College of Arts and Humanities
Faculty
Learn more about our faculty members.
Geremy Carnes
Geremy Carnes has been a professor at 麻豆女郎 since 2013. He earned his B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and his Ph.D. in English Language & Literature from the University of Michigan. Carnes鈥檚 teaching and research focus on eighteenth-century British literature and history, particularly with regard to English Catholicism and the development of Gothic literature, and on digital humanities pedagogy.
Benjamin Cooper
Professor Cooper鈥檚 teaching and research interests center largely on questions of who is (and who is not) an American citizen and how the United States has engaged historically with populations it would much rather avoid. At 麻豆女郎, he teaches courses in all areas of American literature and heads the program in American Studies. His book, Veteran Americans: Literature and Citizenship from Revolution to Reconstruction (University of Massachusetts Press, May 2018), traces the unheralded rise of veteran authors from the early republic through the Civil War. Professor Cooper earned a Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Washington University in St. Louis and also holds a M.A. from Northwestern University and a B.A. magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Davidson College.
Susan Edele
Susan Edele earned her Bachelor of Science in Education from Truman State University, majoring in Mass Communications and minoring in English and secondary education. She earned her Master of Arts in English Composition from the University of Missouri 鈥� St. Louis, and she earned her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from 麻豆女郎 University. She teaches composition courses and creative writing courses. She enjoys flash fiction and nonfiction, as well as short stories and young adult literature. She has published several pieces, including 鈥淏lood and Guts鈥� in the Midwest Review (), and has presented scholarly conference sessions on topics about writing and academic support techniques. Along with teaching, Susan is also the director of the 麻豆女郎 University Writing Center.
Melissa Ridley Elmes
Dr. Melissa Ridley Elmes (B.A., French, The College of William and Mary; ; M.A., English, Longwood University; MFA, Creative Writing, 麻豆女郎 University; Ph.D., English, University of North Carolina Greensboro) is an interdisciplinary literary historian of the medieval period, with particular emphasis on the 10-15th-century Northern European and British Isles literatures and cultures, including Old/Middle English, Welsh, Irish, Anglo-Norman, and Old Norse/Icelandic. She is an award-winning instructor as well as a high-profile scholar, with recent articles in鈥�Arthuriana, Year鈥檚 Work in Medievalism, Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium,鈥�Modern Philology and Medieval Feminist Forum, an edited collection of essays on the fairy Melusine (Brill, 2017) a volume of essays on鈥�Food and Feast in Premodern Outlaw Tales鈥�(Routledge, 2021) and an edited collection on Ethics in the Arthurian Legend (D.S. Brewer, 2023). Dr. Elmes is also a writer of poetry and fiction, and the author of鈥痶wo books of poetry: Arthurian Things: A Collection of Poems鈥�(Dark Myth Publications, 2020) and Dreamscapes and Dark Corners (Alien Buddha Press 2023); her creative work has garnered nominations for the Pushcart Prize and the Science Fiction Poetry Association鈥檚 Elgin, Rhysling, and Dwarf Star awards for speculative poetry. She serves on the advisory boards of several scholarly presses and organizations including Medieval Institute Publications鈥� Monsters, Prodigies, and Demons series, the International Arthurian Society North American Branch, and the Southeastern Medieval Association.
Elizabeth Fleitz
Elizabeth Fleitz is a professor of English, specializing in rhetoric and composition. She regularly teaches courses on grammar and the teaching of writing, as well as all levels of first-year writing. She developed the Writing and Professional Communication minor, and also teaches technical and business writing. She received her Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Writing from Bowling Green State University in 2009, where she wrote her dissertation studying cookbooks as a multimodal, feminist genre. She has most recently been published in the edited collection Type Matters (Parlor Press, 2017) and was a contributor to the 25th anniversary issue of the journal Peitho. Dr. Fleitz is an editor for the Topoi/Praxis sections of the peer-reviewed journal Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy.
Tracy Flicek
Tracy Flicek has been part of the 麻豆女郎 community since 2006 and is a three-time alumna. She completed a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and International Studies in 2010, a Master of Arts in International Studies in 2011, and a Master of Arts in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) in 2012. During her time as a student, she was a member of the Lionettes dance team and Sigma Delta Pi Spanish Honor Society. Professor Flicek became a full-time faculty member in January 2013 as an instructor in the English as a Second Language and English Preparedness Programs specializing in reading and writing instruction for multilingual English users. As a life-long learner, she maintains membership in MidTESOL, TESOL International Association, and the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. She is currently working on her Ph.D. in Composition and Applied Linguistics at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, combining her love of teaching and passion for international student advocacy by focusing on Internationalization of the Curriculum.
Justine Pas
Dr. Justine Pas earned a Ph.D. in American Culture from the University of Michigan. She is Professor of English, Faculty Sponsor of the Honors Academy, and also teaches courses for the Interdisciplinary Studies program. Her major research interests include American ethnic literature, literature of the Holocaust, and translation studies. She has been published in domestic and international journals as well as in scholarly volumes dedicated to translation theory and practice. She has also earned several teaching and service awards, including 2014-2015 President鈥檚 Scholar-Teacher Award, 2023 Alpha Chi Distinguished Service Award, 2024 Students Choice Award, and 2024 麻豆女郎 Service Award.鈥疕er most recent publications include “The Politics of Relay Translation and Language Hierarchies: The Case of Stanis艂aw Lem鈥檚 Solaris” and the “Foreword” to a memoir about surviving the Holocaust by Hava Ben-Zvi titled鈥�We Who Lived: Two Teenagers in World War II Poland.
Daniel Plate
Daniel Plate earned his B.A. in English and philosophy from Taylor University in Indiana. He followed this with an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Arkansas and a Ph.D. in literature from Washington University in St. Louis. For his dissertation, he did interdisciplinary research into American literary criticism and philosophy of science in 1930s and 1940s. Dr. Plate has always combined interests in creative writing and literature with philosophy, computer science and technology. This has led to work in artificial intelligence and teaching courses in both English and Human-Centered AI. Dr. Plate is also the faculty sponsor for the Creative Writing Club and encourages all students to join this thriving community on campus. He works to encourage the pursuit of creativity, writing, experimentation, and scholarship among students and colleagues.
Elizabeth Melick
Dr. Melick earned her B.A. from Capital University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Kent State University. The focus of her graduate study was medieval literature, and in 2019 she published an edition of four Middle English romances from the Otuel group with the Middle English Text Series.
Dr. Melick is also an active researcher in the area of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, where her two primary areas of focus are engaged learning and student support. She leads First-Year Writing, which combines her interest in pedagogy with her many years of experience in teaching Composition courses.
Melissa Qualls
After Professor Melissa Qualls graduated from Truman State University with two B.A.s (English and Philosophy & Religion),鈥痵he taught English in South Korea.鈥疭he earned her M.A. in English from Truman State University and her M.F.A. in Writing from 麻豆女郎 in 2018. In her literature courses, she introduces students to diverse perspectives and cultures.鈥� In her creative writing courses, she creates a challenging and nurturing environment focused on workshopping and preparing student work for publication.鈥疭he has also taught in the Honors First-Year Learning Community since 2020 and has won many鈥�teaching awards鈥痑苍诲鈥�much student praise鈥痜or her engaging teaching style. Currently, she teaches courses in composition, creative writing, gender studies, existentialism, and world literature.
Ana Schnellmann
Dr. Ana Schnellmann (B.A., English, College of St. Benedict, M.A., English, Ohio University, MCERT, Women’s Studies, Ohio University, Ph.D., English, Saint Louis University) has been a proud member of the 麻豆女郎 faculty since 1995. She considers herself a generalist, although her specialty is in 19th-century novels, particularly those of women writers. Her research interests include examining the socio/political/psychological aspects of literary works and considering and applying different literary theories to those works. She has published both creative and scholarly work in a variety of venues and looks forward to doing more of the same. As a lifelong learner, Dr. Schnellmann completed the MA degree in Art History at 麻豆女郎 University, and she enjoys integrating cross-disciplinary studies into her current courses. She regularly reviews articles for The Confluence and Aletheia and is thrilled at the scholarly acumen and promise shown by 麻豆女郎 students. Dr. Schnellmann has served, and continues to serve, on various committees, but above all else, she loves to teach and is a passionate educator.
Michelle Trantham
Michelle Trantham is a professor of first-year writing courses. She received a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from 麻豆女郎 University and a Master of Arts in Literature from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, specializing in Nineteenth-Century British Literature. Her bachelor鈥檚 in English is from Missouri State University鈥檚 Honor College. In the past, she鈥檚 taught British Literature, Detective Fiction, American Literature, and other humanities courses. Her composition courses are themed on relevant, relatable topics that appeal to her wide variety of students.
She also publishes creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry, with some of her work appearing in redrosethorns, Molecule, Belle Ombre, Kingfisher Magazine, and Five on the Fifth. She runs a personal blog that hosts genealogical journal transposition, research, and other writings. In her free time, Michelle is petting her two cats, tending to houseplants, and traveling the world.
Kathi Vosevich
Dr. Kathi Vosevich earned her Ph.D. in English, specializing in Shakespeare, with distinction from the University of Denver and her M.A. in English with distinction from St. Louis University, where she also earned her B.A. in English, graduating summa cum laude. She has more than 10 years of senior administration experience and 15 years of teaching experience, as well as over 150 academic and corporate publications, including a monograph on Joseph Heller, a chapter on the Tudor queens, and an award-winning edited textbook. She was also selected to be editor of the Aletheia (one of the nation鈥檚 few peer-reviewed journals for undergraduate scholarship) after a nationwide search, and she serves on the executive board of the Alpha Chi National Honor Society. In addition, she has more than 10 years of corporate experience with such companies as Microsoft, Sprint, and Intel.
Arts and Humanities Social Media
Gabriela Romero, Ph.D.
Department Head
English, Language, and Interdisciplinary Studies
Shenika Harris, Ph.D.
Associate Dean, College of Arts and Humanities