People
Composition Lecturers
- Alsup, Benjamin
- Britton, James
- Burley, Melissa
- Burton, Zisca
- Chrobak, Jill McKay
- Clinton, Alan
- Culver, KC
- Gutierrez, Michael
- Hickman, Zachery
- Hood, Judy
- Houck, Danielle
- Johnson, Joanna
- Komis, Katherine
- Leary, Susan
- Mann, April
- Maranto, Gina
- Otis, Martha
- Panton, Rachel
- Pickens, Roxane
- Phillips, Samantha
- Reyes, Lisa
- Sanchez-Garcia, Adina
- Wafer, John
- Wheat, Carrie
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Benjamin Alsup, M.F.A. (University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2002)
LecturerAreas of Interest: Fiction, Composition, Creative Non-Fiction
Benjamin Alsup teaches Composition and Creative Writing courses. His fiction, non-fiction, and book reviews appear regularly in Esquire.
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James Britton
Lecturer- 305-284-4673
- 327 Ashe Bldg.
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Melissa Burley, M.F.A. (University of Miami, 2004)
Lecturer- 305-284-4673
- 111 ECC
Areas of Interest: Visual Rhetoric, Photography, Creative Writing
Melissa Burley received her MFA in fiction from the University of Miami after studying art history at the Université de Paul Valery, in Montpellier, France, and graduating with a B.A. in history from the College of William and Mary. Her poetry, prose poetry, an interview, and short stories have appeared in Tigertail, Flamenco, Mangrove, and Metromorphosis. She has published a book of photographs and her photography has been printed in local, regional, and national magazines. She is currently working on her second novel. Her interests include visual rhetoric and digital photography.
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Zisca Burton, M.A. (University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1994)
Associate Director and Senior Lecturer- 305-284-4673
- 101 ECC
Areas of Interest: African American Women's Literature
Zisca Burton was born and raised in Cambridge, England, and her parents are from Dominica, in the Caribbean. She received her Bachelor’s degree in English and her Master’s degree in African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has contributed to Writing African American Women: An Encyclopedia of Literature by and About Women of Color (Greenwood Press 2006) and the African American National Biography (Oxford University Press 2008). Her book Writing About Toni Morrison (Chelsea House 2008) helps students to navigate Morrison’s work. She teaches English Composition and Introduction to Africana Studies.
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Jill McKay Chrobak, Ph.D. (Michigan State University)
Lecturer- 305-284-4673
- 114 ECC
Areas of Interest: Hip hop culture and Black Language appropriation, rhetoric of appropriation, rhetoric of hip hop, composition pedagogy, cultural studies
Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Jill McKay Chrobak earned her Ph.D. in Writing and Rhetoric from Michigan State University in 2007. She is currently teaching Freshman Composition, The Rhetoric of Hip Hop, and Advanced Business Writing.
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Alan Ramón Clinton, Ph.D. (University of Florida, 2002)
Lecturer- 305-284-4673
- 107 ECC
Alan Ramón Clinton is the author of the scholarly monograph Mechanical Occult: Automatism, Modernism, and the Specter of Politics (Peter Lang: 2004) , a book of poetry (Horatio Alger's Keys, BlazeVOX: 2008), and numerous articles on the intersections of technology and 20th century literature. His interests in composition focus on incorporating the historical avant-garde, including its exploitation of various communications technologies, as a source of research methods in writing across the disciplines.
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KC Culver, M.F.A. (University of South Carolina, 2003)
Assistant Director, Writing Center and Senior Lecturer- 305-284-4673
- 104 ECC
KC Culver is a senior lecturer and practicing writer. She received her Master's specializing in Rhetoric/Composition and 20th Century Literature from Auburn University, and her MFA specializing in Poetry from the University of South Carolina. She acts as the Assistant Director of the Writing Center and the Managing Editor of the undergraduate literary journal Mangrove. Her teaching interests revolve around teaching with technology, and she has developed several classes at the University of Miami, including a course producing a webzine, a course about blogging, and a course on HBO's "The Wire." She has taught poetry to talented high school students through UM’s Summer Scholars program and leads a reading group for older adults through UM’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. She also owns an internet company that retails plus size lingerie and, in her spare time, works to write and publish poetry.
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Andrew Green, M.A. (Florida International University, 2000)
Lecturer- 305-284-4673
- 102 ECC
Andrew Green was born and raised in Miami, leaving to attend the University of Sussex in Brighton, England for his B.A., followed by Cambridge University for his PGCE. He taught in London for four years, before returning to Miami. His interests include travel, travel writing, and writing on social equality and voices of outsiders, both in fiction and non-fiction.
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Michael Gutierrez, M.F.A., M.A.
(University of New Hampshire, University of Massachussetts)
Lecturer- 305-284-4673
- 107 ECC
Areas of Interest: Fiction & Creative Non-fiction, U.S. History, European cultural history
Michael Gutierrez received his M.F.A. in fiction from the University of New Hampshire and his MA in history from the University of Massachusetts. Previously, he’d worked as a journalist. He is writing a novel set in 1919 Colorado
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Zachery Hickman, M.F.A. (University of Miami, 2003)
Senior Lecturer- 305-284-4673
- 105 ECC
Zachery Hickman was raised in the Appalachian Mountains where he received a BA in English from West Virginia University. He received an M.F.A. from the University of Miami in 2003 where he was a James A. Michener Fellow, and editor of Mangrove 2003. His poetry attempts to forge the gap between idealism and reality, between the lyrical and the narrative. He is currently working on his first full length collection of poetry.
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Judy G. Hood, M.F.A. (University of Miami, 2004)
Lecturer- 305-284-4673
- 112 ECC
Areas of Interest: American Literature, Visual Rhetoric
Judy Hood studied at Albert Ludwig University in Freiburg, Germany, graduated from Stetson University, and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Miami. Her work ranges from non-fiction to poetry and has been published in The Southern Quarterly, Mangrove Literary Magazine, and the Miami Herald. She contributed to the college text Composing Inquiry and presently teaches Visual Rhetoric and Advanced Academic Writing at UM.
- Danielle K. Houck, M.F.A. (University of Miami, 2000)
Lecturer- 305-284-4673
- 103 ECC
Areas of Interest: Art, Composition, Creative Writing, Organizational Communication, Popular Culture
Danielle K. Houck majored in creative writing at Miami University. She studied fiction writing at Georgetown University and earned her M.F.A. from the University of Miami in 2000. Ms. Houck taught writing at the University of Miami, Miami University, and Miami-Dade College before joining Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Jacksonville, Florida, as Chair of the Creative Writing Department from 2003-2005. She currently teaches composition and business writing courses as a full-time lecturer at UM.
She served as editor-in-chief of Miami University's literary magazine, Inklings
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Joanna Johnson, M.A. (University of Miami, 2002)
Assistant Director and Senior Lecturer- 305-284-4673
- 106 ECC
Joanna Johnson's interests include postcolonial writing and theory, in particular relating to the Caribbean. In addition to teaching, she is also at work on her Ph.D, in which she examines representations of the English rural landscape in Caribbean texts. She is a member of the Caribbean Literary Studies and Atlantic Studies groups at UM. She has taught ENG 105, 106, 107, 208, 330, and333 .
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Katherine Komis
Lecturer- 305-284-4673
- 111 ECC
Katherine Komis earned a BA in English Literature from UCLA and an MA with a focus in African American Literature from California State University at Northridge. Currently, her courses explore contemporary American issues examining the relationship between health, wellness, and the environment.
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Susan Leary, M.A. (University of Miami, 2008)
Lecturer- 305-284-4673
- 103 ECC
Susan L. Leary received her M.A. in English from the University of Miami in 2008. She teaches English 105 and 106 and serves as a tutor in the Writing Center. She recently designed a special topics course for English 106, "Transition and Crisis in the Victorian Era," which integrates her own literary interests with her teaching. The course invites students to make connections across history by exploring how the relationship between trauma and identity in Victorian short stories and poems can be interpreted in a variety of contexts. Her teaching interests include reading and writing across the curriculum and inquiry-based learning.
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April Mann, M.A. (University of Miami, 1993)
Director, Writing Center and Senior Lecturer- 305-284-2956
- Writing Center
April Mann teaches in the English Composition Program and directs the Writing Center. She is currently involved in several projects related to writing, writing centers, and disability, specifically the autism-related disability known as Asperger's Syndrome. She was a contributor to and reader for Composing Inquiry: Methods and Readings for Investigation and Writing.
In 2004, April received an Excellence-in-Teaching Award.
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Gina Maranto, M.A. (Johns Hopkins, 1980)
Director of English Composition and Senior Lecturer- 305-284-3090
- 327 Ashe Bldg.
Gina Maranto received her M.A. in fiction from The Writing Seminars at The Johns Hopkins University in 1980. She is a prize-winning science writer who has covered biomedicine, the environment, and Earth sciences at the national level since 1982. Her articles, opinion pieces, and reviews have appeared in Discover, The Atlantic Monthly, Scientific American, The New York Times, and other publications. She is author of Quest for Perfection (1996), a history of attempts to alter birth outcomes and a critique of new reproductive technologies.
Since 1998, she has taught English 105 and 107 (Writing about Science), primarily in the College of Engineering. She has also taught an advanced science writing course and a graduate scientific writing course at the Miller School of Medicine. She currently serves as director of the Composition program.
In 2006, she received the Dean's Award in Special Recognition for Contributions to Undergraduate Education in the College of Arts & Sciences. She has also received a Vice President's Award for Service (2004), a Provost's Grant for Innovative Teaching (2004), and an Excellence-in-Teaching Award (2003).
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Martha Otis, M.F.A. (University of Florida, 2000), M.A. (Stanford, 1993)
Lecturer- 305-284-4673
- 108 ECC
Areas of Interest: Composition, Fiction Writing
Martha Otis has an MFA from the University of Florida, an MA from Stanford University, and a BA from the University of Chicago. Her interests include poetry and all genres of narrative storytelling. She teaches composition 105, 106 and 107, and moonlights in creative writing 209 and 406.
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Roxane Pickens, M.A. (College of William and Mary, 2001)
Lecturer- 305-284-4673
- 104 ECC
Areas of Interest: African/American literature and culture (particularly 20th century); representations of identity formations; performance studies; philosophies of play
Roxane Pickens is a Ph.D. candidate (ABD) in American Studies at the College of William and Mary working in the areas of twentieth century African American and other American literature and culture. Her dissertation project is a literary and cultural study of the representations of social parties during the 1920s and '30s, focused on the Harlem Renaissance/Jazz Age era and its negotiations of festive displays, carnivalesque culture, and cultural identity formations. She has taught various literature/culture courses at W&M in the American Studies and Black Studies programs and in the department of English. She teaches in the Composition program.
- Rachel Panton, M.A. (University of Toledo, 2001)
Lecturer- 305-284-4673
- 110 ECC
Rachel Panton has an extensive background in composition and multicultural affairs. Her courses have focused on Bob Marley as the militant mulatto, as well as on multicultural and sports memoir. She works frequently with the Multicultural Affairs office on campus and with student organizations to co-ordinate and collaborate on event programming.
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Samantha Phillips, M.Ed. (Lesley, 1993)
LecturerSamantha Phillips' creative non-fiction book, Real Girl/Real World (Seal Press 1998, 2003) is based on interviews with over seventy teen girls about beauty and the media, body image and eating disorders, sexuality, and the third wave of feminism. This book was re-created by a German feminist press (Orlanda) to cover similar issues. She is a regular contributor to Fit Pregnancy Magazine and has written for the Miami Herald and the Philadelphia Inquirer. As an adjunct at UM, she taught courses about the representation of teenagers in the United States.
- Lisa Reyes, M.A. (College of Staten Island, CUNY)
Lecturer- 305-284-4673
- 102 ECC
Areas of Interest: Creative Non-Fiction, Literature of the Americas, Women's Studies
Lisa Reyes was born and raised in New York City. She taught writing at various branches of The City University of New York for six years, before moving to Miami. She is currently working on a bilingual MFA in Creative Writing of the Americas with The University of Texas. She teaches Memoir as a form of social protest and is a member of Caribbean Literary Studies.
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Adina Sanchez-Garcia
Senior Lecturer- 305-284-4673
- 100 ECC
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John Wafer, Ph.D. Candidate (Indiana University at Pennsylvania)
Lecturer- 305-284-4673
- 100 ECC
John Wafer is currently obtaining his doctoral degree in Composition Studies at Indiana University at Pennsylvania ((IUP). His research interests include Composition and Disability Studies, Cognitive Neuroscience, Biocultural Literacy, Qualitative Research methodologies, Sports, Competition and Gender Roles, and How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon.
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Carrie Wheat, M.F.A. (Virginia, 2003)
Lecturer- 305-284-4673
- 104 ECC
Carrie Wheat is a graduate of the University of Virginia’s Creative Writing program. Her work includes short stories that range from the tale of two girls going to see a rock concert, to the recently published, “Constant History” about two women in an assisted living facility. Since receiving her graduate degree, she has taught at both the University of Virginia in the Studies in Women and Gender Department and the University of Cincinnati in English Composition. Both her writing and her teaching focus on Cultural Studies and its impact on daily life.
