Graduate Students
Graduate Students
MA Students

Izzy Alexander
Teaching Associate
Feminist sports theory, political rhetoric, border rhetoric, embodiment theory

Kaleb Atkinson
Teaching Assistant
20th Century American Literature, Modern and Contemporary Poetics, Astropoetics, and Medical Humanities

Macynn Black
19th Century British Literature, Greek Mythology, Psychoanalysis, T.S. Elliot's "Mythical Method," Apollonian and Dionysian forces, Gender and Sexuality


Lanie Faust
Teaching Assistant
Generative AI, Psychoanalysis, Applied linguistics

Charlotte Fontham
Teaching Assistant
18th century British literature, 19th century British literature, Jane Austen, Women novelists, The domestic novel, Satire, Popular culture

Madison Fuentes
Teaching Associate
Psychoanalysis, Affect Theory, Cognitive Science, Systems Theory & Cybernetics, Medical Humanities, Coming-of-Age, Identity Formation, Romanticism, Contemporary Literature

Miracle Gardner
Teaching Associate
Cultural Rhetorics, Native American/Indigenous Studies, Storytelling, Identity, Gender Studies, Ethics, Intercultural Communication, ESL Teaching


Nico Houser
Teaching Associate
Medieval Literature, Masculinity, Trans/Queer Theory, Trauma Studies, Arthurian Literature, Folklore and Legends, Old French, Old English

Bronwyn Luitwieler
Teaching Associate
20th century American literature, Southern and Appalachian literature, Carson McCullers Studies, Women and Gender Studies

Talia Marshall
Teaching Associate
Queer literature, temporality, the novel, Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, disability studies

Parker McCoig
Teaching Associate
Modern and Contemporary Poetry; Translation Theory; Quantum Chemistry; Probability

Beatrice McHugh
Teaching Assistant
20th Century American, Modernism and Postmodernism, Cormac McCarthy, Vagueness and uncertainty, Philosophy of language, Oneiric narratives


Abigail Murrill
Teaching Associate
20th Century British Literature, Modernism, Women Writers, Gender and Sexuality

McKayla Okoniewski
Teaching Associate
Indigenous and cultural rhetorics, writing pedagogy, rhetorics of social media

Abigail Page
Teaching Associate
Medieval Literature, Trans Theory, Gender Studies, Old English, Old French





Hudson Walker
Teaching Assistant
African American Literature, Collections, Africana Studies, Foodways, Cultural Studies, Digital Humanities, Medieval Literature, Community-Engaged Scholarship, Archives

MFA Students

Kelsie Bennett
Teaching Assistant
Disability Studies, Feminist Studies, contemporary poetry, speculative fiction, cross-genre work, glassblowing, metalsmithing, and tourist towns

Shanlee Bratten
Teaching Assistant
Realist fiction, Southern literature, post-modernist literature, short stories, 20th Century literature

Michael Emmanuel
Teaching Associate
African American Literature, Migration, Immigration, Memory, Identity, Christianity, Poetry and the Community

Veronica Fletcher
Teaching Associate
Southern studies, ecocriticism, postmodern literature, persona poetry, docupoetics, hybrid forms, feminist rhetoric, gender/sexuality studies, confessional writing, personal essay, Floridian culture.

Jasmine Flowers
African American literature, Southern literature, Mixed media poetry, Prose poetry, Surrealism, Dadaism, Modernism, The Harlem Renaissance, Black Arts Movement, African American Vernacular English, Spirituality and the occult, Folklore and mythology, Christianity, African Diaspora Religions

Audrey Hanna
Teaching Assistant
Poetry and creative nonfiction writing, cultural anthropology, foodways, Interracial/International adoption, the lyric essay, somatics, memory and loss, place in text.

Alexandra Persad
Teaching Associate
Female Identity, Emotional Detachment, Girlhood, Contemporary Literature, Romanticism

Cora Schipa
Teaching Associate
Contemporary poetry and fiction, memoir, gender and sexuality, body studies, Reproductive Justice, feminism, girlhood

Emma Sidnam
Teaching Assistant
Contemporary fiction, Literary fiction, Spoken Word poetry, feminism, relationship dynamics, gender and sexuality, racial identity, sex work

Charlie Thompson
Teaching Assistant
Contemporary Southern Gothic, Southern Gothic, Film Studies, Queer Literature, 20th Century Literature
PhD Students

Arinze Akpa
Teaching Associate
African and African Diaspora Studies, Hip-Hop, Mythology, Afro-Pessimism, Postcolonial, Gender, and Black Queer Studies.


Tika Alidu Banuha
Teaching Associate
Second Language (L2) Writing, Multilingual Writing, Writing Pedagogy, Rhetorical Theories, Political Rhetoric






Taylor DeMichael
Teaching Associate
Medieval/Early Modern; Theology, Spirituality, Demonology, Shakespeare, Drama, Digital Humanities

Taylor Fairbairns
Teaching Associate
Feminist theory, Monster theory, Medieval literature, Arthurian literature, Epic poetry, Medical humanities


Joseph Gaines
Teaching Associate
19th C. American Literature, Conversion Narratives, History of Biblical Interpretation, Secularism and Unbelief

Catherine Garbinsky
Teaching Associate
Creative writing, poetry, traditional and experimental forms, disability poetics, queer poetics, queer and feminist literature

Greta Gessert
Teaching Associate
Writing center theory, writing center pedagogy, and writing/composition pedagogy

Greg Gillespie
Teaching Associate
Writing teacher identity, instructor training and support, L2 writing, multimodal composition pedagogy, technical and professional communication (TPC), applied linguistics, writing centers


Nurul Islam
Teaching Associate
Composition theory and pedagogy, first-year composition, writing assessment, writing center and program administration, L2 writing, multilingualism, the role of rhetoric in academic and public discourse.


Elizaveta Komkova
Teaching Associate
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), L2 Writing Pedagogy, L2 Composition and Rhetoric, Language and Linguistics, Multiculturalism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Kristen LeFevers
Teaching Associate
Appalachian Studies, Appalachian Literature, Rhetoric and Composition, Linguistic Justice, Counternarrative, Critical Regionalism, Critical Pedagogy, Public Scholarship, Ethnography, Cultural Rhetorics




Patrick Nome
Teaching Associate
Poetry and poetics, Postcolonial and Anglophone world literature, Postcolonialism, Historical trauma and memory, Migration, assimilation and identity

Mary Oates
Teaching Associate
Depictions of monstrosity in medieval literature, women’s studies, and queer studies.

Tega Oghenechovwen
Teaching Associate
Fiction; Postcolonial Literature; Globalization and Transnational Literature; World Literature; African and African Diasporic Literature

Ucheoma Onwutuebe
Teaching Associate
Feminism, Ethnic and Migration Studies

Zuleyha Ozturk
Teaching Associate
Poetry, Translation studies, Film, Feminist theory



Hannah Smith
Teaching Associate
20th and 21st century literature; genre fiction; speculative literature; fantasy; the novel; fandom studies; feminist theory; pedagogy; writing and rhetoric



April Trepagnier
Teaching Associate
20th- and 21st-century American literature, Influence of canonical traditions on contemporary literature, Narrative ethics and moral philosophy, Theological aesthetics and poetics, Cultural memory and sacred narrative, Cormac McCarthy studies


Maggie Warren
Teaching Associate
Contemporary poetry, experimental forms, feminist theory, elegy, American literature


William Younts
Teaching Associate
Nineteenth-century American literature, Trans studies, Childhood, Music, Labor, Book history, Deconstruction