English Department Newsletter
Spring 2025 | Volume 3 | Issue 2
Click here to view a PDF version of the Spring 2025 newsletter
Welcome Back!
Welcome back to all of our faculty and staff! There are a lot of exciting events happening this spring, so first and foremost make sure you're following us on Facebook and Instagram (@uofmenglish) to stay up to date.
This semester, we'll welcome speakers and authors to our campus, including a craft interview with Eric Barnes hosted by The Pinch Presents. We’ll also be welcoming candidates for the Writing, Rhetoric, & Technical Communication job search early this semester. Be on the lookout for schedules for each of the candidates, and please be sure to attend job talks, teaching demos, and meals!
UMEGO is also hard at work on the 2025 Graduate Student Conference and Talbot Roundtable. The Roundtable will be on April 25th and the conference will be on April 26th; proposals are due February 21st so be sure to encourage your students to submit their work.
This year we're hoping for even more involvement with the marketing and promotion of all of our amazing programs, courses, and events here in the English department. As always, if you have project suggestions or inquiries, don't hesitate to get in touch with Dr. Tucker or Ms. Gillo.
The Mellon Foundation & English Internships
The Mellon Foundation
The University of Memphis has received $4.9 million in funding from the Mellon Foundation,
which is expected to help upwards of 145 students per year receive payment for their
internship work. The Daily Memphian’s recent coverage of this also features current
English major Cate VanNostrand and her experience with an internship with Literacy
Mid-South. Click here to read the full article!
English Internships
You can find and direct students to our Internships page (memphis.edu/english/internships), which lists all of the current partnerships and internships that are available
to our majors.
Save the Date for Spring 2025
English Honors Colloquium | February 3rd, February 24th, March 24th, April 14th |
4:00pm | Patterson Hall 456
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram account to stay up-to-date on all the English Department happenings!
Faculty Bookshelf
Dr. Christopher Allan Black, The Anti-Gallows Movement in Antebellum Literature: Cesare Beccaria, Montesquieu, and Republican Criminal Justice Reform 1772-1862
The Anti-Gallows Movement: Cesare Beccaria, Montesquieu, and Republican Criminal Justice
Reform in Antebellum Literature 1772-1862 examines the development of anti capital punishment sentiment in antebellum American
Literature. Legal and philosophical debates over the effectiveness of capital punishment
and penal reform have played a significant role in American civic and political life
since the republican rejection of the Monarchy and oppression during the Revolution.
In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century United States, criminal narratives, and literature in the form of the execution sermon, the
gothic novel, the historical romance, autobiographical testimony, and the African
American slave narrative informed the citizenry about the public abuse of convicted
criminals on the gallows stressing the need for enlightenment legal reforms, such
as the creation of penitentiaries, solitary confinement, and private execution behind
prison walls. Read more and pre-order here!
Gillo, Emily. “Digital Eyes on Bodies: Analyzing Post-Roe Reproductive Surveillance.” Talking Back Through Rhetorical Surveillance Studies: Intersectional Feminist and Queer Approaches special issue of Peitho, vol. 27, is. 1, 2025. https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/peitho/v27n1/gillo.pdf.
Gal, Ana G. "Teaching Social Justice Through Vampire Narratives." Teaching with Vampires, Ed. Melissa Anyiwo, Palgrave Macmillan, 2024. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-67039-8.
Schlich, Eric. "The Game of Life." swamp pink, no. 16. December 2024. https://swamp-pink.charleston.edu/featured/the-game-of-life/.
Wright, Lyn and Daryl Anderson."Talking About Racism and Race with Children."American Association for Applied LinguisticsBrief. 2024.
Fredlund, Katherine. "Six Words Toward Knowing and Feeling." Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, 2024. https://www.assayjournal.com/katherine-fredlund-six-words-toward-knowing-and-feeling-assay-111.html.
Santo, Courtney. “If/Then.” Best American Essays 2024, Ed. Wesley Morris. October 2024. ISBN: 9780063351554.
Click here to see more creative works by our faculty!
Faculty Recognition
Dr. Donal Harris
Communities of Research Scholars (CoRS) Grant
"Digital Tools and Local History: Creating a Web-Based Research Platform for the Oldest
Cemetery in Memphis"
Dr. Mark Mayer
George Garrett Fiction Prize
About, Above, Around: 50 Prepositions
Read the full press release here!
Dr. Eric Schlich
American Library Association's Stonewall Honor Book Award
Eli Harpo's Adventure to the Afterlife
Read more about this award here!
25 Years of Service
Verner Mitchell
20 Years of Service
Lorinda Cohoon
Sage Graham
Joseph Jones
Tammy Jones
15 Years of Service
Stacy Smith
10 Years of Service
Ana-Gratiela Gal
Alumni Spotlight
Shiloh Gustafson, MATC
Shiloh Gustafson earned her Bachelors degree in English with a concentration in Professional Writing at UofM in 2017, and went on to work as a Senior E-Commerce Copywriter before accepting a position as a Senior Technical Writer for Google. In 2022, Shiloh returned to the English Department, this time pursuing her Masters degree in Technical Communication. Shortly after completing the MA program (and earning a graduate certificate in Instructional Design and Development from the College of Education along the way), Shiloh joined Stifel Financial Corp. as a Technical Writer where she is leading efforts to modernize and transform the company’s knowledge management practices through a strategic blend of technical writing, training initiatives, AI integration, and contemporary content management strategies.
My time in the WRTC program was truly enriched by the incredible people I had the privilege to meet. The connections I made with my peers and colleagues continue to inspire me in my career and beyond, and the passion they exhibited renewed both my appreciation for academia and the desire to help others achieve.
-Shiloh Gustafson
Click here to download a PDF version of the Spring 2025 newsletter