Department of English welcomes new hires for spring 2024
As we start this new semester and new year, we are pleased to welcome the following new faculty members to the department.
Ruth Awad joins us for the semester as a visiting assistant professor in creative writing. She will be teaching a graduate MFA workshop in poetry. Ruth received an MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and was a 2021 NEA Poetry Fellow. She has published two books of poetry: Outside the Joy (2024) and Set to Music a Wildfire(2017), which received the 2016 Michael Waters Poetry Prize and the 2018 Ohioana Book Award for Poetry. Her poem “My Hair Burned Like Berenice” appears in the current issue of Poetry.
Bradley Dubos joins as a Fellow in the Provost’s Tenure-Track Fellow to Faculty Program. Brad received his PhD from Northwestern in 2022, with a dissertation entitled “American Sanctuaries: Poetry and Placemaking in the Age of Revival,” and has recently completed a term as NEH Public Humanities Fellow at the New York Historical Society. At the Society, he was part of the curatorial team for its extensive and innovative exhibit, Acts of Faith: Religion and the American West. His research and teaching interests include Early and 19th-century American literature and culture; Native American and Indigenous literary traditions; African American literary traditions; poetry and poetics; and lived religion. Brad received his undergraduate degree in Integrated Language Arts Education at Youngstown State University.
Weston Morrow joins as a lecturer teaching in the Writing and Information Literacy program. He received his MFA in poetry from the University of Illinois in 2023, where he was the assistant director of the Rhetoric Program and taught first year writing courses as well as creative writing courses. He also taught first year Academic Writing at Central Washington University, where he received his BA in philosophy and English and MA in English literature. In addition, Wes is a former print journalist. His recent poetry and prose have appeared in The Adroit Journal, Diode Poetry Journal, and Poetry Northwest, among other venues.
In addition we are excited to welcome four faculty from the University Libraries who have accepted courtesy faculty appointments in the department starting this semester.
Leigh Bonds is an associate professor and Digital Humanities Librarian. Many faculty, instructors, and students already rely on Leigh’s expertise in applying innovative digital methodologies and tools to research in English studies. In addition, Leigh brings to us scholarly interest and expertise in book history, British romanticism, and Romantic Women Writers.
Jolie Braun is an associate professor and Curator of Modern Literature and Manuscripts in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library. Jolie regularly works with faculty on shared scholarly and curatorial projects on book history, print culture, and popular print. In addition, she has also worked with many of our students to introduce them to archival studies and book history. Her scholarly areas of interest and expertise also include Zines and self-publishing as well as Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
Eric Johnson is a professor and Curator of Thompson Special Collections. Eric has regularly collaborated with faculty colleagues in Medieval literature, Renaissance literature, and book history both in the classroom and in research. He has also generously shared his expertise with faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates throughout the department. In addition to medieval and Renaissance Studies and book history, his specific areas of interest include manuscript studies, medieval pastoral and moral theology, and special collections-based pedagogy.
Jennifer Schnabel is an associate professor and library liaison to English, Film Studies, and Linguistics. As the English department’s subject librarian, Jen provides regular assistance to faculty and students on scholarly research and has recently been particularly active in supporting graduate students in research. She also brings to us scholarly interest and expertise in Victorian literature and detective fiction.
