Meet Our Department

About Dr. Joanne Addison: My research has been closely tied to my teaching, service, and administrative work throughout my academic career whether working as Director of Composition, Co-Directing the Denver Writing Project, serving as Chair of Faculty Assembly, or developing a campus-wide mentoring program. At the heart of my work is a desire to empower people through increased access to written literacy. My most recent co-authored book, Writing and School...

Areas of Expertise: Writing Center Theory and Administration; Composition Theory and Pedagogy; Assessment and Evaluation; Literary Theory/Critical Theory; Interdisciplinary Theories of Social Space; Social Class, Literacy, and Work; Creative Nonfiction; Basic Writing/Composition. Courses Taught: Special Topics in Language and Rhetoric: Literacy in the United States Special Topics in Language and Rhetoric: Social Class and Identity Practicum: Composition and Rhetoric for Teachers Writing Center Training: Theory and Practice Writing for Professional...

About Dr. Pompa Banerjee: Professor Banerjee teaches courses in early modern literature and culture. Her research examines the literary and cultural dimensions of Europe’s cross-cultural encounters in the global Renaissance, especially in the ways they shape identity and space in the age of discovery. She is also interested in European witchcraft and the gendering of the supernatural. She is the author of Burning Women: Widows, Witches, and Early Modern European...

About Dr. Brian Barker: Brian Barker is the author of three books of poetry, Vanishing Acts, The Black Ocean , and The Animal Gospels . His poems have appeared in such journals as Poetry, The Gettysburg Review, American Poetry Review, TriQuarterly, The Washington Post, Indiana Review, The Cincinnati Review, Blackbird, and Pleiades . He teaches at the University of Colorado Denver, where he is a poetry editor of Copper Nickel...

About Dr. Nicky Beer: Nicky Beer is the author of Real Phonies and Genuine Fakes (Milkweed Editions, 2022), The Octopus Game (Carnegie Mellon, 2015) and The Diminishing House (Carnegie Mellon 2010), both winners of the Colorado Book Award for Poetry. She has received awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. She is a poetry editor...

About Drew Bixby: Drew Bixby teaches Magazine Writing, Advanced Magazine Writing, and Composition and is the Assistant Director of the Writing Center at CU Denver, where he handles operations for the Anschutz Medical Campus. He is the author of Denver's Best Dive Bars: Drinking and Diving in the Mile High City and was a frequent contributor and columnist to Westword from 2005-2012. He served as President of the Board of...

Chris Bodden earned his MA in English: Applied Linguistics from CU Denver in 2013 and joined the English department faculty shortly after. He has taught at the International College Beijing, a dual-degree partnership program between CU Denver and China Agricultural University, ever since and became the Academic Director of the program in Spring of 2019. He is deeply interested in Chinese-English translation and interaction, previously co-hosting the Hello Chinese language-learning...

About Teague Bohlen: Teague von Bohlen is a novelist and freelance writer who teaches Creative Writing at CU Denver, where he has been awarded twice for excellence in teaching. He teaches both fiction writing (Workshops at all levels, Special Topics, and Narrative Form and Theory) and courses related to journalism (Magazine Writing, Writing for Print Media). He serves as one of the Fiction Editors for the national literary magazine Copper...

Areas of Expertise Rhetoric of Health & Medicine; Technical and Professional Communication Brief Bio Kari Campeau teaches courses and conducts research in technical & professional communication, writing studies, and rhetorical studies of health and medicine. Her research uses community-engaged fieldwork and human-centered design methods to study patient experiences and healthcare decision-making. Her current research addresses vaccine hesitancy and decision-making and experiences of vulnerability, shame, and connection with automated healthcare. Selected...

About Dr. Nancy Ciccone: Trained in comparative literature, I primarily research in two areas: 1) Medieval European literature and 2) the interstices between ancient and modern literatures. The disciplines of history and of philosophy inform my writing on medieval romance, practical reasoning and inner debates. For professional service, I continue as a bibliographer for the International Courtly Literature Society. My teaching ranges from entry level to graduate courses in which...

About Dr. Michelle Comstock: Dr. Comstock teaches courses in writing, writing pedagogy, multimodal composition, and public rhetoric. Her current research interests include the influence of sound (and audio) on climate change discourse and the larger function of aurality on the composing process. She has also published research on gender and technology, digital community networks, and the privatization of education. Publications: 2017 Comstock, Michelle and Mary Hocks. "Composing for Sound: Sonic...

About Kyle Crawford: Kyle is a teacher of writing. He is a father, and he has always been an athlete. In many ways, he is best defined by the people around him. He comes from a family of educators and writers. He spends time with his many incredible friends exploring Colorado’s wilderness by ski, raft, or foot. In his ski parka, you will find a Tom Robbins paperback and a...

About Paul DeMarte: Paul DeMarte has been teaching at UCD since 2005. Between teaching and world traveling with his wife, Paul has been published online for several pop culture critiques, and he is a published lyricist and musician. In his rare free time, Paul analyzes post-punk, reads science-fiction/cyberpunk and tends to roll a natural 20 on an icosahedron. Publications July 2007 “Tune In Tokyo: Spoon Blasts Out Another Hit” Denver,...

About Dr. Colleen Donnelly: I have taught for the English Department for over 20 years in the areas of medieval literature, modernism, critical theory and medical humanities. I am particularly interested in the lives of women in medieval and early Western cultures. Beyond medieval literature, my favorite writers to teach are modernists such as Faulkner and Joyce, and I also teach speculative fiction. In my research, I am currently returning...

I teach writing at CU Denver's International College of Beijing. I earned my MA from CU Denver in rhetoric and the teaching of writing, and I'm a doctoral student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. My Ph.D. and research focus on composition and applied linguistics with specific attention to relationships between language, place, and activity. Courses Taught: ENGL 1020: Core Composition I, ENGL 2030: Core Composition II, ENGL 1601: Storytelling: Literature,...

I started graduate school at USM-- University of Southern Mississippi-- in American Literature, but when I discovered rhetoric, I switched tracks, adding a couple more years to my education, but finding a deeper passion. I finished my MA at University of Colorado and went on to pursue my PhD (many years later) in Rhetoric, Writing, and Discourse Studies at Old Dominion University in Virginia. Teaching has been a passion for...

Fatima Esseili is Associate Professor in the Department of English, and Director of the ESL Academy. With over 15 years of experience in the field of Second Language Studies, Fatima has taught a variety of graduate and undergraduate courses in national and international contexts including China, Lebanon, Mexico, Qatar, and the UAE. Fatima’s research interests in applied linguistics include the teaching and learning of English with emphasis on second language...

About Dr. Jeff Franklin: Jeff Franklin has been a professor at CU Denver since 2000. He has had the pleasure of teaching a wide range of literature and literary studies courses, especially in the history of the novel, nineteenth-century British literature and culture, critical theory, and poetry. His scholarship has come to focus on religion in Victorian Britain, Buddhism and alternative religions. He also teaches mindfulness meditation. He loves living...

About Peter Franks: Before joining the English Department at CU Denver in 2017, I have taught writing and literature courses most recently at East Carolina University and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Courses taught range from Core Composition and Writing in the Disciplines to Southern Literature, Major American Authors, and Native American Literature. My research interests include 20th/21st Century American Literature, Modernism and Race, and Southern Literature.

Courses Taught: Core Composition I Core Composition II

About Dr. Sarah Hagelin: Sarah Hagelin is Associate Professor of English and affiliate faculty in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the University of Colorado Denver. She is also the interim chair of the Ethnic Studies Department. She teaches courses in film, television, and American popular culture. Her latest book (co-written with Gillian Silverman) is The New Female Antihero: The Disruptive Women of Twenty-First-Century US Television (University of Chicago...

Don Hatcher has been an English Instructor with CU Denver since 2016. He teaches both writing and literature courses at the International College Beijing, a joint education program between CU Denver and China Agricultural University in Beijing, China. Courses Taught: ENGL 1020: Core Composition I, ENGL 2030: Core Composition II, ENGL 1601: Storytelling: Literature, Film & Television, ENGL 2156: Creative Writing, ENGL 3795: Race and Ethnicity in American Literature, ENGL 3170: Business Writing

About Dr. Rodney Herring: Rodney Herring joined the English faculty at CU Denver in 2010. His research and teaching concern rhetoric and writing. His work on the history of rhetoric and the rhetoric of economics has appeared in various journals, including Advances in the History of Rhetoric , Rhetoric & Public Affairs , Rhetoric Review , and Rhetoric Society Quarterly . He currently directs the department’s composition program. Publications: “Neither...

About Maryann Hoffmann: Prior to the start of her teaching career (2005), Maryann has experience in a variety of professional careers: editor/grant writer in the medical field, auditor in the financial industry, management in the publishing world, and as a youth education counselor. She has taught composition, grammar, technical and business writing, as well as sponsoring internships, facilitating independent studies, and acting as second reader for honor projects. Areas of...

About Dr. Philip Joseph: I have been teaching courses in modern American literature and ethnic American literature since 2002. In 2007, I co-founded the Colorado Center for Public Humanities at UCD, and then served as its director from 2007-2014. My book, American Literary Regionalism in a Global Age , was published by LSU Press in 2006, and my articles have appeared in Genre , PMLA , The New Centennial Review...

About Mathew Klein: Mathew has been teaching English at various levels and in various environments since 2008. He joined the CU Denver English department in 2019 at the Beijing campus. He currently teaches Core Composition I, Core Composition II, and Literary Classics Courses Taught: ENGL 1020: Core Composition I, ENGL 2030: Core Composition II ENGL 2600: Literary Classics

About Dr. Joanna Luloff: Joanna Luloff is the author of the short story collection The Beach at Galle Road (Algonquin Books, 2012). The collection was chosen as a Discover Great New Writers Barnes and Noble selection and won the Maria Thomas Fiction Award. Her stories have appeared in journals including The Missouri Review, Confrontation, Memorious, and New South, and her story “Let Them Ask” won The Missouri Review’s Editors’ Prize...

About Alexander Lumans: Alexander Lumans was awarded a 2018 NEA Creative Writing Fellowship in Prose. He was also the Spring 2014 Philip Roth Creative Writing Resident at Bucknell University and he received a fellowship to The 2015 Arctic Circle Residency. Area of Expertise: Fiction Writing, Contemporary American Fiction, Speculative Fiction Courses Previously Taught: Composition I Composition II Introduction to Fiction Writing Advanced Short Story Workshop Hybrid/Experimental Forms Writing Apocalyptic Fiction...

Emilio Marquez graduated from CU Denver with a BS in Biology in Fall 2019 but returned to get a second BA in Film Studies with the English Department. Emilio went on to be employed as a work study with the English Department right before the start of the pandemic and helped the staff transition to remote status. Emilio then graduated from the English Department in Summer 2021. He was later...

About Dr. Christopher Merkner: Christopher Merkner is the author of the story collection The Rise & Fall of the Scandamerican Domestic . His fiction has been anthologized in the O. Henry Prize Stories, Best American Mystery Stories, and the W.W. Norton anthology, New Micro . He earned his MFA from the University of Florida and his PhD from the University of Denver. Area of Expertise: the short story, the history...

About Wayne Miller: Wayne Miller is the author of five poetry collections, most recently We the Jury (Milkweed, 2021), which won the Colorado Book Award; Post- (Milkweed, 2016), which won the Colorado Book Award and the Rilke Prize; and The City, Our City (2011), which was shortlisted for the Rilke Prize and the William Carlos Williams Award. He has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts,...

Marcy has an MA in English from California Polytechnic University of Pomona where she concentrated on women writers of color and teaching composition and rhetoric. She also has a minor degree in Spanish. She taught for twenty years at Citrus College in Los Angeles, managed instructional support services, and started the Distance Education program about which she has given numerous presentations. She taught at Dongbei University of Finance and Economics...

Publications: Sara Coleridge, A Victorian Daughter (Yale 1989) The Whore's Story (Oxford 2000) British Romantic Novelists (Gale 1994) When Flesh Becomes Word (Oxford 2004) The Cambridge Companion to Erotic Literature (Cambridge 2017) Areas of Expertise: Eighteenth-Century English Literature, English Romanticism, History of the Novel

Shauna Musser has been an instructor for the joint Education program between University of Colorado Denver and China Agricultural University in Beijing, China since 2018. She teaches courses in composition, literature and creative writing. Courses Taught: ENGL 1020: Core Composition I, ENGL 2030: Core Composition II, ENGL 2600: Literary Classics, ENGL 2156: Creative Writing

About Nicole Piasecki: Nicole has served as an instructor of writing, rhetoric, and technology for the CU Denver English Department for more than 15 years. She teaches Core Composition I and II, Multimedia Composition, Business Writing, and Special Topics: Writing Personal Essay. Her research and creative activities focus on multimodal storytelling, creative nonfiction, literary editing and publishing, and e-learning design. As a Senior Consulting Editor for nonfiction, Nicole helps edit...

About Dr. Andrew Scahill: Andrew Scahill is an Assistant Professor specializing in film studies. His work tends to focus on genre and reception (audiences), with a particular interest in representations of youth rebellion. He has served as Coordinating Editor for Velvet Light Trap and Assistant Editor for Literature/Film Quarterly. He has been published in multiple journals such as Cinema Journal, In Media Res, FLOW, Jump Cut, and Postscript . He...

About Dr. Gillian Silverman: Gillian Silverman is Associate Professor of English and affiliate faculty in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the University of Colorado Denver. She is also a President’s Teaching Scholar. She teaches courses in American literature and film; critical theory; and gender studies. Her latest book (co-written with Sarah Hagelin) is The New Female Antihero: The Disruptive Women of Twenty-First-Century US Television (University of Chicago Press)...

About Lisa Spears: Lisa Spears has been an instructor at UCD since 2008. In addition to teaching, she acts as the CU Succeed Liaison for the English department, is an advisor for a student organization, and regularly serves on committees and participates in projects aimed at improving the educational experiences of undergraduates. She has three wonderful daughters and a busy home life that involves a lot of soccer practices and...

About Dr. John Tinnell: John Tinnell teaches courses on digital culture, histories of writing and technology, multimedia, the sublime, and nonfiction writing. He was recently a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University and holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Florida. His recent book, Actionable Media (Oxford UP, 2018), examines a new wave of digital art and communication emerging with the spread of smartphones, augmented reality, and the Internet...

About Julie Vick: Julie Vick has been an Instructor with the department since 2007. She frequently teaches business writing and special topics courses and is a faculty advisor for English. Area of Expertise: Professional writing, rhetoric and composition, freelance writing, and humor writing. Courses Taught: Business Writing, Special Topics in Writing: Humor, Core Composition I and 2, Argumentation and Logic, and Technical Writing. Publications Book: Babies Don't Make Small Talk...

Cynthia F. Wong teaches modern and contemporary literature and narrative theory. She studied Psychology and English at the University of the Pacific (B.A.) and medieval and modern literature at the University of Chicago (M.A.); her Ph.D. is from the University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin. Her research focus is on a study of space and geography in world literature, and she is recognized as one of the key North American scholars of Nobel-winning...

About Emily Wortman-Wunder: Emily Wortman-Wunder has taught scientific writing at the University of Colorado Denver since 2014. Her story collection, Not a Thing to Comfort You , won the 2019 Iowa Book Award and the Colorado Book Award, and she has had pieces in Guernica , the Kenyon Review , Creative Nonfiction , High Country News , and elsewhere. Before returning to the classroom she worked as the managing editor...

About Dr. Ian Ying: Dr. Ying publishes and teaches in Applied Linguistics and TESOL. He is the author of Investigating Reconstruction in a Second Language (Lincom Europa 2003). His current research focuses on Relevance-based pragmatics and Second Language Acquisition. His research interests also include the interface between cognition and second language acquisition. Publications: 2010 Genre as Social Indexicality: A Cross-Cultural analysis of English and Chinese poems. Semiotica 177, 197-208. 2008...