Robert E. Yahnke
Professor

I joined the General College faculty in 1976, after completing my Ph.D. in American literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1975. I was born in Green Bay, Wis., but I spent my developmental years living in the country in Kewaunee County, Wis. I studied forensics and debate in high school—and that public speaking experience helped me immensely when I entered college. I studied two years at the University of Wisconsin-Manitowoc Center, and then completed my undergraduate and graduate degrees in Madison. I began teaching composition courses and film courses in the General College, received tenure in 1982, and was promoted to full professor in 1990.

My teaching load now focuses on two film courses—an intro course on film art and a course devoted to the study of social issues in documentary film. In that course students work in small groups to complete a documentary video project. I also teach a freshman seminar, The Art of Aging.

My research focuses on the contributions of film and literature to gerontological education. I have presented numerous workshops on the use of educational media in gerontology instruction, and I have presented papers on aging and the humanities at national meetings of gerontology societies. I have been the audiovisual editor of The Gerontologist since 2001, and I also served in that position from 1997-1999. I edited A Time of Humanities, an oral history of the Humanities Division of the Rockefeller Foundation (1976); wrote The Great Circle of Life: A Resource Guide to Films and Videos on Aging (1988), now available online; and was co-author, with Richard M. Eastman, of two other books, Aging in Literature: A Reader’s Guide (1990), and Literature and Gerontology: A Research Guide (1995). I wrote The One-Minute Movie Book, an online textbook on film study, in 1999.

I have been married since 1975, and my primary hobbies include film-viewing, photography, and gardening.

Links

The One-Minute Movie Book

Personal Web site