New Tenure-track Placements for PhDs

Maryland alumni will begin careers at Monmouth University, Shenandoah University, Morgan State University, Texas Tech University, Florida International University, and Loyola University Maryland this fall.

“Given the worst academic employment market in memory, these placements are impressive and enviable,” says Kent Cartwright, English Department Chair.  The continued success of recently minted PhDs is a testament to the caliber of work by our students and the preparation from our faculty for happy academic lives.  Here are their thoughts on post-Maryland careers:

Heather Brown will join the English Department at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey, as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Composition. She is very excited about this position because it entails teaching a wide range of courses, including composition, literature, and linguistics. In the meantime, she plans to spend the summer focusing on her research, which concerns the role of personal testimony rhetoric of the contemporary abortion debate in the United States. Her dissertation was directed by Jeanne Fahnestock.

Michelle Brown is thrilled to remain in the gorgeous Shenandoah Valley to work closely with students in small classes at Shenandoah University. In the fall, she will teach a First Year Seminar (FYS) on postcolonial black literature and an upper-level survey of contemporary world literatures. As the department’s first specialist in Postcolonial literatures, Michelle looks forward to developing new courses for English, FYS, and the Women’s Studies Program. Her dissertation, “Screams Somehow Echoing: Trauma and Testimony in Anglophone African Literature,” was directed by Sangeeta Ray.

Maurice Champagne has been appointed to a tenure-track position as assistant professor at Morgan State University.  Maurice received his PhD in 2008.  His dissertation was on "Basic Writing, Binaries, and Bridges," directed by Shirley Logan.

Tim Crowley is excited to have been hired as Assistant Professor of Comparative Renaissance Literatures in the English Department at Texas Tech University.  This title fits Tim’s research and teaching interests well; his work focuses primarily on sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century English authors’ critical engagement with classical literature and with sixteenth-century European literature.  Next year, he will be teaching junior-level courses on English Renaissance literature and on classical & medieval European literature.   Such range in teaching will complement his current book project on Sir Philip Sidney’s “Arcadia” and Spanish chivalric romance, as well as my ongoing work toward a second book project on Christopher Marlowe and the classical tradition.” Tim’s dissertation, “Feigned Histories:  Philip Sidney and the Poetics of Spanish Chivalric Romance,”  was chaired by Donna Hamilton.

Heidi Scott is starting as Assistant Professor at Florida International University with a position in Ecocriticism.  Since the position is open period, she’ll be free to wander somewhat from her home ground in 19th century British Literature.  In addition to working on a book manuscript, she anticipates researching 21st century environments and contemporary literature.  “The dramatically changed ecosystems of South Florida are emblematic of our anthropogenic environment, where the draining of the Everglades, massive urban expansion, habitat encroachment, eutrophication of watersheds, hurricanes, rising sea levels, and oil spills are all issues needing attention from scholars in the humanities as well as the sciences,” says Heidi.  She will be teaching courses on Literature and the Environment, Nature and Catastrophe, and British Romantic literature in her first year, in addition to an expectation for an actively interdisciplinary research orientation. Heidi completed her dissertation on “Chaos & the Microcosm: The Roots of Ecology in Nineteenth-Century British Literature” under the direction of Neil Fraistat.

Lisa Zimmerelli is thrilled to join the Writing Department at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore as Assistant Professor of Writing and as Director of the Writing Center.  Lisa will continue her research in history of women's rhetorical practices, and she will teach and develop writing and rhetoric courses.  Lisa's dissertation, "A Genre of Defense: Hybridity in Nineteenth-Century American Women's Defenses of Women's Preaching," was directed by Jane Donawerth and won the College Park chapter of the American Association of University Women dissertation award and the Alice L. Geyer Dissertation Prize.