Asa Olson, PhD

Asa is an instructor for the Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing. He is a former assistant professor of Modern Languages at Southern Arkansas University with multiple awards for teaching literature and writing, including two awards for excellence in teaching and two awards for using instructional technology. He has published articles on pedagogy, instructional design & technology, and history of education. His work has been published in Educause Review, The Teaching Professor, Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, and Criticism. He has training in online instruction, accessibility, and Universal Design through Quality Matters and CAST/UDL-IRN.

Asa enjoys teaching and helping others teach. He has taught courses on writing and literature, as well as the innovative SEED (Seeking Educational Equity through Diversity) course at UW-Madison. He is passionate about literature and the arts. Besides teaching literature courses, Asa worked with folk artists for four years at the Wisconsin Arts Board, where he assisted a folk arts specialist in developing digital educational materials for a secondary-school audience. At the Bakken Center, he teaches courses about the role of literature and narrative in wellbeing, including narrative-related interventions and narrative medicine.

In addition to his work as an instructor, Asa Olson is the Assistant Director of Academic Technology at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.