Faculty

Faculty

The English department is located in Ballantine Hall. All mail to any faculty or staff in English should be sent to: Ballantine Hall 440 / 1020 E Kirkwood Ave / Bloomington, IN 47405.

Michael Adams

Michael Adams

he/him/his

Provost Professor, English

Research Interests
History and structure of English language, early British literature

Janan Alexandra

Janan Alexandra

Adjunct, English

  • jananale@iu.edu
  • Ballantine Hall 413

Research Interests
Arab America; Arabic; Lebanese Diaspora Studies; memory, myth, and dream; lyric and nonlinear selves/subjects; hybrid forms; the essay; constellational geography; unlearning the carceral; liberatory poetics and practice

Dana Anderson

Dana Anderson

Ruth A. Jones Professor of Rhetoric

Associate Professor, English

Director, Professional Writing Program

Research Interests
rhetorical theory, composition, and pedagogy; identity, agency, and rhetorics of human personhood; professional writing and visual rhetoric

Penelope Anderson

Penelope Anderson

Associate Professor, English

Affiliate, European Studies

Affiliate, Gender Studies

Affiliate, Renaissance Studies

Research Interests
Early modern literature; feminist, queer, and gender studies; political theory; manuscript studies and history of the book

Scot Barnett

Scot Barnett

he/him/his

Associate Professor, English

  • scbarnet@iu.edu
  • Ballantine Hall 410

Research Interests
Histories and theories of rhetoric; digital rhetorics and the rhetorics of science and technology; ethics and phenomenology

Mahasweta Baxipatra

Mahasweta Baxipatra

she/her/hers

Senior Lecturer, English

Associate Director, Composition

Coordinator, Multilingual Writing and Intensive Writing

  • baxipatm@iu.edu
  • Ballantine Hall 567

Research Interests
British Romanticism, Genre Studies, World Literature in English, Memory and Migration, Multilingual Writing, Composition and Pedagogy

Joe Betz

Joe Betz

Adjunct, English

  • rojobetz@iu.edu
  • Ballantine Hall 525

Research Interests
Composition studies, developmental writing, contemporary American and French poetry

Bob Bledsoe

Bob Bledsoe

Senior Lecturer, English

Director, IU Writers' Conference

  • robledso@iu.edu
  • Ballantine Hall 470

Research Interests
Creative writing, contemporary fiction/literature, queer fiction/literature

Purnima Bose

Purnima Bose

Professor, English

Chair, English

Academic Director, IU India Gateway

Adjunct Professor, American Studies

Adjunct Professor, Comparative Literature

Adjunct Professor, Cultural Studies

Adjunct Professor, History

Affiliated Professor, Gender Studies

Affiliate, Study of Global Change

Research Interests
Colonial literature and theory (South Asia, Ireland, and Afghanistan); globalization, feminist and cultural studies

Catherine Bowman

Catherine Bowman

Provost Professor, English

Research Interests
Creative writing; poetry, poetics, fiction and non-fiction, literature

Joseph D. Brentlinger

Joseph D. Brentlinger

Visiting Lecturer, P155 Public Oral Communication

  • josbrent@iu.edu
  • Ballantine Hall 465

Research Interests
Public speaking, digital communication, twentieth century rhetorical theory

Judith C. Brown

Judith C. Brown

Professor, English

Director of Undergraduate Studies

  • jcb@iu.edu
  • Ballantine Hall 458

Research Interests
Transatlantic and global modernisms, visual culture, aesthetic theory

Doug Paul Case

Doug Paul Case

Academic Specialist, English

Assistant Director, Creative Writing

Research Interests
Creative writing, contemporary literature, editing, publishing, popular culture, print culture

Linda Charnes

Linda Charnes

she/her/hers

Professor, English

Research Interests
Shakespeare and renaissance studies; Shakespeare and postmodernism, critical and cultural theories; feminist cultural studies; early modern transatlantic and restoration literatures; political philosophy and theories of democracy

Edward Comentale

Edward Comentale

he/him/his

Professor, English

Assistant Vice President for Arts and Humanities Research

  • ecomenta@iu.edu
  • Maxwell Hall 102

Research Interests
Modernism, the avant-garde, pop culture, popular music

Drew Dalton

Drew Dalton

Professor, English

Research Interests
Philosophy and literary theory, especially psychoanalysis, phenomenology, and materialism/realism; ethics and aesthetics; popular culture and music; science fiction, utopianism, and escapism.

Kimberly Dilts

Kimberly Dilts

Visiting Lecturer, P155 Public Oral Communication

  • kimdilts@iu.edu
  • Ballantine Hall 465

Research Interests
Native American literature

Drew M. Dalton

Drew M. Dalton

    Research Interests
    Philosophy and literary theory, especially psychoanalysis, phenomenology, and materialism/realism; ethics and aesthetics; popular culture and music; science fiction, utopianism, and escapism.

    Jonathan Elmer

    Jonathan Elmer

    Professor, English

    • elmerj@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 462

    Research Interests
    American literature and culture, especially 18th and 19th centuries; literary, cultural, and aesthetic theory

    Ross Gay

    Ross Gay

    he/him/his

    Professor, English

    • rgay@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 560

    Research Interests
    Creative Writing (Poetry), 19th- and 20th-century American Literatures

    Shannon Gayk

    Shannon Gayk

    Professor, English

    Environmental Futures, Team Lead

    • sgayk@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 427

    Research Interests
    Late medieval literature and culture; poetics; visual culture and theory; religious writing

    David Graham

    David Graham

    Visiting Lecturer, English

    • grahamda@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 469

    Research Interests
    Writing in health science, fiction, creative non-fiction, theatre, literature in translation

    Rae Greiner

    Rae Greiner

    she/her/hers

    Associate Professor, English

    Editor, Victorian Studies

    • drgreine@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 433

    Research Interests
    The British 19th century; the theory and history of the novel; moral philosophy; theories of sympathy and of realism; narrative theory

    Paul Gutjahr

    Paul Gutjahr

    he/him/his

    Ruth Halls Professor, English

    • pgutjahr@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 420

    Research Interests
    19th-century American literature and culture, history of the book, American religious publishing

    Vivian Nun Halloran

    Vivian Nun Halloran

    she/her/ella

    Professor, English

    Professor, American Studies

    Associate Dean for Arts and Humanities

    Affiliate Professor, African American and African Diaspora Studies

    Affiliate Professor, Asian American Studies

    Affiliate Professor, Human Biology

    Affiliate Professor, Latino Studies

    Affiliate Professor, Latin American and Caribbean Studies

    Affiliate Professor, Spanish and Portuguese

    Research Interests
    Caribbean and Caribbean American literature, postmodernism, food studies, memoir, world literature, comparative ethnic American literature

    Ayesha Hardison

    Ayesha Hardison

    Associate Professor, English

    Susan D. Gubar Chair

    Research Interests
    African American literature, literary history, cultural studies, and women’s writing

    Mark Harrison

    Mark Harrison

    Senior Lecturer, English

    • marharri@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 478

    Research Interests
    Media, Film, and Cultural Studies; advertising and mass culture; social media and influencer culture; the Abject and the Real; History of Ideas

    Josh Hasler

    Josh Hasler

    Lecturer, English

    Coordinator, ENG-W131 Basic

    • johasler@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 435

    Research Interests
    Philosophy of language, semiotics, mystical and apocalyptic literature, religious rhetoric and communication, organizational communication

    Justin Hodgson

    Justin Hodgson

    Associate Professor, English

    Research Interests
    Digital media and rhetorical studies, especially multimedia production and rhetorical invention

    Patricia Clare Ingham

    Patricia Clare Ingham

    she/her/hers

    Martha Biggerstaff Jones Professor, English

    Affiliate Professor, Gender Studies

    Director, Institute for Advanced Study

    Research Interests
    Chaucer; medieval romance, including Arthurian; magic and marvels in literature; literary histories of the Middle Ages; psychoanalytic, post-colonial, and gender theories

    Christoph Irmscher

    Christoph Irmscher

    Director, Wells Scholars Program

    Distinguished Professor, English

    George F. Getz Jr. Professor, Wells Scholars Program

    Class of 1942 Professor, Wells Scholars Program

    • cirmsche@iu.edu
    • 443-622-3277
    • Wells Scholars Program, Harlos House

    Research Interests
    American poetry; biography; ecocriticism; history of science; literature and the visual arts; archival studies; nonfiction writing, memoir

    Angela Jackson-Brown

    Angela Jackson-Brown

    Associate Professor, English

    Director, Creative Writing

    • andjack@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 429

    Research Interests
    Creative writing (fiction), playwriting, African American Literature, Historical fiction, Southern literature

    De Witt Douglas Kilgore

    De Witt Douglas Kilgore

    Associate Professor, English

    Research Interests
    American Studies; Science Fiction Literature and Film; Race and Ethnicity in American Comics; Afrofuturism; U/Dystopian Studies

    Ivan Kreilkamp

    Ivan Kreilkamp

    he/him/his

    Professor, English

    Research Interests
    Victorian Studies, 19th-century British literature, the novel, popular culture, animal studies

    Lara Kriegel

    Lara Kriegel

    she/her/hers

    Professor, English and History

    Director, Victorian Studies Program

    Co-Editor, Victorian Studies

    Research Interests
    Victorian Studies, the British Empire, Museums, Visual Culture and Museums, Warfare and Statecraft

    Alexis Larsson

    Alexis Larsson

    Lecturer, English

    • alarsson@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 431

    Research Interests
    Rhetorical theory, multimodal composition, pedagogy, and the environmental humanities

    Barbara Lehr

    Barbara Lehr

    Lecturer, English

    • lehr@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 408

    Research Interests
    life writing, autobiography studies, dystopian literature, rhetoric in everyday life, new journalism, American nature writing, attention in the classroom

    Deanna M. Luchene

    Deanna M. Luchene

    Academic Specialist, Advance College Project

    Adjunct, English

    • dmjessup@iu.edu

    Research Interests
    Composition practices and pedagogy, mythology and comparative literature, contemporary literature, literature pedagogy, dual enrollment studies

    Joey McMullen

    Joey McMullen

    he/him/his

    Assistant Professor, English

    • jmcmull@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 466

    Research Interests
    Medieval literature and culture, Old English, Celtic (Irish and Welsh) languages and literatures, environmental humanities, history of the English language, young adult literature, digital humanities

    Jesse Molesworth

    Jesse Molesworth

    he/him/his

    Associate Professor, English

    Director of Graduate Studies

    Director, Center for Eighteenth-Century Studies

    • jmoleswo@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 456

    Research Interests
    18th-century British literature and culture; the rise of the novel; the Gothic; the graphic novel

    Monique Morgan

    Monique Morgan

    she/her/hers

    Associate Professor, English

    • mormorga@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 451

    Research Interests
    Romantic and Victorian poetry and prose fiction; narrative theory; poetics; literature and science; science fiction

    Walton Muyumba

    Walton Muyumba

    Ruth N. Halls Associate Professor, English

    • wmuyumba@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 425

    Research Interests
    African Diaspora literature and American Studies

    Michael Pontacoloni

    Michael Pontacoloni

    Visiting Lecturer, English

    Director, Creative Writing Pedagogy

    • mpontaco@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 457

    Research Interests
    Poetry, creative writing pedagogy, popular culture

    David Press

    David Press

    Adjunct, English

    • dmpress@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 468

    Research Interests
    Neurodivergence and mental health studies, composition theory, American media and culture

    Abigail Scott Rawleigh

    Abigail Scott Rawleigh

    Visiting Lecturer, English

    • arawleig@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 454

    Research Interests
    Early American literature, religion and literature, poetry and poetics

    Robin Reames

    Robin Reames

    Associate Professor, English

    Culbertson Chair

    Research Interests
    History of rhetoric, ancient Greek rhetorical theory, history of ideas, literary history

    S. Fain Riopelle

    S. Fain Riopelle

    Visiting Lecturer, English

    • sriopell@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 421

    Research Interests
    Cognitive writing studies, first-year writing pedagogy, disposition studies, writing transfer and threshold concepts, WAC/WID studies, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

    A.J. Rivera

    A.J. Rivera

    Lecturer, English

    Associate Director, Composition

    • riveraaj@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 418

    Research Interests
    writing and retention, first-year composition, pedagogy, nontraditional students

    Alvin H. Rosenfeld

    Alvin H. Rosenfeld

    Professor, English

    Director, Center for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism

    Professor, Jewish Studies

    M. Glazer Chair, Jewish Studies

    Affiliate, ISCA

    • rosenfel@iu.edu
    • (812) 855-2325
    • Global and International Studies Building 4006

    Research Interests
    Holocaust literature; post-Holocaust antisemitism; American Jewish literature; practical criticism; exile literature

    Rebekah Sheldon

    Rebekah Sheldon

    she/her/hers

    Associate Professor, English

    Affiliate Associate Professor, Gender Studies

    • rsheldon@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 416

    Research Interests
    American feminist and queer speculative fiction, philosophy, and methods

    Katherine Silvester

    Katherine Silvester

    she/her/hers

    Associate Professor, English

    Director, Composition

    • klsilves@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 409

    Research Interests
    Rhetoric and composition, literacy studies, and writing program administration

    Nikki Skillman

    Nikki Skillman

    she/her/hers

    Associate Professor, English

    • nskillma@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 461

    Research Interests
    Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Literary Aesthetics, and Literature and Science

    Brando Skyhorse

    Brando Skyhorse

    Associate Professor, English

    • skyhorse@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 569

    Research Interests
    Fiction, creative non-fiction, memoir, racial passing

    Cynthia Duquette Smith

    Cynthia Duquette Smith

    she/her/hers

    Senior Lecturer, English

    Coordinator of P155 Public Oral Communication

    Advance College Project Liaison for Speech

    • cds@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 449

    Research Interests
    Rhetorical criticism, Rhetorics of Architecture and Public Memory

    Gabrielle Stecher Woodward

    Gabrielle Stecher Woodward

    Lecturer, English

    • gstecher@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 446

    Research Interests
    Writing & literature pedagogy; Victorian literature & visual culture; women & the visual arts

    James B. Storey

    James B. Storey

    Associate Director, Composition

    Senior Lecturer, English

    • jbstorey@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 570

    Research Interests
    Composition, Fiction Writing, Sci-Fi, and Video Games

    Robert E. Terrill

    Robert E. Terrill

    he/him/his

    Professor, English

    Associate Chair, English

    • rterrill@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 467

    Research Interests
    Rhetorical criticism of African American public address, film, and rhetorical criticism in the liberal arts and citizen education

    Freya Thimsen

    Freya Thimsen

    she/her/hers

    Associate Professor, English

    Director, Rhetoric, Writing and Communication

    Affiliate Associate Professor, Gender Studies

    Affiliate Associate Professor, Cultural Studies

    • athimsen@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 428

    Research Interests
    Movement politics, democratic rhetoric, rhetorical theory, feminism

    Raisa Tolchinsky

    Raisa Tolchinsky

    Visiting Assistant Professor, English

    • raitolch@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 566

    Research Interests
    Creative writing (poetry), moral imagination, religion and public life, somatic narratives

    Samrat Upadhyay

    Samrat Upadhyay

    Distinguished Professor, English

    Martha C. Kraft Professor, Humanities

    Research Interests
    Fiction writing, novel writing, South Asian literature and culture

    Alberto Varon

    Alberto Varon

    Associate Professor, English

    Associate Professor, Latino Studies Program

    Adjunct Associate Professor, American Studies

    Affiliate Associate Professor, Gender Studies

    • avaron@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 459

    Research Interests
    Latina/o Literatures; Ethnic American and 19th- and 20th-century American literatures; transnational American studies; critical race studies

    Caitlin Watt

    Caitlin Watt

    Senior Lecturer, English

    Course Coordinator and ACP Liaison for W131 Online

    Research Interests
    medieval romance, gender and sexuality studies, narrative theory, medievalism, media studies

    Kurt Zemlicka

    Kurt Zemlicka

    he/him/his

    Senior Lecturer, English

    Director, P155 Public Oral Communication

    • kzemlick@iu.edu
    • Ballantine Hall 558

    Research Interests
    Rhetoric of science and technology; democratic deliberation and advocacy; rhetorical theory; poststructuralism; psychoanalysis