DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
Welcome to Department of English
In today's media-saturated world, the ability to think critically and express oneself with clarity and precision are crucial to leading an engaged and productive life. A core liberal-arts discipline, English provides rigorous instruction in language skills, enhancing students' ability to speak and write with the clarity, persuasiveness, and intellectual sophistication that distinguish university-educated people.
Courses in literature and language also help students refine their aesthetic sensitivity, logical rigor, and capacity for seeing the world as complex and multifaceted. The English department enhances the informational and technological literacy of High Point students, equipping them for success in a wide range of professions.
Goals and Objectives:
Three primary educational goals underlie the English major. Students in both the Literature and Writing tracks will receive instruction in, and be able to demonstrate their grasp of:- critical practices, or the ability carefully to read, analyze, interpret, and write about texts from a wide range of genres, historical eras, theoretical paradigms, and cultural contexts;
- disciplinary knowledge, conceived as the intellectual richness, evolution, and diversity of literatures in English from different periods, technologies, and geographical areas;
- writing skills, or the ability to write with clarity, grace, economy of expression, and persuasiveness.
Achieving Major Goals and Objectives:
Each element of the two curricula--literature and writing--contributes, either wholly or in conjunction with other elements, to the achievement of these goals. Each curriculum as a whole is evenly divided between all four years of a student's career, and is designed to furnish students with increasingly complex and sophisticated intellectual challenges that build on previously acquired knowledge and skills. All courses will enhance our students' critical reading, analysis, and interpretive abilities. Literature majors' critical practices are particularly strengthened by English 2206, in which they will receive focused instruction in the disciplinary standards, research practices, and theoretical paradigms of literary study. Writing majors acquire the foundation for critical practices in English 2122, a course which teaches the skills, craft, process, and discourse necessary to write in a variety of creative genres. For Literature majors, advanced disciplinary study begins in the slate of required courses, which includes the Literatures in English survey (2250-‐2255) and continues in studies of various periods and genres in 3000-‐ and 4000-‐level courses. Students' appreciation of the richness, evolution, and chronological and geographical diversity of English literature is further enhanced by the requirements that literature majors take two courses in British and American literature before 1900, as well as a course in regional, post-‐ colonial, multicultural, or world literature/literature in translation. Reflecting our faculty's conviction that the best writers are avid, broadly learned, and deeply critical readers, the writing curriculum includes substantial coursework in literature. Writing majors are required to take at least 12 credits of literature classes, eight of which must be at the 3000 or 4000 level. Writing students' reading skills are also developed and refined by the workshop approach employed by most writing courses In the process of analyzing and critiquing their peers' writing, students learn to read with the eye of an aesthete and the judgment of a critic. Furthermore, the number and breadth of writing assignments require students to constantly produce and revise material, and to continually rethink their approaches to creating text. Workshop courses (3000-‐level) give students ample practice in each genre, and advanced courses (4110-‐4199) allow students to specialize in genres, including those that employ digital media. In all courses, students' writing will be assessed according to a departmental rubric, emphasizing growth in intellectual sophistication, critical awareness, and disciplinary knowledge. Though the topic of each student's senior project will be self-‐generated, as part of that capstone course students will be required to compile a major portfolio. This portfolio, which will be evaluated by department faculty, will include sample papers from throughout the student's career, as well as an essay in which students reflect on and analyze their experience as English Literature or Writing majors.Faculty
- Dr. William Carpenter - wcarpent@highpoint.edu
BA, College of New Jersey, MA, Kansas State University, PhD, University of Kansas
Associate Professor of English
206 Norcross
Phone: (336) 841-9339, Fax: (336) 888-6394Born and raised in the wilds of the Garden State, Bill Carpenter received his B.A. from The College of New Jersey. From there he moved to Kansas, where he took his M.A. from Kansas State University and his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas. He is something of an academic nomad, having taught at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, Chapman University in California, and The University of Illinois at Springfield. He joined High Point University in 2009 as an Associate Professor and Director of Composition. A Rhetoric and Composition specialist, Dr. Carpenter teaches courses in writing at all levels. He is particularly interested in understanding how students transfer knowledge and skills learned in first-year composition to their later courses. His current research, which will include a longitudinal study of student writers, explores the role of reflective practice in knowledge transfer and its effect on students' thinking and writing skills. Dr. Carpenter is the author of several articles on style, information literacy, and pedagogy. He is the co-editor of The Allyn & Bacon Sourcebook for Writing Program Administrators. In addition to writing courses, Dr. Carpenter teaches (and writes about) a first-year seminar on Bob Dylan and American culture. - Dr. Edward Piacentino - epiacent@highpoint.edu
BA, UNC- Chapel Hill, MA, Appalachian State University, PhD, UNC- Chapel Hill
Professor of English
210 Norcross
Phone: (336) 841-9296, Fax: (336) 888-6394Born in Ohio but a long-time native North Carolinian, Ed Piacentino has been on the faculty at High Point since 1973. An Americanist, he teaches a wide range of American literature courses, including Colonial and Early National American writing, American Romanticism, American Realism and Naturalism, African American Literature, Literature of the American South, American Humor, and special topic courses in American literature. He also teaches Alternative Voices in American Writing and Mark Twain and the Roots of American Humor in the University's first year seminar program for freshmen. Dr. Piacentino has written widely on many and diverse topics in American and Southern literature, having published essays and reviews in many journals, most notably American Literature, Southern Literary Journal , American Quarterly, Mississippi Quarterly, Studies in Short Fiction, South Atlantic Quarterly, Poe Studies, Mark Twain Annual, Mark Twain Journal, Southern Spaces, Studies in Popular Culture, and Southern Quarterly. He is the author or editor of seven books, including T. S. Stribling: Pioneer Realist in Southern Literature (U P of America, 1988)The Humor of the Old South (with M. Thomas Inge Kentucky 2001) The Enduring Legacy of Old Southwest Humor (LSU 2006), C.M. Haile's "Pardon Jones" Letters: Old Southwest Humor from Antebellum Louisiana (LSU 2009), and Southern Frontier Humor: An Anthology (with M. Thomas Inge Missouri 2010). His current projects include two books: a collection of essays he is editing, tentatively titled ―Beyond Southern Frontier Humor: Prospects and Possibilities, and a study on nineteenth-century African American narratives addressing slavery. He also serves as the editor of Studies in American Humor, the scholarly journal of the American Humor Studies Association. An outdoorsman and agrarian at heart, he enjoys mountain biking, hiking, swimming, snow shoeing, gardening, and working on a large beef cattle and horse farm in nearby Randolph County. - Dr. Leah Schweitzer - lschweit@highpoint.edu
BFA, UNC-Greensboro, MA, University of Maryland, PhD, University of Louisville
Associate Professor of English
215 Norcross
Phone: (336) 841-9106, Fax: (336) 888-6394Dr. Schweitzer was born in Baltimore, MD and raised in the DC metro area. She earned a BFA in Theater Design and Technology from UNC-Greensboro, and worked for a while in the DC area as a stage manager and lighting designer before returning to graduate school to earn an MA in English with a minor in Rhetoric and Composition from University of Maryland and a PhD in Rhetoric and Composition from University of Louisville. She joined the faculty of High Point University in August of 2004. Dr. Schweitzer primarily teaches courses in creative writing and composition. Her research focuses on writing pedagogy, theorizing best practices for teaching and suggesting practical ways for implicating them. Her work has considered pedagogical methods as varied as Directed Self Placement, using fiction to teach research methods, and the material resources (especially technology) which impact the classroom. She has presented papers about writing pedagogy at conferences such as the Thomas R. Watson Conference on Rhetoric and Composition, the Conference on College Composition and Communication, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference, the Virginia State University Conference on Composition, the College English Association Conference, and Middle Tennessee State University's Women and Power Conference. Articles and book reviews have appeared in publications such as Composition Forum and Workplace: A Journal of Academic Labor. - Dr. Charmaine Cadeau - ccadeau@highpoint.edu
BA, Trent University, BEd, Queen's University, MA, University of New Brunswick, PhD, New York State University at Albany
Assistant Professor of English
211 Norcross
Phone: (336) 841-9630, Fax: (336) 888-6394Professor Cadeau grew up in Toronto, Canada. She received her B.A. from Trent University, and her B.Ed. from Queen's University. For her graduate work, she attended a creative writing and literature program at the University of New Brunswick, where she completed her M.A. degree. At the University at Albany, State University of New York, her doctoral work focused on creative writing and contemporary American poetry. At High Point University, she teaches creative writing, poetry, and introductory literature courses. Her research interrogates interdisciplinary modes of composition, like collaborations between artists and writers. She has received numerous awards for her drama and poetry. Her most recent book, Place Holder, is forthcoming in 2013 from Brick Books. Her first book, What You Used to Wear, was published in 2004 by Goose Lane Editions. Her writing has also been anthologized and published broadly in Canada and the US. In addition to her creative work, her scholarship and teaching have been recognized through various grants. She is a past recipient of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council award, and a New York Council of the Humanities teaching fellowship. She is currently at work on her third collection of poetry--an exploration of family and genealogy. - Dr. Jim Casey - jcasey@highpoint.edu
BA, University of North Texas, MPhil, University of Glasgow, Scotland, MA, University of North Texas, PhD, University of Alabama
Assistant Professor of English
202 Norcross
Phone: (336) 841-9076, Fax: (336) 888-6394Dr. Casey grew up in Texas but has spent the last fifteen years in Scotland, England, Alabama, Pennsylvania, and now North Carolina. He has an MA from the University of North Texas, an MPhil from the University of Glasgow, and a PhD from the Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies at the University of Alabama, where he was the first Strode Exchange Scholar to study at The Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon. At HPU, Dr. Casey has taught courses on Shakespeare, Performance, Graphic Novels, Early Modern (Renaissance) Literature, Literary Theory, Research, and Scholarly Writing, Early Literatures in English, Self and Society, and Critical Writing and Interpretation (with thematic approaches including Hyperreality and Cyborgs, Genre, Form, and Thought, and the Literary Construction of Monstrosity). Although primarily a Shakespearean, Dr. Casey has published on such diverse topics as fantasy, early modern poetry, textual theory, performance theory, postmodern theory, comics, masculinity, Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Battlestar Galactica. His scholarly essays have appeared in journals such as The Chaucer Review, the Early English Studies Journal, ImageTexT, and in collections published by Routledge, McFarland, Cambridge University, Ashgate, Continuum, and Cambridge Scholars. In the past few years, he has served as a panelist and ―Expert Respondent for national and international conferences, commenting on Shakespeare, Hayao Miyazaki, science fiction, pedagogy, and the academic job market. Recently, Dr. Casey received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to study Shakespeare's Original Staging Practices at the Blackfriars Theatre and a High Point University ―Think BIG (Be Innovative Grant) to develop a course using iPads as eReaders. He coordinates the sophomore-level General Education English 2200 program and the university-wide Literary Film Series. Currently, he serves on HPU's Information Technology Committee and as the President of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. - Dr. Joseph Goeke - jgoeke0@highpoint.edu
BA, Southwest Missouri State University, MA, Southwest Missouri State University, PhD, University of South Carolina
Assistant Professor of English
249-B Norcross
Phone: (336) 841-9633, Fax: (336) 888-6394Professor Goeke grew up in the town of Fenton, Missouri, about fifteen miles outside St. Louis. He earned his BA and MA in English, both with emphasis in creative writing, from Southwest Missouri State University (now Missouri State University) in Springfield. For his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina, he majored in colonial and nineteenth-century American Literature and wrote his dissertation on the Civil War border-state origin of Mark Twain. Since then, he has taught at University of North Carolina - Greensboro and, more recently, at North Carolina A&T State University, where he acted as the coordinator for the undergraduate program's required first-year writing course. Beyond first-year college writing, Dr. Goeke has taught courses in American literature, from the colonial era through the twentieth century, and creative nonfiction. His research, meanwhile, has ranged from studies of nineteenth- century American literature to collaborative research on curriculum design and development. In fall 2011, Dr. Goeke became the faculty coordinator for HPU's new Writing Center, where student consultants provide help to student clients at any level, with any stage of the writing process. In his free time, Dr. Goeke enjoys hiking with his wife and son, playing guitar, writing fiction, and creating themed playlists from his music collection. - Dr. Cara Kozma - ckozma@highpoint.edu
BA, Evergreen State College, MA, Portland State University, PhD, Wayne State University
Assistant Professor of English
203 Norcross
Phone: (336) 841-9643, Fax: (336) 888-6394Born in Columbia, South Carolina, Dr. Kozma completed her B.A. in liberal arts in 2001 at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. She went on to receive her M.A. in 2004 in English from Portland State University in Portland, OR, and her Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition in 2010 from Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. While earning her doctorate, Dr. Kozma taught courses in composition and literature for five years in the English department at Wayne State before accepting a position at High Point University in 2010. Much of Dr. Kozma's research and teaching includes service learning, critical pedagogy, and globalization studies and her dissertation project led to several doctoral research fellowships. She published a short essay on the future of community literacy scholarship in the service learning journal Reflection, and a review of Linda Flower's most recent book on community literacy in Composition Studies. She has also presented work at the national conference in composition studies, CCCC. In addition to these academic achievements, Dr. Kozma's work as a teacher has been quite successful. Her students have designed projects that were made available to local community organizations where they worked, and several of her students' projects have been printed and distributed within local communities. Additionally, some of her former students now have public work available on Web logs (blogs), YouTube, and personal Web sites. - Dr. Holly Middleton - hmiddlet@highpoint.edu
BA, Sam Houston State University, MA, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, PhD, University of Pittsburgh
Assistant Professor of English
213 Norcross
Phone: (336) 841-9456, Fax: (336) 888-6394Originally from El Paso, Texas, Dr. Middleton received her B.A in English at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, and her M.A. in English at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. In 2007 she completed her PhD in English, with a specialization in Composition, Literacy, and Pedagogy, at the University of Pittsburgh. As assistant professor and director of composition at New Mexico Highlands University, she taught undergraduate and graduate courses in literature, composition, and pedagogy. During her tenure there, she focused her research on curriculum design and writing pedagogies to improve learning outcomes for open-admissions students. She joined the High Point University English department in 2011. Dr. Middleton's research interests are writing pedagogies, the history of access to higher education, and the politics of literacy and style. College English published her article on nineteenth-century college students' use of farmers' movement rhetoric, and she has contributed to Composition Studies and the Annotated Bibliography for Teachers of Basic Writing. She regularly presents at CCCC, the annual national conference in composition, as well as the Western States Rhetoric and Literacy Conference, the Council of Writing Program Administrators Annual Meeting, Southwest Association for Developmental Education, and the American Studies Association Annual Meeting. Dr. Middleton is currently researching the nineteenth-century college literacy crisis and the politics of sentimentality. - Dr. Donna Scheidt - dscheidt@highpoint.edu
BA, University of Chicago, JD, Harvard Law School, PhD, University of Michigan
Assistant Professor of English
216 Norcross
Phone: (336) 841-9139, Fax: (336) 888-6394Dr. Scheidt hails from Nebraska, where her great-great-grandparents homesteaded the plains in a sod house. She is something of a heretic in her native land for not paying more careful attention to Cornhusker football, but her life and work are also informed by being a second-generation American (the daughter of a World War II refugee from Lithuania). Dr. Scheidt completed her B.A. in English Language and Literature at The University of Chicago. She went on to obtain a J.D. from Harvard Law School and practiced law with two large Chicago law firms. Increasingly interested in the work of her nonprofit clients, she went in house with the Student Advocacy Center of Ann Arbor, Michigan (nationally known the 1979 Black English case). While there, Dr. Scheidt witnessed the power of language in defining and shaping the lives of young people. She also had the opportunity to work with student interns, and, desiring to work more regularly with students, obtained her Ph.D. in English and Education from the University of Michigan. Still a member of the bar, although no longer actively practicing law, Dr. Scheidt conscientiously strives to blend the experiences and knowledge of her professional paths. She enjoys teaching and research in the areas of composition and rhetoric, legal studies, and law and literature, focusing especially on the means by which writers -- students, essayists, novelists, judges -- use narratives to make ethical arguments. She has presented at several major conferences, including the Conference on College Composition and Communication and the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and the Humanities. She has served in editorial and administrative roles on two academic journals: Harvard Negotiation Law Review and WPA: Writing Program Administrators. She also enjoys long hikes exploring the natural beauty of North Carolina with her spouse, gardening, and playing orchestral violin. - Dr. Georgeanna Sellers - gsellers@highpoint.edu
BA, UNC-Greensboro, MA, UNC-Greensboro
Assistant Professor of English
204 Norcross
Phone: (336) 841-9657, Fax: (336) 888-6394Georgeanna Sellers was born and raised in North Carolina and earned a BA and MA in English from University of North Carolina at Greensboro. After graduate studies in composition with Dr. Chris Anderson and teaching composition as a Teaching Assistant under Dr. Walter Beale at UNCG, she joined the High Point University English Department, teaching composition and Introduction to Communications. Ms. Sellers currently teaches composition, sophomore general education literature courses, focusing on western literature, history, and culture of the 1920's. She has taught Independent Studies in Rhetoric and Composition and the literature and culture of the 1950's and 1960's for the Department of English. She teaches Business Communication for the Phillips School of Business, a required course for Business majors. She has taught in the day and evening programs and composition and an ADV course for the Summer Experience program. Ms. Sellers serves on the University's Executive Committee, Student Life Committee, as the faculty secretary, and as the organizer of the English Department's annual Phoenix Literary Festival. Ms. Sellers, a charter member of a 501(c)(3) non-profit animal rescue, serves as administrator, web manager, photographer/videographer, database manager, and as a board member serves as secretary to the organization. She also produces all newsletters, brochures, and publications for the organization. A former avid skateboarder and dirt bike rider, Ms. Sellers has 11 dogs and 4 cats; she enjoys taking the dogs on long walks every day, and enjoys reading (primarily fiction), cooking, and traveling. She has written a script for a movie which possibly 10 people on the planet have seen. - Dr. Kirstin Squint - ksquint@highpoint.edu
BA, Eureka College, MA, Miami University, PhD, Louisiana State University
Assistant Professor of English
214 Norcross
Phone: (336) 841-9645, Fax: (336) 888-6394Dr. Kirstin Squint was born in San Angelo, Texas, and grew up in north central Kentucky. Dr. Squint received a bachelor's degree in English with a minor in French from Eureka College in 1995 and completed a master's degree in English with an emphasis in fiction writing from Miami University in 1998. Prior to commencing her doctoral studies, she taught English on the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico and in community colleges in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Flagstaff, Arizona. In 2003, Dr. Squint began the Ph.D. program in comparative literature at Louisiana State University, and in 2005, accepted a full-time instructor position at Southern University, Baton Rouge, where she taught African American literature, world literature, and composition. She completed her Ph.D. in 2008 and joined the HPU faculty in 2010. Dr. Squint specializes in U.S. multi-ethnic literatures and postcolonial literature and theory. She has written on American Indian, African American, and Caribbean-American texts, her work appearing in MELUS, Brújula, Mississippi Quarterly, CLA Journal, Postcolonial Text, and Eureka Studies in Teaching Short Fiction. She has two forthcoming articles, one analyzing depictions of Louisiana by American Indian writers and another examining trickster hermeneutics in novels by Native American authors Gerald Vizenor and Thomas King. Her current research focuses on representations of American Indian spirituality as resistance to European and U.S. settler colonialism and Native American literature of the U.S. South. At High Point University, Dr. Squint teaches courses in U.S. multi-ethnic literature, postcolonial literature, and writing. She is a member of the University Diversity Council, the Honors Program Committee, and the Environmental Studies Interdisciplinary Minor Committee. She also participates in the North Carolina Humanities Council's ―Let's Talk About It program, a discussion series that brings scholars and community members together in public libraries to explore how a particular theme is illuminated in selected books, films, and poetry. - Dr. Marjorie Church - mchurch@highpoint.edu
BA, UNC-Greensboro, MA, UNC-Greensboro
Instructor
208 Norcross
Phone: (336) 841-4692, Fax: (336) 888-6394A lifelong resident of the High Point area, Marjorie Ross Church attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNCG, graduating magna cum laude in 1988 with double degrees in English and Psychology. She was employed by the High Point Public Schools for five years, teaching English, theatre arts, and English as a Second Language. Graduating in 1996 from UNCG with a Master of Arts degree in English Literature, with a concentration in Publishing and Editing, Ms. Church worked for several years as a freelance writer and editor, and was employed as an adjunct instructor in the English Department at HPU in 1998 . Since then, Ms. Church has taught a wide range of courses including College Writing, Critical Reading and Interpretation, English as a Second Language, and Public Speaking. She joined the faculty full time in 2006. Currently a doctoral candidate and a Luther Winborne Self Fellow in the School of Education at UNCG, Ms. Church is pursuing a Ph.D. in Education Studies, with a concentration in Social and Cultural Foundations of Education. Her areas of interest include composition, cultural studies, critical pedagogy, and peace education, as well as teaching English as a second or other language. She serves on the Editorial Review Board for Learning for Democracy, an international online professional journal, is a member of HPU's International Student Affairs Committee, and is co-advisor of PRIDE. Professional memberships include Sigma Tau Delta and The South Atlantic Philosophy of Education Society. She also serves on the Executive Board of Trustees of New Garden Friends School, and works as a volunteer for the Cultural Arts Programs at Wheatmore High School. - Dr. Gail Clements - gclement@highpoint.edu
BA, UNC- Greensboro, MA, USC- Columbia
Instructor
212 Norcross
Phone: (336) 841-9249, Fax: (336) 888-6394Mrs. Clements is a native Floridian, who moved to North Carolina after her father retired from the Navy. She received her BA in English from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and her MA in English linguistics from the University of South Carolina. After teaching as an adjunct, Mrs. Clements became a full time instructor at High Point University in August 2008. Mrs. Clements teaches primarily English composition and literature courses, but her specialty is sociolinguistics, focusing on social variables such as gender, race, place of birth, and socio-economic status which speakers utilize when making language choices to denote in group or out of group status in various social constructions as well as the change of specific variants as identifiers over time. Future research focuses on female speakers' access to higher education and their changing idiolects as a means to assess or predict changing dialects. She has presented papers at various conferences and has an introductory linguistics textbook in the works for Anthem Press. Besides her commitment to academia and family (A husband, James, and a son, Davis), Mrs. Clements sits on the Board of Elders at Advent Moravian Church. - Dr. Matthew Fiander - mfiander@highpoint.edu
BA, Elon University, MFA, UNC-Greensboro
Instructor
249-A Norcross
Phone: (336) 841-9632, Fax: (336) 888-6394Professor Fiander was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, a suburb south of Boston. He received his B.A. in English from Elon University in 2004, and his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2007. He first joined High Point University as an adjunct instructor in English department in Spring 2010, and is now a full-time Instructor of English with the university. Mr. Fiander teaches ENG-2200: Critical Reading and Interpretation, where he has explored topics in literature such as disconnection in Postwar America and the use of magical realism in literature of the New South. His own work as a fiction writer has appeared in the Yalobusha Review, where he was named runner-up in the Barry Hannah Fiction Prize 2008. He also writes literary and music criticism, serving as an associate editor for the international online magazine, PopMatters, and as a fiction editor for the online literary journal, StorySouth. - Dr. Margaret Maurer - mmaurer@highpoint.edu
BA, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, MFA, Warren Wilson College, MA, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Instructor
249-F Norcross
Phone: (336) 841-9077, Fax: (336) 888-6394Though Professor Maurer hails from the frozen prairie of central Minnesota, she moved with her family to the Shenandoah Valley when she was a teenager and considers herself a native of the southeast. Passionate about language in all its aspects, she has earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in both English and German. In addition to her duties in the Undergraduate Writing Program, she also teaches German language courses here at High Point University. Before coming to HPU as an adjunct instructor in 2008 she taught at a number of schools in North Carolina, including Guilford Technical Community College and UNC-Chapel Hill. Her cross-disciplinary theoretical interests include explorations of subjectivity, art, ekphrasis, genre, gender, and annotation. In addition to German language classes, Professor Maurer teaches English 1101 and 1102, ―Invention and Analysis courses for first-and second-semester freshmen. As her life's passion is the exploration of the craft of writing, she greatly enjoys dismantling, examining and re-seeing the creative process with her students (especially those who enter college with a distaste for writing!). Her own fiction has appeared in such publications as Jabberwock Review and The Journal at Ohio State University. In 2008 she was a finalist in the Glimmer Train Very Short Fiction Contest and in 2011 her short story, ―Terpsichore was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She enjoys swing dancing and skydiving and lives in Greensboro, North Carolina with her cat, Inky. - Dr. Karen Summers - ksummer0@highpoint.edu
BA, Salem College, MA, UNC- Charlotte, PhD, UNC-Greensboro
Instructor
201 Norcross
Phone: (336) 841-9348, Fax: (336) 888-6394Karen Summers was born in Charleston, S.C., and has lived in a dozen towns in North and South Carolina and in Tokyo, Japan, for nine years. She earned a BA cum laude from Salem College, double majoring in English and History, an MA in English and a post-graduate certificate in Technical Writing from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and will earn her PhD in English early in 2011 from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She has been on the faculty of Guilford College and Forsyth Technical Community College, and joined the High Point University faculty in 2009. Ms. Summers' area of specialization is Medieval British Literature, with a particular interest in the works of John Gower, medieval mystery plays, Arthurian legend, and medieval and early modern religious culture. She is preparing an article for publication on the use of the incest motif in Confessio Amantis. Outside of the university she enjoys traveling, quiltmaking, and creative writing. - Dr. Allison Walker - awalker@highpoint.edu
BA, Appalachian State University, MFA, University of Alaska Anchorage
Instructor
249-E Norcross
Phone: (336) 841-9663, Fax: (336) 888-6394A native North Carolinian, Ms. Walker is proud to join the talented team of writers and educators in the English Department of High Point University. As a double major, she received two B.A. degrees (with honors) from Appalachian State University in 1999. After several years in Charleston, SC, working with a local publishing house, she and her husband decided to venture away from the safety of southern hospitality and into the Alaskan wilderness. While there, she completed her M.F. A. from the University of Alaska Anchorage with a dual concentration in poetry and rhetoric/composition, and gave birth to her daughter, Ada Cassidy, during one of those insanely dark sub-zero winters. Before coming to High Point University, Ms. Walker worked at the University of Alaska Anchorage, Mars Hill College, the University of North Carolina Greensboro, and North Carolina A&T State University. She is currently Managing Editor of Convergence Review, an interdisciplinary journal, where she is also a frequent contributor, often collaborating with her students on thematically arranged poetry projects. A recent recipient of a National Science Foundation BEACON (Biocomputational Evolution in Action) grant, she works closely with renowned evolutionary scientists to bridge the gap between scientific research and undergraduate education by interpreting the theory of evolution as a metaphorical lens through which one can observe and analyze any system, whether biological, artificial, social, or cultural. She has also contributed to the University of North Carolina's Brief Hybrid Workshop series for online instructors, and frequently tests new applications of it in her classroom. Her only claim to fame occurred in 1997 when she was gunned down by a time-traveling terrorist from a parallel universe while attending the wedding of a close friend. You can see her well-dressed, bloody corpse in the low budget sci-fi classic, Last Lives. Ms. Walker currently teaches introductory courses in composition.
Staff
- Dana Yates - dyates@highpoint.edu
241 Norcross
Phone: (336) 841-9401, Fax: (336) 888-6394