Academics . Liberal Arts . Faculty
Liberal Arts Faculty
Title Associate Professor | Chair of Liberal Arts
Department Liberal Arts
Phone 216.421.7000
Courses Creative Writing Senior Seminar | Writing + Inquiry III: Narrative Forms
Degree MFA, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
MFA, University of Iowa
BA, University of Washington
Zach Savich is a poet and nonfiction writer. His books include the poetry collections Daybed (2018) and The Orchard Green and Every Color (2016) and the memoir Diving Makes the Water Deep (2016).
Savich’s work has received the Iowa Poetry Prize, the Colorado Prize for Poetry, the CSU Poetry Center’s Open Award, a New American Poet citation from the Poetry Society of America, and other honors. His poems, essays, and reviews have appeared widely in journals and anthologies including American Poetry Review, Best New Poets, Boston Review, Kenyon Review, Poetry Daily, and the Academy of American Poet’s Poem-a-Day. He serves as co-editor of Rescue Press’s Open Prose Series, an editor at the Cleveland Review of Books, and an associate editor at Tupelo Quarterly
Title Associate Professor | Assistant Chair of Liberal Arts
Department Liberal Arts
Phone 216.421.7302
Degree PhD, Art History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
MA, Art History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
BA, Political Science from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Dr. Hart is an Associate Professor of Art History in the Liberal Arts Department. He taught African-American Art at UNC Chapel Hill as well as Wake Forest University before he came to the Cleveland Institute of Art.
Title Professor of Art + Design History
Department Liberal Arts
Phone 216.421.7369
Courses Critical Issues in Visual Culture
Degree PhD, Art History, University of California, Santa Barbara
MA, Art History, University of California, Santa Barbara
BA, Art and Art History, California State University, Northridge
Gary Sampson teaches art and design history and theory. He is also adjunct in art history and occasional SAGES faculty at Case Western Reserve University. His areas of scholarship are in history of photography, urban design and representation, and media arts and visual culture. His publications include Imag(in)ing Race and Place in Colonialist Photography, with Eleanor Hight, Photographs at St. Lawrence University, with Catherine Tedford, and “Landscape and Fluid Imaging of the Emerging City," in Emerging Landscapes: Between Landscape and Representation. Sampson also engages in practice-based research in photography; one of his ongoing projects investigates city environments, infrastructure, and media.
Courses Writing + Inquiry III: Narrative Forms
Degree PhD, University of Utah
MFA, Cornell University
BA, Oberlin College
Courses Anthropology of Gender Roles | Indigenous Cultures: The Inca, Aztec and Maya | Urban Ethnography
Degree PhD Candidate (ABD), The University at Albany, SUNY
MA, University of Cincinnati
BA, Ithaca College
Courses Art of the Personal Essay | Fiction Writing | Screenwriting | Writing + Inquiry I: Basic Composition + Contemporary Ideas | Writing + Inquiry III: Narrative Forms
Degree BA, English, Hiram College
Called “a master wordsmith of the first order” by The Midwest Book Review, Scott Lax was born in the City of Cleveland. A novelist, playwright, screenwriter, nonfiction writer, and producer, Scott works as a Lecturer of Creative Writing in the Liberal Arts Department at the Cleveland Institute of Art, where he’s taught since January 2016.
A graduate of Hiram College in English, Scott is a recipient of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Bernard J. O'Keefe Scholarship in Nonfiction, the Sewanee Writers Conference Walter E. Dakin Fellowship in Fiction, and a Certificate of Congratulations from the City of Cleveland for his body of work.
His first novel, The Year That Trembled, was called “powerful” by The Denver Post, which named it one of 1998's "milestones in fiction." For his role as producer of the feature film version of his novel, Scott was awarded the “2002 Midwest Filmmaker of the Year” by the Cleveland International Film Festival, as well as three additional film festival awards in Cincinnati, OH, and Burlington, VT. The Boston Herald wrote of the movie, "Memorable…beautifully reflects the depth of experience of the late 60s and early 70s …a touching glimpse into the lives of young people enmeshed in the political and emotional climate of the times.”
Scott then adapted the novel as a two-act full-length play for high schools, which was produced at Cleveland's University School in 2003 and 2013. He’s since rewritten the play for community and professional theatres and retitled the play "1970.” An announcement on its World Premiere is forthcoming.
His second novel, Vengeance Follows, was called "A minor masterpiece of suspense and human nature," by the Midwest Book Review. His screenplay adaptation of the novel is currently being shopped.
Scott Lax is the recipient of two short fiction awards and six journalism awards from the Cleveland Press Club's Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards and the Ohio Professional Writers Association for his essays and features. He has also worked as business professional, speechwriter, and freelancer for clients such as Comedy Central, ESPN, Oracle, and the Cleveland Guardians baseball team. He's also worked in television, most recently as co-creator and co-writer with comedy legends Martin Mull and Fred Willard.
The Scott Lax Prize in Writing was established was endowed anonymously by a former student of Scott's and was awarded yearly between 2008 and 2014 as a full-ride scholarship to the week-long Wild Acres Writers Workshop in South Carolina. Scott sometimes presents at writers' conferences and libraries. He gave the 2001 Commencement Address at Hiram College.
Scott is also a professional drummer who has performed with musicians around the country, including Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Bo Diddley.
When not writing and teaching, Scott's interests include music, theatre, art, reading, movies, sports, gardening, and being in nature. He lives in the Chagrin Valley with his wife and son.
Committees:
• IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Awareness) Council, Lead for Institutional Statements + Actions Subcommittee
• Exhibitions + External Affairs Committee
Professional Affiliations:
• Member of The Authors Guild
• Member of The Dramatists Guild of America
Jonathan Rosati
Title Lecturer | Coordinator of Writing Center + Learning Center
Department Liberal Arts
Phone 216.421.8018
Courses Writing + Inquiry II: Research + Intellectual Traditions
Degree MFA, University of Iowa
BA, University of Iowa
Alyssa Perry is a writer and editor. Her creative writing has appeared in Annulet: A Journal of Poetics, The Canary, Denver Quarterly, Fence, jubilat, LVNG, Poetry Northwest, West Branch Wired, and Yalobusha Review, among other journals. She is a recipient of a Truman Capote Fellowship and the Donald Justice Poetry Prize from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
She is an editor at Rescue Press, a literary publisher of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, hybrid, and experimental texts. Her editorial experience, which spans academic, literary, and professional fields, has included work for Anne Lewis Strategies, the Cleveland State University Poetry Center, The Iowa Review, Milkweed Editions, the University of Iowa Public Policy Center, and individual clients.
She has previously taught at the University of Iowa, Cleveland State University, and in community settings. In addition to teaching, she serves as a professional tutor in CIA's Writing + Learning Center.
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