Department Graduates Find Places to Continue Their Work!

Check out our up-to-date graduate placements for the 2011-2012 academic year.

Kathleen Bossert has accepted an appointment as visiting assistant professor of English at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. Kate completed her PhD in Spring 2010 with a dissertation on "The Tudor Antichrists, 1485-1605." Her committee was composed of Kent Cartwright (chair), Theresa Coletti, Donna Hamilton, Ted Leinwand, and Philip Soergel (History).

Tanya Clement has accepted a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin. Tanya completed her PhD in 2009 with a dissertation on "The Makings of Digital Modernism: Re-reading Getrude Stein's The Making of Americans and Poetry by Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven." Last year, her dissertation won the 2009 Carl Bode Dissertation Prize. Her committee was composed of Matthew Kirschenbaum (chair), Kari Kraus, Brian Richardson, Martha Nell Smith, and Doug Oard (College of Information Studies). Tanya is currently the Associate Director of the Digital Cultures and Creativity program in the Honors College.

Schuyler Esprit has accepted a tenure track position as assistant professor of English at Trinity Washington University in Washington, DC. Schuyler’s dissertation is titled “Occasions for Reading: Literary Encounters and the Making of the West Indies.” She will defend this summer; and her committee director is Sangeeta Ray.

Magdelyn Helwig (Phd 2010) hasbeen appointed Director of Writing Programs at Western Illinois University. Magdelyn will be joining her husband, Tim Helwig (PhD, Maryland, 2006) at WIU. Magdelyn’s dissertation was entitled “Word with Image: Verbal-Visual Collaboration in Twentieth-Century Poetry" and her committee was composed of Beth Loizeaux (chair), David Wyatt, Stanley Plumly, Michael Collier, and Ruth Lozner (Art).

Sarah Kimmet  has been appointed a visiting faculty member in the Foreign Languages department at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China.  This July, Sarah defended her dissertation, "Bourgeois Radicalism and the American Social-Realist Novel, 1860-1910."  Her committee consisted of Peter Mallios (chair), Jonathan Auerbach, David Wyatt, and Gordon Kelly (American Studies). 

Rebecca Lush has accepted a tenure-track assistant professor position in the Department of Literature and Writing Studies at California State University, San Marcos. Next month, Rebecca will defend her dissertation, "The 'Other' Woman: Early Modern English Representations of Native American Women, 1579-1690." Her dissertation is co-directed by Ralph Bauer and Jane Donawerth, and her committee is composed of Laura Rosenthal, Elizabeth Bearden, and Andrea Frisch (SLLC).

Vera Tobin (PhD 2008) has accepted appointment as an assistant professor of Cognitive Science at Case Western Reserve University. (This appointment will begin after a fellowship at University of California, Santa Barbara.)  Vera's dissertation, "Literary Joint Attention and the Puzzles of Modernism," was directed by Mark Turner; her committee included Michael Israel, Peter Mallios, Jeffrey Lidz (Linguistics), and Eve Sweetser (Linguistics, UC Berkeley).

Elizabeth Veisz has accepted a tenure-track appointment as assistant professor of English at Bridgewater State University in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Liz completed her dissertation, "'Well-Dispos'd Savages': Elite Masculinity in Eighteenth-Century British Literature," in the Fall of 2010. Her dissertation committee was composed of Laura Rosenthal (director), Vin Carretta, Tita Chico, Orrin Wang, and Clare Lyons (History).

Congratulations to Kate, Tanya, Schuyler, Magdelyn, Rebecca, Sarah, Vera, and Liz!