Alumni Data

Welcome to our graduate English alumni page!

This page provides:

  • key statistics and placement data for our graduate programs
  • a list of alumni who have graduated from the M.A. and Ph.D. Programs in English since 2013
  • a link to our Alumni Profile Blog (**to be updated Fall 2023**)

We encourage you to review our list of alumni to get a sense of the wide range of careers, both academic and alt-ac, that our graduate students have chosen to pursue.  If you would like to contact one or more of our alumni, please send an e-mail request to lxp04@uark.edu.

Key Statistics and Placement Data for Our M.A. and Ph.D. Programs
(Updated Summer 2023)


M.A. Statistics

  • 114 – M.A. Graduates from 2013 through Summer 2023
  • Between 2 years and 2 years + one semester – Average Time to Degree Completion for M.A. Graduates from 2018 through Summer 2023

Examples of M.A. Alumni Careers

  • Ph.D. Program Enrollments
  • K-12 Teaching Positions
  • College English Instructor
  • Academic Administration
  • Editorial Staff
  • Corporate, Non-Profit, and Entreprenuerial Positions (e.g., with ArcBest, Tyson, J.B. Hunt, Walmart, KUAF, Startup Junkie Foundation, Bookish Independent Bookstore, and Civil + Structural Engineer Media, Legal Aid of Arkansas)
  • Library Science Graduate Program Enrollments or Library Administrative Positions


Ph.D. Statistics

  • 65 – Ph.D. Graduates from 2013 through Summer 2023
  • Between 5 years + 2 semesters and 6 years – Average Time to Degree Completion for Ph.D. Graduates from 2018 through Summer 2023

Examples of Ph.D. Alumni Careers

  • Assistant or Associate Professor Positions
  • Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Positions
  • K-12 Teaching Positions
  • Academic Administration
  • Academic Advisor
  • Other Careers:
    • Acquisitions Editor
    • Researcher
    • Educ. Program Spec. (U.S. Dept. of Education)
    • Founder of Interrobang (brand storytelling co.)
    • Real Estate Broker

List of Alumni Who Have Graduated Since 2013

M.A. Graduates

Name Thesis or Portfolio
 Position Employer or Graduate Institution
Morgan Akers Portfolio                                                      Web Editor Fulbright Communications Team, University of Arkansas
David Berg Portfolio Law Student University of Michigan Law School
Miller Godwin Portfolio No Information Currently  Available  
Kayla Green Portfolio No Information Currently  Available  
Anna Mercer Portfolio No Information Currently  Available  
Taylor Pike Portfolio Law Student S.J. Quinney College of Law in Salt Lake City
Ana Rodriguez Rivera Portfolio Research Writer University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
Abigail Ross Portfolio Doctoral Student in English University of Arkansas
Braden Taylor Thesis: “Poesis and Sympathy: Community Through Craftsmanship” No Information Currently  Available  
Mallory Whitson Portfolio Proofreader Quad Graphics

M.A. Graduates

Name Thesis or Portfolio
 Position Employer or Graduate Institution
Jessica Allee Portfolio                                                      Doctoral Student in English University of Arkansas
Val Brown Portfolio No Information Currently  Available  
Bethany Cole Portfolio Doctoral Student in English University of Arkansas
Ellie Davis Portfolio No Information Currently  Available  
Tyler Houston Portfolio Doctoral Student in English University of Arkansas
Sarah Hurst Portfolio English Teacher Bentonville High School
Olivia Jorgensen Portfolio Traffic Coordinator KFSM 5News
Fayetteville, AR
Michael Menase Thesis: “Ghosts and Ethics in the Early Works of James Joyce” Doctoral Student in English University of Arkansas
Martha Pearce Portfolio No Information Currently  Available  
Angelena Pierce Portfolio No Information Currently  Available  
John Plavcan Portfolio Doctoral Student in English University of Arkansas
Bailey Rhodes Portfolio English Teacher Bentonville High School, Bentonville, AR
Devin Shepherd Portfolio Website Specialist Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance
Lauren Shively Portfolio English Instructor

Department of English
University of Arkansas
John Strange Portfolio Strategic Initiatives Associate  WhyteSpyder

Ph.D. Graduates

Name Area of Specialization Dissertation Position Employer
Christopher Borntrager Discourse Studies, Literacy Studies, and Rhetoric Studies “Media Ideologies and the Politics of Digital Literacy: Discourses on Media and Technology in a Small School District in the U.S. Heartland” Instructor Department of English, University of Arkansas
Ann Riley-Adams Literary History; Medieval Celtic Literature; Medieval and Early Modern English and Welsh History “Elis Gruffydd and the Welsh Historical Tradition” Assistant Professor of English Wayne State College
Tessa Swehla
 Science Fiction, Medical Humanities, and Disability Theory “The Child in the Basement: Debilitating Mechanisms in American Science Fiction” No Information Currently Available   

M.A. Graduates

Name Thesis or Portfolio
 Position Employer or Graduate Institution
Melody Berry Portfolio                                                      No Information Currently  Available  
Renee Brochu Portfolio English Instructor Department of English
University of Arkansas
David Cajías Calvet Thesis: “Self-Deceive and Conquer: A Rhetoric of Cunning” Editorial Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief University of Arkansas Press
Olivia Cash Portfolio Doctoral Student in English University of Arkansas
Gabrielle Causey  Portfolio English Teacher Drew Central High School (Monticello, AR)
Aaron East Portfolio Proposal Coordinator ERS Corp. (Jacksonville, FL)
Tenzin Kunsang Portfolio No Information Currently Available   

Ph.D. Graduates

Name Area of Specialization Dissertation Position Employer
Ebtesam Alawfi American Literature from the Late 19th century through Today “Diversifying Woolf’s Room: Private Spaces and Creativity in the Works of Willa Cather, Kate Chopin, Gayl Jones, and Alice Walker” No Information Currently Available  
Meagon Clarkson-Guyll Rhetoric and Composition “Mapping the Pathways to Campus Writing Sites: Implications for Writing Program Administrators” Associate Director, Fulbright College Advising Center University of Arkansas
Erin Daugherty
 Rhetoric and Composition “Rewriting Web 2.0 Discourses of the Local for Socio-Spatial Literacy Theory” No Information Currently Available   
Kristen Figgins 19th Century British Literature and Culture, Adaptation Studies, and Critical Animal Studies “Adapting Animals: Nineteenth-Century British Literature, Science, and Media.” No Information Currently Available   
Katie Wilson Powell Rhetoric and Composition; Story/Memory Project “Memory and Rememory: Critically Cultivating an Appropriate Response Through a Storied Approach to Listening” Assistant Professor Educator with the Department of English Professional Writing Track, University of Cincinnati
Sharla Rosenbaum U.S. Women Authors from 1865-1910 and Their Alternative Constructions of Courtship, Marriage, and Family, Dealing with Gender and Sexuality, Political Movements, and Women Moving into the Workforce “Queering the Metanarrative of Domesticity: Chosen Families in Late Nineteenth-Century American Women’s Literature” No Information Currently Available   

M.A. Graduates

Name Thesis or Portfolio
 Position Employer or Graduate Institution
Anna Burton Portfolio                                                      Client Engagement Representative - Copywriter/Digital Marketer Hugg & Hall Equipment Company
Addison Cornwell Portfolio Doctoral Student Indiana University (Bloomington, IN)
Brigitta Field Portfolio Assigning Editor Helpful (Salt Lake City, UT)
Dylan Henderson Thesis: “Providence Lost: Natural and Urban Landscapes in H. P. Lovecraft's Fiction” Doctoral Student Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN)
Sheffield Spence  Portfolio Associate Inclusion Partner J .B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc.
Vee Lawson Portfolio Doctoral Student Program in Writing, Rhetoric, and
American Cultures, Michigan
State University (East Lansing, MI)

Ph.D. Graduates

Name Area of Specialization Dissertation Position Employer
Luis Paganelli Marin
 Modern and Contemporary American Literature and Culture
 “Empire Rules: Cultures of U.S. Imperialism in Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S.” Research Writer University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
Tim Nelson Medieval Literature and Culture “The Medieval British Legacy of the Founding Myth of Britain” Full-time Instructor of English Shawnee State University (Portsmouth, OH)
Kelly Westeen Renaissance Literature and Culture “From the Womb to the Word: Pregnancy and Pregnancy Metaphors in 16th and 17th Century English Literature” Director of University Perspectives University of Arkansas

M.A. Graduates

Name Thesis or Portfolio
 Position Employer or Graduate Institution
Patrick Angyal Portfolio                                                      No Information Currently  Available  
Gracie Bain Thesis: “Feeling Clumsy, Feeling Alien: Affect and Gender in Victorian Sensation Fiction” Doctoral Student in English University of Arkansas
Dana Blair Portfolio Doctoral Student in English University of Arkansas
Andrew Blume Portfolio No Information Currently Available  
Coty Darst Portfolio HEI Coordinator Office of the Provost, University of Arkansas
Isaiah "Bo" Desmond Portfolio 7th Grade English Language Arts Teacher Hellstern Middle School, Springdale, AR
Michelle Gibeault Thesis: “The Anonymous Web in Adichie’s Americanah” Scholarly Engagement Librarian for the Humanities Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University (New Orleans, LA)
Erin Gloster Portfolio Research Assistant Office of Community Health and Research, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Northwest (Fayetteville, Arkansas)
Emily Holmes “Losing Faith: Emily Brontë's Revolutionized Religion” Law School Student University of Arkansas
Phyllis LeBert “‘A Woman’s Story’: Lady Macbeth and Performing Femininity in the Early 1600s – Late 1900s” No Information Currently Available  
William "Kelly" Reeder “On the Variations of Occupatio in Richard II” Freelance Writer  
Nathan Riggs “Spirit Don't Ever Die: Apocalypse and Denial in an Infinite Universe” Long-Term English Substitute Teacher Haas Hall Academy
Autumn Weese “Monstrous Mobility in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Dracula” Library Staff Rogers Public Library
Noel Wheeler Portfolio Doctoral Student in Comparative Literature Indiana University (Bloomington, IN)

 Ph.D. Graduates

Name Area of Specialization Dissertation Position Employer
Nathan Fayard Medieval Literature and Culture “Recovered Images: Medieval Echoes in C. S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy” Adjunct Faculty Language & Literature Department, Ouachita Baptist University (Arkadelphia, AR)
Nathan Haydon
 Medieval Literature and Culture
 “‘We Are Strangers in this Life’: Theology, Liminality, and the Exiled in Anglo-Saxon Literature” 7th and 8th Grade Literature Teacher Northwest Arkansas Classical Academy (Bentonville, AR)
Brent Linsley Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Fictions of the Late Twentieth and Early Twenty-First Centuries “A Sense of Unending: Apocalypse and Post-Apocalypse in Novels of Late Capitalism” Essay Rater Educational Testing Service (ETS)
MaryKate Messimer Ecofeminism, Queer Ecologies, and Science Fiction “Gender in Apocalyptic California: The Ecological Frontier” Academic Counselor Honors College, The University of Texas at San Antonio
Stuart "Sam" Morris Literacy Theory and Instruction, Secondary English Education, and Young Adult Literature “Remembering How to Listen: A Pedagogical and Theoretical Approach to Literacy, Adolescence, and Young Adult Literature” Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of English and the Program Coordinator for the English with Secondary English Language Arts Licensure Bachelor of Arts University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC)
Michael Pitts Science Fiction Novels and Television Programs of the Latter 20th and Early 21st Centuries, Critical Theory of Technologies, and Masculinities in Those Texts and Programs “A New Man: Feminist Utopias and the Representation of Alternative Masculinities” Assistant Professor University of South Bohemia (České Budějovice, the Czech Republic)
Leila Sadegh Beigi Literature by Contemporary Iranian Women Writers “Exile, Translation, and Contemporary Iranian Women Writers”  English Instructor University of Arkansas

M.A. Graduates

Name Thesis or Portfolio
 Position Employer
Justin Barfield
 Portfolio Resolution Specialist Contact Center Operations, Walmart
Luke Carothers Portfolio Editor and Content Specialist Civil + Structural Engineer Media / Zweig Group
Robert Ellis Portfolio Career Counselor College of Education and Health Professions, University of Arkansas
Sait Ibiši “Middle Eastern Themes in Contemporary American Fantasy: The Political and Socio-Religious Implications” No Information Currently  Available  
Michel LaCrue “Establishing Influence and Authority in Ancient Civilizations and Modern Politics: The Rhetoric of Oracles and the Oracular Maneuvers of Political Action Committees” Doctoral Student in English University of Arkansas
Kimberly Marquez
 Portfolio Director of Communications Legal Aid of Arkansas
David Morledge  Portfolio No Information Currently Available   
Allison Treese “A Flourynge Aege: Tracing the Sacred and Secular in the Book of St. Albans” No Information Currently Available
  
Mitchell Simpson Portfolio Doctoral Student in English University of Arkansas
John Stout “Pynchon and Place: A Geocritical Reading of Thomas Pynchon” English Teacher Haas Hall Academy
Mary (“Katie”) Voss Portfolio Corporate Communications Director Greystone Communities
Amanda White Portfolio Communications and Marketing Specialist Hirsh Precision

 

Ph.D. Graduates

Name Area of Specialization Dissertation Position Employer
Uyen Dang
 Rhetoric and Composition
 “Activating Schemata in ESL Writing” Instructor of English Hung Vuong Specialized High School, Binh Duong province, Vietnam
Jonathan Green Composition Pedagogy “Best Practice: Bringing the Elements of Effective Practice to the College Writing Classroom” Writing Center Director and Assistant Professor Cottey College (Nevada, MO)
Garrett Jeter 19th-Century Gothic Literature “Gothic Voids: Nineteenth-Century Reader Experience and Participation” Assistant Professor Georgia Military College (Warner Robins, GA)
Yendountien (“Noellie”) Lare-Assogba Southern Literature “Presumed Innocent: The Child Figure in U.S. Southern Literature, 1945 – 2004” Substitute Teacher in the Combined Middle and High School System ("Secondaire") Marie-Victorin Board, Quebec, Canada
Sara West
 Technical Communication “The Challenge of Anonymous and Ephemeral Social Media: Reflective Research Methodologies & Student-User Composing Practices” Assistant Professor in Writing Studies Middle Tennessee State University

M.A. Graduates

Name Thesis or Comprehensive Exam Position Employer
Eric Bontempo “‘A Magic Deeper Still’: Sacramental Poetics in William Wordsworth, Christina Rossetti, and C. S. Lewis” Tenure-Track Position Abilene Christian University
Chris Borntrager “Mechanisms and Implications of Identity Hybridization in Online Advertorials” Instructor of Composition

Department of English
University of Arkansas
Karly Eaton “Race, Place and Young Adulting in Southern and Adolecscent Literature” English and AP Psychology  Teacher Haas Hall Academy
Amanda Elmore Comprehensive Exam 6th Grade Teacher eStem Public Charter Schools
Benjamin Enyart Comprehensive Exam Senior Corporate Communications Specialist  AMN Healthcare
Logan Hilliard Comprehensive Exam Director of Career Development and First Year Programs Rockford University
Myles Melancon Comprehensive Exam PhD Student and Graduate Assistant Mississippi State University College of Business
Morgan Scholz “Curricular Analysis of the University of Arkansas Composition I Pilot Course: ENGL 1013, Community Ethnography” Vice-President of Human Resources AcreTrader
Shavawn Smith "We Can Come Back From This: Navigating the Perils of the Anthropocene in The Walking Dead" Chief Financial Officer Arkansas Archeological Survey, University of Arkansas
Tessa Swehla “The Two-Sided Coin: Madness and Laughter as Subversion in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Sandman” Doctoral Student in English University of Arkansas
Stephanie Tangman “Wayward Women, Macho Men: Linguistic Construction of Gender Binaries in Yxta Maya Murray's Locas and Denise Chavéz's Loving Pedro Infante” AP Teacher Science & Engineering Magnet High School (Dallas, TX)
Taylor Weeks “Understanding Discourse Transition” Doctoral Student in English University of Arkansas
Evan Wordlaw Comprehensive Exam Research Assistant Walton College of Business

Ph.D. Graduates

Name Area of Specialization Dissertation Position Employer
Farzana Akhter Contemporary Ethnic and Immigrant Literature “The Net of Nostalgia: Class, Culture, and Political Alienation and Nostalgia in Contemporary Latino and South Asian American Literature” Associate Professor East West University (Dhaka, Bangladesh)
Christy Davis Southern Studies “The Caribbean Imaginary in Southern Women's Literature” English Professor San Jacinto College (Houston, TX)
Sinan Gul Modern and Contemporary Drama, Drama from the Renaissance and Reformation Ages “Persistence of Memory: Revision, Nostalgia, and Resistance in Contemporary American Drama” No Information Currently Available  
Whitney Martin African American Literature “The Hollow Class: African-American Class—Passing and the Popular” Assistant Teaching Professor in African American Literature University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Park (Long Beach, MS)
Linda Shaffer Southern Studies and Indigenous Women's Studies “Cultural Reimagin​ing and Literary Voice: Southeastern Tribal Women Negotiate Cultural, Social, and Political Identity through Literature” Part-Time Faculty, Department of Languages and Literature Northeastern State University (Tahlequah, OK)
Megan Vallowe Indigenous Studies “Indigenous Resistance: Settler-Colonialism, Nation Building, and Colonial Patriarchy” Assistant Director of Programs Emory University School of Medicine
Paula White African American Literature  “The Black Maternal and Cultural Healing in Twentieth Century Black Women's Fiction” Assistant Professor of English Department of Languages and Literature at Austin Peay State University (Clarksville, TN)

M.A. Graduates

Name Thesis or Comprehensive Exam Position Employer
Judith Bell “‘Deliberate Voluptuousness’: The Monstrous Women of Dracula and Carmilla” 6th Grade Literacy Teacher Creekside Middle School
Alex Blomstedt “Divining the Southwest: Liminality, Pragmatism, and Regionalism in Death Comes for the Archbishop” Intelligence Officer U.S. Navy
Jessi Brewer “Literature as Virtual Reality: An Exploration of Subjectivity Formation in the Digital Era” Doctoral Student in English Brandeis University
Sally Ferguson “[Re]Visiting the Rime: A Case Study of Adaptation as Process and Product with The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” English Faculty University of Arkansas Hope-Texarkana
Sharon Fox “Dandy as Disease: Gender Hygiene and British Nineteenth-century Literature” Interim Dean of Communication and Arts NorthWest Arkansas Community College
Luis Paganelli Marín “The Stories of Junot Díaz: Genre and Narrative in Drown and This is How You Lose Her” Research Writer University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
Kristi Pierse “‘Everyone Has Thought about Killing Someone - One Way or Another′: Cannibalism and the Question of Morality in Bryan Fuller's Hannibal” Carrier Compliance Representative KLLM Transport Services
Alicia Troby “Revision and Re-Writing as Adaptation: Using Adaptation Theory to Encourage Student Recognition of Rhetorical Situations” Social Studies Teacher Heritage High School (Rogers, AR)

Ph.D. Graduates

Name Area of Specialization Dissertation Position Employer
Edward Ardeneaux, IV 20th- and 21st-Century American Literature (with a focus on representations of technology and digital subjectivities) “Mapping the System, Completing the Circuit: The Hacker Figure as Techno-Interface in Contemporary Novels of Speculation and in Popular Films” Associate Professor  Department of English, University of the Ozarks (Clarksville, AR)
Angela Cox Rhetoric, Composition, and New Media “The Power Fantastic: How Genre Expectations Mediate Authority” No Information Currently Available  
Wyatt Paige Hermansen Rhetoric and Composition/Rhetoric of Education Policy “Selling College: Student Recruitment and Education Reform Rhetoric in the Age of Privatization” Associate Professor of English Westfield State University (Westfield, MA) 
Sarah (Nikki) Holland Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy “Designing Place-sensitive Professional Development: A Critical Ethnography of Teaching and Learning Argumentative Writing” Writing Center Faculty Western Governors University
Eric Larson British Literature “Telling New Tales: Modernizations of Chaucer in the Eighteenth Century” Writer/Editor
Headquarters Office for the Transportation Security Administration (Arlington, VA)
 
Note: Eric is also an 
Adjunct Professor for George Mason University and an Online Instructor for Central Michigan University.
Rebecca Quoss-Moore Renaissance Literature “The Threat at Court: Subversive Uses of Translation, Transcription, and Tradition in the Henrician Court” Associate Professor in Early Modern British Literature Department of English, University of Central Oklahoma (Edmond, OK)
Amy Oatis American Literature and Literary Theory “‘The Best Soil of Their Hearts’: Protestant Explorations of Catholic Spirituality in Cooper, Longfellow, and Hawthorne” Professor of English University of the Ozarks (Clarksville, AR)
Lindsey Zachary Panxhi Medieval Literature “Hoc Est Corpus Meum: The Eucharist in Twelfth-Century Literature” No Information Currently Available   
Jennifer Pastoor Medieval Literature  “‘Good to Think With’: Women and Exempla in Four Medieval English Texts” No Information Currently Available   
Rachael Price Modern and Contemporary American Literature  “Beyond Main Street : Small Towns in Post-‘Revolt’ American Literature”  Associate Professor of English  Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (Tifton, GA) 
Ashley Robinson 19th-Century American and British Literature  “Cowboys and Victorians: The American West in English Victorian Literature”  Founder and Lead Storyteller Interrobang (a brand storytelling company)
Amanda Schafer 19th-Century British Literature  “‘A Band of Sisters’: Female Detectives, Authority, and Fiction from 1865 to the 1930s"  Adjunct English Faculty University of Arkansas at Fort Smith
Justin Tinsley  20th-Century American Literature, Modernism, and Postmodernism "Ecological Approaches to Modernism, the U.S. South, and 20th Century American Literature" English Instructor Arkansas Arts Academy

M.A. Graduates

Name Thesis or Comprehensive Exam Position Employer
Alex Abrams “Decoding Literary AIDS: A Study on Issues of the Body, Masculinity, and Self Identity in U.S. AIDS Literature from 1984-2011” Communications and Marketing Specialist UNC Greensboro's School of Nursing (Greensboro, NC)
Kimberly Allen “Past Traumas, Present Griefs: Exploring the Effects of Colonialism, Microaggressions, and Stereotyping from Wild West Shows to Indigenous Literature”   Wave Rural Connect
Rebecca Chatham “The Many Faces of Cleopatra: How Performance and Characterization Change Cleopatra in Geoffrey Chaucer's ‘The Legend of Cleopatra,’ William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra, and John Dryden's All for Love; or, The World Well Lost” No Information Currently Available  
Jason Curlin Comprehensive Exam PhD student Indiana University Bloomington
Allison Carter Fanney Comprehensive Exam Assistant Vice President, Public Relations LPL Financial
Marisa Grippo Comprehensive Exam Registrar Southern Arkansas University (Magnolia, AR)
Joshua Jackson “Architectures for a Future South: Posthumanism and Ruin in the Novels of Cormac McCarthy” Faculty Lecturer Georgia State University
Laurel Loh “Intersectionality in Jane Eyre and Its Adaptations” No Information Currently Available  
Shirley Rash “Maybe It Was You: The Implications of Southern Gothic Elements of Criminality, Sexuality, and Race in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood”  Freelance Editor Shirley Rash Editing
Phillip Stephens “The Technological Singularity: An Ideological Critique”  Social Worker  
Alexis Stephenson “What the Fuck Is This?:  Aesthetic Nature of Being or Ontology in the Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins”  Coordinator, Operations & Projects American Dental Association
Ian Whitlow “‘Keep Funding or Else . . . It's Mustaches’: Building a Community of Literacy at Owl Creek School”  Senior Creative Strategist Tyson Foods, Inc. (Springdale, AR)

Ph.D. Graduates

Name Area of Specialization Dissertation Position Employer
Huseyin Altindis Southern Literature  "Immigrant Labor in Southern Literature, 1980-2010" Assistant Professor Selcuk University (Turkey)
Jennifer Mallette Rhetoric and Composition “Engineer as Writer and Woman: Gender, Identity, and Professional Discourse” Associate Professor of English (Technical Communication Program) Boise State University (Boise, ID) 
Mindy Trenary Modern and Contemporary American Literature “Jewish-American Immigrant Narratives and Modernist Cosmopolitan Aesthetics” Professor of English, OER Coordinator Department of English & Literature, Butler Community College (El Dorado, KS) 
Andy Trevathan 20th-Century Literature (Secondary Emphasis in Rhetoric and Composition) “At Home In Exile: Ezra Pound and the Poetics of Banishment” Senior Instructor Department of English, Louisiana State University--Baton Rouge (Baton Rouge, LA)
Megan Troutman American Popular Culture “(Re)Animating the Horror Genre: Explorations in Children's Animated Horror Film”  English Instructor Bellevue School District (WA)
Afrin Zeenat American Literature and Culture before 1900 “The Spectacle of Orphanhood: Reimagining Orphans in Postbellum Fiction” Professor of English School of World Languages, Cultures & Communications, Richland College (Dallas, TX)
Malek Zuraikat Medieval Literature  “The Anti-Crusade Voice of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales” Associate Professor Department of English Language and Literature,  Yarmouk University (Irbid, Jordan)

M.A. Graduates

Name Thesis or Comprehensive Exam Position Employer
Laura Leighann Dicks “The Influence of Literacy on the Lives of Twentieth Century Southern Female Minority Figures” Research Analyst Kansas Legislative Research Department (Topeka, KS)
Natalie Hotary Comprehensive Exam Interior Designer Natalie Noren Design
Jacqueline Lawrence “Queer Tastes: An Exploration of Food and Sexuality in Southern Lesbian Literature” Director II, Inclusion Strategy J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc. (Lowell, AR)
Timothy Nelson “Welsh Manipulations of the Matter of Britain” No Information Currently Available University of Arkansas (Fayetteville, AR)
Aaron Nugent Comprehensive Exam No Information Currently Available  
Jimmy Peebles “Middle-earth’s War on Terror: A Post-9/11 Reception Study on the Works of J. R. R. Tolkien” No Information Currently Available  
Sara Putman Comprehensive Exam Co-Owner Bookish, an independent bookstore (Fort Smith, AR)
Benjamin Ring Comprehensive Exam English Teacher Bentonville High School (Bentonville, AR)
Rachael Schaffner “Facing the Wreck: Death, Optimism, and the Fragmented Form” Director, Impact and Information Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN)
Katie Smith “Transitioning to Writing about Writing: A Consideration of the Metawriting Teaching Approach at the University of Arkansas”

Senior Content Marketing Manager

Current Health, a Best Buy Health Company
Liza Vammen “A Melting Pot of Voices: Public Discourse and the Latino Immigrant Experience in the United States” Associate Director Business Communication Lab, Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas
Mia Wendel Comprehensive Exam Product Development & Sourcing Manager Walmart Corporation

Ph.D. Graduates

Name Area of Specialization Dissertation Position Employer
Aya Akkawi Postmodern Literature  “Salman Rushdie in the Postmodern Current: New Venues, New Values” Associate Professor of English Literature Yarmouk University, (Irbid, Jordan) 
James Anderson  Rhetoric and Composition “‘We can’t reclaim what we don’t understand’: Teachers’ Perceptions of Advocacy and Voice in a Rural Institute of the National Writing Project” Associate Professor of English and English Education Lander University (Greenwood, SC) 
Jeremy Burns  American Popular Culture after 1945 “Monsters in Common: Identity and Community in Post-apocalyptic Science Fiction After 9/11” Associate Dean for Communications & Information Enrollment Services, University of Arkansas (Fayetteville, AR) 
Mary Leigh  19th-Century British Literature  “The Cultural Crime of Femininity: Advocating for Viable and Successful Womanhood in Charles Dickens and George Eliot” Humanities Instructor  Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts (Hot Springs, AR) 
April (Thompson) Young  Southern Literature  “Trashed Whites: The Myth of the Southern Poor White” Assistant Professor of English  Volunteer State Community College (Gallatin, TN) 

M.A. Graduates

Name Thesis or Comprehensive Exam Position Employer
Joel Blair Comprehensive Exam No Information Currently Available  
Megan Grizzle “Contentious Conversations, Missing Voices: The Ongoing Debate about Style” No Information Currently Available  
Rachel Hancock “Humor and Howells: From Sit Down to Stand-Up” Analyst, Strategic Projects and Relationships Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Drew Walker Comprehensive Exam Executive Communications Walmart Corporation
Elizabeth Walker Comprehensive Exam Senior Manager, Digital Strategy & Brand Engagement Walmart Corporation

Ph.D. Graduates

Name Area of Specialization Dissertation Position Employer
Jack Ayres Modern British Literature  “After Orwell: Totalitarian Fears and the English Political Novel, 1950-2010” Associate Professor of English Texas A&M University--San Antonio (San Antonio, TX)
Eve Baldwin Rhetoric and Composition “Reading and Religion: Reconciling Diverse Reading Patterns and the First-Year Composition Classroom” Lecturer of Writing and Critical Inquiry in Undergraduate Education University at Albany (Albany, NY)
Jake Edwards Rhetoric and Composition “E-Readers, Reading Practices, and Adolescent Readers: Observations on the Intersection of Technology, Literacy, and Identity” Assistant Professor of English, Honors Program Director Georgia Gwinnett College (Lawrenceville, GA)
Karon Reese Modern and Contemporary American Literature “Occupying the Pedestal: Gender Issues in Ellen Gilchrist” Broker Reese & Co. Real Estate 
Nancy Romig Modern and Contemporary American Literature  “‘A Man Is Hard Enough to Be’: History and Masculinity in the Texts of E. L. Doctorow” Assistant Professor of English Howard Payne University (Brownwood, TX) 
Carol Westcamp Modern and Contemporary American Literature “A Place Where You Can Reckon with Yourself: Loss of Place in Sam Shepard’s Plays” Professor of English University of Arkansas—Fort Smith (Fort Smith, AR)