Literature | Full-Time Faculty & Staff

Adjunct Professorial Lecturer

Katherine Attie is a scholar of early modern British literature, culture, and intellectual history. She teaches courses in Shakespeare, Renaissance poetry, and British literature from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century. Professor Attie’s work ... [More]

Adjunct Professorial Lecturer

Janet Gebhart Auten directs the Writing Center and teaches the graduate Teaching Composition course. She holds an MA from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and a PhD in Rhetoric/ Composition and American Lit. from Bowling Green State Un... [More]

Writing Instructor

Cindy Bair Van Dam joined the Department of Literature faculty in 1995. She earned an MA from American University in 1993 and a BA from the University of Nebraska in 1991. Prior to teaching at AU, she taught at Howard University. Her professional int... [More]

Assistant Professor

Professor Berry teaches courses in British literature including the Romantic period. She also teaches courses in contemporary literary criticism and theory, narratology, the novel, and queer theory. Her research and published work consider the relati... [More]

Assistant Professor

Fiona Brideoake’s teaching and research focuses on British literature and culture of the long eighteenth century. Her particular interests include Bluestocking feminism, queer historiography, Jane Austen, sociability and material culture, and eightee... [More]

Writing Instructor

Writing Instructor

Ed Comstock holds a Ph.D. from American University's School of Education, Teaching, and Health, as well as an MA in Literature. His scholarship deals with constructions of power, identity, behavior, and literacy in educational institutions. In addit... [More]

Writing Instructor

Chuck Cox received his MA in Literature from AU and his BA in English from Temple University in Philadelphia, not far from his Pennsylvania hometown. His academic interests include composition, drama, and the cultural roles of popular genres (e.g. my... [More]

Adjunct Instructor

As the International Student Coordinator for the Department of Literature, Angela Dadak works mainly in both the College Writing Program and the Writing Center. In the CWP she primarily works with students adjusting to US academic work and with the C... [More]

Assistant Professor

Kyle G. Dargan is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently LOGORRHEA DEMENTIA (UGA,2010). His debut, THE LISTENING (UGA 2004), won the 2003 Cave Canem Prize, and his second, BOUQUET OF HUNGERS (UGA 2007), was awarded the 2008 Hurston/... [More]

Assistant Professor

Professor Dussere's teaching and research are primarily focused on the literature, film, and culture of twentieth-century America, although he is also interested in topics such as French film, the postcolonial novel, and cultural studies. His first b... [More]

Writing Instructor

Assistant Professor

Danielle Evans is the author of the short-story collection Before you Suffocate your Own Fool Self, which was named one of the best books of 2010 by Kirkus Reviews and O Magazine, won an honorable mention for the PEN/Hemingway award, and was long-lis... [More]

Writing Instructor

Lydia Morris Fettig holds a B.S. in Social Science from Portland State University (in Oregon, not Maine!) and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from American University. Prior to teaching at AU, she taught writing and literature courses at University of ... [More]

Associate Professor

An expert in dramatic literature and theatre history, Professor Fisk has published extensively on 17th and 18th-century drama and performance, writing on topics ranging from the Restoration actress to baroque opera. Currently she is completing a book... [More]

Writing Instructor

Caimeen Garrett has an MFA in Fiction from Syracuse University, and is ABD in the doctoral program at Florida State University. She is currently working on her dissertation, a collection of linked stories about the Lindbergh kidnapping. Her academic ... [More]

Assistant Professor

Stephanie Grant is the author of two novels, The Passion of Alice (Houghton Mifflin 1995) and Map of Ireland (Scribner 2008). Her work has received many grants and awards, including a Rona Jaffee Foundation Award, a Ludwig Vogelstein Award and an NEA... [More]

Adjunct Instructor

John Hyman began teaching at American University in 1986. He has won several teaching awards and was recognized for outstanding service to the university community in 2000. He has directed the Writing Center since 1993, and in 2000 became the directo... [More]

Writing Instructor

Dr. Johnson earned his BA in Literature from Rutgers University, his MA in Philosophy from North Central College, and his PhD in Cultural Studies/Rhetoric from George Mason University. His current research interests include: Rhetorical Theory, French... [More]

Writing Instructor

Leah Johnson holds an MA in Literature from American University and an MA in Music from The University of Connecticut. She has been teaching in the Department of Literature since 1996. In previous incarnations, Professor Johnson has been a staff repo... [More]

Adjunct Instructor

In addition to serving as the Administrative Coordinator for the Literature Department, Catherine is a lecturer in the College Writing Program. Her LIT101 class is called "Living Deliberately in the 21st Century," and explores issues of environmental... [More]

Writing Instructor

Kelly Joyner began teaching at American University in 2000. His courses have thematic links to psychology, film and photography, and history. Lately, he’s most interested in iconography and visual texts. He’s a product of the Northern Virginia suburb... [More]

Assistant Professor

Professor Kakoudaki teaches interdisciplinary courses in literature and film, visual culture, and the history of technology and new media. Her interests include cultural studies, science fiction, apocalyptic narratives, and the representation of race... [More]

Associate Professor

David Keplinger is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently The Prayers of Others (2006) , which won the Colorado Book Award, and The Clearing (2005). His first collection, The Rose Inside, won the 1999 T.S. Eliot Prize. David has rec... [More]

Professor

Professor Larson is the author of works of literary criticism and fiction. His critical works include The Emergence of African Fiction, American Indian Fiction, The Novel in the Third World, and a biography, Invisible Darkness: Jean Toomer and Nella ... [More]

Department Chair, Literature

Author of Fettered Genius: The African American Bardic Poet from Slavery to Civil Rights, Keith D Leonard did his master's in English at UNC Chapel and his PhD at Stanford.His publications, presentations, and courses have revolved around his study of... [More]

Assistant Professor

Along with prize-winning stories and poems in dozens of journals, Elise Levine has published a novel, Requests and Dedications (McClelland & Stewart, 2005), and a collection of short stories, Driving Men Mad (McClelland & Stewart, 2003). She has rece... [More]

Professor

Professor Loesberg has written three books, Fictions of Consciousness: Mill, Newman and the Reading of Victorian Prose; Aestheticism and Deconstruction: Pater, Derrida, and De Man; and A Return to Aesthetics: Autonomy, Indifference, and Postmodernism... [More]

Writing Instructor

A native Californian, Caron Martinez earned her BA in English from Williams College before joining the United States Information Agency as a Foreign Service Officer assigned to the US Embassies in Quito, Ecuador, and Mexico City. While living in plac... [More]

Professor

Professor McCann is the author, most recently, of Mother of Sorrows (Vintage, 2006), a collection of linked stories that Michael Cunningham has described as 'almost unbearably beautiful'; He is also the author of Ghost Letters (1994 Beatrice Hawley A... [More]

Professorial Lecturer

Jocelyn McCarthy received her BA in English from Cornell University and her MFA in Creative Writing from American University. She writes fiction and nonfiction, and is currently at work on several projects. She has lived and worked in Thailand, and t... [More]

Writing Instructor

Heather McDonald earned her MFA from American University and her BA from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. Prior to teaching, she was a web writer and editor. Her academic interests include the intersections between creative writing and... [More]

Associate Professor

Madhavi Menon is interested in desire. She is the author of Wanton Words: Rhetoric and Sexuality in English Renaissance Drama (University of Toronto Press, 2004), which explores how Renaissance rhetoric manuals encounter and present desire; and of Un... [More]

Associate Professor

Professor Middents studies and teaches film and world literature, specifically focusing on Latin American narratives from the 1960s to the 1980s, and serves as the advisor to the Cinema Studies minor. His film-oriented courses cover a wide range of c... [More]

Writing Instructor

Glenn Moomau is the author of Ted Nugent Condominium: From Boston to Austin with the Glenmont Popes (AP Press, 2001). His fiction, essays, and reviews have appeared in storySouth, Memoir Journal, Art Works, Link, Bomb, Living Blues, The Little Patuxe... [More]

Professor

Kay Mussell joined American University in 1974 and has held multiple positions, including Professor of Literature and American Studies; Director of the American Studies, College Writing, and Honors Programs; and Associate Dean positions in the Colleg... [More]

Associate Professor

Professor Noble's teaching and research interests include American literature, culture studies, and gender studies, with a particular emphasis on the construction of sexuality in nineteenth-century American women's literature. She is the author of Th... [More]

Writing Instructor

Kristina Kasik Oakes earned her MA from Boston College and her BA from the University of New Hampshire. Prior to teaching at AU she taught high school English in Central Virginia and writing at Central Virginia Community College. Her academic interes... [More]

Professor

Professor Pike is the author of Metropolis on the Styx: The Underworlds of Modern Urban Culture, 1800–2001 (Cornell UP, 2007); Subterranean Cities: The World beneath Paris and London 1800–1945 (Cornell UP), shortlisted for the 2006 Modernist Studies... [More]

Assistant Professor

Professor Ratekin teaches courses in twentieth-century literature and film. His interests include modern British, American, and world literature, postmodernism, literary theory, consumer culture, psychoanalysis, genre studies and the memoir. His book... [More]

Adjunct Professorial Lecturer

Trisha Reichler joined the College Writing faculty as an adjunct in 2000 and became a full-time instructor in 2003. Her primary area of interest is the tradition and language of nonviolent resistance movements. Prior to teaching at AU, she worked in ... [More]

Professor

Professor Rubenstein's primary teaching interests include Modernist fiction, literature by Modernist and contemporary women writers, and feminist literary theory. She has published more than thirty articles and book chapters, as well as five books an... [More]

Professor

Professor Sha teaches courses in Nineteenth-Century Literature, especially British Romanticism, and in Asian American Literature. He is currently writing a book entitled Imagining the Imagination: Science and British Romanticism, for which he has re... [More]

Associate Professor

Anita Gilman Sherman studies 16th and 17th century literature, specializing in works that have problems of knowledge and interpretation at their thematic center. Her book, Skepticism and Memory in Shakespeare and Donne (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), exp... [More]

Assistant Professor

Rachel Louise Snyder is an author, journalist and public radio contributor. Her first book, “Fugitive Denim: A Moving Story of People and Pants in the Borderless World of Global Trade” was published by WW Norton and came out in paperback in April 200... [More]

Dean, College of Arts and Sciences

Peter Starr joined American University as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in July 2009. In this role, he bears principal responsibility for 279 full-time faculty in 17 departments, 1650 undergraduate majors, 1150 graduate students, and an an... [More]

Writing Instructor

Mary Switalski began teaching at AU in 2007 while completing her MFA. She earned her BA in English Literature with a Creative Writing Subconcentration from the University of Michigan. She has also taught at the University of Maryland. She writes shor... [More]

Writing Instructor

Adam has been with the College Writing Program since 2004. He graduated from the University of Dayton in 1999 with a BA in English, then came to AU's MFA Program. His most recent short story appeared in "The University of Dayton Quarterly." He's also... [More]

Writing Instructor

Alison Thomas earned a BA in English and Spanish from Cornell University. She completed her MFA in creative writing at American University. Currently she is at work on revising her first book, a collection of linked short stories called “Our People.”... [More]

Assistant Professor

Professor Voris’s teaching and research interests include twentieth-century American and British literature, the intellectual history of modernism and its relation to the visual arts, as well as contemporary lyrical and experimental poetry. Her book ... [More]

Assistant Professor

Michael Wenthe was trained in medieval literature at Duke, Harvard, Oxford, and Yale. His primary research interest involves the staging of othering and difference as expressed in the polyglot, international literature of King Arthur, and his current... [More]

Writing Instructor

Kate holds Master’s degrees in English and Medieval Studies from the Catholic University of America, and a BA in English and Music from Stanford University. Her academic interests include medieval literature, 15th century British drama, classical rhe... [More]

Writing Instructor

Lacey Wootton completed her MA in Literature at AU in 1999 and has taught in the College Writing Program since then. Prior to her time at AU, she earned a BA in English from U.C. Berkeley, worked in publishing, and returned to Berkeley to earn her te... [More]

Writing Instructor

Melissa Scholes Young holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and an MA in Education from Stetson University. Before joining the College Writing Program, Melissa taught high school AP English for ten years in th... [More]