Professors, lecturers, and graduate teaching assistants all teach classes in the English Department at Cal Poly. Professors have Ph.D.s, have responsibilities in teaching, professional development, and service, and are hired on a continuing basis. Lecturers have M.A.s (although a few of our lecturers do have Ph.D.s), have responsibilities in teaching, and are hired on a year-to-year basis. Graduate teaching assistants are students who are earning an M.A. in English in our graduate program, have been trained in composition pedagogy, and teach freshman composition.

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Click on professors' names to go to their individual web pages.

Kevin Clark. Professor. Primary Fields: Poetry Writing. Modern and contemporary literature. Professor Clark's poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and collections, including The Antioch Review, The Georgia Review, College English, and The Black Warrior Review. The Academy of American Poets awarded his full-length collection In the Evening of No Warning (New Issues, 2002) a publisher's grant from The Greenwall Fund. He has published three chapbooks: Granting the Wolf (State Street Press, 1984), Widow Under a New Moon (Owl Creek Press, 1990), and One of Us (Mille Grazie, 2001). His poetry writing textbook The Mind's Eye will be published by Longman in 2007. His critical articles have appeared in numerous venues, among them The Iowa Review, Papers on Language and Literature, and American Poetry. Recent essays have appeared in books about Charles Wright and Ruth Stone. Clark has long been associated with Cal Poly's WriterSpeak program, helping to bring visiting and local writers to campus for readings and discussion. In 1995 he was elected to the university's Athletic Governing Board. In 2002 he received the university's Distinguished Teaching Award. Education: B.A. University of Florida 1972; M.A. University of California, Davis 1979; Ph.D. University of California, Davis 1986. He joined the Cal Poly faculty in 1988.

Susan Currier (deceased). Professor and Associate Dean, College of Liberal Arts. Primary Fields: Modern British Literature, Women's Literature. Education: B.A. Mt. Holyoke College 1969; M.A. University of Massachusetts 1973; Ph.D. University of Massachusetts,1979. She joined the Cal Poly faculty in 1980.

William Fitzhenry. Associate Professor. Primary Fields: Medieval and Renaissance Literature. Education: B.A. State University of New York, Buffalo 1984; M.A. University of Colorado,1991; Ph.D. Duke University 1997. He joined the Cal Poly faculty in 1997.

Linda Halisky. Professor. Dean, College of Liberal Arts. Department Chair (1994-2000). Director, International Education and Programs (IEP). Director, London Study. Primary Fields: British Literature of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, especially Spenser and the poets of the earlier Seventeenth Century; American Literature to 1865, especially Hawthorne and the American Renaissance; pre-patriarchal mythologies, Sumerian, Assyrian, Egyptian, Celtic, and their remnants in the Western literary tradition. Publication: "Redeeming the Irrational: The Inexplicable Heroines of 'A Sorrowful Woman' and 'To Room Nineteen'" (1990). Current research: the Sumerian mythology of Inanna in relation to current narrative treatment strategies for Borderline Personality Disorder. Professor Halisky received the University's Distinguished Teaching Award for 1990-91. Education: B.A. Whittier College 1968; M.A. University of California, Riverside 1978; Ph.D. University of California, Riverside 1984. She joined the Cal Poly faculty in 1984.

John Hampsey. Professor. Primary Fields: Romanticism, 19th Century British Literature, and Classical Literature. Professor Hampsey's book on Western intellectual history--Paranoia and Contentment: A Personal Essay on Western Thought--was published in November 2004, University of Virginia Press, now available in paperback (for information click http://www.upress.virginia.edu/books/hampsey.html). Professor Hampsey has also published articles and essays on diverse subjects, including Blake, Faulkner, Defoe, Hopkins, Ruskin, Women Romantics, Kundera, First Person Narrative, Kafka and the Western Sense of Dread, as well as meditative essays, memoirs and short stories. Education: B.A. Holy Cross 1976; Ph.D. Boston
College 1982. He joined the Cal Poly faculty in 1989.

Robert (Larry) Inchausti. Professor. Primary Fields: Critical Theory. Russian Literature. Bible. Professor Inchausti's publications include four books: The Ignorant Perfection of Ordinary People (SUNY, 1991), Spitwad Sutras: Classroom Teaching as Sublime Vocation (Bergin & Garvey 1994), Thomas Merton's American Prophecy (SUNY, 1997), and Subversive Orthodoxy (Brazos Publications, 2005). His essays have appeared in such journals as America, Christian Century, Radical Teacher, and The Sun. He recently edited two books: The Pocket Thomas Merton (Shambhala, 2005) and Echoing Silence:Thomas Merton on the Vocation of Writing (Shambhala, 2007). Professor Inchausti received the College of Liberal Arts Outstanding Scholarship Award in 1997-98. Education: B.A. Cal State Sacramento 1974; M.A. Cal State Sacramento 1976; Ph.D. University of Chicago 1981. He joined the Cal Poly faculty in 1984.

David Kann. Professor and Chair of the Department of English. Primary Fields: American Literature with an emphasis in Melville, Hawthorne, and the American Transcendentalists; Composition Pedagogy and Theory; Psychoanalysis and Literature; Reader Response Theory; Speculative Fiction; Horror Fiction. Major Publications: The Literate Writer: A Rhetoric with Readings Across Four Genres (Mayfield Publishers, 1995); Literature from the Inside Out (Mayfield Publishers, forthcoming); Articles on Stephen King's Pet Sematary, Norman Holland's Critical Theory, Robert Frost's "Design," and Irving's "Rip Van Winkle." Education: B.A. Brandeis University 1964; M.A. New York University 1966; Ph.D. Occidental College 1971. He joined the Cal Poly faculty in 1969.

Douglas Keesey. Director of the General Education Program and Professor of Film and Literature. Primary Fields: Film and Modern/Contemporary Literature. His publications include the books The Films of Peter Greenaway, Paul Verhoeven, Erotic Cinema, and Don DeLillo as well as essays on Thomas Pynchon, Stephen King, James Dickey, and Peter Weir. Education: B.A. University of California at Berkeley 1982; Ph.D. Princeton University 1988. He joined the Cal Poly faculty in 1988.

Carol MacCurdy. Professor. Primary Fields: American Literature, more specifically the American novel, its origins, development, and the contemporary American novel. Current research: Southern fiction. Interviews with Southern women writers comparing the earlier pre-World War II generation with the post-war generation especially on issues related to gender and race. Professional activity: Book Review Editor as well as Consulting Editor for Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction. Publications: Articles on contemporary authors, such as John Hawkes, John Gardner, Shirley Hazzard, and E.L. Doctorow. Professional papers: Papers delivered on John Hawkes, Marilynne Robinson, Bernard Malamud, Kate Chopin, Flannery O'Connor, John Gardner, Allan Bloom, and E.L. Doctorow. Education: B.A. Southwestern at Memphis 1972; M.A. University of South Carolina 1975; Ph.D. University of South Carolina 1980. She joined the Cal Poly faculty in 1987.

Steven Marx. Professor. Retired, now teaching part-time. Primary Fields: Environmental Literature, Shakespeare, Renaissance Literature, The Bible. Publications: Shakespeare and the Bible published in 2000 by Oxford University Press. Other publications include essays on Shakespeare, Milton, the Bible, John Donne, Ralph Ellison, Peter Greenaway, Diablo Canyon, and an earlier book, Youth Against Age: Generational Strife in Renaissance Poetry (Peter Lang Publishing, New York and Bern, l985). Professor Marx is coordinator of the Cal Poly Land Project, an interdisciplinary program that has developed a website (polyland.calpoly.edu), a book, and a University GE class about the ten thousand acres of land owned by the University. He received the University's Distinguished Teaching Award in 1993-94 and the College of Liberal Arts Scholar of the Year Award in 2002.

Jeannine Richison. Associate Professor, English Education Coordinator. Primary Fields: English education, children's and young adult literature, composition. Conference papers on public speaking in the classroom, collaborative poetry projects, K-12 thematic book baskets to promote reading comprehension, including several publications on scaffolding core literature. She is a member of the California Commission of Teacher Credentialing English Advisory Panel. Education: B.A. (Speech Communication) Point Loma University 1974; M.A. (English Education) Cal State San Bernardino 1979; M.A. (Education-Administrative Services) Cal Poly 1989; Ph.D. (English Education) New York University 1995. She joined the Cal Poly faculty in 2000.

Johanna Rubba. Associate Professor and Linguistics Minor Advisor. Primary Field: Linguistics. Specialization in cognitive linguistics, morphology, and linguistics applied to grammar instruction. Current research interest in applying linguistics to language arts instruction for native speakers of English K-12. Books are under way on cognitive morphology and the structure of English. Publications include articles on morphology, semantic change, and discourse. She has served on the Academic Senate, is advisor to the Cal Poly Ballroom Dance Club, and is active in national organizations concerning grammar teaching and linguistics in the schools. She gave workshops for teachers at the Asilomar state teachers' conference three consecutive years, and has participated in organizing the conference. Education: B.A.. Language Studies, Rutgers University 1975; M.A., Applied Linguistics, Southern Illinois University 1986; Ph.D., Theoretical Linguistics, University of California, San Diego, 1993. She joined the Cal Poly faculty in 1995.

Kathryn Rummell. Associate Professor and Assistant Chair of the English Department. Primary Fields: 18th Century British Literature and African-American
Literature. She has publications on Daniel Defoe, Toni Morrison, Aphra Behn, and Gloria Naylor. Her current project investigates issues of race, gender, and sexual identity in Danzy Senna’s Caucasia. In 2002, she received the University’s first Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award. She currently chairs the Area A/C General Education Committee, and is the Interim Director of the Humanities Program. Education: B.A. Centre College 1990; M.A. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 1992; Ph.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 1997. She joined the Cal Poly faculty in 1997.

Debora Schwartz. Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator. Primary Fields: Medieval and Renaissance Literature, Arthurian Literature, and French Literature. She has published essays on Chretien de Troyes's Chevalier de la Charrette and Conte du Graal, on Renaut de Beujeu's Bel Inconnu, on hermits in medieval romance, and on the 18th-century novelist Mme. de Villedieu. Current research includes a book-length project on the Unknown Knight in medieval Arthurian romance. Professor Schwartz received the College of Liberal Arts Student Council Teacher of the Year award in the spring of 1998. Education: B.A., Bryn Mawr College 1982; M.A. Princeton University 1986; Ph.D. Princeton University 1994. She joined the Cal Poly faculty in 1996.

Richard Simon (deceased). Professor, and Director of the Humanities Program. Primary Fields: Popular Culture, Twentieth Century Literature, Eighteenth Century Literature. Professor. Simon is the author of The Labyrinth of the Comic: Theory and Practice from Fielding to Freud (Florida State University Press, 1986), Trash Culture: Popular Culture and the Great Tradition (University of California Press, fall 1999) and articles on Sigmund Freud, Samuel Beckett, E.M. Forster, Joseph Conrad, Nathanael West, John Kennedy Toole, advertising, tabloid newspapers, and shopping malls. He received the University's Distinguished Teaching Award in 1995-96. Education: B.A. University of Michigan 1967; M.A. University of Michigan 1968; Ph.D. Stanford University 1977. He joined the Cal Poly faculty in 1988.

Dustin Stegner. Assistant Professor. Primary Fields: Early Modern Literature, Shakespeare, Spenser, and Literature and Religion. He has published articles in Shakespeare Studies and Journal of English and Germanic Philology and contributed a chapter to the edited collection Critical Essays on Shakespeare’s A Lover’s Complaint: Suffering Ecstasy. His current project focuses on literary representations of auricular confession in Spenser, Marlowe, and Shakespeare. Education: B.A. University of San Francisco 2000; M.A. Pennsylvania State University 2002; Ph.D. Pennsylvania State University 2007. He joined the Cal Poly faculty in 2007.

Evelyn Torres. Associate Professor. Primary Fields: Hawthorne, critical theory, pedagogy, contemporary writers of Mexican descent, American literature from the Civil War to WWI. Publication: essay on analytical literacy. Papers presented on Cherrie Moraga, Judy Grahn, and pedagogy. Books in Progress: Hawthorne, the Antinomian Reader, and the Representation of Desire and an autobiography .Education: B.A., California Polytechnic State University 1978; M.A. University of California San Diego 1983; Ph.D. University of California, San Diego 1989. She joined the Cal Poly faculty in 1989.

Patricia Troxel. Associate Professor. Primary Field: Drama. Former director of the Central Coast Shakespeare Festival. She is the author of articles on the works of Caryl Churchill, David Hare, David Edgar, and other contemporary and classical dramatists. She is a Resident Artist and Literary Manager with PCPA Theatrefest in Santa Maria. She also works as a director and playwright in regional equity theatre. Her recent projects include productions with PCPA Theaterfest, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, InsightOut, and Centerpoint Theater company. Her recent written work includes adaptations of Alcott's Little Women, Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear, and Goldoni's A Servant to Two Masters. Education: B.A. Whitman College 1978; M.A. University of California, Davis 1981; Ph.D. Princeton University 1986. She joined the Cal Poly faculty in 1990.

Michael Wenzl. Professor. Retired and now teaching part time. Primary Fields: Nineteenth century literature, especially Victorians, Romantics; Literary Criticism and Theory. Publications/Papers: Professor Wenzl has published in College English, Rocky Mt. Review, Kansas Quarterly, Western Review, and others. He has presented papers on Arnold, Tennyson, Popular Culture, Writing, and the Core Curriculum. Published (with John Harrington) A Suitable Design (Macmillan). He has participated for 13 years in Faculty Senate, six as representative to Statewide Senate at Long Beach. Campus advisor to Rhodes Scholarship Trust. Faculty Athletics Representative. Professor Wenzl received the University's Distinguished Teaching Award in 1983-84. Education: B.A. University of Oregon 1961; M.A. University of New Mexico 1965; Ph.D. University of New Mexico 1969. He joined the Cal Poly faculty in 1969.

Adam Hill. B.A. ( Political Science) University of Maryland; M.A. (English) Fresno State 1991; M.F.A. (Creative Writing) Louisiana State University 1994. Primary Fields: Great Books and the Modern Novel. His work has appeared in the American Poetry Review, Spin Magazine, The Seattle Review, and The North American Review. He is the director of WriterSpeak. He is a contributor to the book reviews of The Los Angeles Times and The San Francisco Chronicle. He joined the lecturer faculty in 1995.

Alan Howell. Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara 1976. He joined the lecturer faculty in 1980.

Jim Howland. M.A. Cal Poly 1980. He joined the lecturer faculty in 1980.

Patti Kuznetsoff. B.A. (English) Troy State University 1994; M.A. (English Education Florida State University 1997; Ph.D./ABD (Humanities) Florida State University. Primary Fields: Literature of the Modern Period, Post-Colonial Literature, Film and Popular Culture. She joined the lecturer faculty in 2001.

Andrew Maness. M.A. Cal Poly 1998. He joined the lecturer faculty in 1999.

Carson Medley. B.A. (History) U.C. Berkeley, 1997. M.A. (Education) Cal Poly, 2005. M.A. (English) Cal Poly, 2006. He is the author of two novels, Ain't Whistlin' Dixie No More and Fat Dreams of Pushing Daisies. He also wrote the screenplay Catching Trout and adapted his two novels for the screen. He is currently working on Saving Holden, a non-fiction book for parents, teachers, and school counselors. He joined the other lecturers in 2006.

Barbara Morningstar. B.A. Cal Poly 1993; M.A. Cal Poly 1996. TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) Certification, UCSB Extension 1998. She joined the lecturer faculty in 1996.

Sari Pinto. M.A. Cal Poly 1997. She joined the lecturer faculty in 1999.

Alison Preston. B.A. (Honors College) English and Humanities (double major), University of Oregon 1982; M.A. English, University of Michigan 1983; Ph.D. English, University of Michigan 1989; TESL Certificate, University of California, Santa Barbara 1992. Primary Fields: Modern and contemporary American literature, world literature, survey of the novel, interdisciplinary approaches to literature, environmental literature, composition studies, and Teaching English as a Second Language. She has published on the use of humor in Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49, contributed an essay on humor and decentered meaning to the MLA volume Approaches to Teaching Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 and Other Works, and has recently published an article on teaching English as a Second Language through literature. She enjoys writing and speaking about the environment, and has co-authored an article and presented on the lithographic images of landscape in the historical atlases of the San Joaquin Valley of California, given a number of campus and community presentations on the history and use of Cal Poly land, contributed a chapter to the Cal Poly Land Field Guide, and is currently active in reviewing new books of environmental literature. She joined the lecturer faculty in 1990.

Mark Roberts. M.A. Cal Poly 1990. He joined the lecturer faculty in 1990.

Carl Wooton. Ph.D. University of Oregon 1967. Dr. Wooton came to Cal Poly after retiring as a full Professor at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (Lafayette, La.) with 28 years of teaching experience there. He has co-authored (with Marcia Gaudet) a book, Porch Talk With Ernest Gaines: Conversations on the Writer’s Craft (LSU Press). His critical essays on Hopkins, Wycherley, Henri Becque, and Evelyn Waugh have appeared in Texas Studies in Literature and Language, Drama Survey, Modern Drama, and Midwest Review; his poems have appeared in New Mexico Humanities Review, The Poet's Edge, Beloit Poetry Journal, Revue de Louisiane, and others. Four short stories have appeared in The Hudson Review, and other stories in Beloit Fiction Journal, Georgia Review, Literary Review, and Forum. He joined the lecturer faculty in 1993.

Connie Davis (cdavis@calpoly.edu)
Kathleen Severn (kgsevern@calpoly.edu)
Sue Otto (spotto@calpoly.edu)