To create her next poetry collection, Iliana Rocha spent almost three weeks this summer conducting what she calls “boots on the ground” fieldwork across Texas. She reviewed police reports, talked to locals, and visited sites where Latinx women had been the victims of domestic violence. Her research took her to a canal where elementary teacher […]
Please join in the English Department in celebrating our undergraduate scholarship winners for 2024–2025. Andrew Adorbo is a recipient of the Charles and Frances Mangam Merit Scholarship. The Claremont, California native is a senior English major who enjoys traveling (especially to the beach), hiking, and photography. Senior Technical Communications major Ella Barton is one of […]
Z Eihausen: How would you describe your educational career? Taryn Zavalin: I attended UTK for my Bachelor’s in English. I didn’t choose my major until my junior year—I just took classes to fulfill my gen ed requirements and noticed which subject I took the most. ZE: Which classes/resources at UT were most beneficial to your […]
Z Eihausen: How would you describe your educational career? Lena Shoemaker: My educational career was very arts-focused and very busy. I graduated with a BA in English – Creative Writing and Cinema Studies (double major) with a minor in applied music. It was a heavy class load, but I did a lot of summer classes […]
Z Eihausen: How would you describe your educational career? Ayesha Ahmed: I started UTK as a freshman on the pre-med track despite not knowing much about the field. I had no guidance other than my family persuading me to embark on this path. Eventually, I became an English major and found myself excelling in all […]
Z Eihausen: What can you tell me about your educational career? Tori Finklea: I did community college for two years, and then I came to UT to finish my Creative Writing and Philosophy degrees at UT. After I graduated UT, I went to the Columbia publishing course in New York for the summer of 2022. […]
“Attorneys are storytellers”: Smith shares four ways English is an advantageous precursor to law and education Jason Smith (’04) is Director of Legal Writing and Assistant Professor of Law at Lincoln Memorial University in Knoxville. After majoring in English (Literature), he graduated from UT’s College of Law in 2009. He spoke with Prof. Hilary Havens […]
From Capitol Hill to the skies, English helped Houston Holdren soar. English alumna Houston Holdren (’19) is a Senior Executive Assistant for Government Operations (Defense, Space & Security) at Boeing in Arlington, Va. Before that, she served as Director of Operations for the House Republican Conference, U.S. House of Representatives, chaired by Rep. Elise Stefanik […]
Former English Major Flourishes as Section Head for Operations at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility Ashley Barker (’96) is the Section Head for Operations at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) located at Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL). After graduating from UT English with a literature concentration, she went on to receive a Master […]
“English is making you a better writer and making you a better person in the world that thinks critically about things.” English alum P. Claire Dodson (‘15) has published stories in, among others, The New York Times, InStyle, O The Oprah Magazine, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, and Fast Company, where she worked for several years before becoming an entertainment editor at Teen Vogue. Claire’s father, […]
Dr. Leigh Ball uses her English degree to improve patient care. Dr. Leigh (Schlactus) Ball (’12) is an internal medicine physician with a specialty in sleep medicine. After an MD at East Tennessee State University and a residency at UT, she now practices in St. Louis, Missouri where she lives with her husband, a fellow […]
Jasmine Johnson (2016) is an attorney in Atlanta, GA, where she practices corporate law. She spoke with Professor Katy Chiles about the value of learning to write well and how much she misses being in English classes. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Katy Chiles: It’s so good to see you! I was just thinking this […]
Sarah Rainey uses skills she learned in her English courses to thrive in different business sectors. It was a chance meeting in her Technical and Professional Writing class that set Sarah Rainey (’22) on her path. She was a sophomore, concentrating in Technical Communications, and the student who sat next to her was a senior. […]
A background in English has been a key to this CEO’s competitive edge. Camille Renshaw, UT English ’94, is CEO of B+E Real Estate, the first brokerage firm to offer an online trading platform for 1031 exchanges and net lease real estate. B+E has offices in 7 cities – NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, Denver, Atlanta, Charlotte, […]
How Literary Reading and Expository Writing Helped Corts become a Successful Entrepreneur David Corts loves to hire English majors. Corts is the COO of Fresh Technology, a software company that tries to make technology seamless for restaurants so they can focus on food and customers. Corts explains, “I‘ve spent most of my career in software […]
English classes, Hall believes, “teach you how to think” rather than “what to think.” For attorney Christopher A. Hall, practicing law is often a matter of character analysis. “There’s an adversary. Someone who wants to best me. I’m looking at his or her clients, I’m trying to find out what motivates them—pressure points, areas of […]