Faculty

With a 6-to-1 ratio of declared majors to faculty, the average class size is about 19 students. Some literature classes can be 25 or more while creative writing workshops may be 15 or less.

Full-Time Faculty

Christopher Bakken, B.A., University of Wisconsin, Madison; M.F.A., Columbia University; Ph.D., University of Houston. Creative writing, poetry and nonfiction.

Sarah Buckner, A.A., College of Southern Nevada; B.A., University of Nevada, Las Vegas; M.F.A., University of California, Riverside; Ph.D., University of California, Riverside

M. Soledad Caballero, B.A., Appalachian State University; M.A., Ph.D., Tufts University. 18th and 19th century British literature, Gothicism, travel writing.

Matthew Ferrence, B.A., Indiana University of Pennsylvania; M.F.A., University of Pittsburgh; Ph.D., West Virginia University

D. Alexis Hart,  B.A., The University of Rochester; Ph.D., The University of Georgia

John MacNeill Miller, A.B., Duke University; M.A., Ph.D., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Jennie Votava, Ph.D., Department of English, New York University, M.A., Department of English, New York University

Emeritus Faculty

James Bulman, B.A., Cornell University; M.A., University of Wales at Aberystwyth; Ph.D., Yale University. Shakespeare, Milton, modern drama.

Jennifer Wynne Hellwarth, B.A., University of California, Berkeley; M.A., Stanford University; Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara. Medieval and Renaissance literature.

David Miller, A.B., Stanford University; M.A., Ph.D., Brown University. 19th century American literature and culture, American art, American studies.

Benjamin Slote, B.A., Northwestern University; M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D., Yale University. American literature and culture.

Susan Slote, B.A. Mount Holyoke College; M.A., M.Phil., ABD Yale University

Faculty Publications & Achievements

  • T. S. Eliot Prize in Poetry for After Greece, a book of poems published by Truman State University Press. (Christopher Bakken)
  • Dark Eden: The Swamp in 19th-Century American Culture, published by Cambridge University Press. (David Miller)
  • “Listening to ‘The Goophered Grapevine,’ and Hearing Raisins Sing,” published in American Literary History. (Benjamin Slote)
  • “On the Turquoise Tee,” published in the Blue Mesa Review. (Matthew Ferrence)
  • “Latina is an English Word,” published in Pembroke Magazine. (M. Soledad Caballero)
  • Past president of Shakespeare Association of America, also the first faculty member from a liberal arts college to hold the position. (James Bulman)
  • “‘For the Honour of Our Country,’ Maria Dundas Graham and the Romance of Benign Domination,” published in Studies in Travel Writing. (M. Soledad Caballero)
  • Inclusion in Best American Poetry 2016 (Christopher Bakken)
  • “Breaking the Filibuster of Race: the Literary Resonance of the Emmett Till Mur-der,” published in Arkansas Review. (Matthew Ferrence)
  • General Editor, Shakespeare in Performance series (36 volumes), published by Manchester University Press. (James Bulman)
  • Editor, American Iconology: New Approaches to 19th-Century Art and Literature, published by Yale University Press. (David Miller)
  • The Reproductive Unconscious in Medieval and Early Modern England, published by Routledge. (Jennifer Hellwarth)
  • Honey, Olives, Octopus: Adventures at the Greek Table, published by University of California Press. (Christopher Bakken)
  • “Veterans in College Writing Classes: Understanding and Embracing the Mutual Benefit” published in Generation Vet: Composition, Student Veterans, and the Post-9/11 University by Utah State University Press (Alexis Hart).