Ph.D. in English - Dissertations and Job Placement

2021

Alghamdi, Hana, "Pathways of Migrant Identity Maintenance and Revision: An Analysis of Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits and the Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent163343324589925 Dissertation Director: Mark Bracher.

Berkemeier, Caleb, "The Affirmation of Blindness: A Nietzschean Critique of Interpretations of Suffering from Disability." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1627135400515518 Dissertation Director: Sara Newman.

Brust, Annie, "Tolkien's Transformative Women: Art in Triptych." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1637320315616974 Dissertation Director: Christopher Roman.

Yamany, Nisreen Mohammad Amien, Dissertation Title: "Countering Prejudice toward Muslim Women through Literature."  http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1616689447896588 Dissertation Director: Mark Bracher. Dr. Yamany is an Associate Professor at Umm Al-Qura University (Saudi Arabia).

2020

Abu Shal, Abdulrahman Faisal, “Conspiracy Theory and Conspiracism in Postwar Literature.” http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1594201143469153 Dissertation Director: Tammy Clewell.

Almarhabi Sr, Maeed Mohammad, Dissertation Title: "Displacement and Dispossession: Cultural Trauma and the Formation of Palestinian National Identity in Palestinian-American Writing." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1605614421967042 Dissertation Director: Babacar M'Baye. Dr. Almarhabi is an English Language instructor at Umm Al-Qura University (Saudi Arabia).

Brooks, Allison Marie, “An Atlas of a Difficult World System: A Marxist Feminist Reading of Adrienne Rich’s Poetry and Prose.” http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1585837295633261 Dissertation: Director: Tammy Clewell.

Zullo, Valentino L, “Freudian Strips: Comics, Mental Health, And The 'Psychologization Of America.'” http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1586725663979058 Dissertation Director: Vera Camden.  Dr. Zullo is the Anisfield-Wolf Postdoctoral Fellow in English and the Public Humanities at Ursuline College.

2019

Alnawaiseh, Ali M.,  “Natural Disasters and Citizenship: Belonging Through Ecology in African American Writing.” http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1571755777462077 Dissertation Directors: Babacar M’Baye and Ryan Hediger.

Mason, April L., “Enhancing Social Cognition and Promoting Social Justice: Teaching Literature in the Developmental Classroom.” http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1563458723691485 Dissertation Director: Mark Bracher.

2018

Aqeeli, Ammar Abduh, "The Nation of Islam's Perception of Black Consciousness in the Works of Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, and Other Writers of the Black Arts Movement." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1523466358576864. Advisors: Babacar M'Baye and Yoshinobu Hakutani. Dr. Aqeeli is an Assistant Professor at Jazan University. 

Hindi, Hanan, "Postcolonial Palestinians in Ghassan Kanafani's Works: Men in the Sun, All That's Left to You and Returning to Haifa." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1532086829180848. Advisor: Babacar M'Baye. Dr. Hindi is an Admission Specialist at Northwestern University-Qatar.

Kim, Heejung, The Other American Poetry and Modernist Poetics: Richard Wright, Jack Kerouac, Sonia Sanchez, James Emanuel, and Lenard Moore. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1523964596644369. Advisor: Yoshinobu Hakutani. Dr. Kim is an Associate Professor of English at Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul, South Korea

Melick, Elizabeth H, "Four Middle English Roland Romances: An Edition of Poems Drawn from Medieval Manuscripts." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1523367850331762. Advisor: Susanna Fein. Dr. Ponder Melick, recipient of the department's 2019 Toerne Dissertation Award, is an Assistant Professor at Northwest Florida State College. 

Owens, Wendy Michelle, "Identity and the In-Between Space in Transracial Adoptee Literature: Making Space for the Missing Voice." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent152283718139289. Advisor: Babacar M'Baye. Dr. Owens is a Certified Home School Assessor and Curriculum Advisor in Boardman, Ohio.

2017

Laffey, Seth Edward, "The Letters of Edwin Arlington Robinson: A Digital Edition (1889-1895)." Advisor: Paul Gaston. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1499369594701871. Dr. Laffey is an Assistant Professor of English at the American University in Dubai.

Lin, Yu-Fang, "The Cultural Construction of Taiwan in the Literatures of Taiwan, China, and the United States." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent149178259135258. Advisors: Babacar M'Baye and Masood Raja. Dr. Lin's is the recipient of the department's 2018 Toerne Dissertation Award. 

MacDonald, Sarah Nicole, "Working Women's Life Writing and Authorial Competency." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1511353472506823. Advisors: Margaret Shaw and Sara Newman.

2016

Ghashmari, Ahmad, "Humanizing the posthuman in Powers, Wallace, Gibson and DeLillo." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent147855115808631. Advisor: Tammy Clewell. Dr. Ghashmari is an Assistant Professor in the English Language Institute at Bellevue College, Washington.

McCracken, Heather, "Creating postcolonial national heroes: The revisionist myths of W.B. Yeats and Jame Joyces." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1472725837. Advisor: Claire Culleton. Dr. McCracken is an Instructor in the English Department at Winona State College, Minnesota.

Alzoubi, Mamoun, "Richard Wright's trans-nationalism: New dimensions to modern American expatriate literature." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1466409579. Advisors: Yoshinobu Hakutani & Babacar M'Baye.

Albalawi, Mohammed, ``Read to change: The role Arabic literature can play to redress the damage of stereotyping Arabs in American media." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1460221387. Advisor: Babacar M'Baye. Dr. Albalawi is an Assistant Professor of English at Jeddah University in Saudi Arabia.

Murray, Joshua, "No definite destination: Transnational liminality in Harlem Renaissance lives and writings." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1461257721. Advisor: Babacar M'Baye. Dr. Murray is an Assistant Professor of English (tenure track) at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina.

Taylor, Rebekah, "Anthropocene Modernisms: Ecological Expressions of the `Human Age' in Eliot, Williams, Toomer and Woolf." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1461270901. Advisors: Kevin Floyd and Ryan Hediger. Dr. Taylor-Wiseman is an Assistant Professor of English (tenure track) at Brenau University in Atlanta, Georgia.

2015

Pahlau, Randi, “Hospitality and the natural world within an ecotheological context in William Shakespeare's Much ado about Nothing and Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.” Advisor: Vera Camden. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc num=kent1448050811. Dr. Pahlau is an Assistant Professor of English, tenure track, at Malone University in Canton, Ohio.

Thorndike, Colleen, “Constructing womanhood: The influence of conduct books on gender performance and ideology of womanhood in American women’s novels, 1865-1914.” (Spring 2015) Advisors: Robert Trogdon and Wesley Raabe. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc num=kent1428755452. Dr. Thorndike is an Instructor in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Mississippi.

Stoffer, Heidi, "Nostalgia and materialism: Negotiating modernity through houses in Wharton, Fitzgerald and Cather." Advisor: Tammy Clewell. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc num=kent1429543427. Dr. Stoffer is an adjunct professor at Baldwin Wallace University.

Tangedal, Ross, “A most pleasant business: Introducing authorship in Twentieth Century American literature.” Advisor: Robert Trogdon. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc num=kent1429287330. Dr. Tangedal is an Assistant Professor, tenure track, in the Department of English at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point.

2014

Wagoner, Elizabeth, "Interpreting the multimodal novel: A new method of textual scholarship." Advisor: Ray Craig. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1416406231. Dr. Wagoner is an Instructor in the English Department at Kent State University.

Johnson, Seth, "History, myth and secularism across the borderlands: The work of Michael Chabon." Advisor: Lewis Fried. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1392155557. Dr. Johnson is an Instructor in the English Departments at Kent State University and Cleveland State University.

Moses, Geoffrey, "The lack of a future: Utopian absence and longing in Twentieth- and Twenty-First- Century American fiction." Advisor: Kevin Floyd. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1365784335.

2013

Oztan, Meltem, "Indelible Legacies: Transgenerational Trauma and Therapeutic Ancestral Reconciliation in Kindred, The Chaneysville Incident, Stigmata and The Known World."  Advisor: Willie H. Harrell. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1375031855. Dr. Oztan-Meli is a member of the faculty for the Office of International Affairs and Global Strategies at the University of Central Florida. 

Hanes, Stacie, "The sense and sensibility of the 19th-Century fantastic." Advisors: Kathe Davis and Margaret Shaw. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1382975086. Dr. Hanes is an Adjunct Instructor at Youngstown State University. 

Hall, Alexander C. O., "Reel Hope: Literature and the Utopian Function of Adaptation." Advisor: Willie Harrell, Jr. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1372450824. Dr. Hall is an Adjunct Instructor at Kent State University. 

Ray, Sohomjit, "Neoliberalism and Same-Sex Desire in the Fiction and Public Cultures of India after 1991." Advisor: Kevin Floyd. Dr. Ray is an Assistant Professor, tenure track, at College of Staten Island (CUNY).