about our guests
Rob Roznowski (he/him) is an award-winning actor, author, director, educator, and playwright. He is a Professor at Michigan State University, where he serves as the Head of Acting & Directing in the Department of Theatre. His publications include books– Roadblocks in Acting, Inner Monologue in Acting, The Introverted Actor: Practical Approaches and Collaboration in Theatre: A Practical Guide for Designers and Directors; plays– Arts or Crafts, Comfort Food, The Tail of Peter Rabbit, The Summer Circle, The Amazing America Road Trip; and articles/chapters mostly about the intersection of acting & psychology.
He worked as the National Outreach and Education Coordinator for Actors’ Equity Association and has appeared extensively throughout the United States as an actor and director in New York and Los Angeles and regionally at Goodspeed Musicals, Long Wharf Theatre, and the Pittsburgh Public Theatre. He was part of the original cast of I Love You. You’re Perfect, Now Change and can be heard on the show’s recording. He has directed internationally in Colombia, Dubai, and Greece, where he was a Fulbright Fellow.
Rob served on the faculty of Marymount Manhattan College, the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, SUNY/ Stony Brook, and Stephens College where he received the “Distinguished Teaching Award.” At MSU he was awarded the “Mid-Michigan Alumni Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching”, “Michigan Professor of the Year Award” from the President’s Council State Universities of Michigan”, “The President’s Distinguished Teaching Award” and he is a William J. Beal Outstanding Faculty recipient. He also coordinates the MFA program in acting.
Find him: https://www.robroznowski.com
Listen to: no small parts season 2, episode 1
Lara Shipley (she/her) is a photographer, writer and bookmaker who primarily makes work about rural culture and identity, mythology, storytelling and photography’s relationship to evidence. A collaborative project, Devil’s Promenade, has recently been exhibited in galleries in Boston, Santa Fe, Chicago, New Orleans and others. Her work was part of the recent biennial at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC and GuatePhoto International Photography in Guatemala and is in collections at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, IL and the Nelson Atkins Museum for Art in Kansas City. Lara’s photographs appear in publications such as Harpers Magazine, British Journal of Photography, Atlantic Monthly, Vice, GOOD Magazine, Slate Magazine, NPR and Kansas City Public Television. She is the founder of the photography book publisher SEARCH PARTY PRESS, and recently released a series of collaborative books, Spook Light Chronicles. Before becoming a professor of photography she was an online photography producer for National Geographic and a freelance photographer in Washington DC. She received a Masters of Fine Arts in photography from Arizona State University and a Bachelors of Photojournalism from the University of Missouri.
Find her: https://www.larashipley.com/
Listen to: no small parts season 2, episode 2
Janine Certo (she/her) is the author of five books, three full-length poetry collections: O Body of Bliss, winner of the Longleaf Press Book Contest in Poetry (forthcoming, 2023, Longleaf Press), Elixir, winner of both the New American Poetry Prize and the Lauria/Frasca Poetry Prize (New American Press and Bordighera Press, 2021), and In the Corner of the Living, runner-up for the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award (2017); the poetry chapbook, Home Altar, winner of the Keystone Chapbook Prize (forthcoming, 2022, Seven Kitchens Press); and a book of poetry scholarship, Children Writing Poems: Poetic Voices in and out of School (Routledge, 2018).
A winner of Nimrod International Journal’s Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, her poems appear or are forthcoming in The Cincinnati Review, Mid-American Review, New Ohio Review, Poetry Northwest, Shenandoah, and others. She has also been a featured poet in Italian Americana. Her poetry and scholarship has been supported by The Spencer Foundation, Michigan State University’s Humanities and Arts Research Program, and Rockvale Writers’ Colony.
A creative writing scholar and former public school teacher, Certo has additionally written about how to encourage poetry writing among people of all ages. Her articles, essays and book chapters appear in Art/Research International, English Education, Journal of Literacy Research, Language Arts, Making Poetry Matter: International Research on Poetry Pedagogy, and others.
Janine grew up in the town of Elizabeth, PA, on the bank of the Monongahela River fifteen miles from Pittsburgh. She earned a dual BA from Grove City College (French/Education) and graduate degrees from the University of Virginia (MA in Educational Policy) and Virginia Commonwealth University (Ph.D in Education/Poetry). She is an associate professor at Michigan State University who teaches courses in the College of Education and the the College of Arts and Letters. Her interests include late 20th- and 21st-century poetry, the poetics of space, and the poetics of the body. She lives in East Lansing, Michigan.
Find her: https://www.janinecertopoet.com , Twitter @JanineCerto
Listen to: no small parts season 2, episode 3
Ryan Shaw (he/him) is assistant professor of music education at Michigan State University’s College of Music, where he teaches Introduction to Music Education, Teaching Instrumental Music, and a variety of graduate courses. Prior to joining Michigan State University, Shaw was area head of music education at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio.
Shaw received his Ph.D. in Music Education from Michigan State University and earned master’s and bachelor’s degrees in music education from the University of Michigan. His scholarly interests include arts education policy and the ways that policy affects music teacher stress, planning, and instructional practices. Prior to teaching at the college level, Shaw held positions teaching middle and high school band in two Michigan communities: Berkley (Southeast Michigan) and Cedar Springs (West Michigan).
Shaw has presented research and published research in a variety of venues and is also active in professional organizations. He serves on the editorial board for Journal of Research in Music Education, Journal of Music Teacher Education, and Arts Education Policy Review. Shaw also serves as chair of the American Educational Research Association Music Education Special Interest Group, the Society for Music Teacher Education Policy group, and is the Government Relations Committee Coordinator for the Michigan Music Education Association.
Listen to: no small parts season 2, episode 3
