UAF Department of English Contact Information

Banner image - collage


Faculty

Samantha Botz

Samantha Botz

Assistant Professor of British Literature

English Department

GRUE 844

Gerri Brightwell

Gerri Brightwell

Professor

English Department

GRUE 836

*on sabbatical spring 2025*

Chris Coffman

Chris Coffman

Professor

English Department

GRUE 858

*on sabbatical for AY 2024-2025*

Daryl Farmer

Daryl Farmer

Director of Creative Writing; Professor

English Department

GRUE 862

Eileen M. Harney

Eileen M. Harney

Associate Professor

English Department

GRUE 866

*on sabbatical spring 2025*

Joseph Holt

Joseph Holt

Assistant Professor

English Department

GRUE 838

Sara Eliza Johnson

Sara Eliza Johnson

Associate Professor

English Department

GRUE 868

Terry Reilly

Terry Reilly

Professor

English Department

GRUE 842

Jennifer Schell

Jennifer Schell

Professor

English Department

GRUE 854

Sarah Stanley

Sarah Stanley

English Department Chair; Director of Composition; Associate Professor

English Department

GRUE 864

Jericho Williams

Jericho Williams

Assistant Professor of American Literature

English Department

GRUE 846

 

 

Lecturers

Hans Burger

BA Creative Writing, Western Washington University; MA/MFA, Literature and creative Writing, vlog.

Carolyn Mousseau

BA, Spanish with focus on teaching, vlog, MA, Applied Linguistics, vlog.

Gayle Hammons

BA English, Humboldt State University: MAT, Teaching of English, University of Alaska Juneau.

Katherine Stealey-Bouta

BA English and History, Wake Forest University, NC; MA English, University of Alaska vlog; Secondary Teaching Certificate in Language Arts and History, University of Alaska vlog. 

Derek M. Hinckley

B.A., Colgate University, concentration in Political Science with a minor concentration Creative Writing, M.F.A., vlog, concentration in Non-fiction Creative Writing.

Carolyn Stice

BA English, Randolph Macon Woman's College; MFA, Creative Writing, University of Alaska vlog; PhD, English University of Tennessee Knoxville.

Grete Mjolsnes

BA, English, University of Alaska Anchorage; MA, English, vlog.

Maureen Sullivan

BA English, Loyola University Chicago; MA Literature, vlog.

 

 

New Emeriti Faculty: Rich Carr and Eric Heyne

 

In Spring 2023, Professors Rich Carr and Eric Heyne retired after sixty-five years of combined service to the English Department and the vlog. Their contributions are numerous. Rich Carr taught literature from all over the globe, from ancient through contemporary times, and his research focused on Australian literature and culture, as well as writing from the larger Pacific region. He served as Director of the UAF Writing Center for more than twenty-five years, and he was Chair of the English Department for ten years. Eric Heyne taught courses in American literature, critical theory, and literature of the Circumpolar North. He served as Faculty Senate President, Chair of the English Department, and Interim Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. He published scholarship in Modern Fiction Studies, Narrative, Critique, and elsewhere, and he is author of the poetry collection Fish the Dead Water Hard (Cirque Press, 2021).


A profile photo of Dr. Rich Carr. He looks like a nice friend
Dr. Rich Carr
A profile photo of Eric Heyne. He is smiling, very happy.
Dr. Eric Heyne

 

Emeriti Faculty

 

Susan Blalock

9th and 20th Century British literature, Narrative Theory

Ph.D., University of Texas, 1983

Mark Box

Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century British Literature, Romantic-era British Literature

D. Phil., Oxford University, 1985

Rich Carr

Literature of Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania; Scandinavian Literature; Victorian & Edwardian Literature; European Fiction: Modern & Post-modern

Ph.D., University of Minnesota

G. Burns Cooper

Linguistics

Ph.D., University of Texas

Lillian Corti

Comparative Literature, African Studies, Psychoanalytic Theory

PhD., The Graduate School of The City University of New York, 1984

Joseph Dupras

Nineteenth-century British Literature, Literary Criticism

Ph.D., State University of New York Binghamton, 1975

Eric Heyne

American literature, critical theory, Alaskan and northern literature

Ph.D., Ohio State University

Len Kamerling Dramatic Writing; Filmmaking (Documentary and Ethnographic); former Curator of Film at the University of Alaska Museum of the North

MFA, vlog
Janis Lull

Shakespeare and 17th-Century British Literature

Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1983

John Morgan

Creative Writing, Poetry

MFA, University of Iowa, 1967

James Ruppert
Native American Literature, Alaska Native Oral Narrative
 
M.A. (English), Purdue University, 1972
Ph.D. (English), U. of New Mexico, 1981
Michael Schuldiner

Early American Literature, Holocaust Literature

M. Phil., Cambridge University, 2000
Ph.D., Kent State University, 1979

Peggy Shumaker

 Creative Writing, Poetry

MFA, Arizona, 1979

Frank Soos

Creative Writing, Fiction

M.F.A., University of Arkansas, 1981

Russell Stratton

Medieval Literature and Chaucer

Ph.D., The University of Southern Mississippi, 1979

Cynthia Walker

20th-Century British Literature

Ph.D., Purdue University, 1974

 

 

 

Graduate Teaching Assistants

Graduate students in English are traditionally offered teaching assistantships, which include tuition reimbursement, pedagogical training, and classroom experience. Our teaching assistants typically teach one course per semester under the supervision of the Director of Composition and an assigned faculty mentor. In addition, TAs assist five hours per week in the Writing Center.

Rachel Blume (MFA)

areas of study: Fiction

Topher Corey (MFA/MA)

 

Mike Degen Jr.



Fidelis Feeley (MFA)

Amber Fratesi

she/her
areas of study: Fiction, Novel Writing, Composition and Rhetoric

Ayden Harris

all pronouns
areas of study:
Fiction, long form narratives and novels, Editing

 
Kathy Kitts (MFA)

she / her
areas of study:
Creative Writing

Kiarra Mariani (MFA)

she / her
areas of study:
Creative Writing

Maggie May (MFA)

they / them
areas of study
: Fiction, Speculative Fiction

Nóra McIntyre (MFA)

any pronouns
areas of study
: Creative Writing (Cross-Genre)

Manuel A. Melendez (MFA)

he / him
areas of study: Poetry, Desire, Ecopocalypses

Tim Ott (MFA)

he / him
areas of study
: Fiction Writing, Russian Literature, Truth and Creativity

Katie Rowley (MFA)

she / her
areas of study
: Creative Nonfiction

 
Julia Rutherford (MFA)

she / her
areas of study:
Creative Nonfiction, Editing and Publishing

Zeke Shomler (MFA/MA)

he / him
areas of study
: Poetry Writing, Philosophy in Literature

 
Jamie Simpher (MFA/MA)

she / her
areas of study
: Fiction

Taylor Thorp (MFA/MA)

 

 
Troi Winters (MFA)



Gwen Retterer

Lead Administrative Assistant

Department of English

GRUE 859

Atsuko Watanabe

Administrative Assistant

Department of English

GRUE 859