Justin Askins
Professor Askins has a PhD from CUNY Graduate Center, an MA from Boston University, and a BA in Psychology from the College of Staten Island. He specializes in essay writing, book reviewing, and poetry. His interests include the environment and Native American traditions like the sweat lodge and the vision quest. Dr. Askins has published a naturalist's autobiography titled In Search of the Wild, and his The Legendary Neversink was published by Skyhorse Press. He feels that "the Earth is at the center of my teachings. I try to make my students more aware of their dependence on the Earth and the great joy and beauty the Earth affords." Visit his blog at Rebirth in the Hollow. E-mail address: jaskins@radford.edu
Moira Baker
Professor Baker graduated Magna Cum Laude from the College of St. Rose in Albany, New York. She received her MA and PhD at the University of Notre Dame, specializing in Renaissance Literature. From 1982 to 1986, she was adjunct assistant professor of English at the University of Notre Dame. Her publications include "At Home in the Contra War" for Notre Dame Magazine and Congressional Record, "The Uncanny Stranger on Display: The Female Body in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Love Poetry" for South Atlantic Review, and "Mentoring As Teaching And Learning" for ERIC. Her teaching interests include Renaissance cultural studies, feminist theory, women's literature, critical theory, and international women's issues. E-mail address: mpbaker@radford.edu. Visit Moira Baker's personal page.
Theresa L. Burriss
Theresa L. Burriss has a BA from Emory University in Atlanta, an MS from Radford University, and a PhD from the Union Institute and University in Cincinnati. She is currently working on a book entitled, Women of Change, Women of Courage: Appalachian Activists, to be published by the University of Tennessee Press. “Claiming a Literary Space: The Affrilachian Poets,” a synopsis of her dissertation, is included in the Ohio UP work, An American Vein: Critical Readings in Appalachian Literature, published in 2005. Her creative nonfiction essays have appeared in journals such as Appalachian Heritage. She teaches American and British literature, with a particular focus on Marxist and feminist literary theory/criticism. Theresa explains, “Teaching is my passion. My students keep that passion alive and allow me to share my love of literature with them. In the process, we all grow and evolve, changing as the literature touches us.” E-mail address: tburriss@radford.edu.
Ricky Cox
Ricky Cox has an MA in English from Radford University, a BA in History from Radford, and an AAS in Machine Technology from New River Community College. A native of Floyd County, VA, he teaches freshman composition, American Literature, and Appalachian Folklore. His research interests include the history of technology in the U.S., and the literature, music, and folk culture of the Appalachian South. His publications include literary criticism and essays on various topics, many related to Appalachian culture. E-mail address: rcox@radford.edu
Laurie Cubbison
Having received her PhD. in rhetoric and composition from Purdue University, her M.A. in Creative Writing and British Literature from Eastern Kentucky University, and her B.A. in Speech Communications and English from Muskingum College, Dr. Cubbison is the coordinator of the Graduate Teaching Fellow Mentoring Program. As a writing teacher, she sees her primary goal as encouraging students to see writing as a vital activity in and out of the classroom. This goal arises out of her interest in online communication, particularly the discourses of online support groups and fan groups. Her dissertation, Validating Illness: Internet Activism in Response to Institutional Discourse, examines the development of rhetorical skills and activist efforts on the part of people with chronic fatigue syndrome and/or fibromyalgia syndrome. Her interest in the study of global popular culture and fan communities is yet another way she attempts connect students to their world. Email address: lcubbiso@radford.edu. Visit Laurie Cubbison's personal homepage.
Don Cunningham
Don Cunningham has a Ph.D. in Technical Communication from Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. He also has a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Science, both in journalism, from Texas A&M University-Commerce (formerly East Texas State University). His teaching interests include business, professional, and technical writing. Dr. Cunningham’s research interests focus on information product quality measurements and assessment, content management, and usability testing. Of his teaching, Dr. Cunningham said, “I enjoy teaching business and technical writing, especially the professional elements such as developing requirement specifications, design specifications, and proposals. Students across the disciplines need strong business writing skills to be successful in their careers.” Before coming to Radford, Dr. Cunningham worked in the telecommunications industry as an editor, technical writer, documentation manager, and applications engineer for central office switching system manufacturers specializing in the international (Pacific Rim) markets. His former employers include NEC Corporation, Fujitsu, Nortel, Tellabs, and Lucent (Bell Laboratories). He was also an award-winning reporter, photographer, and news editor for several daily newspapers in his home state of Texas and in Florida. A former international judo competitor and coach, Dr. Cunningham has also authored three books on Japanese feudal era history. E-mail address: dacunning@radford.edu. Visit Don Cunningham's personal homepage.
Reneé Dickinson
Professor Renee Dickinson received her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder, her M.A. from the University of Essex, and her B.A. from Seattle Pacific University. She also holds a Secondary Teaching Certificate in English and Drama from Seattle Pacific. Professor Dickinson’s dissertation, The Corporeum: Body, Land, Nation and Text in Virginia Woolf and Olive Moore, considers the developments of narrative through the images of the female body, its convergence with images of the land and ideologies of the nation in order to consider how female British modernists used textual experimentation to address and undress these gendered physical and ideological “bodies.” She has also written on images of Florence Nightingale in Virginia Woolf’s novel, The Waves, and on Harry Potter and pedagogy. Her current research concerns the recovery of literary works of and biographical information on Olive Moore. For Professor Dickinson, teaching is less a transference of information and more a group expedition, a guided trek in which we all get a bit muddy in the process. E-mail address: radickins@radford.edu
Louis Gallo
Professor Gallo's teaching interests include creative writing and modern and contemporary literature. His stories, poems and essays have appeared in journals such as Glimmer Train, Greensboro Review, Missouri Review, New Orleans Review, Loyola Review, Berkeley Fiction Review, Baltimore Review, The MacGuffin, Modern Poetry Studies, American Literary Review, Critique, Mississippi Review, Thema, Green Hills Review, Italian Americana, Louisiana Literature and many others. Recent publications include a third story, "Mashed Potatoes," in Glimmer Train and a poem in Rattle. From Oct 2008 to August 2009 Dr. Gallo has published over 64 separate poems, stories and essays in both print and net journals, including The Southern Quarterly, Flash, Oregon Literary Review, Bartleby-Snopes, Raving Dove, Segue, Contemporary American Voices, Poetrymagazine, Tampa Review, Babel Fruit, Mused, Skyline Review, Portland Review, Thema, Houston Literary Review, Paradigm, The Vocabulary Review, Tipton Poetry Review, Poetry Midwest and many others. Two poetry chapbooks, THE TRUTH CHANGES and THE FASCINATION OF ABOMINATION, are scheduled for release in early 2010. Dr. Gallo has won first prize for fiction entries in Greensboro Review and Italian Americana; one of his stories will be reprinted in an anthology of southern literature from LSU Press in 2005. He once won the NEA South Carolina Arts Commission Individual Artist's award. Another story was reprinted in The Bench Press anthology. Dr. Gallo is former editor of The Barataria Review, a literary magazine that published some of the earliest work Julia Alvarez and Ellen Gilchrist; a former editor of Books: A New Orleans Review; and a contributing editor of The Pushcart Press. Dr. Gallo's personal interviews with William Burroughs, Walker Percy, James Purdy, Susan Sontag, Miller Williams and others have been published in varied newspapers. He has read his fiction and poetry at Spoleto, Stephens College, University of Missouri, New Orleans University, Barnes & Noble, Radford University, Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman University), McNeese State University and many others. He founded the Mardi Gras Poetry Readings in New Orleans, which still thrive now as The Maple Leaf Readings. He has served as an editorial consultant for Houghton-Mifflin, Longman and Prentice-Hall. He has served on academic panels at the MLA, the AWP Writer's Conference, the Winthrop College Writers Conference and others. Dr. Gallo received his BA from Tulane University, his MA from Louisiana State University and Ph.D. from the University of Missouri.
Other interests include book-selling and appraisal, antiques and collectibles, editing manuscripts, the study of the history of consciousness (via Neumann, Wilber, Jung, Jaynes, Eliade and others), shamanism and visionary experiences. E-mail address: lgallo@radford.edu
Kim Gainer
Professor Gainer holds the PhD and MA from The Ohio State University and a BA with Secondary Education Certificate from Rhode Island College. A specialist in Medieval and Renaissance literature, she also has an interest in the modern fantasy literature that has devolved from those earlier periods. Her professional activities include the following recent presentations: “Fair Field Full of Fantasy: The Dream Vision Reinvented for the Twentieth Century,” “Quest Through Alternative Worlds of Reading and Writing,” and “Getting Our Students to ‘Invest’ in the Value of Honesty.” Other interests include the First Amendment and the evolving notion of ‘intellectual property.’ She has also studied and presented on the depiction of ‘adoption’ in literature for children and adolescents. Dr. Gainer believes "You can't 'teach' writing by precept. You should provide students with opportunities to write, respond to their writing, and encourage them to respond to their writing." E-mail address: kgainer@radford.edu. Visit Kim Gainer's personal homepage.
Erin Webster Garrett
Professor Webster Garrett received her Ph. D. in English and Literary Studies from the University of Denver, her M. A. in English from Virginia Commonwealth University, and her B. A. in English and Spanish from the University of Richmond. A teacher of both writing and literature, she likens her role to that of a voice coach. “I used to fancy myself an opera star in the making. I adored singing for my coach, hearing my own voice rise and ring forth in ways I never knew it could, pushing the limits of my comfortable range. Exploring what my voice could and couldn’t do gave me an intense sense of empowerment and self-awareness. I want my students to have access to that experience as well.” Professor Webster Garrett’s dissertation, Mary Shelley After 1822: Romance, Realism, and the Politics of Genre, merges her interests in women’s studies, the history of political liberalism in England, and the rise of the popular novel. She has published on Cervantes and Mary Shelley, and is currently pursuing research on the role of the Quixote figure in the works of William Godwin, Mary Shelley, and their circle. Vist Erin Webster Garrett's personal homepage.
Rosemary Guruswamy
Professor Guruswamy, the chairperson of the English Department, received her PhD at Kent State University and her MA at the University of Maryland. Her specialization and teaching interests include Early American literature and African-American literature. She has published various articles in Early American Literature, New England Quarterly, and Studies in Puritan American Spirituality. Her book The Poetry of Edward Taylor was published by Greenwood Press in 2003. An essay on the poetry of Jupiter Hammon also appeared in Genius in Bondage: Literature of the Early Black Atlantic (2002). She is on the advisory board of the Society of Early Americanists, which she helped to found in 1992. E-mail address: rguruswa@radford.edu
Kathryn Kelly
Professor Kelly was raised in Blacksburg, Virginia. She received her BA from Virginia Tech majoring in English with minors in Theater Arts and Secondary Education. She received her MS from Virginia Tech (1988) and PhD from Florida State University (1997), specializing in Curriculum and Instruction, English Education. Her dissertation concentrated on the development of the National English language arts Content Area Standards. She taught English at Shawsville Middle and High School from 1974 to 1994. From 1997-2000, she was Assistant Professor of English at Central Connecticut State University where she taught graduate and undergraduate English Education courses as well as freshman and sophomore English classes. She also coordinated the English Education Program at Central. At Radford University she teaches courses on both the undergraduate and graduate levels that focus on Young Adult Literature and Teaching English in the High School. She is a regular presenter at local, state, national and International professional conferences and conventions. She has held offices in several of the organizations including Presidencies of District M Association of Teachers of English (1989-90), Virginia Association of Teachers of English (1993), ALAN (Assembly for the Literature of Adolescents of NCTE) 2006-2007. Her publications include articles in English Journal, Signal, Virginia English Bulletin, and the lead chapter, "Society's 'At Risk" Teenagers: What it means," in Using Literature to Help Troubled Teens Cope with Societal Issues, edited by Pamela Sissi Carroll. Professor Kelly firmly believes that Young Adult Literature is the key to literacy and to rekindling a love of reading for students on all levels.Email address: kkelly@radford.edu.
Carolyn Mathews
Carolyn Mathews was raised in Pulaski County, Virginia. She received her MA and PhD from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, specializing in American literature and composition and rhetoric. Her interest in English education began here at Radford, where she received a BS in English, and continued at Virginia Tech, where she completed an MS in Curriculum and Instruction. Her prior teaching experience includes fourteen years in Virginia’s public schools and five years as Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Wake Forest University. Her publications include "Appalachian Literature and the Adolescent Reader" in Two Decades of the ALAN Review, “Fabricating the Hybrid Female Self in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening” in Mosaic and “The Fishwife in James’s Historical Stream: Henrietta Stackpole Gets the Last Word” in American Literary Realism. A member of the Executive Board of the Virginia Association of Teachers of English, she edits the organization’s professional journal, Virginia English Bulletin.
Jim Minick
Jim Minick is from the small town of Newburg in south central Pennsylvania. He has an MA from Radford and a BA from Lycoming College. He teaches writing, American literature, and Appalachian literature; his research is in Appalachian literature and folklore, composition theory, and agricultural and ecological writing. He writes poetry and nonfiction, including regular columns for the Roanoke Times New River Current. Formerly a blueberry farmer, Minick now tries to grow good words in addition to some of his own food. His book of essays, Finding a Clear Path, will be published by West Virginia University Press in the spring of 2005. E-mail address: jminick@radford.edu.
Tim Poland
Professor Poland holds the PhD and MA from Georgia State University and a BA from Ohio University. He teaches fiction writing and a wide variety of courses in American literature. As a teacher and scholar, he has particular interest in Native American literature, the work of Walt Whitman, and the study of fiction as a literary genre. He has published an assortment of critical essays and book reviews in various scholarly journals. His primary professional interest is currently the writing of fiction and poetry. His short stories and poems have appeared in various literary journals. He is the author of Escapee, a collection of short fiction, The Safety of Deeper Water, a novel, and Other Stones, Kinder Temples, a chapbook of poems. More on Professor Poland's work is available on www.timpoland.com. E-mail address: tpoland@radford.edu
Donald Samson
Professor Samson earned his PhD and MA in Shakespeare at the University of North Carolina, and his BA at Cornell University. His teaching interests include technical writing and editing, Shakespeare, and surveys of British and American Literature. His publications include Editing Technical Writing (Oxford, 1993) and Professional Writing in Context: Lessons from Teaching and Consulting in Worlds of Work (Erlbaum, 1995, co-authored). Of his teaching, Dr. Samson said, "I like teaching professional writing because it helps students prepare for the writing they'll do in their careers. I enjoy teaching literature--and encourage students to study literature--because then they'll know what good writing is." Before coming to Radford, he was a technical writer/editor for Lockheed Martin Corporation. He has recently worked as a technical editor for AT&T and as an instructional designer for software development companies in Florida. Originally from upstate New York, Dr. Samson enjoys travel and fishing. Professor Samson also co-coaches the Radford men's rugby team, the 2003 and 2008 Division II national champions. Email : dsamson@radford.edu.
Jeff Saperstein
Professor Saperstein has a PhD from the University of New Hampshire, an MA from Northeastern University, and a BA from the State University of New York at Albany. His teaching interests include composition, American literature, Shakespeare, and film. His research has been in composition theory/pedagogy, gender studies, film theory, ethnic studies, and Shakespeare. He has presented papers and published articles in film studies, on "The Shop on Main Street," "Throne of Blood," "Midnight Cowboy," films of Woody Allen, "The Natural" (film adaptation); and on Roth, Thoreau, Morrison, and Atwood. For Professor Saperstein, "The reading experience is never complete for me until I interact with other readers and we get our collective heads together. Student responses to an assigned text become part of the text. I try to structure my literature classes according to that basic reader response principle." E-mail address: jsaperst@radford.edu
Donald Secreast
Professor Secreast's PhD is from the University of Iowa, in Creative Fiction Writing and Modern British Literature, 1914-1945. He co-authored Adventuring in the Andes (1985) and has published two short story collections: The Rat Becomes Light (1990) and White Trash, Red Velvet (1993). Many of his stories revolve around a furniture factory in Lenoir, North Carolina. He is currently working with a screenwriter from the North Carolina School of the Arts Film School to turn some of his stories into a film. When asked about his teaching and writing, Dr. Secreast commented that "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." E-mail address: dsecreas@radford.edu
Nancy Taylor
Professor Taylor received an MA in English from Radford University and a BA in English from Charleston Southern University in Charleston, SC. She teaches expository writing, research writing and British literature, and especially enjoys her work in the RU Connections program, specializing in work with first year students. Ms. Taylor also teaches UNIV 100, and is the editor for the textbook: UNIV100: Getting to Know You and RU, which is published yearly. Ms. Taylor has presented conference papers on essay writing, on group dynamics, and on special freshman programs that encourage both scholarship and retention. In addition to teaching, Ms. Taylor is the president for the RU Chapter of Phi Kappa Phi, a national honors organization, and is the advisor for the English Club. E-mail address: ntaylor@radford.edu. Visit Nancy Taylor's personal homepage
Rick Van Noy
Professor Van Noy earned his BA from The Colorado College and his MA from Western Washington University, and completed his PhD from Case Western Reserve University. After teaching at an independent high school for two years, he served as a technical writer for architecture, engineering, and environmental consulting firms. During the spring semester of 2003, Van Noy was a visiting Fulbright Professor at the University of Maribor in Slovenia. "That experience really expanded my notion of audience, making that of other cultures real. Van Noy's book, Surveying the Interior: Literary Cartographers and the Sense of Place (2003), is available through the University of Nevada Press. A Natural Sense of Wonder: Connecting Kids with Nature Through the Seasons will be available in the spring of of 2008 through the University of Georgia Press. He has discussed the project on With Good Reason. Van Noy teaches American literature, environmental literature, creative nonfiction, and professional writing. E-mail address: rvannoy@radford.edu. Visit Rick Van Noy's personal homepage.
Jolanta Wawrzycka
Professor Wawrzycka, originally from Poland, earned her PhD from SIU-Carbondale and her MA and BA from the University of Wroclaw, Poland. She teaches literary theory and criticism, world literature, and modern British literature. She is a former faculty senator and she serves on the Honors Academy Advisory Group. Other research interests are translation studies and philosophy. Dr. Wawrzycka's translations have appeared in Analecta Husserliana. She also has published on Milan Kundera, Roland Barthes, and James Joyce. She is the editor of Gender in Joyce (Florida Press, 1997, with Marlena Corcoran) and the author of five-language translation studies of Joyce's Dubliners. Dr. Wawrzycka says, "Although schooling gave me 'degrees' of knowledge, my real education began when I started to teach. My students constantly challenge me to join them on a journey of discovery; they are my best teachers." Before coming to Radford, Dr. Wawrzycka worked as a translator and interpreter in Poland. E-mail address: jolanta@radford.edu. Visit Jolanta Wawrzycka's personal homepage.
Robert Williams
Robert Williams is a native and current resident of Wytheville, Virginia. He holds two A.A.S. degrees from Wytheville Community College, a B.A. in English from The College of William and Mary, an M.S. in English from Radford University, and an M.A. (Reading Concentration) and Ph.D. (Pre-service Teacher Preparation Concentration) in Education from Virginia Tech. Dr. Williams has taught and worked in elementary, middle, and secondary public schools, and at Wytheville Community College (adjunct) since 1985. He has taught welding, machine shop, 8th-grade and secondary English, Composition and Advanced Composition, and a variety of courses for pre- and in-service public school teachers. Over the years, he has published fiction, non-fiction, and poetry and is currently the Chairperson for the Virginia Conference on English Education, an affiliate of the Conference on English Education of the National Council of Teachers of English. As a faculty member, Dr. Williams regularly teaches "Grammar and Language for Teachers" (ENGL 463) and "The Study of Children's Literature" (ENGL 424) and supervises pre-service teacher candidates in their field experiences and internships. He continues to be intensely interested in issues related to teacher preparation, language arts curricula at all levels, composition theory, linguistics and language acquisition, and reading. E-mail: rohwilli@radford.edu. Visit Robert Williams's personal homepage.
Paul Witkowsky
Professor Witkowsky received his BA from Swarthmore College and his MA and PhD from the University of North Carolina. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, he spent three years at the University of Seville (Spain) as a Fulbright Lecturer in American Civilization. His teaching interests include American literature, linguistics, the history of the English language, and comparative literature. E-mail address: pwitkows@radford.edu
Daniel Woods
