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...

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...

I teach writing at CU Denver. My research analyzes the intersection of visual culture and social media, particularly art activism and social justice. I’m also a certified suicide prevention trainer, lacrosse mom, and Mammoth fan (in spite of the lousy season we had). When I’m not teaching or writing, I’m hiking or reading. YA fiction is my favorite reading for pleasure, but I tend to buy more theory books than...

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...

Evan earned his PhD in linguistics from the university of Colorado Boulder. He is a lover of learning for the fun of it, and is major fanboy for the practice of Brazilian Jiujitsu.

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...

I was born and raised in Northern California. I received my B.A. in History with a Minor in Spanish from Brigham Young University in Utah. I also had the opportunity during that time to live in the Canary Islands. This experience allowed me begin my acquisition of a foreign language, and it was also my first time living abroad which was very exciting. After receiving my degree, I decided to...

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 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

River Grabowski is a queer essayist, poet, and writing instructor from the Northern Rockies, the traditional territory of the Spokane, Kootenai, Kalispel, Ktunaxa, and Schitsu’umsh (Coeur d’Alene). They hold an MFA in creative writing from Colorado State University and served as an Associate Editor at the Colorado Review . Previously, they were a Fulbright Scholar in Argentina and worked as a Spanish-English literary translator in Querétaro, México.

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, The Eighteenth Century, Rhetoric & Public Affairs , Rhetoric Review , and Rhetoric Society Quarterly . He currently serves as the department's associate...

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...

Veronica Jayne received a B.A. from The Evergreen State College in Washington, where she studied Bilingual Education and Teaching as well as Arab-African Postcolonial Literature. Following this, she earned an M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language from the University of Toledo, Ohio, where she focused on ESL Composition. She also studied Spanish and Portuguese in South America, then taught English in South Korea and China during this time...

Matthew Jellick holds a master's degree in teaching from the University of Southern California (USC) and has been teaching internationally since 2009. A former English Language Fellow (Ethiopia: 2014 – 2016) and English Language Specialist (Djibouti: 2022, 2023) Mr. Jellick likewise has extensive experience in China and has taught at the university level here for nearly seven years, in both Shenzhen, and currently, at International College Beijing (ICB) on behalf...

L.A. Jennings teaches writing, literature and cultural studies with a focus on intersectionality, history, and globalization. She is the author of two books: She’s a Knockout! a History of Women in Fighting Sports and Mixed Martial Arts: A History from Ancient Fighting Sports to the UFC . L.A. was a regular contributor to VICE Media and has been interviewed by NPR, The Economist, Cosmopolitan, and the HISTORY channel as an...

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

Molly Kugel is the author of Groundcover (Tolsun 2022), and the chapbooks, sky, lotus, dust (dancing girl press 2023) and The Forest of the Suburbs (Five Oaks 2015); her book, Women, Poetry, and American Botanical Culture is forthcoming from Bloomsbury Academic. Her writing has appeared most recently in Plant-Human Quarterly, Bennington Review, Mid-American Review, Subtropics, and Josephine Quarterly. She earned her PhD in English and Literary Arts at the University...

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...

Dr. Masoud Mahmoodi-Shahrebabaki is a linguistics and English instructor with extensive experience in teaching research, composition, and linguistics. He has published widely in academia, including two entries in the TESOL Encyclopedia . His research interests delve into teacher emotion regulation, the integration of technology in language teaching, and metacognitive strategies of reading comprehension.

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,...

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

Jasmine Newell received her B.A. in English at Metropolitan State University of Denver and her M.A. in English with an emphasis on Rhetoric and the Teaching of Writing from the University of Colorado at Denver. She is a Colorado native with a passion for teaching and writing. Jasmine has been teaching composition courses for four years and has been a part of the ESL Academy team for one year. She...

About Nicole Piasecki: Nicole has served as an instructor of writing, rhetoric, and technology for the CU Denver English Department since 2006. She teaches Core Composition I and II, Intro to Creative Writing, Digital Storytelling, and Special Topics: Writing Personal Essay. As a Consulting Editor for nonfiction, Nicole helps edit at Copper Nickel literary magazine. She is also an editorial consultant at Colorado Review. Nicole earned her MFA in creative...

John Purfield teaches English composition with a focus on ecology, social justice, and the intersection of the two. He also teaches business writing and writing in the sciences. His primary research interests are rhetorics of the Anthropocene and composition pedagogy. He hopes to continue his research on this damaged planet and help others find agency through writing. John is a writer, teacher, a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom, and a...

Laurel Roth (she/they) has her MFA in Poetry from Colorado State University, where she taught and worked as an Editorial Associate at Colorado Review. Their work has appeared in or is forthcoming in F(r)iction, The Sugar House Review, and Passengers Journal, and she has attended Tin House, Aspen Words, and the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference. She is currently pursuing a Certificate in Climate Change. They are very excited to...

Dr. Casey J Rudkin teaches, games, writes, and tells stories. Graduating from Michigan Tech with a PhD in Rhetoric and Technical Communication, she has taught all over the country, including at Temple University in Philadelphia, Western Connecticut State University, and Kenai Peninsula College in Alaska. She loves teaching writing because it gives her the chance to read the works of students who are just starting their own writing journeys. In...

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 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). Selected...

About Lisa Spears: Lisa Spears has been a full-time instructor at UCD since 2008 and a senior instructor since 2020. In addition to teaching, she acts as the CU Succeed liaison for the English department, is the faculty advisor for two student organizations, and regularly serves on committees and participates in workshops aimed at improving the educational experiences of undergraduates. Although reading is her first love, she is an avid...

About Dr. John Tinnell: John Tinnell teaches courses on histories & theories of technology, digital studies, writing, and narrative nonfiction. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Florida and was recently a Visiting Scholar in Communication at Stanford University. His books chronicle the origins of major innovation agendas in computing while also forecasting and analyzing their broader relevance to emerging technocultural developments. His latest book about Silicon...

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...

Sara Webster earned her MFA in Creative Writing from New York University. Since then, she’s taught writing to children through 826NYC, to adult learners at Colorado Free University, and, currently, composition courses at CU Denver. Before moving to Colorado, Sara worked in the film industry in New York City for nearly twenty years. While she’s now full time with the English department, she’s previously taught producing and film and television...

Eliot Khalil Wilson was born in Norfolk, Virginia. The third son of Jack and Gloria Wilson who had, in all fairness, no unreasonably high hopes for young Eliot. Bookish, retiring, he always seemed much older than the other kids—not in a wisdom sort of way either—just plain older. Think of all the negative connotations of the word older; that’s the sense I’m talking about here. His fifth grade report card...

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...