English Department
Go English!
Here at the ECU Department of English, we are a vibrant and energetic collection of teachers, scholars, researchers, and writers. Our department offers four degrees: a B.A. in English; a B.S. in Professional Writing and Information Design; an M.A. in English; a Ph.D. in Rhetoric, Writing, and Professional Communication as well as various minors and certificates. The diversity of this department is one of its strengths: you can take coursework in literature, creative writing, technical and professional communication, rhetoric and composition, multicultural and transnational literatures, linguistics, theory and criticism, folklore, children’s literature, teaching English to speakers of other languages, and film studies. In addition, you can expect to benefit from a breadth of faculty expertise across many areas of study. Above all, your success as a student is our first priority.
English News
Dr. Kirstin Squint collaborated with staff from Joyner Library, Kristen Daniel and Alston Cobourn, and from the Ledonia Wright Cultural Center, Nichole Maldonado, to host a program for eleventh graders from Pamlico High School on the topic of Native American literature. Students learned about subjects ranging from oral traditions and non-alphabetic texts to contemporary Indigenous science fiction and fantasy novels. They also had the opportunity to engage with the Neyuherú·kęʼ wampum belt, gifted to the state of North Carolina in 2013 by the Tuscarora Nation, and kept in Joyner Library’s Special Collections
Four doctoral students and four RWPC faculty members have published a co-edited special issue of Technical Communication and Social Justice. The special issue is on Digital Activism, Pedagogy, and Advocacy, and it includes an introduction by the editors: Nicole Allen, Mina Bikmohammadi, Codi Renee Blackmon, Amanda Patterson Partin, William Banks, Erin Clark, Desiree Dighton, and Michelle Eble.
Dr. Thomas Herron has won a Research Reassignment Award of one course release in Fall 2025, which will allow him to prepare a grant application of additional development of his ongoing Shakespeare AI avatar project, developed at ECU.
In the Fall, Herron will also be researching and trying to complete his ongoing Shakespeare in Ireland monograph project thanks to a residential fellowship at the Centre d’études supérieures de civilisation médiévale at the University of Poitiers, France.
On April 22, Christy Hallberg led an in-conversation event with novelist and East Tennessee State University English professor Michael Amos Cody. The event, held at The Generalist in downtown Johnson City, TN, marked the official launch of Cody’s latest novel, Streets of Nashville (Madville Publishing), and kicked off ETSU’s annual literary festival. The venue was filled to capacity with an enthusiastic audience turning out to support both the author and the broader literary community.
The ECU Zine Lab’s first workshop, March 28-29, has produced more than a dozen themed zines.
The new zine lab, a collaboration with Missouri S&T through a PIT-UN grant, leverages zine-making as a public-interest technology to instill communication, collaboration, and content creation skills. Dr. Erin Clark is the project leader at ECU; the lab is part of her research on gender justice and technological equity.
This innovative community outreach project will support participant-produced zines. Four zines will cover gender-affirming technologies, reproductive healthcare technologies, technologies affecting survivors of gender violence, and technologies affecting women and gender minorities on campus. Scholars, students, and community partners will collaboratively edit these zines, and zine-making workshops will promote community engagement and expression.
Jennah Sutton, one of the department’s 2024 BA English graduates, will have an essay she wrote on the reality series Wife Swap in Dr. Amanda Klein’s FILM 4985 class published in Film Matters, an undergraduate journal. Sutton’s essay and a brief overview of the English Department’s Film Studies program will be published later this year.
Film Matters is a film magazine celebrating the work of undergraduate film scholars. It is published three times a year, by students and for students, and each issue contains feature articles and a reviews section.
Dr. Desiree Dighton, along with two PhD students, Ben Abel, and Mina Bikmohammadi published “Localizing with GAI in the Archives: Exploring Practitioner Attitudes on Challenges and Opportunities” in Technical Communication Quarterly. The study explores how archival professionals are implementing generative AI (GAI) in their work and what their experiences can teach us about ethical, equitable innovation. With key takeaways for technical communication, digital humanities, and knowledge sector professionals, the article emphasizes participatory localization and the role of local knowledge in shaping responsible AI use. We will also be presenting the research at Computers & Writing next month.