ENGLISH PROGRAM GRADUATE INSRUCTORS/TEACHING ASSISTANTS

Timothy Amidon [timothy_amidon@mail.uri.edu] is a Ph.D candidate in Writing at the University of Rhode Island. He received his M.A. from Indiana University in 2007 with a thesis titled "Institutional Authors, Institutional Texts? An Analysis of the Intellectual Property Policies Promulgated at Indiana University-Purdue University, Fort Wayne and Its Peer Institutions." He has published poetry in Confluence Literary Magazine, The Margin, and Cobalt Fuse. Amidon has presented presentations at scholarly conferences across the country, including the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) and Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW). Intellectual Interests Include: The Intersection of Intellectual Property/Copyright and the Composition Classroom, The History/Evolution of Copyright, Open Source Authorship/Publishing, 16th Century, Restoration, and Enlightenment Period British Literature, and Cyberpunk/Science Fiction. Amidon teaches in the Writing Program and in the English Program at University of Rhode Island.

Tina Bacci [tbacci@mail.uri.edu] is a Ph.D candidate in Writing at University of Rhode Island. She is currently working on her PhD dissertation on email communication and the workplace. Bacci received her M.A. in Composition Theory and Rhetoric at Northeastern University.  Her essay "Invention in the Digital Age: New Approaches to Thinking About Writing" is forthcoming in The Clearing House. She has presented papers at several scholarly conferences, including the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) in 2008 and 2009. Bacci teaches in the Writing Program and in the English Program at University of Rhode Island.

Laurie Carlson [Lcarlso2@cox.net] is a Ph.D candidate in English at University of Rhode Island. She received her M.A. from Fitchburg State College in 2005 with a thesis titled “Searching for Thel in Albion’s Ashes: Exploring the Sex-Gender System Possibilities of William Blake’s Mystical World.” Carlson has presented papers at scholarly M/MLA's national conference and at graduate student conferences at URI and Southern Connecticut. Intellectual interests include:  20th century American Literature, Disability Studies, Science Fiction, and Critical Theory. Carlson teaches in the Writing Program and in the English Program at University of Rhode Island.

Jennifer Churchill [jench@mail.uri.edu] is an M.A. candidate in Writing at University of Rhode Island. Intellectual interests include:  rhetorics of disability; composition pedagogy. Churchill teaches in the Writing Program and in the English Program at University of Rhode Island.

Brian A. Dixon [bdix6633@postoffice.uri.edu] is a Ph.D. candidate at University of Rhode Island. He received his M.A. from University of Rhode Island in 2005. He is currently working on his dissertation titled  "Sex for Dinner, Death for Breakfast: James Bond and the Body." Dixon has published fiction in A Thousand Faces, Zahir, Weston Magazine, Connecticut Review, and The Willimantic Chronicle, and he has presented papers at graduate students conferences at University of Rhode Island and  Southern Connecticut State University; he has also presented at the Northeast Writing Centers Association Conference. Intellectual interests include: Genre Studies, Canon Formation, Nineteenth-Century American Literature, Spy Fiction, Pulp Fiction, Creative Writing, Scriptwriting. Dixon teaches in the Writing Program and in the English Program at University of Rhode Island. He is also currently Assistant Editor of the ATQ.

Kim Evelyn [kim_evelyn@mail.uri.edu] is an M.A. candidate in English at University of Rhode Island. She has presented scholarly papers at graduate student conferences at the University of Rhode Island and University of Guelph. Her intellectual interests include: postcolonial theory and literature (particularly Caribbean, Southeast Asian and African); displacement, immigration and diasporas; race studies; Caribbean history (imperialism, slavery etc.); media studies; multicultural studies. Evelyn teaches in the Writing Program and in the English Program at University of Rhode Island.

Daniel Facchinetti [dfacchinetti@mail.uri.edu] is a Ph.D candidate in English at University of Rhode Island. He received his M.A. from the University of New Hampshire. He has presented at URI's 2008 Grad Student Conference, "Space, Place, and Imagination." Intellectual interests: 19th and 20th Century American lit, British Modernism, German Romanticism, the postmodern, American Transcendentalism, primitivism. Facchinetti teaches in the Writing Program and in the English Program at University of Rhode Island.

Samaa Gamie [samaagamei@yahoo.com] is a Ph.D candidate in Writing at University of Rhode Island. She received her M.A. in Professional Writing from the University of Massachusetts at Doutmouth in 2003. She is currently working on her dissertation titled A Study of Selected Errors in Arab Students' English Compositions and a Contrastive Rhetorical Investigation of Arabic and English Compositions." Her review of The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism was published in Modern Language Studies; she has also published essays in rhetoric and composition in the Rhet Herring (a Newsletter by the Department of Rhetoric and Composition at the American University in Cairo) and poetry (in journals such as Nerve House, Siren, and Temper). Intellectual interests include: error analysis, ESL and EFL studies, pedagogy, rhetorical theory, comparative and contrastive rhetoric, digital and visual rhetoric, writing center theory and research, postcolonial theory and studies. Gamie has taught writing and literature in Egypt as well as the U.S. She teaches in the Writing Program and in the English Program at University of Rhode Island

Jessica Gray [jhgray@mail.uri.edu] is a Ph.D candidate in English at University of Rhode Island. She received her M.A. from Western Connecticut State University.  While there she received a scholarship to study Postcolonial literature at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.  Gray has published entries on Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Aids to Reflection" and Pope John XXIII's encyclical "Pacem in Terris" in the Salem Press Guide to Christian Literature, and presented scholarly papers at NYCEA Conference at Fordham University as well as graduate student conferences at University of Rhode Island and Southern Connecticut State University. Intellectual interests include: Late 18th and 19th century transatlantic romanticism, as well as postcolonial literature. Gray teaches in the Writing Program and in the English Program at University of Rhode Island.

Rebekah Greene [rebekah_greene@mail.uri.edu] is a Ph.D candidate in English at the University of Rhode Island. She received her M.A. from the University of Rochester in 2007 with a thesis titled "Landscape, 'Portable Civilization,' and the Traveling Other in R.L. Stevenson’s The Master of Ballantrae." Greene has published on Milton's "Comus" in The Explicator, and she has presented at scholarly conferences across the country, including the 14th Annual Susan B. Anthony Institute Conference on Gender and Women’s Studies at University of Rochester and 2nd Annual Association of Literature on Screen Conference (Atlanta, GA). Intellectual interests include: 19th century British literature, particularly the late Victorian period; travel literature; postcolonial studies; Scottish studies; Orientalism; utopian literature; print culture; American, German, and Australian silent cinema; adventure fiction. Greene teaches in the Writing Program and in the English Program at University of Rhode Island.

Rosaleen Greene-Smith [rgreenesmith@mail.uri.edu] is a Ph.D candidate in English at University of Rhode Island. She received her M.A. from University of Massachusetts, Boston with a thesis titled “Rhetoric and Responsibility: Bizzell, Bertoff, and Semiotic Mediation.” She has presented papers at scholarly conferences in St. Andrews University (Scotland) as well as at the College English Association Conference and New England Region American Conference for Irish Studies. Intellectual interests include: History of Rhetoric and Logic, Scottish Enlightenment Rhetorics, Religion, Ethics, Citizenship and Rhetorical Studies, C.S. Peirce, Pragmaticism and Composition Studies, Philosophy and Compostion Studies, Visual Rhetorics, Art and Writing. Greene-Smith teaches in the Writing Program and in the English Program at University of Rhode Island.

Mihaela Harper [mharper@mail.uri.edu] is a Ph.D candidate in English and Writing at University of Rhode Island. She received her M.S. in English from Southern Connecticut State University. Harper has presented scholarly papers at Graduate Student conferences at University of Rnode Island and Southern Connecticut State University. Intellectual interests include: 20th century literature, rhetoric and composition, theories of representation, postmodern theory. Harper teaches in the Writing Program and in the English Program at University of Rhode Island.

Benjamin Hagen [benjamin_hagen@mail.uri.edu] is a Ph.D candidate at University of Rhode Island. He received his M.A. in 2007 from Northern Michigan University with a thesis titled "Metafiction and David Mitchell's Ghostwritten." His review of Carl DiPietro's Shakespeare and Modernism was published in the James Joyce Quarterly. He has presented scholarly papers at the URI Graduate Student Conference and the Sigma Tau Delta 2007 International Convention. Intellectual interests include: anglo-american modernism, self-conscious fiction, and contemporary fiction. Hagen teaches in the Writing Program and in the English Program at University of Rhode Island.

Stefanie Head [stefanie_head@mail.uri.edu] is a Ph.D candidate in English at University of Rhode Island. She received her M.A. from Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand) with a thesis titled 'Changing the Subject: Narrating Freedom in Toni Morrison's Beloved and Jazz. Her essay ‘Making Sense of Silence: Negotiating with Foe’ was published in Proceedings from the 1st International Postgraduate Conference in Linguistics and Literary Studies August 31st-September 1st 2004. She has presented papers in numerous scholarly conferences in the U.S. and abroad, including the MLA (Modern Language Association) and ALA (American Literature Association) annual conferences. Intellectual Interests include: British Romanticism, movement (speed & affect), the imagination, ethics, aesthetics, trauma. Head teaches in the Writing Program and in the English Program at University of Rhode Island.

Robert LeBlanc [robleblanc@comcast.net] is a Ph.D. Candidate in English at University of Rhode Island. He is currently working on his dissertation titled "Subjectivities and Counterpublics in 20th-Century Christian Leftist Texts." He received his M.A. from Fitchburg State College with a thesis titled "Postmodernist Elements in the Work of Robert Cormier."  He has presented papers at scholarly conferences across the country, including the PCA/ACA annual conference and Western Regional Conference on Christianity and Literature. LeBlanc has also published poetry in the following anthologies: As We Do Most Sunday Nights (Worcester: Worcester Poetry Project, 2003) and Next Up! (Worcester: Worcester Poetry Project, 2006.) Intellectual interests include: 20th-century American literature, postmodernist literature and culture, Christian anarchism and counterculture, canonicity, cultural studies, film and media studies, responses to student writing. LeBlanc teaches in the Writing Program and in the English Program at University of Rhode Island.

Matt Macknight [mmacknight@mail.uri.edu] is a Ph.D Candidate in Writing at University of Rhode Island. He received his M.A. from University of Rhode Island in 2006.  Macknight has presented a scholarly paper at the 2008 New England Writing Center Association Conference. Intellectual interests include: classical rhetoric, computers and composition. Macknight teaches in the Writing Program and in the English Program at University of Rhode Island. He also tutors at URI's Academic Enhancement Center.

Stephen Marchand [marchand@mail.uri.edu] is a Ph.D candidate in English at University or Rhode Island. He received his M.A. and M.F.A. from San Francisco State University. Marchand's work has been published in several comic book series; he has also presented a scholarly paper at University of Rhode Island Graduate Student Conference. Intellectual interests include: Modernism, Post-Modernism, Graphic Fiction, Film, Post-Structuralism. Marchand teaches in the Writing Program and in the English Program at University of Rhode Island.

Sarah Maitland [sarah_maitland@mail.uri.edu] is a Ph.D candidate in English at the University of Rhode Island. She received her M.A. from the University of Massachusetts, Boston with a thesis titled "The Visual to the Verbal: Catholic Iconography and Symbolism in Reformation and Post Reformation English Literature." Maitland has presented scholarly papers at The College English Association and The Medieval-Renaissance Conference. Intellectual interests include: 19th century British literature, gender, sexuality, and politics, religious
iconography and theology, and the gothic. Maitland teaches in the Writing Program and in the English Program at University of Rhode Island.

Cathryn Molloy [cathrynmolloy@hotmail.com] is a Ph.D candidate in Writing at the University of Rhode Island. She received her M.A. from University of Rhode Island with a thesis titled "Rhetorical Dexterity: African American English and the Teaching of Writing." Her essay "Rhetorical Dexterity: A New Model for Teaching Writing" was published in Modern Language Studies in Summer 2007; she has also published fiction in Nebula 3.2.3 and The Julie Mango Journal for Creative Expression. Molloy has presented papers at scholarly conferences across the country, including Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association, International Writing Centers Association Conference, and Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) annual conferences. Intellectual interests include: Dialectal Differences; Race and Education; Gender Studies; Rhetorical Theory; Misspoken/Miswritten Cliches. Molloy teaches in the Writing Program and in the English Program at University of Rhode Island.

Sara Murphy [saramurphy@mail.uri.edu] is a Ph.D Candidate in English at University of Rhode Island. She received her M.A. from SUNY Albany with a thesis titled "Immortal Love in Mortal Lives: The Marriage of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Ellen Louisa Tucker." Her essay "'Literature, if Anything, Will Save Me' and other writings" is forthcoming in Death in the Classroom by Jeffrey Berman (State University of New York Press,  2009); she has presented at the ALA Symposium on Naturalism; she is also a published poet. Intellectual interests include: 19th century American literature and intellectual history, 17th century, American literature and culture, death education, writing as rescue. Murphy teaches in the Writing Program and in the English Program at University of Rhode Island.

Nicole Myers [NicoleAMyers@gmail.com] is a Ph.D Candidate in Writing at the University of Rhode Island. She received her M.A. from SUNY New Paltz. She has presented papers at scholarly conferences across the country, including the 9th Annual Elizabeth Madox Roberts Conference and Federation Rhetoric Symposium. Intellectual interests include: gender and sexuality, feminism, service learning, Gertrude Buck and early feminist compositionists. Myers teaches in the Writing Program and in the English Program at University of Rhode Island.

Andrew Ploeg [ploe4030@yahoo.com] is a Ph.D candidate in English at University of Rhode Island. He received his M.A. from University of Idaho with a thesis titled "Deconstruction and the Divine: Literature, Theosophy, and the Language of Truth." Ploeg has presented scholarly papers at the Studies in Cultural Meaning Conference in Chantilly, France as well as at graduate student conferences at University of Rhode Island and Southern Connecticut State University. Intellectual interests include: postmodern literature, critical theory, the work of Edmond Jabes, Jewish studies, and 20th century American literature. Ploeg teaches in the Writing program and in the English program at University of Rhode Island.

Joannah Portman Daley [joannahportman@mail.uri.edu] is a Ph.D candidate in Writing at University of Rhode Island. She received her MFA in Writing (Fiction) from Vermont College with a thesis titled "On the Associative Linkage of Words and How to Create a Linguistic Unconscious." Portman Daley has presented scholarly papers at Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) and PCA/ACA national conferences, as well as University of Rhode Island's Graduate Student conference.  Intellectual interests include: Digital Rhetorics, Civic Engagement, and Social Media. Portman Daley teaches in the Writing Program and in the English Program at University of Rhode Island.

Laurie Rodrigues [rodrigues.laurie@gmail.com] is a Ph.D Candidate in English at the University of Rhode Island. She received her M.A. from Boston College in Chestnut Hill, MA. Academic Interests include: Theories of Representation, Visual Studies, Cultural Studies, Critical Theory, Contemporary fiction (primary focus on American literature). Rodrigues teaches in the Writing program and in the English program at University of Rhode Island.

Bryna Siegel [bryna12@mail.uri.edu] is a Ph.D Candidate in Writing at the University of Rhode Island. She has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College in Creative Writing, and an EdM from Teachers College Columbia University in English Education. She is currently working on her dissertation titled " Persistence, Resistance, and Change: Toward a Critical Praxis for Researched Writing." Siegel has presented papers at scholarly conferences across the country, including Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), CEA, PCA/ACA annual conferences. Intellectual interests include: student researched writing, genre theory, writing as social action. Siegel teaches in the Writing program and in the English program at University of Rhode Island.

Aaron Tillman [atillman@mail.uri.edu] is a Ph.D Candidate in English at the University of Rhode Island. He is currently working on his dissertation titled "Magical American Jew: The Enigma of Difference in Jewish American Short Fiction and Film." He has published fiction in The Carolina Quarterly and The Babson Literary Magazine, and is the recipient of Glimmer Train Stories' Short Story Award for New Writers. He has presented at scholarly conferences across the country, including the ALA (American Literature Association) and ACLA (American Comparative Literature Association) annual conferences. Intellectual interests include: Ethnic American Literature, Magical Realism, Creative Writing.
Tillman teaches in the Writing program and in the English program at University of Rhode Island.

Jamie White-Farnham [j5white@mail.uri.edu] is a Ph.D Candidate in Writing at University of Rhode Island. She received her M.A. from Bridgewater State College, Bridgewater, MA. She has presented at several scholarly conferences, including the SUNY Stonybrook Council on Writing and the Northeast Writing Center Association. Intellectual interests include: everyday rhetorics, materialist
feminism, and critical research methodologies. White-Farnham teaches in the Writing program and in the English program at University of Rhode Island.