Head, Department of Language and Communication
Director, Louisiana Folklife Center
Associate Professor of English
Dr. Lisa Abney serves as Associate Professor of English and as the Director of the Louisiana Folklife Center. Dr. Abney's research interests lie in folklore, linguistics, and contemporary American and British literature. Her co-edited publications include Songs of the New South, Songs of the Reconstructing South, and a volume of the Dictionary of Literary Biography concerning 21st Century American Novelists. She is currently conducting research for a manuscript relating to grave digging and burial traditions in Louisiana and is collecting data for the Linguistic Survey of North Louisiana. Additionally, Dr. Abney writes many grants yearly to produce the Natchitoches/NSU Folk Festival and to support the MA in English. She teaches courses in linguistics and folklore. Currently, she serves as the advisor to Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honor Society.
Allen Bauman, Ph.D., University of Tulsa
Director of Graduate Studies in English
Assistant Professor
Dr. Bauman serves as the Director of Graduate Studies in English. He teaches classes in British literature and specializes in the Victorian period, the fin de sicle, and the Modern period. Both his teaching and research engage interdisciplinary contexts such as art, film, psychology, and science. He is currently working on a manuscript that investigates masculinity through the conflict between progress and paralysis at the fin de siecle. His next project will examine the British Empire,
the Orient, and the supernatural. He has also worked for the James Joyce
Quarterly and the Modernist Journals Project.
Gary Bodie, J.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
Dr. Bodie abandoned a career as an attorney to teach Medieval literature, including Beowulf, Chaucer, and Arthurian literature, as well as other Old and Middle English literature. He also teaches technical composition, focusing on legal and criminal justice topics. His interests include studying the oral/literate nexus and the uses of modern computer technology in the study of literature.
Amy
Callahan
Instructor
Amy
Callahan earned her BA from NSU in 1998 in History and
continued her love for history with an MA in English
with a Folklore major. She also completed work toward an
MEd in Adult Education. She is currently a full time
instructor of English at NSU and a PhD candidate at
University of Louisiana in Lafayette. Her major is
Folklore, and her interests include using Folklore to
teach Literature, as well as various pop culture issues.
Callahan is also a published romance author (using a
pseudonym) with four books set to be released in 2004.
Her teaching schedule usually includes English 1010,
1020, and 2060.
Laura
Carroll
Instructor
Laura
Carroll received a BA in English from Northwestern State
University in 1993. She also received both of her
Master's degrees from Northwestern State University: The
first was an MEd in Secondary Education in English
earned in the fall of 1996. She received an MA in
English in the fall of 2000. Mrs. Carroll was inducted
into the "Who's Who Among America's Teachers"
in 2002. In
addition to her degrees, she is currently doing research
on the following:
1.
Francois Mignon as the myth writer of Melrose Plantation
Joseph
"Rocky" Colavito, Ph.D., University of Arizona
Professor of English
Robert
Comeaux
Instructor
James Crawford
Assistant Professor of Speech
James
Cruise, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
Associate
Professor
James
Cruise teaches a variety of courses in the undergraduate
curriculum and specializes in the long British
eighteenth century. He has taught a range of topical
courses in his area and also teaches Research and
Bibliography. Dr. Cruise has authored a book that
examines the eighteenth-century novel in the historical
context of commercialization, as well as essays that
have appeared in leading journals. In addition, he has
served and continues to serve as a specialist reader for
a number of scholarly journals and has written many
reviews of scholarship. Dr. Cruise is currently at work
on a book project that explores the role of secrecy in
eighteenth-century culture.
Jon Croghan
Assistant Professor
Jon M. Croghan was born in Columbia City, Indiana. He
received his B.S. (1993) from Indiana University in
English Education and M.A. (2003) in Communication
Studies from the Louisiana State University in Baton
Rouge, Louisiana. Currently he is completing a
dissertation in Communication Theory at Louisiana State
University. His dissertation examines the conception of
wisdom and the communication behaviors associated with
sagacity. His research focuses on issues related to
aging and culture from a critical perspective. He
teaches Argumentation and Debate, Interpersonal
Communication, Intercultural Communication, and Public
Speaking. He has been published in the Quarterly Journal
of Speech, Journal of Communication, and he has
co-authored a chapter in a forthcoming book on imagined
interactions. He is also a sponsor and coach for the
Northwestern State University Speech and Debate Team.
Tammy Croghan
Instructor
Tammy L. (Kelley) Croghan was born in Slidell,
Louisiana. She received her B.A. (2001) in Communication
and Theater and M.A. (2003) in Organizational
Communication Studies from Southeastern Louisiana
University in Hammond, Louisiana. Currently she is
completing a dissertation in Communication Theory at
Louisiana State University. Her dissertation examines
the role of instructional strategies on student
motivation in distance education settings. Her research
focuses on organizational communication issues. She
teaches Organizational Communication, Interviewing, and
Public Speaking. She has recently lead-authored a
chapter in a forthcoming book on imagined interactions.
She also sponsors and coaches the Northwestern State
University Speech and Debate Team.
Jerry
Erath
Instructor
Jerry
Erath received his BA and MA in Writing and Linguistics
from Northwestern State University. Jerry is a full-time
instructor at the Natchitoches campus. He teaches all
classes of composition and an occasional British
Literature class. His interests are in Critical Thinking
and Writing. He is currently researching how the social
construction of language affects the student/teacher
relationship.
Christine
Ford, Ph. D., Texas A&M - Commerce
Professor
of English
Dr.
Ford teaches courses in Southern Women Writers, Modern
Drama, and seminars in Eugene O'Neill and Tennessee
Williams.
Her publications include "Sign Language in Lonesome
Dove,"
"The Dionysian Sea:
Eugene O'Neill's S.S. Glencairn Cycle”
and "Our First Year of GUIDES."Her current research includes Tennessee
Williams's use of the epigraph in his drama, and a
typological interpretation of William Faulkner's "A
Rose for Emily."
Dr. Ford is the founding sponsor of Argus,
the university's literary magazine, and was the
recipient of NSU's Excellence in Teaching Award for the
College of Liberal Arts, 2000. She presently serves as
coordinator of English at NSU-Shreveport.
John
Foster, Ph.D., Louisiana State University
Assistant
Professor
John Foster (Lieutenant Colonel, US Army retired) was
born in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. He earned a B.A. in Speech
Communication from Northwestern State College, in 1970.
He then earned a Masters of Religious Education from
Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University in
1972. He received a Ph.D. in Speech Communication in
2003 from Louisiana State University. His dissertation
provides a snapshot examination of the rhetoric of four
Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Generals Bradley,
Wheeler, Brown and Powell). He has held teaching
positions at the University of Oklahoma in Norman,
Oklahoma and the US Army Academy of Health Sciences at
Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Prior to joining the Department
of Language and Communication, Dr. Foster was the
Professor of Military Science at Northwestern State
University. He teaches Fundamentals of Speech, Voice and
Diction, Oral Interpretation, Advanced Public Speaking,
Group Dynamics, Rhetorical Analysis, Rhetorical Theory,
Business, Educational and Professional Speaking. Among
his varied outside interests Dr. Foster is a part-time
Pastor of local United Methodist Church in Provencal and
the Oak Grove community.
Pamela
Francis
Instructor
-- on leave.
Donald Hatley, Ph.D., Texas A&M, Commerce
Dean
of the College of Liberal Arts
Lucile Ingram
Instructor
Julie
Kane,
Ph.D., Louisiana State University
Associate Professor of English
Faculty Advisor of Argus
Dr. Julie Kane teaches courses in creative writing, poetic form, American poetry, and other areas. A recent Fulbright Scholar and Pushcart Prize nominee, she has authored or edited five books and two chapbooks. The anthology that she co-edited with Grace Bauer, Umpteen Ways of Looking at a Possum: Critical and Creative Responses to Everette Maddox (Xavier Review Press, 2006), has been short-listed for the 2007 Southern Independent Booksellers’ Alliance book award in poetry. Her second poetry collection, Rhythm & Booze (University of Illinois Press, 2003), won the National Poetry Series and was a finalist for the 2005 Poets’ Prize. The nonfiction Vietnam memoir that she co-authored with Kiem Do, Counterpart: A South Vietnamese Naval Officer’s War (Naval Institute Press, 1998) was a History Book Club Featured Alternate. She is also an associate editor of Voices of the American South (Pearson/Longman, 2006). Her poems can be found in numerous anthologies and in journals such as The Antioch Review, The Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, and Feminist Studies, while her scholarly essays on poetry and literature appear in Twentieth Century Literature, Literature/Film Quarterly, Modern Language Quarterly, Journal of Consciousness Studies, PsyArt, Dictionary of Literary Biography, and elsewhere. During her tenure as Faculty Advisor of Argus, the NSU student literary magazine, it has won four national awards in a row from the Associated Collegiate Press.
Susie
Scifres Kuilan
Instructor
Susie Scifres Kuilan is nearing completion of her dissertation on early American novels, which will complete her requirements for the Ph.D. at Louisiana State University. She has published articles on numerous contemporary authors, composition pedagogy, and folklore. Her research interests will expand to include literary history, detective fiction and other popular literature, and early American writers. She recently returned from a tour in Iraq and is still serving in the United States Army reserves. She is the mother of one very active son. She teaches American literature and first-year writing.
Sarah E. McFarland, Ph.D., University of Oregon
Assistant Professor of English
Dr. McFarland teaches courses in American literature, women's literature, and literary theory. Her research interests include American environmental literature, ecocritical theory (especially animal studies and ecofeminism), and gender studies. Dr. McFarland has written articles and reviews published in Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, Western American Literature, Proteus, Southwestern American Literature, and Essays in Philosophy, and she has also authored an essay for the collection Women Writing Nature: A Feminist View. She is currently working on a book manuscript about gendered representations of animals in American nature writing and film.
Paralee
Norman, Ph.D., University of Iowa
Professor of English
Paralee Norman published a book in 2000 on Marmion Savage called
Marmion Wilme
Savage 1804-1872: Dublin’s Victorian Satirist.
In 2003 the website edition of the New
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography published her biography called “Marmion W. Savage”
and in 2004 the print edition of the New
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography published
“Marmion W. Savage.” Past President of the Louisiana Council of Teachers of
English, she maintains membership on the Board of
Directors and holds a national office in the National
Council of Teachers of English as District 6
Representative for the Standing Committee on Affiliates
(SCOA) for
Louisiana, Texas, and New Mexico, until 2007.Director of two LEH Summer Institutes and author
of various scholarly articles, Dr. Norman teaches basic
through graduate courses at the Leesville/Fort Polk
Campus where she also coordinates activities in English.
Twice awarded the Who’s Who Among America’s
Teachers recognition nominated by students, she is the
recipient of the Department of the Army Patriotic
Civilian Service Award.
Heidi
Norwood
Instructor
John Pickett
Instructor
John R. Pickett was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. In
1960 he earned a B.A. in Speech Communication from
Northwestern State University. In 1965 he earned an M.A.
in Speech Communication from Northwestern State
University. Mr. Pickett has held teaching positions at
Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, LA and Louisiana
State University at Baton Rouge. He has taught at
Northwestern State University since 1995. He teaches
Fundamentals of Speech and has taught Interpretive
Reading, Discussion, and Television Broadcasting. Mr.
Pickett currently lives in Many, Louisiana. His outside
interests include photography, electronics, and target
shooting..
Ramey
Prince
Instructor
Nate
Pritts, Ph.D., University of Louisiana, Lafayette
Temporary
Assistant Professor
Originally
from Syracuse, New York, Dr. Pritts has his BS in
English & Film Studies from the State University
of New York, Brockport, his MFA in Poetry from
Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina
& his PhD in Creative Writing from the University
of Louisiana, Lafayette. Named one of the
"best new southern poets under thirty" by storySouth, his poems have appeared in numerous
journals across the country. He has three
chapbooks of poems: Figures (Curvature
Press), Hellbent (Lazy Frog Press) &,
most recently, The Happy Seasons (Swannigan
& Wright). His critical work has appeared or
is forthcoming in Midwest Quarterly (on the
films The Maltese Falcon & Kiss Me
Deadly), New Writing (on contemporary
poetry & poetics) & Discoveries in
Renaissance Culture (on Renaissance
dramatist John Marston), as well as The
Encyclopedia of New York School Poets. He
is also the editor of H_NGM_N, a magazine for
poetry &c.
Helaine
Razovsky, Ph.D., Boston University
Professor
Dr.
Razovsky teaches courses in English literature,
including Shakespeare, Milton, and Detective Fiction.
Her research interests center on the English Renaissance
and Reformation. She has directed two Summer Teacher
Institutes sponsored by the Louisiana Endowment for the
Humanities and attended two Summer Seminars sponsored by
the National Endowment for the Humanities. She is a past
recipient of NSU’s Outstanding Teacher Award. Dr.
Razovsky is a former two-term member of the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and is currently
working on a book about English Reformation spiritual
conduct books.
Thomas
Reynolds
Instructor
Mr.
Thomas Reynolds holds a Master's Degree in English from
Northwestern State University. He teaches English
0920, 1010, 1020, 2060, and 3210 at NSU and its
satellite campuses. His research interests include
composition, contemporary American poetry, and creative
writing.
Sheila Richmond
Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival Coordinator
Sheila Richmond completed an MA in English/Folklore and an MA in History/Cultural Resources Management from Northwestern State University. She teaches composition and literature courses for NSU. Richmond also manages projects for the Louisiana Folklife Center such as the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival and the Louisiana Folklife journal. Her interests include folklife, preservation, and heritage education.
Lisa Rougeou
NBCT
NSU Writing Project Co-Director
School District Coordinator
Lisa Rougeou received her B.A. and teacher certification for English Education in 1985 and her M.A. in English with Writing and Linguistics emphasis in 2004 from NSU. She earned National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification in Adolescence and Young Adulthood English Language Arts in 2002. Mrs. Rougeou became a teacher-consultant with the National Writing Project through NSU in 1992 and co-wrote the grant in 2003 to bring Writing Project back to NSU. She has been the School District Coordinator and Co-Director for NSUWP’s Summer Institute for Teachers since 2004. Mrs. Rougeou does consulting work with school districts, coordinating parish-wide writing to learn initiatives and has been a presenter and panel-speaker on both state and national level conferences. Presently she serves in a joint faculty position in both the Department of Language and Communications and the College of Education at Northwestern State University.
Elizabeth
Rubino, Ph.D., Case Western University
Professor
Heather
Salter
Instructor
Heather
Salter teaches English 1010 and English 1020 and holds a
Master of the Arts degree from Northwestern State
University.
Salter publishes and attends conferences in the
areas of folklore, gender studies, and freshman
composition.
Her publications include two entries in the Dictionary
of Literary Biography: Twenty-first
Century Novelists and an article in Louisiana
Folklife.
Recently, Salter was elected chair of the
2005 Freshman Composition panel of the South Central
Modern Language Association.
Elizabeth
Sims
Instructor
Cynthia Wiggins
Instructor
Mariann Wilson
Instructor
Mariann Wilson is an instructor and teaches ENGL 1010, 1020, 2060, 2070, and 2080. She completed her Master’s degree in English here at Northwestern and has enjoyed the opportunity to assist students in becoming more effective writers. Her teaching interests are composition, poetry, and World Literature. Mrs. Wilson has presented conference papers on spirituality and composition, computers and composition, Southern literature, and contemporary poetry. She also enjoys writing poetry and is the coordinator of the NSU Writing and Resource Center.