Alumni Data
Welcome to our graduate English alumni page!
This page provides:
- key statistics and placement data for our graduate programs
- a list of alumni who have graduated from the M.A. and Ph.D. Programs in English since 2013
We encourage you to review our list of alumni to get a sense of the wide range of careers, both academic and alt-ac, that our graduate students have chosen to pursue. If you would like to contact one or more of our alumni, please send an e-mail request to lxp04@uark.edu.
Key Statistics and Placement Data for Our M.A. and Ph.D. Programs
(Updated Summer 2024)
M.A. Statistics
- 126 – M.A. Graduates from 2013 through Spring 2024
- Between 2 years and 2 years + one semester – Average Time to Degree Completion for M.A. Graduates from 2018 through Spring 2024
Examples of M.A. Alumni Careers
- Ph.D. Program Enrollments
- K-12 Teaching Positions
- College English Instructor
- Academic Administration
- Editorial Staff
- Corporate, Non-Profit, and Entreprenuerial Positions (e.g., with ArcBest, Tyson, J.B. Hunt, Walmart, KUAF, Startup Junkie Foundation, Bookish Independent Bookstore, and Civil + Structural Engineer Media, Legal Aid of Arkansas)
- Library Science Graduate Program Enrollments or Library Administrative Positions
Ph.D. Statistics
- 66 – Ph.D. Graduates from 2013 through Spring 2024
- 5 years + 2 semesters – Average Time to Degree Completion for Ph.D. Graduates from 2018 through Spring 2024
Examples of Ph.D. Alumni Careers
- Assistant or Associate Professor Positions
- Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Positions
- K-12 Teaching Positions
- Academic Administration
- Academic Advisor
- Other Careers:
- Acquisitions Editor
- Researcher
- Educ. Program Spec. (U.S. Dept. of Education)
- Founder of Interrobang (brand storytelling co.)
- Real Estate Broker
List of Alumni Who Have Graduated Since 2013
M.A. Graduates
Name | Thesis or Portfolio |
Position | Employer or Graduate Institution |
Shelley Aschliman | Portfolio | English Teacher | Don Tyson School of Innovation (DTSOI) |
Collette Bliss | Portfolio | Curriculum Development Specialist and Adjunct English Instructor |
Lee University |
Camden Burris | Portfolio | Academic Advisor |
Walton College of Business
|
Mitchell Carabio | Portfolio | Instructor |
Rhetoric/Composition Office |
Jenna Carey | Portfolio | Teacher |
Legacy Academy |
Aura Comer | Portfolio | Teacher |
Haas Hall Academy |
Forhad Kasem | Portfolio | Doctoral Student | University of Arizona |
Olivia Lynch | Portfolio | Career Coach | Walton College of Business |
Abigail Reese Preto | Portfolio | Teacher | Farmington Junior High School |
Ashleigh Severson | Portfolio | Instructor | Rhetoric/Composition Office University of Arkansas |
Victoria Trammell | Portfolio | Management Trainee | Enterprise Mobility |
Mohi Uddin | Portfolio | Doctoral Student |
University of Utah |
Ph.D. Graduates
Name | Area of Specialization | Dissertation | Position | Employer |
Gracie Bain | Neo-Victorian Texts and Gender | “Ripperature: Crossing Gender and Genre” | Assistant Teaching Professor | University of Oklahoma |
M.A. Graduates
Name | Thesis or Portfolio |
Position | Employer or Graduate Institution |
Morgan Akers | Portfolio | Web Editor | Fulbright Communications Team, University of Arkansas |
David Berg | Portfolio | Law Student | University of Michigan Law School |
Miller Godwin | Portfolio | No Information Currently Available | |
Kayla Green | Portfolio | Instructor | Rhetoric/Composition Office University of Arkansas |
Anna Mercer | Portfolio | Instructor | Rhetoric/Composition Office University of Arkansas |
Taylor Pike | Portfolio | Law Student | S.J. Quinney College of Law |
Ana Rodriguez Rivera | Portfolio | Research Writer | University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences |
Abigail Ross | Portfolio | Doctoral Student in English | University of Arkansas |
Braden Taylor | Thesis: “Poesis and Sympathy: Community Through Craftsmanship” | Coordinator of Student Life and Wellness | University of Arkansas - Pulaski Technical College |
Mallory Whitson | Portfolio | Proofreader | Quad Graphics |
M.A. Graduates
Name | Thesis or Portfolio |
Position | Employer or Graduate Institution |
Jessica Allee | Portfolio | Doctoral Student in English | University of Arkansas |
Val Brown | Portfolio | No Information Currently Available | |
Bethany Cole | Portfolio | Doctoral Student in English | University of Arkansas |
Ellie Davis | Portfolio | Instructor | Rhetoric/Composition Office University of Arkansas |
Tyler Houston | Portfolio | Doctoral Student in English | University of Arkansas |
Sarah Hurst | Portfolio | English Teacher | Bentonville High School |
Olivia Jorgensen | Portfolio | School/Community Specialist-STEM | Cherokee Nation |
Michael Menase | Thesis: “Ghosts and Ethics in the Early Works of James Joyce” | Doctoral Student in English | University of Arkansas |
Martha Pearce | Portfolio | Instructor | Rhetoric/Composition Office University of Arkansas |
Angelena Pierce | Portfolio | Digital Media Copywriter | Greater Good Charities |
John Plavcan | Portfolio | Doctoral Student in English | University of Arkansas |
Bailey Rhodes | Portfolio | Teacher | Bentonville High School |
Devin Shepherd | Portfolio | Website Specialist | Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance |
Lauren Shively | Portfolio | English Instructor |
Rhetoric/Composition Office |
John Strange | Portfolio | Strategic Initiatives Associate | WhyteSpyder |
Ph.D. Graduates
Name | Area of Specialization | Dissertation | Position | Employer |
Christopher Borntrager | Discourse Studies, Literacy Studies, and Rhetoric Studies | “Media Ideologies and the Politics of Digital Literacy: Discourses on Media and Technology in a Small School District in the U.S. Heartland” | Coordinator for the Writing Studio | Student Success Center University of Arkansas |
Ann Riley-Adams | Literary History; Medieval Celtic Literature; Medieval and Early Modern English and Welsh History | “Elis Gruffydd and the Welsh Historical Tradition” | Assistant Professor of English | Wayne State College |
Tessa Swehla |
Science Fiction, Medical Humanities, and Disability Theory | “The Child in the Basement: Debilitating Mechanisms in American Science Fiction” | Associate Editor | MovieJawn |
M.A. Graduates
Name | Thesis or Portfolio |
Position | Employer or Graduate Institution |
Melody Berry | Portfolio | Adjunct Instructor | NorthWest Arkansas Community College |
Renee Brochu | Portfolio | English Instructor | Department of English University of Arkansas |
David Cajías Calvet | Thesis: “Self-Deceive and Conquer: A Rhetoric of Cunning” | Editor |
European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) |
Olivia Cash | Portfolio | Doctoral Student in English | University of Arkansas |
Gabrielle Causey | Portfolio | English Teacher | Drew Central High School (Monticello, AR) |
Aaron East | Portfolio | Proposal Coordinator | ERS Corp. (Jacksonville, FL) |
Tenzin Kunsang | Portfolio | Program & Operations Associate | Tibet House US |
Ph.D. Graduates
Name | Area of Specialization | Dissertation | Position | Employer |
Ebtesam Alawfi | American Literature from the Late 19th century through Today | “Diversifying Woolf’s Room: Private Spaces and Creativity in the Works of Willa Cather, Kate Chopin, Gayl Jones, and Alice Walker” | Faculty Member/ Vice Dean for Quality and Development |
Alasala Colleges |
Meagon Clarkson-Guyll | Rhetoric and Composition | “Mapping the Pathways to Campus Writing Sites: Implications for Writing Program Administrators” |
Director of Advising
|
|
Erin Daugherty |
Rhetoric and Composition | “Rewriting Web 2.0 Discourses of the Local for Socio-Spatial Literacy Theory” | Freelance Storyteller | Interrobang |
Kristen Figgins | 19th Century British Literature and Culture, Adaptation Studies, and Critical Animal Studies | “Adapting Animals: Nineteenth-Century British Literature, Science, and Media.” | Assistant Professor | Department of Languages, Literature, and Philosophy at Mississippi University for Women |
Katie Wilson Powell | Rhetoric and Composition; Story/Memory Project | “Memory and Rememory: Critically Cultivating an Appropriate Response Through a Storied Approach to Listening” | Assistant Professor Educator with the Department of English | Professional Writing Track, University of Cincinnati |
Sharla Rosenbaum | U.S. Women Authors from 1865-1910 and Their Alternative Constructions of Courtship, Marriage, and Family, Dealing with Gender and Sexuality, Political Movements, and Women Moving into the Workforce | “Queering the Metanarrative of Domesticity: Chosen Families in Late Nineteenth-Century American Women’s Literature” | Instructor | Rhetoric/Composition Office University of Arkansas |
M.A. Graduates
Name | Thesis or Portfolio |
Position | Employer or Graduate Institution |
Anna Burton | Portfolio | Client Engagement Representative - Copywriter/Digital Marketer | Hugg & Hall Equipment Company |
Addison Cornwell | Portfolio | Doctoral Student | Indiana University (Bloomington, IN) |
Brigitta Field | Portfolio | Marketing Coordinator | VCBO Architecture (Salt Lake City, UT) |
Dylan Henderson | Thesis: “Providence Lost: Natural and Urban Landscapes in H. P. Lovecraft's Fiction” | Doctoral Student | Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN) |
Sheffield Spence | Portfolio | Sales Representative | Spence Sales Associates |
Vee Lawson | Portfolio | Doctoral Student | Program in Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures, Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI) |
Ph.D. Graduates
Name | Area of Specialization | Dissertation | Position | Employer |
Luis Paganelli Marin |
Modern and Contemporary American Literature and Culture |
“Empire Rules: Cultures of U.S. Imperialism in Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S.” | Research Writer | University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences |
Tim Nelson | Medieval Literature and Culture | “The Medieval British Legacy of the Founding Myth of Britain” | Full-time Instructor of English | Shawnee State University (Portsmouth, OH) |
Kelly Westeen | Renaissance Literature and Culture | “From the Womb to the Word: Pregnancy and Pregnancy Metaphors in 16th and 17th Century English Literature” | Faculty Support Coordinator | University of Arkansas |
M.A. Graduates
Name | Thesis or Portfolio |
Position | Employer or Graduate Institution |
Patrick Angyal | Portfolio | No Information Currently Available | |
Gracie Bain | Thesis: “Feeling Clumsy, Feeling Alien: Affect and Gender in Victorian Sensation Fiction” | Doctoral Student in English | University of Arkansas |
Dana Blair | Portfolio | Doctoral Student in English | University of Arkansas |
Andrew Blume | Portfolio | No Information Currently Available | |
Coty Darst | Portfolio |
Project Manager |
Quad (Marketing Solutions Company) |
Isaiah "Bo" Desmond | Portfolio | 7th Grade English Language Arts Teacher | Hellstern Middle School, Springdale, AR |
Michelle Gibeault | Thesis: “The Anonymous Web in Adichie’s Americanah” | Scholarly Engagement Librarian for the Humanities | Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University (New Orleans, LA) |
Erin Gloster | Portfolio | Research Assistant | Office of Community Health and Research, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Northwest (Fayetteville, Arkansas) |
Emily Holmes | “Losing Faith: Emily Brontë's Revolutionized Religion” | Law School Student | University of Arkansas |
Phyllis LeBert | “‘A Woman’s Story’: Lady Macbeth and Performing Femininity in the Early 1600s – Late 1900s” | Adjunct Instructor | NorthWest Arkansas Community College |
William "Kelly" Reeder | “On the Variations of Occupatio in Richard II” | Freelance Writer | |
Nathan Riggs | “Spirit Don't Ever Die: Apocalypse and Denial in an Infinite Universe” | Long-Term English Substitute Teacher | Haas Hall Academy |
Autumn Weese | “Monstrous Mobility in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Dracula” | Library Staff | Rogers Public Library |
Noel Wheeler | Portfolio | Doctoral Student in Comparative Literature | Indiana University (Bloomington, IN) |
Ph.D. Graduates
Name | Area of Specialization | Dissertation | Position | Employer |
Nathan Fayard | Medieval Literature and Culture | “Recovered Images: Medieval Echoes in C. S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy” | Assistant Professor of English | Indiana Wesleyan University (Marion, Indiana) |
Nathan Haydon |
Medieval Literature and Culture |
“‘We Are Strangers in this Life’: Theology, Liminality, and the Exiled in Anglo-Saxon Literature” | 7th and 8th Grade Literature Teacher | Northwest Arkansas Classical Academy (Bentonville, AR) |
Brent Linsley | Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Fictions of the Late Twentieth and Early Twenty-First Centuries | “A Sense of Unending: Apocalypse and Post-Apocalypse in Novels of Late Capitalism” | Essay Rater | Educational Testing Service (ETS) |
MaryKate Messimer | Ecofeminism, Queer Ecologies, and Science Fiction | “Gender in Apocalyptic California: The Ecological Frontier” | Academic Advisor | Southern New Hampshire University |
Stuart "Sam" Morris | Literacy Theory and Instruction, Secondary English Education, and Young Adult Literature | “Remembering How to Listen: A Pedagogical and Theoretical Approach to Literacy, Adolescence, and Young Adult Literature” | Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of English and the Program Coordinator for the English with Secondary English Language Arts Licensure Bachelor of Arts | University of South Carolina-Beaufort (Bluffton, South Carolina) |
Michael Pitts | Science Fiction Novels and Television Programs of the Latter 20th and Early 21st Centuries, Critical Theory of Technologies, and Masculinities in Those Texts and Programs | “A New Man: Feminist Utopias and the Representation of Alternative Masculinities” | Lecturer | University of New York in Prague |
Leila Sadegh Beigi | Literature by Contemporary Iranian Women Writers | “Exile, Translation, and Contemporary Iranian Women Writers” | Instructor | University of Arkansas |
M.A. Graduates
Name | Thesis or Portfolio |
Position | Employer |
Justin Barfield |
Portfolio | Resolution Specialist | Contact Center Operations, Walmart |
Luke Carothers | Portfolio | Editor and Content Specialist | Civil + Structural Engineer Media / Zweig Group |
Robert Ellis | Portfolio | Assistant Director | Office of Nationally Competitive Awards University of Arkansas |
Sait Ibiši | “Middle Eastern Themes in Contemporary American Fantasy: The Political and Socio-Religious Implications” | No Information Currently Available | |
Michel LaCrue | “Establishing Influence and Authority in Ancient Civilizations and Modern Politics: The Rhetoric of Oracles and the Oracular Maneuvers of Political Action Committees” | Doctoral Student in English | University of Arkansas |
Kimberly Marquez |
Portfolio | Director of Communications | Legal Aid of Arkansas |
David Morledge | Portfolio | Teacher | Huntsville Public School District |
Allison Treese | “A Flourynge Aege: Tracing the Sacred and Secular in the Book of St. Albans” | No Information Currently Available |
|
Mitchell Simpson | Portfolio | Doctoral Student in English | University of Arkansas |
John Stout | “Pynchon and Place: A Geocritical Reading of Thomas Pynchon” | English Teacher | Haas Hall Academy |
Mary (“Katie”) Voss | Portfolio | Corporate Communications Director | Greystone Communities |
Amanda White | Portfolio | Communications and Marketing Specialist | Hirsh Precision |
Ph.D. Graduates
Name | Area of Specialization | Dissertation | Position | Employer |
Uyen Dang |
Rhetoric and Composition |
“Activating Schemata in ESL Writing” | Instructor of English | Hung Vuong Specialized High School, Binh Duong province, Vietnam |
Jonathan Green | Composition Pedagogy | “Best Practice: Bringing the Elements of Effective Practice to the College Writing Classroom” | Writing Center Director and Assistant Professor | Cottey College (Nevada, MO) |
Garrett Jeter | 19th-Century Gothic Literature | “Gothic Voids: Nineteenth-Century Reader Experience and Participation” | Assistant Professor of English | Louisiana Christian University (Pineville, LA) |
Yendountien (“Noellie”) Lare-Assogba | Southern Literature | “Presumed Innocent: The Child Figure in U.S. Southern Literature, 1945 – 2004” | Substitute Teacher in the Combined Middle and High School System ("Secondaire") | Marie-Victorin Board, Quebec, Canada |
Sara West |
Technical Communication | “The Challenge of Anonymous and Ephemeral Social Media: Reflective Research Methodologies & Student-User Composing Practices” | Assistant Professor in Writing Studies | Middle Tennessee State University |
M.A. Graduates
Name | Thesis or Comprehensive Exam | Position | Employer |
Eric Bontempo | “‘A Magic Deeper Still’: Sacramental Poetics in William Wordsworth, Christina Rossetti, and C. S. Lewis” | Tenure-Track Position | Abilene Christian University |
Chris Borntrager | “Mechanisms and Implications of Identity Hybridization in Online Advertorials” | Doctoral Program |
Department of English |
Karly Eaton | “Race, Place and Young Adulting in Southern and Adolecscent Literature” | English and AP Psychology Teacher | Haas Hall Academy |
Amanda Elmore | Comprehensive Exam | 6th Grade Teacher | eStem Public Charter Schools |
Benjamin Enyart | Comprehensive Exam | Senior Corporate Communications Specialist | AMN Healthcare |
Logan Hilliard | Comprehensive Exam | Director of Career Development and First Year Programs | Rockford University |
Myles Melancon | Comprehensive Exam | PhD Student and Graduate Assistant | Mississippi State University College of Business |
Morgan Scholz | “Curricular Analysis of the University of Arkansas Composition I Pilot Course: ENGL 1013, Community Ethnography” | Vice-President of Human Resources | AcreTrader |
Shavawn Smith | "We Can Come Back From This: Navigating the Perils of the Anthropocene in The Walking Dead" | Chief Financial Officer | Arkansas Archeological Survey, University of Arkansas |
Tessa Swehla | “The Two-Sided Coin: Madness and Laughter as Subversion in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Sandman” | Doctoral Student in English | University of Arkansas |
Stephanie Tangman | “Wayward Women, Macho Men: Linguistic Construction of Gender Binaries in Yxta Maya Murray's Locas and Denise Chavéz's Loving Pedro Infante” | AP Teacher | Science & Engineering Magnet High School (Dallas, TX) |
Taylor Weeks | “Understanding Discourse Transition” | Doctoral Student in English | University of Arkansas |
Evan Wordlaw | Comprehensive Exam | Instructor | Rhetoric/Composition Office University of Arkansas |
Ph.D. Graduates
Name | Area of Specialization | Dissertation | Position | Employer |
Farzana Akhter | Contemporary Ethnic and Immigrant Literature | “The Net of Nostalgia: Class, Culture, and Political Alienation and Nostalgia in Contemporary Latino and South Asian American Literature” | Associate Professor of English; Dean, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences | East West University (Dhaka, Bangladesh) |
Christy Davis | Southern Studies | “The Caribbean Imaginary in Southern Women's Literature” | English Professor | San Jacinto College (Houston, TX) |
Sinan Gul | Modern and Contemporary Drama, Drama from the Renaissance and Reformation Ages | “Persistence of Memory: Revision, Nostalgia, and Resistance in Contemporary American Drama” | No Information Currently Available | |
Whitney Martin | African American Literature | “The Hollow Class: African-American Class—Passing and the Popular” | Assistant Teaching Professor in African American Literature | University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Park (Long Beach, MS) |
Linda Shaffer | Southern Studies and Indigenous Women's Studies | “Cultural Reimagining and Literary Voice: Southeastern Tribal Women Negotiate Cultural, Social, and Political Identity through Literature” | Part-Time Faculty, Department of Languages and Literature | Northeastern State University (Tahlequah, OK) |
Megan Vallowe | Indigenous Studies | “Indigenous Resistance: Settler-Colonialism, Nation Building, and Colonial Patriarchy” | Assistant Director of Programs | Emory University School of Medicine |
Paula White | African American Literature | “The Black Maternal and Cultural Healing in Twentieth Century Black Women's Fiction” | Assistant Professor of English | Department of Languages and Literature at Austin Peay State University (Clarksville, TN) |
M.A. Graduates
Name | Thesis or Comprehensive Exam | Position | Employer |
Judith Bell | “‘Deliberate Voluptuousness’: The Monstrous Women of Dracula and Carmilla” | 6th Grade Literacy Teacher | Creekside Middle School |
Alex Blomstedt | “Divining the Southwest: Liminality, Pragmatism, and Regionalism in Death Comes for the Archbishop” | Intelligence Officer | U.S. Navy |
Jessi Brewer | “Literature as Virtual Reality: An Exploration of Subjectivity Formation in the Digital Era” | Doctoral Student in English | Brandeis University |
Sally Ferguson | “[Re]Visiting the Rime: A Case Study of Adaptation as Process and Product with The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” | English Faculty | University of Arkansas Hope-Texarkana |
Sharon Fox | “Dandy as Disease: Gender Hygiene and British Nineteenth-century Literature” | Interim Dean of Communication and Arts | NorthWest Arkansas Community College |
Luis Paganelli Marín | “The Stories of Junot Díaz: Genre and Narrative in Drown and This is How You Lose Her” | Research Writer | University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences |
Kristi Pierse | “‘Everyone Has Thought about Killing Someone - One Way or Another′: Cannibalism and the Question of Morality in Bryan Fuller's Hannibal” | Carrier Compliance Representative | KLLM Transport Services |
Alicia Troby | “Revision and Re-Writing as Adaptation: Using Adaptation Theory to Encourage Student Recognition of Rhetorical Situations” | Social Studies Teacher | Heritage High School (Rogers, AR) |
Ph.D. Graduates
Name | Area of Specialization | Dissertation | Position | Employer |
Edward Ardeneaux, IV | 20th- and 21st-Century American Literature (with a focus on representations of technology and digital subjectivities) | “Mapping the System, Completing the Circuit: The Hacker Figure as Techno-Interface in Contemporary Novels of Speculation and in Popular Films” | Associate Professor | Department of English, University of the Ozarks (Clarksville, AR) |
Angela Cox | Rhetoric, Composition, and New Media | “The Power Fantastic: How Genre Expectations Mediate Authority” | No Information Currently Available | |
Wyatt Paige Hermansen | Rhetoric and Composition/Rhetoric of Education Policy | “Selling College: Student Recruitment and Education Reform Rhetoric in the Age of Privatization” | Associate Professor of English | Westfield State University (Westfield, MA) |
Sarah (Nikki) Holland | Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy | “Designing Place-sensitive Professional Development: A Critical Ethnography of Teaching and Learning Argumentative Writing” | Writing Center Faculty | Western Governors University |
Eric Larson | British Literature | “Telling New Tales: Modernizations of Chaucer in the Eighteenth Century” | Writer/Editor |
Headquarters Office for the Transportation Security Administration (Arlington, VA)
Note: Eric is also an
Adjunct Professor for George Mason University and an Online Instructor for Central
Michigan University.
|
Rebecca Quoss-Moore | Renaissance Literature | “The Threat at Court: Subversive Uses of Translation, Transcription, and Tradition in the Henrician Court” | Associate Professor in Early Modern British Literature | Department of English, University of Central Oklahoma (Edmond, OK) |
Amy Oatis | American Literature and Literary Theory | “‘The Best Soil of Their Hearts’: Protestant Explorations of Catholic Spirituality in Cooper, Longfellow, and Hawthorne” | Professor of English | University of the Ozarks (Clarksville, AR) |
Lindsey Zachary Panxhi | Medieval Literature | “Hoc Est Corpus Meum: The Eucharist in Twelfth-Century Literature” | No Information Currently Available | |
Jennifer Pastoor | Medieval Literature | “‘Good to Think With’: Women and Exempla in Four Medieval English Texts” | No Information Currently Available | |
Rachael Price | Modern and Contemporary American Literature | “Beyond Main Street : Small Towns in Post-‘Revolt’ American Literature” | Associate Professor of English | Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (Tifton, GA) |
Ashley Robinson | 19th-Century American and British Literature | “Cowboys and Victorians: The American West in English Victorian Literature” | Founder and Lead Storyteller | Interrobang (a brand storytelling company) |
Amanda Schafer | 19th-Century British Literature | “‘A Band of Sisters’: Female Detectives, Authority, and Fiction from 1865 to the 1930s" | Adjunct English Faculty | University of Arkansas at Fort Smith |
Justin Tinsley | 20th-Century American Literature, Modernism, and Postmodernism | "Ecological Approaches to Modernism, the U.S. South, and 20th Century American Literature" | English Instructor | Arkansas Arts Academy |
M.A. Graduates
Name | Thesis or Comprehensive Exam | Position | Employer |
Alex Abrams | “Decoding Literary AIDS: A Study on Issues of the Body, Masculinity, and Self Identity in U.S. AIDS Literature from 1984-2011” | Director of Media Relations | High Point University |
Kimberly Allen | “Past Traumas, Present Griefs: Exploring the Effects of Colonialism, Microaggressions, and Stereotyping from Wild West Shows to Indigenous Literature” | No Information Currently Available | |
Rebecca Chatham | “The Many Faces of Cleopatra: How Performance and Characterization Change Cleopatra in Geoffrey Chaucer's ‘The Legend of Cleopatra,’ William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra, and John Dryden's All for Love; or, The World Well Lost” | Assistant Professor of English | North Dakota State University |
Jason Curlin | Comprehensive Exam | PhD student | Indiana University Bloomington |
Allison Carter Fanney | Comprehensive Exam | Assistant Vice President, Public Relations | LPL Financial |
Marisa Grippo | Comprehensive Exam | Registrar | Southern Arkansas University (Magnolia, AR) |
Joshua Jackson | “Architectures for a Future South: Posthumanism and Ruin in the Novels of Cormac McCarthy” | Faculty Lecturer | Georgia State University |
Laurel Loh | “Intersectionality in Jane Eyre and Its Adaptations” | Program Coordinator of Experiential Learning | Stony Brook University |
Shirley Rash | “Maybe It Was You: The Implications of Southern Gothic Elements of Criminality, Sexuality, and Race in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood” | Freelance Editor | Shirley Rash Editing |
Phillip Stephens | “The Technological Singularity: An Ideological Critique” | Social Worker | |
Alexis Stephenson | “What the Fuck Is This?: Aesthetic Nature of Being or Ontology in the Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins” | Coordinator, Operations & Projects | American Dental Association |
Ian Whitlow | “‘Keep Funding or Else . . . It's Mustaches’: Building a Community of Literacy at Owl Creek School” | Senior Creative Strategist | Tyson Foods, Inc. (Springdale, AR) |
Ph.D. Graduates
Name | Area of Specialization | Dissertation | Position | Employer |
Huseyin Altindis | Southern Literature | "Immigrant Labor in Southern Literature, 1980-2010" | Assistant Professor | Selcuk University (Turkey) |
Jennifer Mallette | Rhetoric and Composition | “Engineer as Writer and Woman: Gender, Identity, and Professional Discourse” | Associate Professor of English (Technical Communication Program) | Boise State University (Boise, ID) |
Mindy Trenary | Modern and Contemporary American Literature | “Jewish-American Immigrant Narratives and Modernist Cosmopolitan Aesthetics” | Professor of English, OER Coordinator | Department of English & Literature, Butler Community College (El Dorado, KS) |
Andy Trevathan | 20th-Century Literature (Secondary Emphasis in Rhetoric and Composition) | “At Home In Exile: Ezra Pound and the Poetics of Banishment” | Senior Instructor | Department of English, Louisiana State University--Baton Rouge (Baton Rouge, LA) |
Megan Troutman | American Popular Culture | “(Re)Animating the Horror Genre: Explorations in Children's Animated Horror Film” | Instructional Coach | Bellevue School District (WA) |
Afrin Zeenat | American Literature and Culture before 1900 | “The Spectacle of Orphanhood: Reimagining Orphans in Postbellum Fiction” | Professor of English | School of World Languages, Cultures & Communications, Richland College (Dallas, TX) |
Malek Zuraikat | Medieval Literature | “The Anti-Crusade Voice of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales” | Associate Professor | Department of English Language and Literature, Yarmouk University (Irbid, Jordan) |
M.A. Graduates
Name | Thesis or Comprehensive Exam | Position | Employer |
Laura Leighann Dicks | “The Influence of Literacy on the Lives of Twentieth Century Southern Female Minority Figures” | Senior Research Analyst | Kansas Legislative Research Department (Topeka, KS) |
Natalie Hotary | Comprehensive Exam | Interior Designer | Natalie Noren Design |
Jacqueline Lawrence | “Queer Tastes: An Exploration of Food and Sexuality in Southern Lesbian Literature” | Sr Director, People Relations | J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc. (Lowell, AR) |
Timothy Nelson | “Welsh Manipulations of the Matter of Britain” | No Information Currently Available | University of Arkansas (Fayetteville, AR) |
Aaron Nugent | Comprehensive Exam | Secondary English Teacher | Matthew Flinders Anglican College, Buderim, Queensland, Australia |
Jimmy Peebles | “Middle-earth’s War on Terror: A Post-9/11 Reception Study on the Works of J. R. R. Tolkien” | No Information Currently Available | |
Sara Putman | Comprehensive Exam | Co-Owner | Bookish, an independent bookstore (Fort Smith, AR) |
Benjamin Ring | Comprehensive Exam | English Teacher | Bentonville High School (Bentonville, AR) |
Rachael Schaffner | “Facing the Wreck: Death, Optimism, and the Fragmented Form” | Director, Impact and Information | Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN) |
Katie Smith | “Transitioning to Writing about Writing: A Consideration of the Metawriting Teaching Approach at the University of Arkansas” |
Senior Content Marketing Manager |
Current Health, a Best Buy Health Company |
Liza Vammen | “A Melting Pot of Voices: Public Discourse and the Latino Immigrant Experience in the United States” | Associate Director | Business Communication Lab, Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas |
Mia (Wendel) Edwards | Comprehensive Exam | Product Development & Sourcing Manager | Walmart Corporation |
Ph.D. Graduates
Name | Area of Specialization | Dissertation | Position | Employer |
Aya Akkawi | Postmodern Literature | “Salman Rushdie in the Postmodern Current: New Venues, New Values” | Associate Professor of English Literature | Yarmouk University, (Irbid, Jordan) |
James Anderson | Rhetoric and Composition | “‘We can’t reclaim what we don’t understand’: Teachers’ Perceptions of Advocacy and Voice in a Rural Institute of the National Writing Project” | Associate Professor of English and English Education | Lander University (Greenwood, SC) |
Jeremy Burns | American Popular Culture after 1945 | “Monsters in Common: Identity and Community in Post-apocalyptic Science Fiction After 9/11” | Associate Dean for Communications & Information | Enrollment Services, University of Arkansas (Fayetteville, AR) |
Mary Leigh | 19th-Century British Literature | “The Cultural Crime of Femininity: Advocating for Viable and Successful Womanhood in Charles Dickens and George Eliot” | Humanities Instructor | Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts (Hot Springs, AR) |
April (Thompson) Young | Southern Literature | “Trashed Whites: The Myth of the Southern Poor White” | Assistant Professor of English | Volunteer State Community College (Gallatin, TN) |
M.A. Graduates
Name | Thesis or Comprehensive Exam | Position | Employer |
Joel Blair | Comprehensive Exam | No Information Currently Available | |
Megan Grizzle | “Contentious Conversations, Missing Voices: The Ongoing Debate about Style” | No Information Currently Available | |
Rachel Hancock | “Humor and Howells: From Sit Down to Stand-Up” | Analyst, Strategic Projects and Relationships | Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art |
Drew Walker | Comprehensive Exam | Executive Communications | Walmart Corporation |
Elizabeth Walker | Comprehensive Exam | Senior Manager, Digital Strategy & Brand Engagement | Walmart Corporation |
Ph.D. Graduates
Name | Area of Specialization | Dissertation | Position | Employer |
Jack Ayres | Modern British Literature | “After Orwell: Totalitarian Fears and the English Political Novel, 1950-2010” | Associate Professor of English | Texas A&M University--San Antonio (San Antonio, TX) |
Eve Baldwin | Rhetoric and Composition | “Reading and Religion: Reconciling Diverse Reading Patterns and the First-Year Composition Classroom” | Lecturer of Writing and Critical Inquiry in Undergraduate Education | University at Albany (Albany, NY) |
Jake Edwards | Rhetoric and Composition | “E-Readers, Reading Practices, and Adolescent Readers: Observations on the Intersection of Technology, Literacy, and Identity” | Assistant Professor of English, Honors Program Director | Georgia Gwinnett College (Lawrenceville, GA) |
Karon Reese | Modern and Contemporary American Literature | “Occupying the Pedestal: Gender Issues in Ellen Gilchrist” | Broker | Reese & Co. Real Estate |
Nancy Romig | Modern and Contemporary American Literature | “‘A Man Is Hard Enough to Be’: History and Masculinity in the Texts of E. L. Doctorow” | Assistant Professor of English | Howard Payne University (Brownwood, TX) |
Carol Westcamp | Modern and Contemporary American Literature | “A Place Where You Can Reckon with Yourself: Loss of Place in Sam Shepard’s Plays” | Professor of English | University of Arkansas—Fort Smith (Fort Smith, AR) |