Abraham Smith studied Spanish Literature and Archaeology at the University of Wisconsin. After graduation, Smith lived in Europe then Austin, Texas—pursuing his passion for travel and experience. While in Austin, he honed his poetry craft and spent three years in the trenches as a public school substitute teacher. In 2000, continued his education in the MFA program at The University of Alabama. Smith has always had a passion for poetry, which he developed as a child listening to folk songs […]

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Most UA seniors spend their final year finishing degree requirements and preparing for careers, Amanda Bennett has achieved national recognition for her work on the WE ARE DONE campaign. Bennett, a double major in English and African American studies, spearheaded the WE ARE DONE protest in November 2015 with a group of her fellow students, catapulting The University of Alabama into the national spotlight alongside University of Missouri, Emory University, and other schools battling institutional racism. WE ARE DONE petitioned […]

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Professor Amber Buck joined the CRES faculty in 2015. English always “felt like fun instead of work” to Dr. Buck, so it came as no surprise that she entered college with a thirst for literature and the study of writing. She received her B.A. in English from at Albion College. Her passion to help people improve their own writing and her work as a writing tutor inspired her to pursue a graduate degree in this area. When Professor Amber Buck […]

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Briana Whiteside, a native of Chicago Illinois, is a doctoral student in the English department at The University of Alabama. She received her B.A. from Tougaloo College in Mississippi, and her M.A. from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. Her research interests include Afrofutursim, pop culture, the politics of natural hair, and science fiction. Her current research explores the ways diverse writers and visual artists have represented women of African descent. She also hopes to study the social implications regarding the relationships and […]

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Before joining the Department of English at The University of Alabama in 2015, Dr. Cindy Tekobbe taught classes for Arizona State University’s Department of English, Writing Programs, and Herberger School of Arts, Media + Engineering. She covered topics such as digital design and rhetoric, social media literacy, gender and sexuality, rhetoric of memory and identity, academic writing and research, and first-year composition. Dr. Tekobbe is a career software developer and project manager, specializing in enterprise financial applications and web platforms. […]

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Dr. Duncan Yoon came to Department of English in 2015. He holds an MA from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UCLA. He also serves as the co-director of the Global South Cultural Dialogue Project. Dr. Yoon specializes in Africa and China cultural relations, the Cold War postcolonialism world, and world literature. Tell me about your areas of expertise. As an undergraduate, I majored in English and French, and so I was interested in writing that had […]

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Each day, Morgan Hall welcomes students and professors from all corners of UA’s diverse campus, from First-Year composition students to sophomores fulfilling survey requirements to English and Creative Writing majors and minors. Theater and Dance students often occupy Morgan’s first floor auditorium. While this bright array of people will remain constant, changes are underway for the Department’s English major. The English faculty have updated the Department’s foreign language requirement, allowing students to take computer science in place of a language. […]

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An old king wishes to leave his kingdom to his three daughters whom he loves dearly, yet his generous wish leads to the death of his entire family.  This dark and twisted tragedy centers on  manipulation and power struggles, but what else can we expect from the Bard? Dr. Nicholas Helms, an instructor at The University of Alabama, first found his passion for Shakespeare after studying the carefully crafted plot of King Lear. “I felt like they were such deep […]

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“I feel really lucky,” admits Nathan Parker, an English instructor at The University of Alabama and author of The Locust Diagrams, as he sits outside Starbucks, his multicolored beanie making him stand out from the crowd on a spring day.  “After The Locust Diagrams came out, I did a reading tour up the East Coast with one of my dear friends. We did readings, slept on people’s floors, sold a few books, and met some new people,” Parker recalls. “My […]

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In Hunting Season, Beau Taplin’s collection of poetry and prose, Taplin asserts that “Sunsets are proof that endings can often be beautiful too.”  Beautiful endings are a fitting goodbye to one of our beloved professors, Sharon O’Dair, who retired after the spring semester of 2016. O’Dair was a Hudson Strode Professor of English and the Director of the Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies for The University of Alabama.  She organized both of the 2016 Shakespeare Symposia to honor the […]

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