Graduate Liberal Studies

Dr. Mika Elovaara, Lecturer and Assistant Director of Graduate Liberal Studies, will begin his position in the Graduate Liberal Studies program in fall 2007. A four-year letterman and former team captain of the Seahawk soccer team, Dr. Elovaara received his BA from UNCW in 1999, and his MA and PhD from the University of Oulu, Finland. His dissertation, Suicidal Alcoholics, Metrosexual Family Men and Other Heroes? – Representations of Modern Athletic Hero examines the characteristics of modern athletic heroes and the concept of heroism in contemporary mediated culture. Dr. Elovaara's dissertation aroused vast media attention in his native country, Finland, and the evaluation committee was unanimous in granting Dr. Elovaara an outstanding grade for his dissertation work. In 2006, Dr. Elovaara was the Recipient of the substantial Emil Aaltonen Foundation’s (Tampere, Finland) Young Researcher’s Grant. He has also published ESL textbooks and worked as a translator for a number of years.