Rate My Professor Joyce Boss

Dr. Joyce E. Boss is Professor of English in Wartburg College's Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultural Studies, a position she has held since joining the faculty in 1995. She currently occupies the Franklin I. and Irene List Saemann Chair in World Communities, endowed in 1989 to advance international business perspectives and expand opportunities for student global engagement, thereby fostering cultural competency in an interconnected world. Prior to her tenure at Wartburg, Boss served as a secondary school instructor in Kenya through the U.S. Peace Corps. Her academic credentials include a B.A. in English, earned summa cum laude from San Diego State University in 1982, followed by an M.A. in 1991 and a Ph.D. in 1995, both in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a specialization in postcolonial African literature and cinema.

Boss teaches a range of courses encompassing world literature and cinema, myth and folklore, environmental literature, and intercultural communication, complemented by May Term travel courses to Japan and Greece that offer students hands-on international exposure. She advises participants in the Intercultural Studies minor program. Her research explores the intersections of folklore and sacred geographies, with emphasis on Japan’s traditional pilgrimage sites, alongside extensive publications and presentations on Godzilla and Japanese popular culture. In administrative capacities, she chaired the Department of English and Modern Languages from 2010 to 2018, directed Study Abroad Programs from 2006 to 2018, and now serves as Co-Director of Multicultural and Diversity Studies and Coordinator for the Diversity Across the Curriculum program. Boss has received Wartburg College’s Spirit of Student Life Award for Faculty Achievement in 2011, the Spirit of Student Life Award for Campus Leadership and Service in 2015, and the faculty Spirit of Ubuntu Award.