Katherine Ackley earned a Master's degree in English from Purdue University and a Ph.D. in English from Ball State University. She taught at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point from 1979 to 2002. In addition to teaching in the English Department, she was coordinator of the Women's Studies Program for 10 years and Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies for five years. Her research interests center on women in literature, with emphasis on literary representations of women's issues and, more recently, British crime writers. Her books include THE NOVELS OF BARBARA PYM (1989), WOMEN AND VIOLENCE IN LITERATURE: AN ESSAY COLLECTION (1990), MISOGYNY IN LITERATURE: AN ESSAY COLLECTION (1992), ESSAYS FROM CONTEMPORARY CULTURE (2004, 5th Edition), and PERSPECTIVES ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES (2015, 7th Edition). She has published dozens of articles and has received more than 20 grants for research and development. In 1992, she became the first woman to receive the UWSP University Scholar Award.