Folio - Department of English - College of Charleston

Folio 

Issue 

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH 

http://english.cofc.edu 

5 Summer 2012 

The Department of English Moves to 

Five College Way 

This August, the Department of English says 

 

 

restored and renovated 5 College Way. Built 

 

 

 

 

 

 

later served as the President of the College. 

The building initially served as Bolles Female 

 

 

 

- 

 

5 College Way

Crazyhorse liter- 

 

 

Folio 

The Department of English Moves to 

Five College Way 

Issue 5, Summer 2012 

J. Michael Duvall, Editor 

duvalljm@cofc.edu 

CONTENTS 

Focus on Teaching 2 

Alumni Notes, 2011-12 6 

Faculty Notes, 2011-12 27 

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department seminar and multimedia room on the 

 

 

Crazyhorse’s 

 

Focus on Teaching 

Folio- 

 

 

 

 

 

literary magazines--and the Department of English is 

an unquestioned leader in the College of Charleston 

 

- 

 

and surprisingly, to the mind of your humble editor, 

 

This issue of Folio 

 

outside 

 

 

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-- J. Michael Duvall 

2

Introduction to Academic Writing 

& Honors Academic Writing 

English 110 & Honors 110 - Living in Charleston 

 

 

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English 110 - Literacies 

 

 

 

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I then asked them - 

 

 

 

 

ventions. 

 

 

 

 

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years. 

-- Chris Warnick 

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English 110 - Healing Narratives (paired with a Psychology Class 

in a First Year Experience Learning Community) 

 

 

 

 

The Cancer JournalsAutobiography of a FaceDarkness Visible, 

Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer’sShoot the Damn Dog: A Memoir 

of DepressionSastun: My Apprenticeship with a Maya Healer. 

 

 

 

 

databases. 

 

 

 

 

 

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Focus on Teaching continued on p. 9 

5

Alumni Notes 

1948-1960 

Fran Heinsohn (Frances) Lyons ‘48 

earned a BS in Fine Arts with a major in sculpture in 1984 and 

is enjoying life -- playing bridge, playing golf, reading books, 

and viewing the arts. She is about to try her hand again in 

some art work for her own pleasure. She enjoys living again 

in Charleston and also plans to go around the world again: the 

last time the Somalia pirates caused her to go only two-thirds 

of the way! 

William D. “Bud” Hilton ‘51 reports that 

majoring in English and minoring in History were “the best 

choices [he] could have ever made” because “a liberal arts 

education with emphasis on comprehension and public 

speaking is paramount to a business career.” After serving 

two years in the army, he began work at American Mutual 

Fire Insurance Company and became 

Senior Vice President for Sales and 

a member of the Board of Directors. 

Bud retired after 39 years with many 

business honors and many public 

speaking engagements, both regional 

and national. After retiring, he became 

active at the college in many ways. 

He served on the Foundation board 

for eight years and was Chairman of 

the Finance Committee for a period 

of time, during which he wrote the 

first draft of investment policy the 

foundation had ever had. He also 

became President after heading an 

auction which became the largest fund 

raiser up to that time. Additionally, he 

spent two years on the alumni board 

and wrote their investment policy. 

He was honored several years ago by 

receiving the Alumni Award of Honor 

from the alumni association. Bud has 

donated many first edition books to the 

library, some of which are in the special 

collections area. He hopes to make further contributions. 

Now 82, Bud is still a steadfast supporter of the college. His wife, 

who has been a paraplegic for 12 years, attended the college 

for two years before going to nursing school, played basketball 

for two years, and, Bud notes, “still holds the record for most 

points scored in a single game.” Bud encourages the college 

to “keep up the good work in English and the importance of 

reading, comprehension, and learning to speak well, even with 

a Charleston accent.” 

Paul Weidner ‘55 has retired but is working as a 

volunteer docent at the Museum for African Art in New 

York City with ARTWORKS, a program for third-graders 

with the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and with ACTNOW, a 

political action committee working for progressive causes and 

candidates. For twelve years he was the Producing Director 

of the Hartford Stage Company (CT). His stage work has also 

Staircase in 5 College Way 

6 

been seen in New York, on Broadway and off-Broadway, and 

in WNET’s Theater-in-America series. He guest-directed in 

major regional theaters including Arena Stage, Asolo Rep, 

Denver Theater Center, Trinity Rep, Williamstown Festival, 

and Seattle Rep, as well as abroad in Haiti, Estonia, and New 

Zealand. 

He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Ivory Coast and 

Zaire, 1980-82. For five years he worked as a tutor in an adult 

literacy program in Harlem. In July ’09 he did volunteer work 

with primary school children in Uganda. 

A BA graduate at the College, he earned a Fulbright 

Scholarship to study for a year in France. Paul also holds an 

MFA from Yale University (Drama), where he also taught 

in the French department and later led a seminar in theater 

directing. He taught in New York University’s graduate Acting 

and Directing programs and has been a member of the board 

of directors of the Stage Directors and 

Choreographers professional union. 

Paul’s novel, Memoirs of a Dwarf at 

the Sun King’s Court, was published by 

Terrace Books in 2004 and his “A Tale 

Told by an Idiot” appeared in The Long 

Story literary journal in 2012. 

1961-1960 

Stephen Langton Thomas 

‘62, who earned a BS in English at the 

College (in “the old days,” he notes, the 

BA required Latin and Greek; he took 

French and German), after graduation 

entered Navy Officer Candidate School 

and earned his commission as Ensign, 

USNR in December. Between then 

and his discharge as Lieutenant, USN 

in June 1972, he served in various 

capacities afloat and ashore (primarily 

in operations and special warfare), 

including four deployments to Vietnam. 

His final assignment was as an engineering inspector with 

Military Sealift Command Pacific. 

He received a number of special recognitions for his service: the 

Navy Commendation Medal with Combat V, Combat Action 

Ribbon, National Defense Service Medal, Armed Forces 

Expeditionary Medal, Presidential Unit Citation (Army), 

Vietnam Service Medal with two silver campaign stars, RVN 

Technical Service Medal (1st class), RVN Meritorious Unit 

Citation, RVN Campaign Medal, and Small Craft Officer 

Badge. 

After his military service, he was employed by the Veteran’s 

Administrative (VA) Regional Office in Columbia from 

March 1974 until his retirement in September 1994, starting as 

a claims examiner and ending as a disability rating specialist. 

While with the VA, he received a few awards, including a 

certificate in recognition for his work as one of the team

that designed the VA’s Automated Medical Information 

Exchange System, or AMIES. After retiring, he volunteered as 

a department service officer with DAV until his own medical 

problems forced him to stop. 

“In all honesty,” he says, “I must admit that I have made no 

direct use of my degree (although a BS in English is always an 

attention-getter during an interview), but without my degree 

I might never have had the opportunity to accomplish what I 

did.” 

Frances (Wilder) Townsend ’64 retired from 

teaching at Summerville High School after 27 years and for 

AmeriCorps NCCC after ten years of service. She is presently 

Chair of the Board of Trustees for Dorchester School District 

2 in Summerville. Her husband (H. Evans Townsend), also 

class of 1964, and she have spent most of their married years 

in Summerville, where they raised their two children. Their 

son, Evans, graduated from the College in 1992. They have 

two granddaughters who live with their 

family next door to them. Her passion is 

public education, and she has spent her 

time as a CofC graduate either teaching 

or on the local school board. 

Mary Louise Beshere ‘69 

retired three years ago from the Maricopa 

County Library District. Her husband, 

Richard Powell, and she are now both 

enjoying retirement. They reside in 

Fountain Hills, AZ. 

1971-1980 

Diana Kaczor ‘71, after 

graduating (with an unusual Bachelor 

of Science degree with an English 

major) went to the Radcliffe Publishing 

Procedures program in Cambridge, 

MA. She spent a few years in New York 

City working for Women’s Day magazine 

and later for Mother Earth News in 

Hendersonville, NC. In 1979, she earned 

an MA in Philosophy from the University 

of North Carolina. She worked at General 

Electric Aircraft Engines in Massachusetts 

for 10 years as an analyst, then completed a program at the 

New England School of Photography. In 1991, she relocated to 

Chapel Hill, NC, where she worked as a research programmer 

for 19 years. She has had a few photography exhibits through 

the years. Now happily retired, she is volunteering to assist a 

professional photographer in digitizing the entire collection of 

art at the University’s Ackland Art Museum. 

Joseph Eugene Stevenson ‘73 is married and 

has two sons (both recent College of Charleston graduates). 

He earned a Masters in Business Management from Central 

Michigan University and worked in a variety of business 

disciplines including Marketing and Advertising, where he 

found his English background served him well. He also coowned 

and managed a manufacturing company, as well as a 

small internet retail business. 

Trudy (Taul) Harris ‘75 works as a consultant with 

Carlisle & Gallagher Consulting Group, where she is a report 

and database developer. She builds applications in Access 

that create reports for clients. Currently, she is working on a 

contract with Bank of America. She graduated from Webster 

University in 1996 with a Master of Arts degree in Computer 

Technology and MIS and moved to Chicago in 1998. She was 

married in 2004 to Bradley Harris, a native of Illinois, and they 

moved to Fort Worth, Texas in 2008. She traveled to Europe 

on a Mediterranean cruise and saw parts of France and Italy 

in 2008 and has traveled to Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada 

on vacation. 

Eileen Susan Harris ‘78 spent 20 years working as 

a technical writer, both contract and full time. Since then she 

has been concentrating on writing a novel. 

1981-1990 

Crazyhorse office door, 5 College Way 

7 

Sandra Leigh (Jones) 

Handal ’81 began a new chapter 

in her career this past January, when 

she accepted a position as Director of 

Philanthropy & Partnerships at Pet 

Helpers Inc., a nonprofit organization 

dedicated to ending the needless 

euthanasia of adoptable pets in the 

Lowcountry. In addition to its rescue 

and adoption center on James Island, Pet 

Helpers offers low-cost (and free to those 

who qualify) spay/neuter surgeries at its 

clinic. Leigh would love to connect with 

any alums or businesses who would like to 

become a part of making Charleston the 

ultimate model of a humane community 

in America. 

Mark Hunter ‘82 offers this 

note: “What people say about an English 

degree? It’s true. You don’t have a trade 

with your BA, but you have a profound 

ability in what [Alfred North] Whitehead 

called ‘the acquisition of the art of the 

utilisation of knowledge.’ It sounds a bit 

much, but for my whole career in media 

production, politics, and higher education I have been the 

person my colleagues have turned to when it came time 

to conceive, write, and promote the ideas and actions of 

the groups to which I belonged. I thank Prof. Bishop Hunt 

and Prof. Jeffrey Johnson for that. I had the best of ‘trades’ 

coming out of the College of Charleston.” Mark is currently 

the Doctoral Program Coordinator in his department at 

Tennessee State University: “it is a career culmination that the 

CofC started me on 30 years ago.” 

Mark earned an MMA at the University of South Carolina in 

1983 and an EdD at Virginia Tech in 1991. 

Joy Simpson ‘83 serves as an instructor in the 

Master of Public Administration Program at the College of 

Charleston.

Rob Droste ‘84 is now in his 13th year of ordained 

ministry, serving as rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in 

San Leandro, California (San Francisco Bay area). He and his 

wife, Karla, celebrated their 17th wedding anniversary this 

year with trips to Paris and Yosemite. Recently, when cleaning 

out a storage locker, he found his honors thesis on John 

Milton, a copy of the 1984 Miscellany, with his favorite essay 

from college: “Ozymandias: Shelley and the Impermanence of 

Man.” He’s still proud of the A’s he earned from Nan Morrison 

and Bishop Hunt. 

Sonja Houston ‘86 says “every day is an adventure” 

in her business. Last month she was promoted to Senior 

Producer of CNN NewsRoom. She has been working for 

CNN and based in Atlanta for 15 

years. “I love my job,” she says. 

“It’s something that my years at 

the College definitely prepared 

me for. The broad-based liberal 

arts education taught me how to 

express myself well, to nurture 

my curiosity about the world and 

to think critically. Those all serve 

me well as I produce newscasts and 

segments at CNN.” 

Natalie (Parker) 

Bluestein ‘87 graduated with 

a Masters of Public Administration 

from the University of South 

Carolina (USC) in 1990 and a law 

degree from USC in 1993. She is 

a partner at Bluestein & Douglas 

and says that she uses the skills 

learned in the English program 

every day in her profession and 

reports that, in fact, several judges 

have commented that her orders 

are some of the best they see, and 

she is sure it is due to the rigorous 

standards of the Department of 

English. 

Elizabeth (Holland) McDowell ‘88 works as 

Account Executive at WCSC Television, Charleston. 

Mary (Askins) Schweers ‘89 is Director 

(principal) of Upper School (grades 7-12) at Ashley Hall. She 

finished her Master of Arts in Teaching at the Citadel in 1993. 

Several of her former students attend CofC. She says “I had a 

wonderful college experience there, and I encourage all who 

are interested to visit and check it out. I am impressed and 

pleased at the positive growth and excellent, well-deserved 

reputation the College has gained. The English department 

was my haven, and Bret Lott was my favorite teacher of all 

time. Much like Ashley Hall, the College of Charleston is a 

historic, educational gem in the heart of a beautiful city.” 

Kevin Craig ‘90 earned a Master of International 

Business (Chinese Track) degree from University of South 

Carolina. Now, he is a PhD candidate in Management at 

Entrance, 5 College Way 

8 

Clemson University. He spent the years between USC and 

Clemson working as a computer programmer and project 

manager. 

He reports, “so far, things are going well for me here at 

Clemson. This year, I won the university-wide graduate 

student teaching award, and I’m only slightly behind on my 

dissertation work. By the time I graduate next year, I should 

have six journal articles either under review or in print, so I’m 

optimistic about my job prospects.” 

My CofC education has helped me in numerous ways and 

continues to do so as I teach management, even though I 

graduated over 20 years ago. I still read Shakespeare and Milton 

often and read at least some fiction every day. I like to refer 

back to my class notes from the 

CofC and use classic literature and 

history to make my management 

lectures more memorable for my 

students.” 

1991-2000 

Robin Jennifer 

(Gross) LaSure ‘91 

works for Leading Real Estate 

Companies of the World, a 

Chicago-based network of 550 

real estate firms in the U.S. and 30 

countries around the world. After 

college, she returned to Atlanta, 

where she grew up, before moving 

to Chicago and then Denver. Nine 

years ago, she returned to Atlanta, 

where she lives with her husband 

and two boys, ages 8 and 6. 

She has worked for the 

same company (through 

multiple mergers) in various 

communications, marketing, and 

public relations roles for 17 years, 

currently serving as Vice President 

of corporate marketing. She notes, 

“When I was at CofC, I remember wishing there had been 

a communications major, but at the time there was only an 

informal minor in communications. As it turns out, in my job, 

I use many of the writing, editing, and proof-reading skills I 

learned as an English major. (And now I am paranoid I won’t 

catch my own typos in this submission!) I visit Charleston 

whenever I can and just this past weekend joined 12 of my 

CofC friends for an annual weekend getaway.” 

Hope (Norment) Murphy ‘91 has been married 

to Michael Murphy since 1995, and they have two sons: Sam, 

who was born in 1997, and Andrew, who was born in 2000. 

She taught high school English in the Charleston County 

School District for ten years before taking a job as Director 

Alumni Notes continued on p. 13

Shakespeare and Popular Culture 

English 190 (Special Topics) & 460 (Senior Seminar) 

 

10 Things I Hate About You, Romeo + 

Juliet 

- 

Twelfth Night 

 

 

 

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my Spring 

 

 

 

 

-- Catherine 

Thomas 

9

Sex, God, and Guns: Irish Film, 

Fiction, and Song in the 

20th Century 

10 

English 190 (Special Topics) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

they make up a good half of the par- 

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Dubliners 

 

The Quiet Man- 

 

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the Irish struggle to rule themselves 

nial 

story. 

 

 

 

though it seats eighty, students are 

 

 

 

 

 

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-- Joe Kelly

Modern Poetry 

English 335 - From Word to World 

 

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prove more intelligent than 

 

 

 

 

 

 

take learning some- 

 

 

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timelines sponsor a 

unique sense of in- 

 

 

and students have 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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and, most importantly, bodies, traversed the globe. 

 

 

Yankee passport for a British one, and W.H. Auden did 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

of 10 key modernist poets. 

The result is not the 

 

sualization. 

Open the 

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-- Anton Vander Zee 

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Jane Austen: Text and Film 

English 350 (Major Authors) 

 

 

 

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This enthusiasm made for a propitious beginning and 

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that governed feminine propriety, and the gendered 

 

us plenty to talk about throughout the semester. 

--Tim Carens 


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Alumni Notes continued from p. 8 

of Children’s Ministries at John Wesley United Methodist 

Church, where she will mark her tenth year this summer. She 

also works as an instructor and facilitator with Darkness to 

Light’s Stewards of Children and has been involved with that 

organization for the past six years. She enjoys watching her 

boys play sports, volunteering at their school and at church, 

reading, and going to the beach. 

Rhonda Rutland Spell ‘91 worked with the 

College of Charleston College Relations Office after graduation 

and worked for 15 years in public relations and marketing. She 

has lived in South Carolina, Tennessee, and now Louisiana. 

Her husband is from Lousiana, and they moved there to raise 

their children around an extended family. She teaches English 

and reading to 8th graders at Northlake Christian School in 

Covington, Louisiana, while continuing to research learning 

differences. She also works in her school’s Discovery Center, 

where children with learning differences are helped to achieve 

their maximum potential. 

She made the career change 

from public relations 

to teaching to help her 

daughter and notes that it 

was the best decision she 

ever made. Her son, Tyler, 

graduates this month from 

Northlake Christian School. 

He is attending Southeastern 

Lousiana Univeristy in 

the fall pursuing a degree 

in Criminal Justice. Her 

daughter, Alexandra, also 

attends Northlake Christian 

School and is in the fourth 

grade. 

Jada (Owen) 

Porters Lodge 

Rampey ‘92 worked in 

several fields after graduation, including retail management, 

events planning, property administration, and, as a brief foray, 

education. She married Dr. Alvin H. Rampey, Jr. in March 

of 2010 and moved to Atlanta, GA. They are avid travelers, 

exploring the USA on a monthly basis, especially the American 

West and any region where they can hike. They count Ireland, 

France, Canada, and Japan among their favorites and are 

currently planning a trip for May 2012 to Greece and Turkey. 

At present, she is studying aviation and pursuing her private 

pilot certificate. 

Steven Busch ‘93 has been working in the real estate 

industry for 15 years and recently moved from Atlanta to 

Savannah to run the largest real estate company in the Coastal 

Empire. With four offices and 200 associates, Keller Williams 

Realty Coastal Area Partners currently have approximately 

20% market share in the Savannah area. His passions include 

recruiting, training, and developing real estate agents to build 

careers worth having, businesses worth owning, and lives 

worth living while leading a very productive and profitable 

organization with a culture that no one would ever want to 

13 

leave. 

Magdalen Anne (Cocke) Caraway ‘93 lives 

in Memphis, her hometown. She is married to Kirk Caraway, 

also of Memphis, and they have two sons, Caleb (7) and Lucas 

(6). Their favorite thing to do as a family is to travel: “We 

plan to make a BIG trip to Charleston next year for my 20th 

reunion! I can’t wait to see what all has changed and what I 

hope has stayed the same!!” 

Joseph Steven Renau ‘93, after 15 years in New 

York City, returned to South Carolina in May 2012. He is a 

marketing and communications consultant to corporations 

and professional services firms and also works as a freelance 

writer and editor. 

Brooke (Egerton) Holt ‘94 lives in Lake Mary, 

Florida with her family: Chase, Ashton, and Saxon (children) 

and husband Charlie. Charlie serves as rector of St. Peter’s 

Episcopal Church. She runs her own company, Cross Train, 

LLC, which focuses on 

the development of spirit, 

mind, and body of women. 

They train for triathlons 

and running races. In Take 

Shape for Life, she serves as 

a health coach, a role that 

allows her to teach people 

how to develop optimal 

health in their lives. This 

summer she will finish 

her last class in a Master 

of Arts in Biblical Studies 

at Reformed Theological 

Seminary. 

Liz Clarke Robbins 

‘94 is Associate Professor 

of Creative Writing at 

Flagler College. Her newest 

full collection of poems, Play Button, won the 2010 Cider 

Press Review Book Award, judged by Patricia Smith. Liz’s 

chapbook, Girls Turned Like Dials, won the 2012 YellowJacket 

Press Award and will be published in May 2012. Her poems 

are forthcoming or in the current issues of Cimarron Review, 

The Journal, and New York Quarterly. 

Kenneth “Kenny” Inman ‘95 is a lawyer with 

his own practice in Mount Pleasant, SC. 

Robin (Porter) Thompson ‘95 taught English 

at Richmond Hill High School (Richmond Hill, GA) from 

1997-2003 and 2006-2011 and moved to the media center this 

school year at the same school. She is pursuing a Masters in 

Instructional Technology from Georgia Southern University. 

She was awarded Teacher of the Year for the Bryan Co. school 

system in 2003. She has two children, Jed, age 6, and Charlotte, 

age 3. They have lived for 15 years in Savannah, GA, where 

she volunteers her time with Wesley Monumental United 

Methodist Church and the Junior League. “In any spare time,” 

she says, “I dig in the dirt, plant flowers, craft, and sew.”

Tina Marie Cundari ‘96 is an attorney in 

Columbia. In January 2012, she became a member (which is 

the equivalent of partner) of her law firm, Sowell Gray Stepp 

& Laffitte, LLC. She has been very involved in the community, 

presently serving as Chair of the Board of Directors of Big 

Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Columbia. 

Katherine Dillard Mitchell ‘96 graduated with 

an MA in Literature from the University of Mississippi and an 

MFA in Fiction from University of Montana. She is a Writing 

Expert at Ruamrudee International School, Bangkok,Thailand. 

Melissa (Mehl) Turner ‘97 graduated with 

a Master of Arts in Teaching from Charleston Southern 

University in 2006 and taught 9th grade English for five 

years, one year in South Carolina and four years in Maryland. 

Currently, she is a stay-at-home Mom. 

Ray Edward Tanner ‘97 taught high school for six 

years in Berkeley County, which was an 

enriching experience. He left the school 

system to become a recruiter for the 

military in ‘05 and has been working 

and living in Summerville since then. 

His wife, Dawn, and he have two 

amazing sons. Ret is 9, and Reed is 7, 

and they both love seeing the Cougars 

in action on the baseball diamond. 

Denise (White) Johnson 

‘98, MA ‘00 completed a PhD in 

Medieval and Renaissance literature at 

Georgia State University. She has been 

teaching at Kennesaw State University 

for 12 years and has recently begun 

to teach upper division courses such 

as the early British Literature survey, 

Chaucer, and Medieval Literature. She 

spends most of her time teaching and 

mentoring Composition and World 

Literature students. She says, “I would 

not be doing this job had Dr. Carlson 

not assigned me to work with the 

Writer’s Group while I was a grad student at CofC. I did not 

want to teach, but once I started, I found that it was my true 

calling in life.” 

Emelie (Kent) Agosto ‘99 is a paralegal with 

Krawcheck & Davidson, LLC. 

Lee Robinson ‘99, MA ‘06 left Charleston, SC, 

in September 2010 and now lives in Fairfax, VA, a suburb of 

Washington DC. He started with The SI, as Senior Technical 

Writer and Editor, several months ago and finds it to be a pretty 

interesting job. The SI (SI stands for systems integration) is one 

of the lead systems integrators for the Intelligence Community 

and whose customers range from NGA to NSA to NRO. 

He is part of a dynamic proposal team who plan and craft 

large proposal submissions that sometimes take months to 

complete. His role is to work with subject matter experts, write 

content, proof and edit content by other writers, and work 

with the proposal lead to ensure that every deliverable that 

leaves the department is well written and error free. Lee has 

two poems in The Citadel’s The Shako, 2012 and just submitted 

two poems to Pluff Mud. 

Derrick Le’Van Williams ‘99 has been serving 

on the S.C. Workers’ Compensation Commission as a 

Commissioner since 2007. He has 2 children, Valerie Regan (5 

years old) and Deana Grace (1 year old). His wife is a partner 

at Nelson Mullins in Columbia. “I am happy to have attended 

CofC,” he says, “and majoring in English has enhanced my life 

and helped shape my career.” 

Mahwish Fathima (Alikhan) McIntosh 

‘00 is currently a Freedom Writer Teacher (she trained 

with Erin Gruwell in Long Beach, CA in 2007). She has 

published in Teaching Hope (as part of a project with the 

Freedom Writers Foundation); created school partnerships 

with local non-profits such as Lowcountry Earth Force, 

Charleston HALOS, and Liza’s Lifeline; 

and was awarded over $8,000 in grants 

for Service Learning class project 

initiatives at Goose Creek High School. 

She is currently working on a Masters 

of Education degree in Secondary 

Administration at the Citadel with 

the Berkeley County School District’s 

LEAD cohort program. She is also 

mother of Mira Aliya McIntosh, 8 

1/2 months, and married to Matt 

McIntosh, co-owner of EVO Pizzeria 

in North Charleston. 

Adam Ellwanger ‘00, MA 

‘03 is Assistant Professor of English at 

the University of Houston - Downtown, 

where he teaches courses in writing and 

rhetorical theory. His essay entitled 

“On the Possibility of the Aesthetic Life: 

Terry Eagleton, Cather’s Tom Outland, 

and the Experience of Loss” appeared 

in the most recent issue of the Journal of 

Modern Literature. In April, his wife, Ellie Smith (CofC, Class 

of 2002), gave birth to their first son, Peter Wyndham. 

2001-2011 

Robert Wade Bowser ‘01 worked after graduation 

for Mark Sloan, Director of the Halsey Institute, as researcher 

on a book project about the photography of Frederick Whitman 

Glasier. Upon completion of the project, he enrolled in the 

University of Florida College of Law, where he earned his Juris 

Doctorate and a Certificate in Environmental and Land Use 

Law. That was followed by a year at the University of Miami 

School of Law, where he earned his Master of Laws in Real 

Property Development. He has been practicing real estate law 

since graduation in 2006 and is currently living in Orlando, 

Florida with his amazing wife and daughter. 

Katherine (Walker) Sullivan ‘01 earned a 

14

Masters of Library and Information Science at the University 

of South Carolina (USC) and Juris Doctorate at USC’s School 

of Law. She works as an attorney with Carlock, Copeland & 

Stair. 

Kenneth Gregory Wooten III ‘02 after 

graduation went to law school at the University of South 

Carolina and graduated in 2005. After passing the Bar and 

moving back to Charleston in 2006, he worked at South 

Carolina Legal Services on Carner Avenue in North Charleston 

for three years. His wife and he moved to Glasgow, Scotland in 

2009 to attend Masters programs at the University of Glasgow. 

On their return to the US, he enlisted the U.S. Army in 2011 

as a Paralegal Specialist, and he and his wife are currently 

living at Fort Riley, Kansas. He will be deploying to Forward 

Operating Base Andar in Paktika Province, Afghanistan for a 

nine-month rotation in May 2012. 

Emily (Cunningham) Dalton ‘03 graduated 

from the Citadel with a Masters in Business Administration 

in 2011 and is a Product 

Manager for Blackbaud in 

Charleston. (See a feature on 

Emily in Folio 2009.) 

Katherine Scott 

Crawford, MA ’04, 

will have her debut historical 

novel, Keowee Valley, 

published in September 

2012 by Bell Bridge Books. 

Set in the Revolutionaryera 

Carolinas (including 

Charleston) and in the 

Cherokee country, it’s the 

story of one woman’s journey 

into the wild Appalachian 

frontier, determined to save 

her beloved cousin from 

Fence bounding the yard of the Sotille House. 

certain death and to build a 

community of her own. Keowee Valley has received advance York City. 

praise from writers like Philip Lee Williams, Beverly Swerling, 

and Ron Rash, who writes that “Crawford is a fresh and 

valuable new voice in Southern literature.” 

She began research for the novel not long after she completed 

her MA. Additionally, she spent hours hiking, backpacking, 

and river paddling throughout the Southern Appalachians, 

and walking the streets of Charleston. As a nod to her 

graduate school experience, Crawford made her heroine, 

Quinn, a bookworm, and has her familiar with several of the 

works Crawford studied at CofC. Visit her web site for more 

information: www.katherinescottcrawford.com. 

Thea Star Gaillard ‘04 has a new addition to her 

family and her name is Lexi, a 5 lb, 1 year old peek-a-pom 

puppy who is lovable, huggable and causes a lot of mischief. 

After losing her sister to Non-Hodgkins lymphoma and her 

grandmother to lung cancer, her family is a huge advocate for 

patients with cancer. So, they are geering up for their next 

contribution to the MUSC Hollings Cancer Society. She has 

15 

made some strides in the fundraising department, but is 

sharpening those tools for her upcoming project. 

Elaine M. Robbins ‘04 graduated with an Master 

of Library and Information Science from the University of 

South Carolina in 2007 and works at the Daniel Library at the 

Citadel as a Reference/Instruction Librarian and as a liaison 

to the English and History Departments. She also contributes 

the Citadel’s material to the Lowcountry Digital Library and to 

Digital Collections @ The Citadel. 

Edward Benjamin Baldwin ‘05 is a copywriter 

with Elevation, an advertising agency in Richmond, VA. 

Meghan Leah Brinson ‘05 earned an MA 

in Literature at Georgetown University. Her poem “Sarah 

Bernhardt Plays Hamlet” was included in A Face to Meet the 

Faces: An Anthology of Persona Poetry from University of 

Akron Press. She recently read from her poetry at the East Bay 

Meeting House. 

Megan Prewitt 

Koon, MA ‘05 teaches 

American Literature, AP 

Language and Composition, 

Creative Writing, and 

Film Analysis for 11th and 

12th graders at St. Joseph’s 

Catholic School in Greenville, 

SC. She has a five-year old 

daughter who loves reading, 

playing soccer, and Minnie 

Mouse. In her spare time, she 

enjoys hanging out with her 

husband and daughter. 

Kara Logan Meyer 

‘05 is Director of External 

Relations for Storefront for 

Art and Architecture in New 

Emily (Oye) Sealy ‘05 moved to Richmond, VA 

after graduation to pursue an MFA in theatre pedagogy at 

Virginia Commonwealth University. She graduated with an 

MFA, married Jon Sealy (‘05) in 2009, and just graduated from 

the University of Richmond’s T. C. Williams School of Law. 

Katie Riddle ‘05 moved to Eugene, Oregon in 2006 

to begin work on her MA (and then PhD) in English at the 

University of Oregon. She expects to defend her dissertation 

and earn her PhD by June of 2013. In the past seven years, she 

has done a lot of traveling. Most notably, she spent the 2009- 

10 academic year living and writing in Toronto and Montréal, 

where she was married. She and her husband currently live in 

Denver, Colorado, here she works part-time as an instructor 

of writing and endeavors to write her dissertation full-time. 

Adam Joseph Russo ‘05 works as a DUI 

Prosecutor in Beaufort County for the 14th Judicial Circuit 


Cognition, Connection, and 

the Contemplative Mind 

English 365 (Cultural Studies) with 

English 404 (Contemplative Practice Lab) 

 

 

 

vate 

lives, and that had seemed to resonate over the 

 

 

- 

 

 

 

 

 

- 

- 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- 

 

- 

 

 

- 

 

and the philosophy 

of mind, 

 

 

 

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- 

 

 

risks. They paid off. They 

 

did. 

-- Doryjane 

Birrer 

16

Making Matter Matter in 

Premodern England 

English 395 (Special Topics) 

- 

 

 

 

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- 

 

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- 

 

Students developed a deeper understanding of late medieval English litera- 

 

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semester. 

17 

-- Myra Seaman

Assimilation & 

Americanization 

English 395 (Special Topics) & 400 (Senior Seminar) 

 

 

 

 

- 

- 

 

 

 

- 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

inof 

- 

 

Letters from an American Farmer, published in 

 

- 

 

 

 

Eastern Europeans--Abraham Cahan, Mary Antin, Avrom Reyzen, and Anzia 

- 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- 

 

-- J. Michael Duvall 


18


Solicitor’s Office. Mr. Russo married the former Ms. Sarah 

Elaine Brice on April 14, 2012, and they live together in 

Summerville with their son, Benjamin Thomas Brice. 

Jon Sealy ‘05 still lives in Richmond, Va., with his wife, 

Emily (nee Oye), also a 2005 English department graduate. 

“I’m still plugging away at my fiction,” he says, and had 

stories published last year in The Normal School, The Sun, and 

PANK. He also recently started a freelance writing business, 

Sealy Communications. He writes marketing and corporate 

communications materials for various companies. 

Kirstin Marie Bunton ‘06 is working in New 

York City as a real estate sales associate. 

James L. McCutchen ‘06 recently graduated 

from the Charleston School of Law and began working as 

an attorney with the South Carolina Department of Revenue 

in Columbia, SC. While in law school, he was a member of 

the Charleston Law Review, Associate 

Justice of the Moot Court Board, 

Captain of the Advanced Mock Trial 

Team, and member of the Honor 

Council. During the evenings, he 

spends his time working towards 

an advanced legal degree (LL.M) in 

taxation from Georgetown University. 

His wife, Allison, is a registered 

respiratory therapist. They enjoy 

spending time with friends, family, 

and their golden retriever (Belle) and 

miniature dachshund (Boone). 

Christopher Hampton 

Yount ‘06 is a software 

development engineer for Hawkes 

Learning Systems, where he is a web 

developer and documentation writer 

for their projects and products. He 

married in the summer of ‘09, has 

two dogs, and has traveled to the Caribbean as well as Brazil 

recently. 

Sarah Elizabeth Bumgarner ‘07 is currently 

working as a claims representative with the Social Security 

Administration. “My experience as an undergraduate was 

markedly different than that of the usual student,” she says. “I 

left my studies and returned after the birth of my son, who is 

now ten years old. At the time I graduated, he was six. Since 

then, I have held three professional positions, first at a local 

school district working with at-risk students under a temporary 

grant program, next as a Client Service Coordinator with the 

South Carolina Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, and 

now as a Social Insurance Specialist with the Social Security 

Administration. I can only say that having that degree, 

pushing through with my studies, and dedicating myself to 

the combined needs of work, motherhood, and education, has 

made a huge impact on the financial health of my family. With 

the support of my professors and the encouragement of my 

family, I left the college with great expectations. I can honestly 

19 

say that today I am a viable member of the community, helping 

others, and enjoying the benefits of a position made possible 

by my experience at CofC.” 

Maria Caruso ‘07 earned an MFA in Poetry Writing 

from The Ohio State University and subsequently taught 

English courses at a technical college. She is now a Life 

Skills tutor on an AmeriCorps team at Youth Villages Inner 

Harbour Campus in Douglasville, Georgia. Youth Villages is 

a residential psychiatric treatment facility, home, and school 

for youth with severe emotional and behavioral challenges. 

As a Life Skills tutor, she helps older youth learn independent 

living skills like job searching, money management, and 

interpersonal communication skills. 

Nathaniel James Cochran ‘07 earned an MA 

in Great Books at St. John’s College, Annapolis ‘09 and an MA 

in Political Theory at the University of Dallas ‘12. He currently 

works as a Projects Coordinator for Enterisk Global Advisors 

in Dallas, Texas and will be getting married August 11, 2012 to 

Lisa Renz in Dallas. 

Renee Lee (Greenan) 

Gardner, MA’07, and Jax 

Lee Gardner (‘08) welcomed their 

son, Abram Adrien Gardner, into the 

world on January 19th, 2012.Renee 

is currently on two dissertation 

completion fellowships: one, internal, 

from Western Michigan University 

and one, external, through the 

American Association of University 

Women (AAUW). She anticipates 

completing her PhD in Spring 2013. 

Melissa Michele 

(Glasscock) Meverden 

‘07 taught high school English for 

several years before getting married 

in 2011 and beginning work on an 

Master of Education in Curriculum 

and Instruction with a concentration in Literacy. While 

in school, she is working as a part-time teacher at a private 

elementary/middle school and as a private English/SAT tutor. 

Erika Blythe Lund ‘07 is working as a freelance 

writer. She finished a MA degree in Literature at the University 

of Colorado in 2010, married in 2011, and is looking forward 

to completing a PhD in the future. 

Krystle Danielle Singleton ‘07 is currently 

teaching Creative Writing and Pre-AP English at Osceola 

High School in Kissimmee, Florida. Her freshman just wrote 

their first novels and are now diving into the art of poetry and 

screenwriting. In addition to that she is in her third year as 

head coach of the swim team, and her girls are back-to-back 

Conference Champions! 

Megan (Smith) Goettsches ‘07 moved to West 

Africa after graduation to work with an non-governmental 

organization. She returned to America in 2009 and promptly

moved to Germany to be with her fiancee, who is also a 

College of Charleston Alum (2008). She enrolled at the 

University of Cologne in 2010 to pursue an MA in Cultural 

and Social Anthropology (Culture and Environment in 

Africa). She recently returned from a fieldwork expedition in 

Uganda, where she is currently conducting research on the 

renegotiation of gender roles and accessing livelihoods for 

widows in post-conflict Northern Uganda. She will complete 

the MA thesis and program in September 2012 and hopefully 

continue into a PhD program with the university. “Needless 

to say,” she says, “life has been fast and furious since my CofC 

days.” 

Zachary James Turpin, MA ‘07, after 

graduating moved to Austin, Texas (and taught there), to New 

Zealand (and volunteered there), and to Boston, where he 

worked for a statistical almanac before finding a job as a health 

news writer. His girlfriend and he were both recently accepted 

to PhD programs at the University of 

Houston, and they are expecting their 

first baby any day now. In their free 

time, they dogsit a very special furry 

friend, do competitive speedcubing, 

and watch trashy TV. 

Danielle Lhiannan 

Callesen ‘08 is working as a 

writer and editor. She writes and edits 

film and television content for various 

clientele, mainly on web and mobile 

platforms in the form of reviews and 

informative descriptions. 

Celeste Star DeVera ‘08 

is an ESOL Teacher at Charleston 

County School District and Spanish 

Teacher at Porter Gaud and is 

currently pursuing an MEd in 

Languages and Language Teaching at 

the College. She says, “I spent a lovely 

and fulfilling summer as an ESOL 

teacher for Charleston County School 

District’s Migrant Education Program. 

With the farms, fields, plantations, and the open air (and 

heat) our classroom, I taught English to migrant workers on 

Edisto, John’s, and Wadmalaw islands, garnering a profound 

appreciation for the migrant population and their hard labor 

that brings local produce right to our tables.” 

Sharon Marie Emery ‘08 has worn many hats 

since graduation: “my current hat,” she says “is at Blackbaud, 

where I work with the Support Operations team to keep the 

300 person Support department running on all cylinders. I 

still live Downtown, I volunteer with local organizations and 

have managed to keep my dog and a plant I got in college still 

alive. I recently took my first ever cross country road trip and 

have recently traveled to Boston. In the next year, I will be 

going back to school and planning a multi-week excursion to 

Europe.” 

Brittney Farish ‘08 earned a Juris Doctorate at the 

Towell Library, seen from the courtyard between 

7 (right) and 9 College Way 

20 

University of South Carolina School of Law and was admitted 

to the South Carolina Bar in 2011. She is currently an attorney 

with the Floyd Law Firm, PC. 

Jax Lee Gardner ‘08 and Renee Lee Gardner 

(MA ‘07) welcomed their son, Abram Adrien Gardner, into 

the world on January 19th, 2012. She finished her MA in 

English Literature (with honors) in May 2011 at University 

of Michigan, Kalamazoo. She also has an article, “One Where 

the Kid Really is All Right: The Queering of Iva in Marilyn 

Hacker’s Love, Death and the Changing of the Seasons,” coming 

out soon in The Journal of Lesbian Studies. 

Audra (Hammons) Turkus ‘08, after 

completing her MA in secondary education at The Citadel, 

moved to Denver, Colorado and began work as a language arts 

teacher at Littleton Academy, a charter school in Littleton, CO, 

where she is about to begin her second year. 

Joseph Alan Hasinger 

‘08 earned an MFA in Creative 

Writing (mixed thesis of fiction and 

creative non-fiction) from Hollins 

University in Roanoke, VA. He then 

relocated back to Charleston to begin 

teaching English Composition at 

Trident Technical College. He has 

since begun working at CommIT 

Enterprises, Inc. as Senior Technical 

Writer for various contracted projects 

for the Department of Defense. He is 

also working on a book of short stories 

as well as a novel and has had several 

publications in various journals. 

Bridget Marie Herman 

‘08 moved to Chicago after 

graduation to pursue a career in the 

writing/editing field. She published 

freelance pieces in Chicago-based 

magazines including Time Out 

Chicago and Chicago Home and Garden 

before accepting a full-time job as an 

editor at Groupon. She works on local Groupon write-ups for 

markets across North America, as well as specialty write-ups 

such as Groupon Getaways. She is also working toward an MA 

in Writing at DePaul University. 

Laura T. LeaMond ‘08 is Outreach Coordinator 

with The Neighborhood House, located at 77 America Street in 

Charleston. Neighborhood House offers daily lunch, clothing, 

a food pantry, and endless life enrichment and skills classes. 

To any alumni interested in volunteering, The Neighborhood 

House is always open and happy to have you! 

Hannah (Metivier) Gompers ‘08 will be 

leaving the EMS field in June and beginning a new career path 

with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department as a Police 

Telecommunicator. Her husband and she plan on expanding 


The War Literature of Hemingway, 

Vonnegut, and O’Brien 

English 400 (Senior Seminar) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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21 

--Susan Farrell

Charleston Writers 

English 400 (Senior Seminar) 

 

 

Porgy 

Doctor to the Dead 

 

Ain’t You Got a Right to the Tree of Life?, 

 

Three O’Clock Dinner 

 

The Golden Weather- 

 

Lords of Discipline 

Outbound 

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Rich in Love (about a teenager in Mount Pleas- 

 

 

 

 

 

The Lords of Discipline, 

Porgy 

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- 

Rich In Love 

 

 

-- Julia Eichelberger

Field Internships in the Major 

English 495 

- 

- 

- 

 

 

imagination, but for me, an opportunity to reshuf- 

 

 

home. Up until that point, internships 

had been handled on a 

 

 

members of the 

department. If 

one of our students 

 

 

help sponsor it. But it 

 

- 

 

b u i l d 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

lio 

of assembled materials from their internships 

 

- 

 

 

 

 

o v e r 

 

 

 

 

- 

 

businesses (The Post 

and Courier, Charleston 

City Paper, Charleston 

Magazine, The History 

Press, Sylvan 

Dell Publishing, Summer- 

- 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- 

 

 

 

 

-- Meg Scott Copses 

23

Writing Labs: Theory and Practice 

English 550 (Graduate Special Topics) 

 

Carolina. 

 

- 

 

 

 

 

 

for Ph.D. assistantships in either the 

 

 

gram 

Administrators. 

- 

- 

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lights 

the last time I taught English 550 

February 2010: Four former Consultants (l-r) Tori Smith Lewis (Computer Science 

‘98); Kristen Gaetke (English ‘06), Heather Alexander (English ‘07), Joanne Cinense 

(Chemistry ‘08). Photo by Bonnie Devet 

“Past, Present, Future”: current consultants, former consultants, graduate students, 

and Dr. Devet, February 2010. 

 

- 

 

 

 

--Bonnie Devet 

24


their family within the coming year. 

Anthony Joseph Lauricella ‘08 is a PhD 

student at the University of Chicago. 

Jennifer Olivia Pringle, MA ‘08, is an English 

teacher with the Charleston Collegiate School. 

Gale Marie Thompson ‘08, having completed 

an MFA in poetry (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), is 

going to be moving with her cat, Petey, to Athens, GA, to work 

on a PhD in English Literature and Creative Writing at the 

University of Georgia. Her manuscript, Soldier On, has been 

selected by Tupelo Press for publication, and most recently, a 

poem of hers was selected by Eileen Myles 

as the winner of Columbia: A Journal of 

Literature and Art’s 2012 Poetry Contest. 

She also has published work in the Denver 

Quarterly, Bateau, Salt Hill, Volt, and 

elsewhere. She is assistant editor at jubilat, 

promotions editor at Slope Editions, 

and creator/editor at Jellyfish Magazine 

(jellyfishmagazine.org). 

Braden Tennesen Trainor 

‘08 is currently deployed to Helmand 

Province, Afghanistan as the Antiterrorism 

Officer for 3rd Marine Air Wing (Forward). 

He lives in Oceanside, CA, with his wife 

and daughter, Monica, who is 11 years 

old. He is currently pursuing an MA in 

Criminal Justice. 

Joseph Bowling ‘09 has 

just completed the first year of a PhD 

program at the CUNY Graduate Center. 

He is currently running the Early 

Modern Interdisciplinary Group and 

won the Graduate Student Essay Prize in 

Renaissance and Early Modern Studies 

in the spring. He also teaches at Queens 

College in Flushing, Queens. 

Ryan Graudin ‘09, after graduating 

from the Creative Writing Concentration 

in English, managed to secure a literary agent who sold her 

first two young-adult novels to HarperCollins. LUMINANCE 

HOUR, a novel about a Fae who’s forced to guard the Prince 

of England, is due out in January 2014 through HarperTeen. 

Ryan also loves traveling and photographing weddings with 

her husband, David. 

You can follow Ryan at http://ryangraudin.blogspot.com. 

Mary Emma “Emmy” (Gray) Hart ‘09 

graduated from the University of Rochester’s Accelerated BS 

in Nursing program in December 2011 and was accepted 

into the Nurse Residency program at Georgetown University 

Hospital for February 2012. She is working in the Emergency 

Department. This program is six months long and is combined 

with clinical experience and classroom work. 

Randolph Hall 

25 

Jessica M. Harrigan ‘09 is an account manager 

with ISF Group, Inc., working closely with Not for Profit 

Organizations, both local and nationwide, to help raise funds 

through grants, monthly mailings, and event marketing. 

Kimberly Parkhill ‘09 spent a year after 

graduation as an AmeriCorp VISTA volunteer in Charleston, 

SC. Upon the completion of her term, she chose to use her 

scholarship towards the program Outward Bound, where she 

spent 22 days out in the Sierra Nevada wilderness. After an 

offer from Jersey Mike’s Franchise Systems, she moved to NJ 

to work as a Real Estate Manager for Jersey Mike’s Subs. She 

traveled across the United States for a year and, she says, has 

“almost stepped foot on all 50 states.” She began an MBA at 

the Citadel in 2011, but is transferring to a different program 

in DC. She has completed two marathons 

since graduation, the Marine Corps and 

Charlottesville marathons, and she will 

be running the Philadelphia Marathon in 

November. For now her plan is stay in one 

place and continue her MBA in DC. 

Chris Willoughby ‘09 is 

currently pursuing his PhD in history 

at Tulane University and living in New 

Orleans. Last spring he defended his 

Master’s Thesis, entitled “Infecting the Black 

Body: Slavery and Medicine in Samuel 

Cartwright’s South,” presented a paper at 

Southern Association for the History of 

Medicine and Science, and also managed 

to survive his last semester of coursework. 

He is tentatively planning to do his 

dissertation on the construction of race 

through medical practice in the nineteenth 

century Southern culture. This upcoming 

year, he will be teaching two classes while 

preparing his dissertation prospectus and 

doing all other things necessary to go ABD 

(“All But Dissertation”) and start doing 

some dissertation research. 

Joseph Garrett Brown ‘10 

lives in his hometown of Myrtle Beach, SC, 

serves as a board member for a non-profit 

organization called the Christian Haitian 

American Partnership (CHAP) www.chaphaiti.org, and has 

traveled twice to Port au Prince, Haiti since graduation and 

continually makes efforts to support CHAP’s four schools, 

nutrition program, and medical clinic in Haiti. He is also 

currently pursuing an MA in Writing at Coastal Carolina 

University. 

Jose Robert Gonzalez III ‘10 is pursuing a JD at 

the Charleston School of Law. 

Kathleen “Katie” Halley, MA ‘10 moved to 

Atlanta after graduation to work as a campaign coordinator 

with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s School and 

Youth Program. In April 2011, she began a new position in 

the Office of the Vice President for Research at Kennesaw

State University, where she is now the Director of Research 

Communications. 

Molly Lewis ‘10 took a year off from school after 

graduation to apply to PhD programs in English and ended 

up working as a community manager for the American 

Cancer Society, where she helped to organize four events in 

different communities on the South Carolina coast. She was 

then admitted with a teaching assistantship into the George 

Washington University PhD program with a concentration in 

Medieval and Early Modern literature. As her second semester 

of coursework is winding down, she says, “I am so thankful for 

all of my wonderful CofC English professors who taught me so 

much and encouraged me to follow this career path!” 

Jenna Lyles ‘10 is working in Charleston for a Southern 

regional queer liberation organization and also organizes with 

Girls Rock Charleston. 

Cassandre Ann “Cassie” 

Mandel ‘10 went to the NYU 

Summer Publishing Institute after 

graduation, where she obtained a 

certificate in publishing. She interned 

at HarperCollins and Bloomsbury USA 

before getting a job at Penguin Group. 

She is working in New York City as 

a publicity assistant for the Penguin 

imprint Dutton. She says, “living here is 

wonderful, but I would be lying if I said 

I didn’t miss Charleston.” 

Alexa Moyer ‘10 spent the 

summer of 2010 working for the Provost 

at CofC and was hired by W. W. Norton 

in September of that year. She moved 

to New York and began in the editorial 

department and is now managing and 

designing print ads, writing web ads, 

and coordinating all of the college 

marketing conferences Norton attends 

throughout the year. She says “It’s really 

fascinating to work on the ‘other side’ of 

the books I loved in college, especially 

now that I’ve experienced both the editorial and marketing 

aspects of publishing. If you had told me in college that I’d one 

day be working in marketing, I would have laughed…I had 

no idea back then how many doors an English degree truly 

opens.” 

Rachel Anne Reinke ‘10 is pursuing a PhD in 

Women and Gender Studies at Arizona State University. 

Diana Rene Rowe ‘10 has held an assortment of 

full time, part time, and volunteer positions. She currently 

volunteers as an ESL teacher at St. Matthews Outreach 

center and is a Spanish teacher with Lango Kids. She has 

also volunteered as a creative writing teacher at Mitchell 

Elementary, and for a brief time she was a part-time Public 

Relations employee with TouchPoint Communications. 

Joshua Haffner ‘11 (right) engaged in mock 

(one hopes) combat with author Jonathan 

Safran Foer (who will speak at the College in 

October on his latest book, Eating Animals) 

26 

A month after she graduated she traveled to Haiti as a volunteer 

with the disaster relief efforts and helped to build permanent 

housing for amputee victims living in tent cities. 

Six months ago, she was accepted into WorldTeach’s Micronesia 

Program. In July she will depart for Kosrae, Micronesia, where 

she will spend the 2012-2013 school year teaching English and 

writing at local high schools. Her main objective is to hone the 

writing skills of young Kosraens to prepare them for college 

entrance essays. 

Erin Laray Stubbs ‘10 reports that she has mostly 

been spending her time off from school improving her 

relationships, as well as catching up on all the reading she 

did not have a chance to do in law school. She has also been 

doing preliminary research/reading/writing on her proposed 

thesis topic. Aside from these things, she has been doing 

freelance work from home as well as 

editing articles, essays, and letters for 

her mother, who works as a writer. 

Naomi R. Benjamin ‘11, 

in August of 2011, moved across the 

country to Orange County, California, 

starting off as an assistant teacher at 

LePort until December, when she was 

promoted to an official position. “And 

let me tell you,” she exclaims, “this job 

is AMAZING! The school’s motto is 

‘knowledge for life’; in other words, they 

encourage the students to be led by their 

teachers to conclusions but to learn how 

to find out information for themselves.” 

One of her favorite aspects of teaching is 

the time spent making knowledge relate 

to the kids’ lives, which in turn motivates 

them to learn and enjoy the process. “It’s 

been such a great opportunity!” 

Ashley Michelle Blair, MA 

‘07, is an Adjunct English Instructor at 

Central Piedmont Community College. 

Tiffany Faith Cartee ‘11 

moved to Richmond, Virginia soon after 

graduation to live with her long-time boyfriend, Alex, and her 

pet bird, Francisco. After a couple of months, she landed a job 

at a law firm doing paralegal work, office management tasks, 

and marketing. Recently, she has been focused on sending in 

some new work to poetry websites and fiction competitions. 

She is also currently working on a blog about her writing 

process and the looming possibility of “maybe (hopefully)” 

being published. She is planning a trip to Costa Rica and is 

also “playing around” with the idea of taking the LSATs this 

year and possibly going to law school in the very near future. 

She says, “I miss Charleston, and all of my professors and 

friends, quite horribly! Also, for the record, I can easily be 

found on Facebook.” 

Joshua Elias Haffner ‘11 moved to Washington, 

DC after graduation to work at Sixth & I, a concert and book

tour venue and part-time synagogue. As an Event Assistant, 

he helped put on shows featuring Jonathan Safran Foer, 

Rachel Maddow, and his personal favorite, Diane Keaton. He 

is presenting a paper adapted from his bachelor’s thesis at a 

graduate conference at the University of Western Ontario this 

summer, and he plans to begin an MA in English at McGill 

University in the fall (though he is entertaining the idea of 

doing a post-baccalaureate pre-med program at Georgetown 

instead). 

Aurora E. Harris ‘11 is working as Diversity 

Programs Manager at the Preservation Society of Charleston. 

Suzanne Rogers Lynch ‘11 now works as a sales 

and marketing specialist with Arcadia Publishing, a position 

she secured after many months stringing together various 

kinds of work and, very significantly, serving as an editorial 

intern for a children’s book publisher, a private author, and, 

finally, Arcadia, where she filled in for a person on maternity 

leave. Her work led to a full-time position. Of her job search 

experience, she says that the internships, which she highly 

recommends to all English majors, “definitely helped my 

resume and own search. I also think it’s important to remember 

that you really do learn from each interview. I knew that I 

could prove myself as a valuable employee--it’s just difficult to 

demonstrate that before you’re hired.” 

Stephen Meyerink ‘11 attended Ohio State 

University’s SPEAC program in Japanese this past summer and 

will be pursuing a PhD in Japanese Language and Literature at 

Washington University in St. Louis this fall, with an emphasis 

in the modern period and translation theory. In his spare 

time he has been living out a childhood dream writing for 

RPGFan.com, which has been a fantastic opportunity to 

meet wonderful, passionate people, travel around the US and 

abroad, and improve his writing and public relations skills. 

Sharon Alexandria “Alex” Percival ‘11 

moved to Washington, DC after graduation to pursue a 

Masters in Political Management at George Washington 

University. She is also interning with a media consulting 

firm that focuses on progressive politics, whose clients 

include Planned Parenthood, the Democratic Governors 

Association, and EMILY’s List. They are currently working 

with Minnesotans United for All Families to help defeat the 

upcoming Minnesota Marriage Protection Amendment, 

which would create a Constitutional amendment that defines 

marriage as between one man and one woman. They are also 

working with Planned Parenthood to protect women’s health 

care programs across the nation. She will be volunteering at 

the Democratic National Convention in September. 

Jessica Marie Riggs ‘11 “sent out 60 plus 

applications and got two interviews” after graduation, but 

“luckily, the first call back offered [her] a job as a ‘junior’ 

technical writer.” She works at Savvee, who is hiring a senior 

technical writer to mentor and teach her more about technical 

writing. She is still living at home in Goose Creek but plans to 

move out within the next year. 

Kristen Eden Simon ‘11 is working full-time as 

a leasing consultant for a company that takes old buildings 

that used to be warehouses, factories, or mills, and turns them 

into loft-style apartments, complete with exposed brick and 

sky-high ceilings. She is living just outside the perimeter of 

Atlanta, in Marietta. It was named one of the twenty-five best 

places in the country to retire,....but, she notes, “that’s not really 

applicable for me yet.” In her spare time, she’s been writing a 

vegan food blog, “it’s something [she is] passionate about.... 

Who knows?,” she says, “maybe it’ll lead to a cookbook!” She 

has plans to eventually enroll in graduate school but is unsure 

as to whether to continue pursuing creative writing or start a 

new path, perhaps in law. She is also looking to move toward 

the west coast within the next year, “even,” she says, “if I have 

to go one baby step at a time.” 

Samantha Rae Verlotta ‘11 works at BoomTown!, 

a software company in downtown Charleston on Rutledge Ave 

that creates websites and provides leads management tools to 

real estate agents and brokers all over the US (and in Canada. 

She says, “I absolutely love BoomTown!’s company focus on 

culture and values--they emphasize a healthy balance of work 

and play and provide an environment that allows me to really 

learn and grow however I want. For example, when I told them 

I’d be interested in helping out with press releases, they jumped 

right on it and allowed me to experiment outside of my ‘job 

description’.” She is also helping to organize her company’s new 

volunteer efforts. 

Faculty Notes, 2011-2012 

John Bruns spent yet another year hunkered down 

in the basement of RSS with several of his colleagues. He 

managed to escape from time to time; once he visited the 

Margaret Herrick Library at the Academy of Motion Picture 

Arts & Sciences to continue research on his Hitchcock book, 

and he also visited Boston where, at the Society for Cinema 

and Media Studies annual conference, he gave a paper on 

Hitchcock’s adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s “The Birds.” 

The paper was revised and expanded and will be featured in 

a special issue on Hitchcock in Clues: A Journal of Detection 

early next year. John also did some much needed nipping and 

tucking to the Film Studies program’s curriculum. 

27 

Tim Carens, last fall, attended a conference organized 

to celebrate the bicentennial of the birth of Charles Dickens, 

delivering a paper entitled “Dickensian Melodrama and 

Working-Class Political Agency.” In response to the conference 

theme – Charles Dickens, Past, Present, and Future – this 

essay discussed how Dickens’s works continue to influence 

our understanding of urban industrial poverty and how their 

melodramatic resolutions limit our ability to conceive of 

meaningful social change. 

In the spring, Carens attended an institute held by the Council 

on Undergraduate Research in Michigan. Representing the 

College with three other members of the Undergraduate 

Research and Creative Activities program, he participated in 

workshops with other teams from across the country. The 

group from the College of Charleston developed a plan to

increase the participation of arts and humanities faculty in 

URCA grant programs. 

Speaking of which, Carens and student Victor Imko received 

one of those grants to support Victor’s summer research 

project: “Locating ‘Queer Street’ in Late-Victorian Gothic 

Fiction.” 

Carens spent the spring semester on sabbatical, a part of which 

he used to conduct archival research in London at the British 

Library. After that period of productive but lonely work, he is 

looking forward to getting back into the classroom in the fall. 

Marguerite (Meg) Scott Copses is off to 

Greece! [or was at the time she submitted this update]. The 

trip is mostly family oriented, but also part research for the 

next volume of Illuminations, the literary mag she inherited 

last summer from long-time editor Simon Lewis. The next 

issue will be a Greek theme-based volume. The current issue, 

#28, her first as Editor, has just been released. 

When she’s not reading manuscripts or trying to write 

one of her own, she’s likely teaching academic writing, 

poetry workshops, or her step aerobics class over at MUSC. 

(Seriously!) If not that, she’s chasing 

her children in circles around her 

house. 

Bonnie Devet served as a 

reviewer for the International Writing 

Center Conference, San Diego, 

2012. Her article, “Redefining the 

Writing Center with Ecocomposition” 

(Composition Forum 23 [Winter 

2011] ) was nominated for 

the International Writing Center 

Association’s Outstanding Scholarship 

(Article) for 2011. Another article, 

“What Teachers of Academic Writing 

Can Learn from a Writing Center,” was chosen for the 

premiere issue of Journal of Academic Writing (The Journal 

of the European Association for the Teaching of Academic 

Writing), Autumn 2011. 

She also published a number of other pieces: “Dear Labby: 

Stressing Interpersonal Relationships in a Writing Center,” 

written with peer consultant Alison Barbiero, and appearing 

in Writing Lab Newsletter (Jan./Feb. 2012); “A Writing Lab 

in the Shadow of the Eiffel Tower” in Southern Discourse 

(Publication of the Southeastern Writing Center Association) 

14.1 (2010); and “Bringing Grammar Back into the Writing 

Center” in Southern Discourse 16.1 (2011). 

In addition, Dr. Devet made a number of presentations at 

national and state conferences: “Ecocomposition as a Natural 

Fit for Writing in the Disciplines” at the International Writing 

Across the Curriculum Conference, Savannah, GA., June 

2012; “Grammatoons in the Classroom” at the Assembly for 

the Teaching of English Grammar (ATEG), July 2011, Largo, 

Maryland; “Reconceptualizing WID in order to Solve Its 

Recurrent Problems” at the 2012 Research Network Forum 

at CCCC, St. Louis, March 2012; and “Recovered History of 

The Hacks 

28 

South Carolina Writing Center Association” at the meeting 

of Palmetto State Writing Center Association, Columbia, SC 

April 2012. 

Mike Duvall spent last spring on a sabbatical, doing 

research on late 19th and turn of the century fiction that he 

loosely calls “novels of socialism,” fiction whose main purpose 

is either to endorse or go against “socialism” (a term that 

means many different things to many different people). These 

novels range from grubby realism to melodramatic romance 

to fantastic utopia and dystopia, and the period saw hundreds 

of them published. In April, he presented a paper arising from 

this research in Berkeley, CA at the conference of C19: The 

Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists: “Perversity and 

the Novel of Socialism after Bellamy.” And, as always, with 

colleagues and friends in and outside the department--known 

collectively as The Hacks--last year he battled an assortment of 

foes on the softball diamond and only lost a little dignity and 

pride. He is looking forward to getting back in the classroom 

in the fall, when he will be teaching a new first-year seminar, 

“Mark Twain: The American.” In the spring he will offer 

another new course on regionalism and local color writing for 

upper-division English majors. 

Julia Eichelberger this 

summer received a College grant (for 

Innovative Teaching and Learning in 

the Liberal Arts) to develop materials 

for her courses that meet a new English 

major requirement called “Literature 

in History.” She has been developing 

assignments that will engage students in 

a deeper study of public events, daily life, 

customs, and beliefs of a particular time 

and place. 

This year she also completed an essay 

for Eudora Welty, Whiteness, and Race 

(forthcoming from U of GA Press). Her 

book Tell About Night Flowers: Eudora Welty’s Gardening 

Letters, 1940-1949 is forthcoming from UP of Mississippi. She 

bought a kayak and started taking short paddles around the 

area. Her daughter graduated from the College this May, and 

she had the pleasure of seeing Commencement through the 

eyes of a proud parent. (After years of disliking the white-dress 

tradition, she found herself saying, “Oh, they look adorable!” 

as her daughter and her classmates walked across the stage.) 

And she moved from 22A to 26 Glebe, partly to gain access to 

her own upstairs porch, but also to force herself to clean out 

her office and seriously winnow her file cabinets after 20 years 

at the College. 

Susan Farrell’s book, Critical Companion to Tim 

O’Brien: A Literary Reference to his Life and Work, was published 

in fall of 2011. Professor Farrell continues to be active in the 

Kurt Vonnegut Society: she attended the American Literature 

Association conference in San Francisco in May to participate 

in a round-table discussion of the controversial new Vonnegut 

biography by David Shields. She’s also writing an essay on 

Vonnegut and religion for a new volume on Vonnegut in the 

Critical Insights series published by Salem Press.

Conseula Francis, since our last issue, has had an 

essay published in a collection on comics and the U.S. South. 

The essay is titled “Drawing the Unspeakable: Kyle Baker’s 

Slave Narrative.” She has also presented her research on 

African American romance at the National Council of Black 

Studies and conference, and she traveled to 

Little Rock, AR to meet with black romance 

writers and readers at their annual conference, 

Romance Slam Jam. Most importantly, though, 

she finally (finally!) managed to grow something 

in her garden: five fat tomatoes and one glorious 

sunflower. 

Joe Kelly taught Honors 110 in the 

Fall, using Charleston--history, politics, 

demographics, culture--as his text, sending 

students out to explore on buses, to observe at 

city council meetings, to express their policy 

opinions in the Post and Courier. In addition to 

his normal Modern British Literature offering, 

he taught a new, large lecture class to humanities 

students: Sex, God, and Guns: Irish Fiction, 

Film, and Song in the 20th Century. Over 

Bloomsday, he attended the International James 

Joyce Symposium in Dublin, and a biographical 

article he wrote on Joyce was accepted by the James Joyce 

Quarterly. He’s spending the summer finishing his book, 

America’s Longest Siege: How Charleston Caused the Civil War, 

which will be published by Overlook Press in Spring 2013. 

Simon Lewis has been busy with the CLAW program 

commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. The 

conference entitled Civil War Global Conflict in March 2011 

featuring James McPherson has led to in-progress collection 

of essays that should be out from USC Press in 2013. Before 

that, another collection of essays from the earlier CLAW 

conference (2008) on the banning of the 

international slave trade, should be out from 

USC Press this fall. He is also editing a special 

issue, “Something New Out of Africa,” for the 

Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial 

Studies--working with Lindsey Green-Simms, 

who was with us for a year before going on 

to American U in Washington DC. His 

main focus for 2012-13 year is coordinating 

a state-wide Jubilee Project commemorating 

two resonantly coincident anniversaries: the 

150th of the Emancipation Proclamation and 

the 50th of the desegregation of Clemson 

University, the University of South Carolina, 

and Charleston County Schools District. As 

part of that project, he is hosting the 39th 

annual conference of the African Literature 

Association on the theme Literature, 

Liberation, and the Law. Key-note speakers at 

that will include Justice Albie Sachs, Njabulo 

Ndebele, Binyavanga Wainaina, Leonora Miano, as well as 

local luminaries Cleveland Sellers and Emory Campbell. 

Bret Lott’s thirteenth book and eighth novel, Dead Low 

Tide, came out from Random House in January. He taught two 

Conseula Francis’s One 

Glorious Sunflower 

Julia Rogers, playing with a fountain 

on a street in Debrecen, Hungary 

29 

express courses at the College, and then served as the Ferrol A. 

Sams, Jr., Distinguished Chair in English at Mercer University, 

serving as visiting writer for six weeks. In addition, he was a 

faculty member of the Geneva Writers Conference in Geneva, 

Switzerland; attended the National Council on the Arts awards 

dinner for President Obama’s National Medal of 

Arts recipients at the Smithsonian Institution; 

was the keynote speaker at the Wedgwood Circle 

annual meeting in Santa Monica, California; 

and gave readings in Illinois, North Carolina, 

Iowa, and Indiana. Finally, he and Scott Peeples 

led the Spoleto Summer Study Abroad program 

in May and June. 

Scott Peeples presented papers at 

conferences in Savannah, GA; Berkeley, CA; 

and Florence, Italy. But the highlights of his 

academic year were teaching some new courses: 

American Literature of the 1850s (Fall 11); Poe, 

Place, and History (Spring 12); and The Italian 

Image in 19th-c American Literature, which he 

had the opportunity to teach in Spoleto, Italy, as 

part of the English Department’s study-abroad 

program. 

Alison Piepmeier continued with what’s become 

a book project on prenatal testing and our cultural 

understanding of disability. She has interviewed more than 

30 parents of children with Down syndrome and seven 

women who were pregnant at the time the interviews. She has 

discussed how they made their decisions about whether or not 

to have prenatal testing and how they made decisions about 

the pregnancy after the test results were returned. She had 

an article featured in the New York Times’s “Motherlode” blog 

in March that gives a sense of some of the work she’s doing 

. 

She also had a piece published in Disability 

Studies Quarterly . 

Kathleen Beres Rogers found 

2012 to be an exceedingly busy year as she 

worked on the juggling act between teaching, 

publication, and new parenthood! Most 

importantly, her daughter Julia turned one, 

and she seems like a happy child (so far!). 

You can see a picture of her in Hungary, 

(left) where Kathy’s family resides. While 

on modified duties, she co-wrote an article 

about Harriet Martineau as nineteenthcentury 

cyborg, published in Prose Studies. 

In October, she managed to attend the 

International Conference on Romanticism 

in Montreal, and the paper she presented will 

be published in Essays in Romanticism this 

summer! It’s about Keats’s Isabella, decapitated heads, and the 

medical-ish ideas about obsession in the Romantic era. She 

actually became so obsessed with the topic that she has started 

working on another paper about monomania/obsession in 

Frankenstein, which she’ll be presenting at the next ICR this

upcoming fall. This might be a book in the making! She is 

also in the process of editing a chapter about service learning 

in literary studies, to be published in the upcoming MLA 

volume by the same name. It’s about her First Year Experience 

course, “Healing Narratives,” about which you can read in this 

Folio volume. She also taught her second graduate course, 

“Romanticism and Science,” which she enjoyed immensely. 

Emily Rosko published two books this year. A Broken 

Thing: Poets on the Line (University of Iowa Press), which 

she edited with Anton Vander Zee, collects 70 microessays 

on the line in poetry by a range of established and emerging 

poets. Prop Rockery, her second book of poems, which won 

the 2011 Akron Poetry Prize from the University of Akron 

Press, was published in February. Rosko also won a Dorothy 

Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Prize and presented a paper at 

MLA 2012 on the rise and role 

of creative writing programs 

within the discipline of English. 

William Russell 

presented a paper on 

Elizabethan satirist Thomas 

Nashe and the relationship 

between literary criticism and 

detraction at the Sixteenth 

Century Society Conference 

in Ft. Worth, TX, in October. 

Meanwhile, he continued work 

on his book project on the idea 

of the literary critic in early 

modern England, a chapter 

of which will be published 

in Studies in Philology this fall. 

The highlight of his academic 

year, however, may well have been the all-night group reading 

of Paradise Lost cooked up (honestly!) and hosted by the 

Literati Club (formerly the English Club), which he proudly 

serves as faculty advisor. 

Myra Seaman taught two new classes that grew out 

of her scholarship, “Making Matter Matter in Premodern 

England” and “Future Perfect Human: Cyborg, Clone, 

Werewolf, God.” In both cases medieval texts and 

contemporary approaches and texts found themselves in 

suggestive conversation, generating, for instance, student 

presentations on “Lady Gaga as Object Oriented Ontologist” 

(by Victor Imko) and essays on temporality, the Singularity, 

hybridity, BSG, disability, and medieval culture. Co-editing 

postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies continued 

to be her primary scholarly activity, with the journal winning 

the PROSE Award for ‘Best New Journal in Social Sciences and 

Humanities’ from the Association of American Publishers. She 

published an essay on “Conduct Literature” in The History of 

British Women’s Writing, to 1500 and had two articles accepted 

for publication, one of them a pedagogical essay on a course 

she taught in Spring 2011, “Medieval Prime Time.” She gave 

three talks at two conferences, the New Chaucer Society and 

the International Medieval Congress, laying the theoretical 

groundwork for her book on Objects of Affective Literacy: 

Learning to Feel from the Medieval English Gentry Household. 

And they’re off!: Catherine Thomas and William Shelton depart 

for their honeymoon. Photo courtesy of Alexa Moyer. 

30 

Two marathons, also, were completed, in Portland and in 

(insanely beautiful) Ogden. 

Catherine Thomas taught her last year (for now) of 

Honors Western Civ with Dr. Newell, during his next-to-last 

last year at the College (“an honor and pleasure!,” she notes). 

She also enjoyed teaching some new courses: Gender and 

Sexuality in Early Modern Literature and Culture and a senior 

seminar on Shakespeare and Popular Culture. Her survey 

article on early modern poisoning, “Toxic Encounters,” was 

published in Literature Compass, and she completed “(Un) 

sexing Lady Macbeth: Gender, Power, and Visual Rhetoric in 

Her Graphic Afterlives,” which has been accepted to Upstart 

Crow: A Shakespeare Journal. She is currently co-editing an 

essay collection called Violent Masculinities: Male Aggression 

in Renaissance Texts with her friend and colleague, Dr. Jennifer 

Feather (UNC-Greensboro). They are hoping to see that into 

print in the next year or so. 

Desire in Shakespeare.” 

In her personal life, the big 

news is that she got married 

in between semesters, mid- 

December 2011. Of which she 

says, “You can imagine the 

chaos of grading all the papers 

and exams, turning grades in, 

and immediately rushing off to 

entertain guests! It was a lovely 

event though, and we enjoyed 

spending time with our friends 

and family.” This summer she is 

wrapping up her term as British 

Studies director and celebrating 

that by taking students over to 

London to study “Love, Sex, and 

Anton Vander Zee Anton Vander Zee earned his 

Ph.D. from Stanford University this summer after completing 

his dissertation, “’The Final Lilt of Songs’: Late Whitman 

and the Long American Century.” The dissertation rescues 

Whitman’s late work from critical neglect and demonstrates 

how Whitman, precisely in the estranging forms his late work 

takes, offers a charged poetic response to the post-Civil War 

years, and also plays a critically overlooked role in conceptions 

of subsequent poetries across the twentieth century and 

beyond. Anton presented what became the conclusion to the 

dissertation at a special session he put together for the 2012 

MLA conference, where he also presented a paper on the New 

Formalism in the context of twentieth-century American 

literature. Last fall, the University of Iowa Press published a 

collection of microessays--A Broken Thing: Poets on the Line- 

-that he edited and introduced with Emily Rosko. During the 

coming academic year, in addition to teaching in the English 

Department, Anton will take on a new role as a part-time 

Faculty Fellow in the Honors College, where he will work 

with the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards and assist 

in teaching the Honors first-year experience course, Beyond 

George Street. 

Anthony Varallo’s third short story collection,

Think of Me and I’ll Know, will be published by Northwestern 

University Press/TriQuarterly Books in Fall 2013. 

Trish Ward taught a new course in the fall, English 

309: English Language: Grammar and History. The course is 

a blend of the modern grammar and history of the language 

courses required for teaching certification. She is looking 

forward to teaching a senior seminar on Tolkien and Rowling 

in Fall, along with a lower-level course on the Harry Potter 

series. She is also continuing research projects on Old English 

poetry and J.K. Rowling. 

Chris Warnick was awarded tenure and promoted to 

Associate Professor. Along with Dr. Mecklenburg-Faenger, 

Dr. Scott-Copses, and Dr. Patrick Bahls (a mathematics 

professor at UNC-Asheville), he published the essay “Proofs 

and Persuasion: A Cross-Disciplinary Analysis of Math 

Students’ Writing” in the journal Across the Disciplines. Last 

spring, he taught the new course English 310: Theories of 

Teaching Writing. This summer, he’s continued his research 

on math students’ writing with other members of the research 

team, presenting findings at the Conference on College 

Composition and Communication in St. Louis and the 

International Writing Across the Curriculum conference in 

Savannah. Besides working on several faculty development 

initiatives this summer, including a writing across the 

curriculum workshop sponsored by the First-Year Experience 

program, he’s rooted on his Pittsburgh Pirates, who (fingers 

crossed) appear to be on the verge of their first winning season 

in Dr. Warnick’s adulthood. 

Thank you for your continued support of the 

Department of English. 

If you are interested in making a gift, 

please send a check payable to the 

College of Charleston Foundation 

to 

School of Humanitites and Social Sciences 

66 George Street 

Charleston, SC 29424 

Please note “Department of English” on your check. If 

you have any questions please contact The School of 

Humanities and Social Sciences at 843.953.0766 

31

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