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. Michelle Eble is featured in the ITCS April Faculty Spotlight. Eble discusses how she integrates technology to help her students better understand language and communication.
In addition to Canvas, she uses Canva, Adobe Creative Cloud, WordPress, and other tools so students can learn to design infographics, explainer videos, digital essays, and podcasts. These hands-on learning experiences help students understand how writing and communication are always shaped by the technologies students use.
Dr. Kirstin Squint partnered with Alston Cobourn, Head of University History and Records, and Kristen Daniel, Special Collections Instruction and Outreach Librarian, on an ECU Lifelong Learning Program class entitled, “Neyuherú·kęʼ Wampum Belt.” The class overviewed the Neyuherú·kęʼ Wampum Belt, gifted to East Carolina University in 2013 at the Nooherooka 300 Symposium by representatives of the Tuscarora Nation of New York. The presentation focused on the relationship of the wampum belt to the Tuscarora War and the people of North Carolina, its role as a non-alphabetic text and storytelling device, and the ways ECU engages students and communities with the wampum belt.
Amber Flora Thomas will be one of the poets on faculty at the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference in June. She encourages students, faculty, and staff to consider applying to attend the conference.
In addition, Flora Thomas just released “Getting it Right: Route 128 to Mendocino” in swamp pink Magazine.
Dr. Matt Cox, along with Trixie Smith, just published “Thriving Through Counter‑Narratives of Hope, Love, and Joy: Reflections on Abolitionist Approaches to Queer/Feminist Mentorship” in Thriving in Higher Education: Uncovering Institutional Counter-Stories through Abolitionist Feminist Mentoring. The book “shares personal narratives that highlight the critical role of mentoring in academic success—especially for women and people of color on the tenure track.”
Third-year PhD student Mina Bikmohammadi had her co-authored article (with Ekaterina Sudina and Luke Plonsky), “Self-citation attitudes and practices in applied linguistics: A mixed-methods study,” published in the latest issue of Research Methods in Applied Linguistics. The article arose from a research collaboration that began in 2024, when Mina was assigned as a research assistant to Dr. Sudina.
Alumna Morgan Banville (PhD ’23) and her colleague Gavin Johnson won the Council on College Composition and Communication’s Lavender Rhetorics Award for Excellence in Queer Scholarship in the “Nontraditional Scholarly Text” category for their Cluster Conversation: “Talking Back Through Rhetorical Surveillance Studies: Intersectional Feminist and Queer Approaches,” published in Peitho, the journal of the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition. Banville is currently an assistant professor of humanities at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.
Dr. Amy E. Wright of Saint Louis University will serve as the David Julian and Virginia Suther Whichard Distinguished Professor in the Humanities in East Carolina University’s Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences with the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures in partnership with the Department of English.
“I feel deeply honored and grateful. This distinguished professorship is both an affirmation of my work with Latin American/Spanish-speaking media and my passion to serve broader communities. I’m excited to join ECU to spotlight the value of languages, literatures and cultures — and to amplify the voices and artistic traditions of Spanish-speaking communities on campus and across the region.”
Read more about Harriot College’s Whichard Distinguished Professor in the Humanities Announcement.