Degree in History is from San Francisco State University in 1979. Paul’s minor was in both Film and Theater; his Film Studies were primarily in the field of film history and critical analysis, and his Theater training was both in theater history and analysis, as well as performance.
Paul is a native of Southern California. He now lives in Carmichael, California, with his wife Kathy, a native Arizonan, and he thoroughly enjoys his five minute commute to ARC! Paul and Kathy have a daughter, a sophomore at Santa Clara University, and a son, headed off to a college of his choice in the fall. Paul loves travel, having visited Europe three times, most recently, eight days in London in 2008. He is thrilled, honored, and eager to return to Great Britain in the fall as a faculty member in the Study Abroad program.
Wendy Wisely - Santa Rosa Junior College
Wendy Wisely has been a member of the SRJC Theatre Arts faculty since 1994.
In the spring of 2011, Wendy Wisely will be directing The Importance of Being Earnest, a perfect lead-in to traveling to London in Fall! She’s worked as a professional director, actor and writer for over twenty years in film, TV, and on stage throughout the Bay Area and beyond. She is an award-winning stage directo,r and her most recent on-camera work as an actor is currently making the rounds in festivals around the nation. Her directing work at SRJC has included Comedy of Errors, Guys and Dolls, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Rumors, Steel Magnolias, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, and Gross Indecencies:The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde among others. In addition, Wendy worked as the Associate Artistic Director of the Children's Theatre Workshop and has been a Theatre Arts faculty member at Las Positas College, Berkeley City College, and for the California Shakespeare Theater. She has a degree in Drama from the University of Washington, and received her Masters of Fine Arts in Performance from San Jose State University. Wendy will be accompanied by her 8-year-old daughter and husband who is a professional actor.
Wendy has traveled with student groups to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the American College Theater Festival. When asked why she wanted to teach abroad, she answered, “I feel honored to have the opportunity to be an instructor and professional mentor to students on an adventure that will change the way they see themselves and the world. I want to see their faces as they stand within the restored Globe Theatre and hear the words of Shakespeare come to life, to see the ‘aha!’ moment when they make the connections!”
