English & Communication
Head: Sharmain van Blommestein
Administrative Assistant: Richelle L. Bonner-Murray
TEL: (315) 267-2005 FAX: (315) 267-3256 121 Morey Hall
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Angelina M BlankAdjunct Instructor English & Communication
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Trevor J. BlankAssociate Professor English & Communication
Trevor J. BlankAssociate ProfessorMorey Hall 119
blanktj@potsdam.edu
View CVFolklorist Trevor J. Blank's teaching and research centers on the study of folk and popular culture, humor, mass media, and the digital humanities. He is the author or editor of nine books, including Folklore and the Internet, Folk Culture in the Digital Age, and The Last Laugh: Folk Humor, Celebrity Culture, and Mass-Mediated Disasters in the Digital Age. His most recent research project, Slender Man Is Coming, examines the narrative genre of "creepypasta," the popularization of the Slender Man character and Mythos, as well as the formation and transmission of legends on the Internet. Follow him on Twitter @trevorjblank. More Info |
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Richelle L. Bonner-MurrayAdministrative Assistant 1 English & Communication |
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Stephanie Coyne DeGhettAssistant Professor English & Communication
Stephanie Coyne DeGhettAssistant ProfessorMorey Hall 235
deghetsc@potsdam.edu
TEL: (315) 267-2036 FAX: (315) 267-3256 M.A. University of Vermont at Burlington M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts More Info |
deghetsc@potsdam.edu TEL: (315) 267-2036 FAX: (315) 267-3256 |
James J. DonahueAssociate Professor, Coordinator of Native American Studies minor and Disability Studies minor English & Communication, Interdisciplinary StudiesJames J. DonahueAssociate Professor, Coordinator of Native American Studies minor and Disability Studies minorMorey Hall 130
donahujj@potsdam.edu
View CVJames J. Donahue is primarily interested in exploring the complex literary and cultural tensions of twentieth century America. In particular, he is endlessly fascinated with the Beat Movement, Modernism/Postmodernism, Historical Fiction, and Native American fiction. He also collects books by British sci-fi/fantasy author Michael Moorcock, and has been told on more than one occasion that he reads more Ezra Pound than is healthy. More Info |
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Christine M. DoranAssociate Professor, English & Communication, Interdisciplinary Studies / Director, Potsdam Pathways General Education Interdisciplinary Studies, English & Communication, General Education Program / Potsdam Pathways
Christine M. DoranAssociate Professor, English & Communication, Interdisciplinary Studies / Director, Potsdam Pathways General EducationMorey Hall 233
dorancm@potsdam.edu
View CVFlagg Hall 204B More Info |
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Judith FunstonProfessor English & Communication
Judith FunstonProfessorMorey Hall 143
funstoje@potsdam.edu
I have always been fascinated by American history and culture, and for me, the study of literature has been a way to understand the past as well as the present. My undergraduate and graduate degrees at Michigan State University focused primarily on literature and prepared me for my teaching career. My teaching at SUNY Potsdam has become the springboard to investigate politics, economics, music, art, and philosophy . . . and to convey the excitement of my discoveries to my students. More Info |
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Karen K. GibsonVisiting Instructor English & Communication |
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Jessica R HeffnerInstructor English & Communication |
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Rebecca M JewellAdjunct Instructor English & Communication |
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Benjamin J LandryVisiting Assistant Professor English & Communication
Benjamin J LandryVisiting Assistant ProfessorMorey Hall 131
landrybj@potsdam.edu
TEL: (315) 267-2920 FAX: (315) 267-3256 More Info |
landrybj@potsdam.edu TEL: (315) 267-2920 FAX: (315) 267-3256 |
Derek C. MausProfessor / Lead Advisor / Chair, Interdisciplinary Studies English & Communication, Interdisciplinary Studies
Derek C. MausProfessor / Lead Advisor / Chair, Interdisciplinary StudiesMorey Hall 244
mausdc@potsdam.edu
View CVWho me? A description?!? Yeah, well...I guess you could say at root I'm just a guy who likes comparing things, especially if those things happen to be literary in some way. I got my start back in the early 1990s, comparing medieval history and postmodern literature under the tutelage of amazing professors like Lynda Coon, William Tucker, Keith Booker, Margaret Bolsterli, and Janet Tucker at the University of Arkansas. Got my introduction to the practice of comparing Russian and American literature there as well and ended up writing an undergraduate honors thesis that, with many twists and turns, additions and cuts, elaborations and simplifications, ended up turning into both my doctoral dissertation and my first book (see below). After a few years (unintentionally) comparing being in academia with not being in academia, I went to the University of North Carolina, where I got both my M.A. and my Ph.D in English, in the process getting the chance to work with such amazing mentors as Linda Wagner-Martin, Madeline Levine, Christopher Putney, Julius Rowan "Jack" Raper, and many others. My mania for comparison broadened to include not only cross-cultural comparisons of Russian and American literature during the Cold War, but also inter- and intra-cultural comparisons within American (and especially African American) literature. I published my first scholarly articles while at UNC, on such diverse topics as devilish figures in the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Nikolai Gogol, paternalistic colonialism in novels by Thomas Pynchon and J. M. Coetzee, religious satire in works by Nikolai Gogol and Flannery O'Connor, as well as editing several collections of essays for introductory-level scholars on topics including Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Albert Camus, Russia, postmodernism, and the Cold War. I was fortunate to land a job at SUNY Potsdam in 2001 and started teaching a wide range of courses in September of that year. In ten years at SUNY Potsdam, I've taught over seventy sections of thirty-two different courses, ranging from introductory-level composition and literature surveys to graduate-level seminars. Most of my courses look at how writers from a variety of backgrounds approach similar topics, looking for how and why a careful reader can gain insight from noting both the similarities and the differences among such writers. A full list of the courses I've taught can be found by clicking the link for my CV above. While at SUNY Potsdam, I've managed to find time to continue my scholarly work as well, producing several articles and conference presentations, almost all of which are products of my desire to compare things. For example, I published an article on teaching war fiction by Tim O'Brien and Duong Thu Huong side-by-side and I gave a conference presentation comparing the satirical techniques of Herman Melville and Nikolai Gogol. I also had the pleasure of working with my friend and colleague Owen Brady of Clarkson University in co-editing a collection of scholarly essays on Walter Mosley (http://www.upress.state.ms.us/books/1150) that was published by the University Press of Mississippi in 2008. My own book on Russian and American satirical fiction during the Cold War (http://www.sc.edu/uscpress/books/2011/3985.html) was published by the University of South Carolina Press in 2011. I am currently working on two book-length projects: a collection of scholarly essays on contemporary African American satire that I am co-editing with my colleague James J. Donahue, and a monograph on Colson Whitehead for the University of South Carolina Press's Understanding Contemporary American Literature series. Finally, I was fortunate enough to be selected for a Fulbright Lecturing Award for the spring 2010 semester, during which I taught three courses in the American Studies program at Karl-Franzens Universitaet in Graz, Austria. In addition to getting to compare the cultures of Austria and the United States while on this grant, I also got to give lectures to academic audiences in Turkey, Croatia, Italy, and Germany, as well as to (re)visit Switzerland, Belgium, Hungary, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic. In short, it was a dream come true for an ardent comparer like me and I am grateful to everyone that made it possible. More Info |
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Donald J. McNuttAssociate Professor English & Communication
Donald J. McNuttAssociate ProfessorMorey Hall 247
mcnuttdj@potsdam.edu
View CVMy teaching and research specialties include early American literature, from the Age of Exploration to the Civil War. In each of my classes, I strive to teach my students how to interpret literature and culture with precision and to convey their ideas with vigor. I also want students to enjoy what they read and write as they realize how interpretive rigor fosters complex awareness of both ourselves and the world. I'm particularly interested in American writers' representations of places, real and imagined. I devote much of my scholarship to interdisciplinary analyses of cities and national geographies, as well as local environments such as the Adirondacks. My first book, Urban Revelations: Images of Ruin in the American City, 1790-1860 (Routledge Press 2006), examines the ways in which American writers rely on images of ruin to represent cities as sites of instability and cultural impermanence. The study focuses on fiction written by Philip Freneau, Charles Brockden Brown, Edgar Allan Poe, and Herman Melville. I'm currently composing a book on the environmental aspects of urban cellars and basements in nineteenth-century American literature. Chapter three of the book has been published in ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment 20:2 (Spring 2013): 356-376. It's called "'From Some Unmentionable Cellar': The Natural World of the Urban Underground in Mid-Nineteenth-Century American Literature." I'm also the Editor in Chief of Blueline: A Literary Magazine Dedicated to the Spirit of the Adirondacks, as well as the Potsdam College Press. The Press publishes works relating to the Adirondacks, including writing that focuses on the literature and culture of northern New York, New England, and eastern Canada. My profile picture was taken in front of the Newgrange Monument, in County Meath, Ireland. The monument is a Neolithic temple and "passage tomb" built around 3200 B.C. near the Boyne River. One of the most important ancient sites in Ireland, the monument predates Stonehenge and the Pyramids at Giza. More Info |
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Jennifer K. MitchellAssociate Professor / Director, College Writing Center/Writers' Block English & Communication, College Writing Center / Writer's Block
Jennifer K. MitchellAssociate Professor / Director, College Writing Center/Writers' BlockMorey Hall 135
mitchejk@potsdam.edu
Carson Hall 106 TEL: (315) 267-2785 / 3059 FAX: (315) 267-3256 View CVI primarily teach writing courses, and I direct the College Writing Center. My PhD is from the University at Albany's program in Writing, Criticism, and Teaching, which includes composition theory, critical theory, creative writing, and literary studies. My dissertation argues for a renewed debate about conventional writing instruction among composition teacher-scholars. My scholarship focuses on that argument, on writing center pedagogy, and on writing interns' experiential learning. I am happy to talk with students, whether we know each other or not, about your goals, questions, and opportunities at Potsdam. More Info |
mitchejk@potsdam.edu TEL: (315) 267-2785 / 3059 FAX: (315) 267-3256 |
Linda MoerschellLecturer English & Communication
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Susan S. NovakAssociate Professor English & Communication
Susan S. NovakAssociate ProfessorMorey Hall 246
novakss@potsdam.edu
TEL: (315) 267-3257 FAX: (315) 267-3256 View CVMore Info |
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Liberty S. StanavageAssociate Professor English & Communication
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Alan L. SteinbergProfessor English & Communication
Alan L. SteinbergProfessorMorey Hall 124
steinbal@potsdam.edu
TEL: (315) 267-2008 FAX: (315) 267-3256 Ph.D. Carnegie-Mellon University I was born and raised in New York City, then lived and taught for a number of years in the mountains of Idaho and Washington, and now have learned to love the North Country as a place of rugged beauty and challenge. I teach a variety of writing and literature courses, all with the aim of helping students appreciate the beauty and power of a story well-told whether that story is found in the Old Testament, in the Odyssey, in Shane, or in the students next assignment. More Info |
steinbal@potsdam.edu TEL: (315) 267-2008 FAX: (315) 267-3256 |
Sharmain van BlommesteinAssociate Professor / Department Convener English & Communication
Sharmain van BlommesteinAssociate Professor / Department ConvenerMorey Hall 249/118
vanblos@potsdam.edu
http://www2.potsdam.edu/vanblos/Dr. Sharmain van Blommestein is an Associate Professor and the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of English and Communication at SUNY Potsdam. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Florida and specializes in Medieval/Early modern literature, feminist theory, and women's and gender studies topics via British and American literary studies. Her research formulates a cultural and political context for the relationship/parallel between Medieval/Early Modern and contemporary issues on ideologies of the gendered body; the semiotic body; and the body/skin as book. She examines the cultural significations of, and the semiotic prescriptions deployed in, "writing" on, and reading of, the body/skin as an act of agency. These research interests also connect to topics pertaining to medieval medicine and the social approach to health and healing; the female body and prostitution; menstruation and reproduction; women and religious women; and disease from ancient to modern. Her present research involves partly writing/editing two encyclopedias: Women's Reproductive Lives: An Encyclopedia of Health, History, and Popular Culture; and Gynecology and Reproduction in Medieval/Renaissance Culture. More Info |
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Karen A. WilsonLecturer English & Communication |
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John D. YoungbloodAssociate Professor English & Communication, Interdisciplinary Studies
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