Graduate
Alumni
Our alumni from all three of our tracks—literature (English MA, PhD), rhetoric and composition (English MA, PhD) and creative writing (MFA)—take many career paths when they leave our department. Some head to other graduate programs as others become tenure-track professors. Some leave academia and enter into corporate/business/NGO environments while others work in freelance positions as they continue to hone their art.
Congratulations to our 2023-2024 graduates!
Summer 2023
Anca Garcia, PhD English Literature
Dissertation: “Reading Suffering Between the Lines: Trauma and Witnessing in Old and
Middle English Literatureâ€
Committee: Nicole Discenza (Chair), Maria Cizmic, Maren Clegg Hyer, Emily Jones
Fall 2023
Audrey Blanco, MFA Creative Writing
Thesis: “Songs of Somniloquyâ€
Committee: Julia Koets (Chair), Natalie Scenters-Zapico, Jarod Rosello
Kayla Kavanagh, MFA Creative Writing
Thesis: “Fruits of the Seaâ€
Committee: Heather Sellers (Chair), John Fleming, Jake Wolff
Spring 2024
Spencer Daniels, PhD English Literature
Dissertation: “The Drama of Last Things: Reckoning in Late Medieval and Early Modern
English Dramaâ€
Committee: Nicole Discenza (Chair), Emily Jones, Thomas Williams, Patrick Finelli
Hal Dietrich, MFA Creative Writing
Thesis: “Aficionadoâ€
Committee: John Fleming (Chair), Jake Wolff, Emily Jones
Mark-Elliot Finley, MA English Literature
Portfolio: "'He's a Buffoon': Satan, the Medieval Comic Devil, and False Heroism in
Paradise Lost" & "'Happy Birthday, John-I Want a Divorce!': Margaret Atwater Masons'
The Binding of the Strong and American Divorce Discourse on John Milton's Tercentenary
Celebration"
Committee: Emily Jones (Chair), Cynthia Patterson
Hannah Galloway, MA English Literature
Portfolio: "Infinite Jest: Hamlet as the Fool of Reason" and "Yesterday, Yesterday,
Yesterday: The Concept of Time and Early Modernity in the Sound and the Fury"
Committee: Emily Jones (Chair), Phillip Sipiora
Nicholas Guilfoile, MA English Literature
Portfolio: "Mark Twain's Hawaii and Damning the Yankee" & "'File and Forget' The Unhomely
in Invisible Man"
Committee: Cynthia Patterson (Chair), Phillip Sipiora
Briget Harley, PhD English Literature
Dissertation: “African Spirituality in Literature Written by Women of African Descentâ€
Committee: Gary Lemons (Chair), Quynh Nhu Le, Cheryl Rodriguez, John Lennon
Destiny Howell, MFA Creative Writing
Thesis: “A Tale of Two Sistersâ€
Committee: Jarod Rosello (Chair), John Fleming, Jake Wolff
Jade Jemison, MFA Creative Writing
Thesis: “The Pregnancy Yearsâ€
Committee: Julia Koets (Chair), Heather Sellers, John Fleming
Joryn Jones, MA English Literature
Portfolio: "Beowulf" & "Small Island"
Committee: Nicole Discenza (Chair), Susan Mooney
Rachel Knox, MFA Creative Writing
Thesis: “Land of Flowersâ€
Committee: Julia Koets (Chair), Heather Sellers, Thomas Hallock
Lynette Kuliyeva, PhD English Literature
Dissertation: “Hidden Monstrosities: The Transformation of Medieval Characters and
Conventions in Shakespeare's Romancesâ€
Committee: Emily Jones (Chair), Nicole Discenza, Phillip Sipiora, Kristin Bezio
Kyra Lance, MA English Literature
Portfolio: "Publishing a New Black Womanhood in A Hairdresser's Experience in High
Life" & "'A Puritan Fear of the Flesh': Modesty and Control in The Handmaid's Tale"
Committee: John Lennon (Chair), Kristin Allukian
Danielle Mercier, PhD English Literature
Dissertation: “Lawful Injustice: Novel Readings of Racialized Temporality and Legal
Injusticesâ€
Committee: Quynh Nhu Le (Chair), Gary Lemons, Cynthia Patterson, Aisha Durham
Erin Olds, MFA Creative Writing
Thesis: “An Arcade in the Forestâ€
Committee: Julia Koets (Chair), Jarod Rosello, Natalie Scenters-Zapico
Thomas Page, MFA Creative Writing
Thesis: “The Decimated: A Hybrid Thesisâ€
Committee: Jarod Rosello (Chair), Natalie Scenters-Zapico, Jake Wolff
Elizabeth Parker, MFA Creative Writing
Thesis: “Rabbits in the Zone of Peaceâ€
Committee: Jake Wolff (Chair), John Fleming, Kees Boterbloem
Andrea Rinard, MFA Creative Writing
Thesis: “The Keyâ€
Committee: John Fleming (Chair), Jake Wolff, Heather Sellers
Rachel Tanski, PhD English Literature
Dissertation: “’Manne, for thy loue wolde I not lette’: Eucharistic Portrayals of
Caritas in Medieval and Early Modern Literature and Drama 1350-1650â€
Committee: Nicole Discenza (Chair), Jay Zysk, Sara Deats, Anne Latowsky
Urshela Wiggins McKinney, PhD English Literature
Dissertation: “Making the Invisible Visible: (Re)envisioning the Black Body in Contemporary
Adaptations of Nineteenth-Century Fictionâ€
Committee: Marty Gould (Chair), Regina Hewitt, Cynthia Patterson, Amy Rust
We are extremely proud of our graduates and want to keep in touch! If you were part of our graduate program, please contact our graduate program specialist to discover alumni events and to update your contact information.
Recent alumni interviews
Creative writing
- Samantha Chianese, MFA, spring 2023
- Mara Beneway, MFA, spring 2023
- Haley Morton, MFA, spring 2021
- Courtney Clute, MFA, spring 2020
- Patrick Templeton, MFA, spring 2020
- Adam Carter, MFA, spring 2019
- Erika Staiger, MFA, spring 2019
- Allyson Hoffman, MFA, spring 2018
- Georgia Jackson, MFA, spring 2018
- Alysia Sawchyn, MFA, spring 2018
Literature
- Katie Zepf, MA, spring 2023
- Jackie Carlson, MA, spring 2023
- Teddy Duncan, MA, spring 2022
- Taylor DeMichael, MA, spring 2022
- Meghan Hutton, MA, spring 2020
- Stephanie Lance, PhD, fall 2019
- Elan Pavlinich, PhD, summer 2019
- Susan Meeler, MA, spring 2019
- Heather Fox, PhD, fall 2017
- Seth Spencer, MA, spring 2017
- Christina Connor, MA, spring 2016
Rhetoric & composition
- Justiss Burry, PhD, spring 2023
- Jessica Griffith, PhD, spring 2023
- Adam Phillips, PhD, spring 2022
- Katie Walkup, PhD, spring 2021
- Stephanie Phillips, PhD, fall 2020
- Natalie Kass, MA, spring 2017
- Lauren Cagle, PhD, summer 2016
Below you will find job placement information from our graduates in all three tracks over nine years (2013-2022) as well as spotlights on some of our recent graduates.
MFA 9-year career placement
Tenure-track / full-time permanent positions | |
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Other humanities careers | |
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MA 9-year career placement
Degree programs (PhD programs in English, unless otherwise noted) | |
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Other humanities careers | |
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PhD 9-year career placement
Assistant professor positions, tenure-track / full-time permanent | |
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Visiting instructor / FT temporary / adjunct positions | |
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Other humanities careers | |
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