The Marshall University Department of English boasts a dedicated and accomplished faculty. These esteemed professors contribute significantly to the academic environment and student success. Their commitment to teaching, research, and mentorship enriches the educational experience for both English majors and students from other fields. Here we’ll take a closer look at their successes, award and accolades that highlight why our faculty is changing the lives of their students.
SPRING 2023
Three English Department Faculty members have been honored by Marshall University’s Center for Teaching and Learning.
Dr. Rachael Peckham has been selected as the university’s Dr. Charles E. Hedrick Outstanding Faculty Award winner for 2022-2023.
Dr. Jill Treftz has been selected as the Marshall and Shirley Reynolds Outstanding Teacher Award winner for 2022-2023.
Dr. Megan Marshall has been selected as a Pickens-Queen Teacher Award winner for 2022-2023.
Faculty Good News
Five members of the department were part of an ASA session entitled “Appalachian Creativities: Readings and Performances by Marshall University English Faculty.” They are Robert Ellison (“M. Homer Cummings’ Sermons in Rhyme”); Rajia Hassib (“An Excerpt from The Alexandrians: A Novel”); Sara Henning (“After Terra Incognita: Lyrical Explorations of Grief”); Cat Pleska (“Drive!”); and Tony Viola (“Energy Extraction in Appalachia and Surrounding Regions”).
FALL 2022
Congratulations to Professor Anna Rollins on the Love of Learning Award from Phi Kapp Phi!
SPRING 2022
Congrats to Dr. Jana Tigchelaar on being awarded the faculty Women of Marshall Award in April 2022.
SPRING 2021
Congrats to our 2020 & 2021 Graduates
Maier Awards Ceremony
If you missed our recent Maier Awards ceremony, the video of the virtual program is now available. View event
SEPTEMBER 2020
Dr. Stefan Schöberlein, along with colleagues from the University of Nebraska, University of Iowa, and Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, received a $250,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This project extends Dr. Schöberlein’s work in digital exploration of the work of Walt Whitman.
JUNE 2020
- We are so proud to say that undergraduate student, RaJon Staunton, has been chosen by Teen Vogue to represent West Virginia in an article about the different ways people are celebrating Pride during a pandemic. Be sure to check out the page and give his video a watch!
APRIL 2020
- Undergraduate student, Madeline Merritt, has recently gotten accepted to LURe Journal for her essay, “Posthuman Representations in WALL-E“
FEBRUARY 2020
- Dr. Stefan Schöberlein will be presenting on February 29th at the Connecticut Digital Humanities Conference. His topic will be, “The Movable Project: Archiving and Highlighting Recovery in Appalachia.” Make sure to follow Movable on Twitter and Facebook!
- On February 29, Emily Brammer will present her capstone paper at the WV Undergraduate Literary Symposium at Fairmont State University. The paper is entitled “‘Films Different from the Rest’: A Distant Reading of the ‘Lubitsch Touch’.”
JANUARY 2020
Dr. Jana Tigchelaar participated in a two-day symposium hosted by the Université de Paris in Paris, 
France in January. The symposium brought together the contributors to an edited collection on author Mary E. Wilkins Freeman to present and workshop the individual contributions and the volume as a whole.
Dr. Tigchelaar has also been awarded a West Virginia Humanities Council travel grant to sponsor her participation in the C19: The Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists 2020 conference in Coral Gables, Florida in April, where she will present her paper “Queer, Eccentric,
Uncanny: Transformative Queerness in Mary E. Wilkins Freeman’s Gothic Fiction.”
- Dr. Walter Squire was awarded a WV Humanities Council mini-grant to support the Film Studies Program’s Spring 2020 visit by director Mimi Pickering.
- Dr. Kristen Lillvis is part of a $50,000 NEH Digital Humanities Advancement Grant. Dr. Lillvis is a consultant on a Society for the Study of American Women Writers Recovery Hub.
- Dr. Forrest Roth’s story, “Cat Acne,” was published in Columbia Journal. Read it here!
- Olivia Lewis was recently awarded the Ruth Flowers Thornton Scholarship for 2019-2020.
- Sophie Ezzell has been awarded Marshall’s Senior Leadership Award for her outstanding service to Et Cetera.
- Laura Rice’s paper, “Navigating a Posthuman World in Infinite Jest,” has been accepted for the 2020 Twentieth-Century Literature Conference at the U. of Louisville.
- Three students were awarded the Creative Discovery and Research Awards for spring: Emily Brammer, Miranda Smith, and Allanah Stone.