English

Aguiló-Pérez, Emily (she/her/ella)
Associate Professor
Main Hall 116 | EAguilo-Perez@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University
Interests: Children’s and Youth Literatures and Cultures; Childhood Studies; Representation and Diversity in Children’s Literature and Media; Toys and Media Studies; Girlhood Studies; Latinx Identities and Representation; Children’s Rights; Popular Culture; Disney Studies

Alnes, Jacqueline
Assistant Professor
Main Hall 528 | JAlnes@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., Oklahoma State University
Interests: Creative Nonfiction, Literary Journalism, Memoir, Poetry, Disability Studies, Intersections between Composition, Creative Writing, and Literature

Anderson, Amy (she/her)
Associate Professor
Main Hall 508 | AAnderson@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., University of Kentucky
Interests: Visual Rhetoric; Multimodal Composition; History of Rhetoric; The New Rhetoric Project; Digital Rhetoric; Byzantine Iconography

Ashley, Hannah M. (she/her)
Professor
Main Hall 109 | HAshley@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., Temple University
Interests: Community Organizing and Public Humanities; Ecological Humanities; First-generation and Working-Class University Students; Basic Writing; Bakhtinian Voicing Theory; Critical Discourse Analysis; Critical Pedagogy; Community and Academic Literacies

Awuyah, Christian
Professor
Main Hall 517 | CAwuyah@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., University of Alberta
Interests: African Literature; World Literature; Comparative Literature; Ghanaian Literature

Banner, Rachel (she/her)
Associate Professor
Main Hall 507 | RBanner@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
Interests: 19th-century African American Literature; Frederick Douglass; 19th-Century U.S. Literature; 19th-Century Aesthetic Theories; Law and Literature

Betz, B. G.
Instructor
Main Hall 312 | BBetz@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., University of Delaware
Interests: Popular Women's Fiction; the Victorian Novel; Composition; Local History

Blake, Michelle
Assistant Professor
Main Hall 510 | MBlake@wcupa.edu
Education: M.A., Columbia University
Interests: Developmental Writing; First-Year Writing; Online Writing Instruction; First-Year Experience; Student Engagement; Peer Mentoring

Burns, Michael (he/they)
Associate Professor; Department Chair 
Main Hall 544 | MBurns2@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
Interests: African American Rhetorics; Composition and Rhetoric; Rhetoric and the Built Environment; Teaching Non-Traditional College Students

Cooke, Laquana
Associate Professor; Director of iCamp Media Academy icampwcu.org
Main Hall 115 | LCooke2@wcupa.edu
Education:Ph.D., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Interests: Generative STEM Education; Digital Rhetoric; Critical Literacy and Pedagogy; Digital-Based Learning; Games Studies; Design Research; Game Design; Usability Studies

Cream, Randall
Associate Professor
Main Hall 544 | RCream@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., University of Connecticut
Interests: Digital Humanities; Data Mining; Gaming; Technologies of Writing; Early Modern Philosophy and Literature; Distance Education

Dodson-Robinson, Eric
Associate Professor
Main Hall 515 | EDodson-Robinson@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
Interests: Reception Studies; Revenge Drama; Seneca; Tragedy; Shakespeare's Reception of the Classics; Cross-Cultural Encounters in the Ancient World; Archaic Greek Poetry

Dougherty, Tim
Associate Professor; Assistant Chair For Students and Student Learning
Main Hall 542 | TDougherty@wcupa.edu | 610-436-1682
Education: Ph.D., Syracuse University
Interests: Histories of Rhetoric; Cultural Rhetorical Theories; Intersectional Feminist Rhetorics; Critical Ethnic and Settler Colonial Studies; Irish Studies; Labor Issues in Writing Program Administration; Contemplative and Antiracist Writing Pedagogy

Duval, Peter
Associate Professor
Main Hall 551 | PDuval@wcupa.edu
Education: M.F.A., Boston University; M.A. (Literature), University of Illinois; M.A. (Film Studies), New York University
Interests: Short Fiction; Creative Writing; Film Studies; Book and Web Design; Editing

Ersheid, Alison
Assistant Professor
Main Hall 104 | AErsheid@wcupa.edu 
Education: M.F.A. Fiction Writing, George Mason University
Interests: Professional and Technical Writing; Retention and Persistence in Underprepared Writers; First Year Writing; Short Fiction

Ervin, Kristine
Associate Professor
Main Hall 102 | To contact Professor Ervin for WCU-related inquiries, please email English-Dept@wcupa.edu and we will forward your message. For all other inquiries, please visit kristineservin.com.
Education: Ph.D., University of Houston; M.F.A., New York University
Interests: Creative Nonfiction; Poetry; Memoir; Intersections between Literature, Creative Writing, and Composition

Ervin, Margaret (she/her)
Professor
Main Hall 103 | MErvin@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., University at Albany, State University of New York
Interests: Composition; Rhetoric; English Education; Business Writing

Esch, Stacy
Assistant Professor
Main Hall 535 | SEsch@wcupa.edu
Education: M.A., West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Interests: General Education; Composition and Rhetoric; Popular Culture Studies; Contemporary Topics in Literature

Famiglietti, Andy
Assistant Professor
Main Hall 538 | AFamiglietti@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., Bowling Green State University
Interests: Digital Writing and Rhetoric; Critical Approaches to New Media; Digital Culture; Wikipedia; Digital Humanities

Gates, Nwenna
Instructor
Main Hall 106 | NGates@wcupa.edu
Education: M.F.A. - Writing, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Interests: TV/Film Writing; Poetry; Non-fiction/Memoir; African American Films; Documentary Filmmaking; First Year Writing; Children's Literature

Halko, Gabrielle
Professor; Assistant Chair for Faculty Evaluations and Elections
Main Hall 543 | GHalko@wcupa.edu | 610-436-2371
Education: Ph.D., Western Michigan University; M.F.A., Bowling Green State University
Interests: Building scholarly collaboration and community – including with students!; Diversity and Representation in Childhood Studies; Children's Experiences of War/Internment/Occupation in Children's Literature; Japanese American Incarceration in Children's Literature; Pedagogy of Poetry; American Poetry

Hurt, Erin (she/her)
Professor
Main Hall 536 | EHurt@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin
Interests: U.S. Latinx Literatures; 20th-Century American Literatures; Women & Gender Studies; Cultural Studies

Hyson, Sarah
Instructor
Anderson Hall 508 | SHyson@wcupa.edu
Education: M.A. (Creative Writing), West Chester University of Pennsylvania, M.S. (Historic Preservation), University of Pennsylvania
Interests: First-Year Writing, Fiction Writing, Poetry, Representation in Children's and Young Adult Literature, Shakespeare, Service Learning

James, Patrick Clement (he/him)
Instructor
Main Hall 502 | PJames@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Interests: Composition; LGBTQIA+ Rhetorics; Archival Studies; Queer Literacy; Creative Writing

Kahn, Seth (he/him)
Professor
Main Hall 520 | SKahn@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., Syracuse University
Interests: Composition and Rhetoric; Qualitative Research Methods; Labor Organizing and Rhetoric; Teaching and Scholarship as Activist Work; Marxism; Cultural Studies; Punk Rock Music; Counterculture

King, Julie (she/her)
Instructor
Main Hall 522 | JKing2@wcupa.edu
Education: M.A., Roskilde University, Denmark
Interests: First-Year Writing, Composition Pedagogy, Scandinavian Literature and Languages, Nordic Cultural Studies

Kondrlik, Kristin (she/her)
Associate Professor
Main Hall 508 | KKondrlik@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University
Interests: Health Communication; Health Humanities; Professional and Technical Writing; Rhetorics of Health and Medicine; Medicine and Literature; Women's Writing; Print Culture Studies

Konigsberg, Lisa
Assistant Professor
Main Hall 412 | LKonigsberg@wcupa.edu
Education: M.A., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Interests: General Education Writing; Composition and Rhetoric; Student Teaching Supervision; British Literature (Poetry); Creative Writing (Poetry); Film; Teaching Writing about Popular Culture; Business Writing; First Year Writing; Themes in Popular Culture: Economies of Need

Kuebrich, Ben
Associate Professor
Main Hall 542 | BKuebrich@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., Syracuse University
Interests: Podcasting, Community Journalism, Rhetoric for Social Justice, Popular Education

Lalicker, William
Professor
Main Hall 534 | WLalicker@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., University of Washington
Interests: Basic Writing; Writing Program Administration; Composition Theory; Environmental Rhetoric; Transnational and Intercultural Rhetoric

Mader, Rodney (he/him)
Professor
Main Hall 131 | RMader@wcupa.edu | 610-436-1688
Education: Ph.D., Temple University
Interests: 18th-Century American Culture; William Bartram; Ecocriticism; Feminisms; Queer Theories; Film and Television

McCann, Lauren
Instructor
Main Hall 311 | LMccann@wcupa.edu
Education: M.A, West Chester University
Interests: First-Year Writing; Online Writing Instruction; Composition and Rhetoric; Writing Centers

McVeigh Trainor, Maureen (she/her)
Assistant Professor
Main Hall 412 | MMcveigh@wcupa.edu
Education: M.F.A., Rosemont College; M.A.West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Interests: Creative Writing; Fiction Writing; James Joyce, especially Dubliners; Utilizing Creative Writing and Composition Techniques in Both Classrooms

Mrkich, Shannon
Professor; Director of First Year Experience
Main Hall 510 | SMrkich@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., Temple University
Interests: First Year Experience; Distance Education and Pedagogy; Student Engagement; Writing Assessment and Dictated Commentary; Post-apocalyptic and Dystopian Literature.

Navitsky, Joseph
Professor
Main Hall 114 | JNavitsky@wcupa.edu | 610-436-1035
Education: Ph.D., Boston University
Interests: Shakespeare, Early Modern Literature, and Shakespeare in American and Canadian culture and education

Neary, Dyan
Assistant Professor
Main Hall 523 | DNeary@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., Florida State University
Interests: Literary Journalism; Creative Nonfiction; Investigative Reporting; Prisons and Mass Incarceration; Prison Education and Community Literacy; Environmental and Public Health; Documentary Film; Composition Studies

Nessly, William
Associate Professor
Main Hall 550 | WNessly@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
Interests: 20th- and 21st-Century U.S. Literature; Asian American and Multi-Ethnic U.S. Literature; Transnational American Studies; Postcolonial Theory; U.S. and Japanese Imperialism; Narrative Theory

Panagiotidou, Maria-Eirini
Associate Professor
Main Hall 500 | MPanagiotidou@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., The University of Nottingham
Interests: Literary Linguistics/ Stylistics; Cognitive Poetics; Sociolinguistics; Intertextuality; Ekphrasis; Iconicity; Multimodality

Patriarca, Ashley (she/her)
Associate Professor; First Year Writing Director 
Main Hall 506 | APatriarca@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Interests: International Business Writing; Crisis Communication; Organizational Use of Social Media; Risk Communication; Grant Writing; Usability; Visual Rhetoric

Pearson, Nancy
Assistant Professor
Main Hall 502 | NPearson@wcupa.edu
Education: MFA Poetry, George Mason University; MFA Nonfiction, University of Houston
Interests: Poetry; Memoir; Creative Nonfiction; Disability & Queer Theory

Perry, Merry G.
Associate Professor
Main Hall 511 | MPerry@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., University of South Florida
Interests: The Study and Teaching of Popular Culture; Cultural Studies in Rhetoric & Composition and Literature; Feminist Theory and Pedagogy; Masculinities and Men's Studies; Early Modern Drama, especially Christopher Marlowe

Pollard, Cherise
Professor
Main Hall 529 | CPollard@wcupa.edu | 610-436-2959
Education: Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh
Interests: African American Literature; Poetry; Rhetoric and Composition; Literary Theory; Black Historical Fiction; Black Feminist Literary Criticism; Slave Narratives

Raclaw, Joshua (they/them)
Associate Professor
Main Hall 530 | JRaclaw@wcupa.edu
University of Colorado, Boulder
Interests: English Linguistics; Conversation Analysis; Linguistic Anthropology and Sociolinguistics; Language, Gender, and Sexuality; Queer and Trans Linguistics; Language, Gesture, and the Body

Rademaekers, Justin
Professor; Graduate Coordinator; Writing Across the Curriculum Director
Main Hall 541 | JRademaekers@wcupa.edu | 610-436-2371
Education: Ph.D., Purdue University
Interests: Writing across the Curriculum/Writing in the Disciplines; Writing Program Development; Environmental Rhetoric and Ecocriticism; Postmodern Science Communication; Critical Theory; Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Collaboration. 

Ray, Timothy D.
Associate Professor
Main Hall 108 | TRay@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., Bowling Green State University
Interests: Computers and Writing; the Rhetoric of Technology and Digital Culture/Cyberculture; the Rhetoric of Counterculture and the Grateful Dead Subculture

Rodríguez, Yanira
Associate Professor
Main Hall 101 | YRodriguez@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., Syracuse University
Interests: Third World Women and Hip Hop Feminisms; Community Literacy/Publishing; Intergenerational Social Movement Principles, Histories and Rhetorics; Media Representations; Community Accountable Scholarship; Organizer Ethos Formation in the Academy; Printmaking and other Multimodal Literacies; The Underground Press

Rutherford-Morrison, Lara
Instructor
Main Hall 312 | LRutherford-Morrison@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara
Interests: 19th-Century British Literature; Neo-Victorian Studies; Theories of Gender and Sexuality; Popular Culture & Culture Studies

Sancak-Marusa, Ilknur
Assistant Professor
Main Hall 100 | ISancak-Marusa@wcupa.edu
Education: M.A., Millersville University
Interests: Composition & Rhetoric; Basic Writing; Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Sargent, Andrew (he/him)
Professor; Program Coordinator, African & African American Literature Minor
Main Hall 536 | ASargent@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Interests: African American Literature; American Literature; Literature and Culture of the Civil Rights Era; Film and Popular Culture; Race, Masculinity, and Criminal Justice

Schoettler, Megan (she/her)
Assistant Professor
Main Hall 524 | MSchoettler@wcupa.edu 
Education: Ph.D. English, Composition and Rhetoric. Miami University, 2022. Certificate: Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Interests: Feminist Rhetorics and Literacy Practices; Professional and Technical Writing; Composition Pedagogy; Social Justice Activism and Advocacy; Community-Engaged Research; Teacher Preparation and Support; Undergraduate Research

Schugar, Jordan
Professor
Main Hall 537 | JSchugar@wcupa.edu 
Education: Ph.D., University of Maryland, College Park
Interests: Digital Storytelling; Mobile Pedagogy; Wearable Technologies; Reading Comprehension (Digital and Traditional); Figurative Language; Learn-to-Code/Coding Literacy; Emerging Technology; Education Abroad

Shevlin, Eleanor F. (she/her)
Professor
Main Hall 548 | EShevlin@wcupa.edu | 610-436-1628
Education: Ph.D., University of Maryland, College Park
Interests: British Literature and Culture in the 18th-Century; History of the Book/Print Culture Studies; Postcolonial Fiction; Genre Theory; the "Novel"; Fiction and Law; Technology and Digital Culture; the Institutional History of English as a Discipline

Sorisio, Carolyn
Professor
Main Hall 516 | CSorisio@wcupa.edu | 610-436-2892
Education: Ph.D., Temple University
Interests: 19th-Century U.S. Literature; reform (social justice writers); life writing; Romanticism; critical regionalisms; multi-ethnic literature;  African American literature; Native American literature; print cultural studies; feminist studies; postcolonial studies; transnational studies

Taylor-Storm, Daniel
Instructor
Main Hall 411 | DTaylor@wcupa.edu 
Education: M.A., Columbia University
Interests: Fiction Writing; Creative-Nonfiction Writing; Popular Culture; Film Studies; Young Adult Literature

Tischio, Victoria
Professor
Main Hall 131 | VTischio@wcupa.edu | 610-436-1055
Education: Ph.D., University at Albany, State University of New York
Interests: Rhetoric and Composition; Critical Theory and Pedagogy; Service-Learning; Popular Culture (Representations of Schooling, Gender, Politics, Parody); Film Studies; Writing Program Administration; Writing Center Pedagogy and Administration; Study abroad

Vanfosson, Jason (he/him)
Associate Professor
Main Hall 519 | jVanfosson@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., Western Michigan University
Interests: Children’s and Young Adult Literature and Culture; Comics Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Road Literature; Writing for Children and Young Adults; Appalachian Studies; LGBTQIA+ Literatures and Cultures

Vealey, Kyle P.
Associate Professor
Main Hall 530 | KVealey@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., Purdue University
Interests: Technical Communication; Rhetoric of Science; Visual Rhetoric; Comics and Graphic Novels; Museums and the Imagination

Verderame, Carla (she/her)
Professor
Main Hall 501 | CVerderame@wcupa.edu | 610-436-0013
Education: Ph.D., University of Michigan
Interests: Native Literature; Women Writers of the American South; Young Adult Literature; Literature Pedagogy; Literature of the Holocaust

Vilceus, Sophia S.
Assistant Professor
Main Hall 104 | svilceus@wcupa.edu
Education: PhD, University of Delaware (in progress)
Interests: Critical Pedagogy; Culturally Relevant Pedagogies; Black Studies; First-Year Writing; Memoir Writing; Educating the Marginalized 

Walters, Kuhio (he/him)
Associate Professor
Main Hall 509 | KWalters@wcupa.edu | 610-436-2467
Education: Ph.D., University of New Hampshire
Interests: Composition and Visual Rhetoric; the Photograph as an Aspect of Literacy; theories and Histories of Photography; Veterans Studies

Wanko, Cheryl L. (she/her or they/their)
Professor
Main Hall 503 | CWanko@wcupa.edu | 610-436-2126
Education: Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University
Interests: Sustainability & English Studies; 18th-Century Literature and Popular Culture; Academic Advising; Community sustainability planning

Wood, Virginia
Assistant Professor
Main Hall 528 | VWood@wcupa.edu
Education: Ph.D., University of North Texas
Interests: Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Multi-ethnic literature

Woodlief, Jamie
Assistant Professor; Academic Success Program Coordinator
Main Hall 535 | KWoodlief@wcupa.edu
Education: M.A., West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Interests: Developmental Composition and Rhetoric; Pop Culture Studies; Young Adult Literature