Department of English The University of Alabama Fall 2017 Letter from Department Chair Joel Brouwer To the English Department Community, Greetings from Morgan Hall! I welcome this opportunity to share with you the current situation of the Department and our accomplishments over the past year. In 2016-2017 the English Department had 42 tenure-track faculty, 2 NTRC Assistant Professors, 50 NTRC Instructors, and 25 Part-time Temporary Instructors. We had 113 GTA lines and 130 graduate students overall. We had 375 English […]

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Lena Levendoski graduated from UA with a BA in English in 1995. She is currently the founder of the non-profit organization, Stick’s Gift, which provides clothing to newborns in need in the greater Nashville and Davidson counties. Levendoski shared her story with Van Newell. Why did you decide to attend UA? The reason I chose the University of Alabama was simply because I lived in Tuscaloosa.  It was an easy and convenient choice that worked out well for me. I […]

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Dana Sweeney graduated summa cum laude in May 2017 with a major in English Literature. While at UA, Sweeney earned a prestigious Truman Scholarship, beating out 729 candidates from 305 American colleges and universities. As a Truman Scholar, Sweeney spent his post-graduation summer in Washington D.C. working with the advocacy group, People for The American Way. He is now working in Chicago as an organizer with Change Corps through the Public Interest Network. Sweeney spoke with Van Newell about his […]

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Dr. Philip Beidler has been a professor in the Department of English since the 1970s and holds Master’s and Doctoral degrees in English from the University of Virginia. He also served as a lieutenant in an armored cavalry platoon in Vietnam. Professor Beidler recently spoke with Dr. Shanti Weiland about the most recent of his many books, Beautiful War: Studies in a Dreadful Fascination, which is forthcoming from The University of Alabama Press. In the book, Professor Beidler draws on […]

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Dr. Delia Steverson graduated from The University of Alabama’s Department of English with a Ph.D. in African American literature in 2017. She is now an assistant professor in English at the University of Florida, where she also serves as an affiliate professor in the Department of African American Studies. Dr. Steverson’s scholarship has appeared in The Encyclopedia of Race and Racism, The Explicator, and The Journal of American Culture. Her courses at the University of Florida explore Black subjects in […]

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    Trudier Harris is a University Distinguished Research Professor of the Department of English at The University of Alabama, an honor she has held since 2015. A graduate of Tuscaloosa’s Stillman College, Professor Harris earned a master’s degree in English and a Ph.D. in American Literature and Folklore from the Ohio State University. Prior to joining the faculty at UA, she held the position of J. Carlyle Sitterson Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. […]

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Dr. Shanti Weiland I am currently editing my poetry manuscript, “Cracked Planet,” which is a dark, modern fairytale that explores the relationship between time and memory. I imagine the manuscript as a photo album of relationships (romantic and platonic) that emerge from the understanding of familial experience and the balance (and, at times, incongruent nature) of religion and enlightenment. Last year, I started a literary blog called, The Poets That You Meet, that discusses poetry and provides writing prompts. I am interested […]

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Sarah K. Cantrell This January, a figurative and serendipitous “owl” arrived in my inbox—an invitation to participate in DePaul University’s up-coming Harry Potter Pop Culture Conference this May. (For readers unfamiliar with J. K. Rowling’s Potterverse, mail arrives by owl.) This winter, I have been writing a paper to be included in the conference’s proceedings. My essay focuses on the ways Rowling’s Harry Potter series valorizes necessary heroism as a response to the evils that Voldemort’s racism inspires. At the […]

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