faculty

The English Department takes great pride in our combination of award-winning research and deep commitment to students and teaching. Our faculty are among the most productive researchers at UMBC and have interests in a wide range of specialties in literature, writing, communication, and technology. Special strengths of the department include: Literature and Culture, Literature and Science, Cultural and Historical Studies, Composition Theory and Practice, Journalism and Communication, and the Literature of Diversity. Among English faculty are past and present winners of Guggenheim, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Fulbright Fellowships as well as recipients of the American Studies Network Prize, the James Thurber Prize for Comic Fiction, the James N. Britton Award for Inquiry in the Language Arts, and Baltimore Magazine's Best of the Web award.

Our faculty are deeply committed to teaching, from first-year seminars to senior capstone research courses and beyond. We emphasize student engagement in reading, discussion, and writing and encourage active learning among our students. Students acknowledge the superior teaching in our department by awarding English faculty high teaching evaluations. They consistently praise the power of English courses to change their thinking and writing throughout their college careers and later in the workforce. We pride ourselves on our accessibility. Every English Department course offers an opportunity for close contact between students and faculty. Our office doors are usually open, and we urge students to drop by. We take formal advising and mentoring seriously. As a result English majors are well-prepared to compete for graduate school admission, major fellowships, and top jobs. We also actively encourage students to engage in research and to submit their work to conferences and journals. Faculty mentors have helped students complete work that has appeared in the UMBC Review, at national undergraduate research conferences, and in newspapers and journals.

Core Faculty

Jessica Berman, Associate Professor & Chair
20th century narrative; cultural studies; literary and feminist theory

Ryan Bloom, Lecturer
Literary translation; creative writing; composition

Helen J Burgess, Assistant Professor
New media authoring; visual literacy; electronic literature, digital humanities

Christopher Corbett, Professor of the Practice
Journalism; news and feature writing

Lindsay DiCuirci, Assistant Professor
Colonial/U.S. literature to 1900; periodical publishing; African American literature; women's literary history

Brian Dunnigan, Lecturer
Composition; subversive literature of race, class and gender

Raphael Falco, Professor
English Renaissance literature; 20th century American poetry

Michael Fallon, Senior Lecturer & Associate Director, Writing and Rhetoric Division
Creative writing; 20th century poetry; American literature

Robin I. Farabaugh, Senior Lecturer
English Renaissance literature; Shakespeare; fiction writing

Jean Fernandez, Associate Professor
Victorian Literature; Literature and Empire; narratology, autobiography

Carolyn H. Fitzpatrick, Senior Lecturer
American literature; rhetoric and composition

Piotr K. Gwiazda, Associate Professor
American literature and culture; modern and contemporary poetry; poetic theory and translation; creative writing

Linda R. Harris, Instructor
Composition; technical writing

Mary Hickernell, Instructor and Coordinator of the Writing Center
Composition and rhetoric; technical writing

Mitzi Mabe, Instructor
Composition; interpersonal communication; applied behavioral science

Jennifer Maher, Assistant Professor
Rhetoric of technology; critical theory; qualitative research methods; professional communication

Lucille McCarthy, Professor
Rhetoric and composition; writing in the professions

Anthony M. McGurrin, Instructor
20th century poetry; verse drama; creative writing

Kathryn McKinley, Associate Professor
Medieval literature

Gail Orgelfinger, Senior Lecturer
Medieval Studies; Shakespeare

Michele Osherow, Associate Professor; Associate Director of the Dresher Center for the Humanities; Director of the Humanities Scholars Program
Shakespeare; drama; the Bible as literature; Jewish American literature

Nicole Pekarske, Lecturer
Creative writing; composition

Jody Shipka, Assistant Professor
Rhetoric and composition; multimodal discourse; activity theory; play theory

Sally Shivnan, Senior Lecturer, Director of Writing and Rhetoric
Creative writing

Orianne Smith, Assistant Professor
British Romanticism

Holly T. Sneeringer, Lecturer
Composition

Emeritus Faculty

Kenneth H. Baldwin, Associate Professor Emeritus
American literature; autobiography; popular fiction and film

J. Leeds Barroll, Professor Emeritus
English Renaissance drama and poetry

Linda Benson, Instructor Emerita
American literature; composition and rhetoric; women's studies

William Edinger, Associate Professor Emeritus
Samuel Johnson; 18th century literature

Joan Korenman, Professor Emerita

Lawrence Lasher, Associate Professor Emeritus