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.
— Dr. Julia Horiates
English News
Current ENGL faculty Dr. Will Banks, Dr. Nikki Caswell, Dr. Erin Clark, and John Hoppenthaler (along with Associate Professor Emeritus Dr. Tom Shields) were recognized at the Faculty Author Book Awards Ceremony on October 22nd at the Janice Hardison Faulkner Gallery in Joyner Library.
Each year, Academic Library Services and Academic Affairs recognize faculty and other researchers in the division who have contributed to the prestige of East Carolina University by creating and disseminating scholarly monographs. This year’s ceremony recognizes authors and editors of monographs published between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024.
- Will Banks—Failing Sideways: Queer Possibilities for Writing Assessment
- Nikki Caswell—Failing Sideways: Queer Possibilities for Writing Assessment
- Erin Clark—Feminist Technical Communication: Apparent Feminisms, Slow Crisis, and the Deepwater Horizon Disaster
- John Hoppenthaler—Night Wing Over Metropolitan Area
The 3D digital recreation of Edmund Spenser’s Kilcolman Castle, built at ECU for Dr. Thomas Herron’s Centering Spenser website, features prominently in the 22nd episode of Great Castles of Europe (2024), part of The Great Courses DVD/video lecture series produced by The Teaching Company.
The digital castle was built at ECU by digital arts students under the direction of Herron and ECU Art Professor Laurie Godwin, and is featured on Centering Spenser, a digital resource for Kilcolman Castle.
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, acclaimed memoirist and essayist, and two-term Poet Laureate of the United States, Natasha Trethewey, will return to ECU on October 24th. The event will be held in Ballroom A of ECU’s Main Campus Student Center at 6:30 pm. She will read from her nonfiction prose, though the program may include a poem or two. The event will conclude at 7:30, and there will be a book signing thereafter.
A brief meet and greet will be held in Main Student Center Room 253.
John Hoppenthaler was a featured reader at the Writer’s Association of Northern Appalachia online reading to raise money for Asheville’s hard-hit River District. The portal for contributions will remain open until the 24th.
In addition, Hoppenthaler was a featured reader at the West End Poetry Festival in Carrboro. Other featured participants included recent NC Hall of Fame inductees Joe Bathanti, Lenard Moore, Jaki Shelton Green, Emilia Phillips, and Ashley Lumpkin.
Dr. Erin Clark, Rhetoric, Writing, and Professional Communication doctoral student Mina Bikmohammadi, and Dr. Ryan Cheek (Missouri S&T) were named #PITUN #NetworkChallenge24 grantees. The group will convene scholars, students, and community partners at Missouri S&T and East Carolina University to create zines as a form of public interest technology that advances gender justice and promotes technological equity.
The 2024 projects center the needs of communities that have historically been excluded from technology design, workforce and policy, and will empower communities through partnerships with minority-serving institutions, local and state government and nonprofits.
ECU alumni Michael K. Brantley has been selected as the distinguished Elizabeth H. Jordan Endowed Chair of Southern Literature at Barton College. Brantley’s new appointment was effective at the beginning of the fall 2024 semester.
In addition to his current teaching responsibilities in the English program, Brantley’s new role includes overseeing the Barton College Homegrown Writers Series, which he established to showcase the written works of Barton faculty and students. He also oversees the various endowed literature speaker series each year and collaborates with faculty on campus to elevate the use of the K.D. Kennedy, Jr. Rare Book Room and its valued resources.
Brantley has a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte, a Master of Arts degree in English from East Carolina University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications from Barton College.
Dr. Brian Glover and Professor John Hoppenthaler received the ECU research reassignment award for Spring 2025
The Research and Creative Activities Committee and the Office of Research, Economic Development and Engagement (REDE) have partnered to administer the Faculty Support and Reassignment Awards program since 2021. This program provides funds to allow faculty dedicated time in the academic year for creative and scholarly activity and to prepare and submit a competitive application for extramural support.