Faculty Profiles
Dr. Glen Brewster, Chair, Professor
Glen Brewster earned his B.A. (English and Philosophy) and M.A. (English) from the University of Tennessee, and he received his Ph.D. in English from Duke University in 1994 with a dissertation titled, "'Severe Contentions of Friendship': Gender Roles and Refigurations in the Poetry of William Blake." He has published articles and reviews in journals such as Nineteenth-Century Contexts, South Atlantic Review, Proceedings of the Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery, North Carolina Literary Review, Southern Humanities Review, and American Studies International, and contributed to Romantic Generations (Bucknell, 2001). He has also given conference presentations at Durham University and the University of Bristol in England, and Duke University, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Southern Colorado, Loyola University, and the Yale University Center for British Art. He previously taught at the University of Tennessee, Duke University, Auburn University, and East Carolina University, and received the John C. Hodges Teaching Excellence Award at the University of Tennessee for 1994-95. He received the WSC Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Research Essay Award for 2000. He is faculty advisor for the Academic Pursuits Club, the Campus Voice newspaper, the English Club, Persona literary magazine, and Sigma Tau Delta, the English honor society, and was named Sigma Tau Delta Eastern Region Outstanding Sponsor for 2007.
Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9:30AM to 11:00AM and by appointment in Bates 128
Office Phone: 572-5332
Email: gbrewster@wsc.ma.edu
Dr. Stephen Adams, Professor
Stephen Adams received his B.A. in English and General Business from Southwest Missouri State University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English at the University of Missouri-Columbia. With interests such as visual and printed satire, the bible as literature, and the theme of social displacement in novels, Professor Adams generally teaches Major British Writers, Great Books, World Literature to 1750, Development of the Novel, and Studies in Satire. He has been the contributing editor of Annual Bibliography Of English Language and Literature.
Office Phone: 572-5667
Email: sadams@wsc.ma.edu
John Benvenuto, Visiting Professor
Office Phone: 572-5782
Kimberly Burwick, Visiting Professor
Sean Casey, Visiting Professor
Dr. Lou Caton, Associate Professor
Since receiving a Ph.D. in the contemporary American novel from the University of Oregon in 1995, Lou Caton has taught a variety of literature courses, most recently at Auburn University in Alabama. During this time he has also published book reviews and articles on writers such as Don DeLillo, Jamaica Kincaid, and Leslie Marmon Silko. In addition, Professor Caton is currently preparing his dissertation for publication. In it, he investigates the romantic implications of multicultural theory as it pertains to recent debates on the American literature canon. Along with Emory Elliott, Caton is a co-editor of a collection of essays titled Aesthetics in a Multicultural Age (Oxford: 2002). Students might expect Caton to teach courses having to do with world literature, globalism, twentieth-century American literature, and critical theory, especially as it relates to multicultural issues.
Office Phone: 572-8056
Email: lcaton@wsc.ma.edu
Janet Crosier, Assistant Professor
Lori Desrosiers, Assistant Professor
Office Phone: 572-8780
Dr. Vanessa Holford Diana, Associate Professor
Vanessa Holford Diana earned her Ph.D in English from Arizona State University in 2000. She also holds an M.A. in English from Lehigh University and a B.S. in Secondary Education from East Stroudsburg University. Her research focuses mainly on fiction by multicultural American women writers, especially those who use writing as a way of envisioning and bringing about improved understanding of personal and national identities. She is currently revising her dissertation, "Narrative Patternings of Resistance: Six American Women Writers of Color at the Turn into the Twentieth Century," for publication. She has published critical essays and book reviews in such journals as Studies in American Indian Literatures, The Journal for the Study of Multi-Ethnic American Literatures, Cimarron Review, and the Annual Review of the National Association for Ethnic Studies. Among the courses Dr. Diana teaches at Westfield State are Black American Literature, Major American Writers, U.S. Ethnic Literature, Contemporary Cross-Cultural Literature, Women's Studies, and Composition.
Office Phone: 572-5687
Email: vdiana@wsc.ma.edu
Jennifer DiGrazia, Assistant Professor
Jennifer DiGrazia received her B.A. from the University Of Nevada, Reno in 1995 her M.A from Boise State University in 1998 and her Ph.D. from the University Of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2005. Her dissertation, Style, Substance, Audience: A Qualitative Study of the Use of a Queer Text in Three Composition Courses was based on the premise that queer theory and composition theory/practices can mutually inform each other in ways that encourage students and teachers to negotiate rhetorical strategies based on voice, audience and discourse conventions. She is the Associate Editor of Queer Cultures and is co-author of an article in Composition Studies. Given her focus in composition/rhetoric, she approaches teaching in a manner reflective of a rhetorical, process-based pedagogy; most importantly, she wants students to have an investment in what they read and write and encourages her students to bring their ideas and perspectives to class and to engage each other with the understanding that each class member will be impacted. She loves animals (and has eight pets to prove it). When not grading papers, she is usually spending time with her partner and stepson, jogging, reading, hiking, or watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Office Phone: 572-5685
Email: jdigrazia@wsc.ma.edu
Jennifer Dorfield, Visiting Professor
Office Phone: 572-8010
Michael Duni, Visiting Professor
Office Phone: 572-8783-2
Nancy Eaton, Visiting Professor
Howard Faerstein, Visiting Professor
Dr. Michael Filas, Associate Professor
Michael Filas received his Ph.D. in American Literature and Cultural Studies from the University of Washington, Seattle, in 2001. His dissertation, "Cyborg Subjectivity," examines American and European literature, drama, art and film as a cultural history of our changing conception of humanness through the incorporation of technology into our bodies, minds, and environments. Dr. Filas also earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at San Diego State University in 1996. His critical essays, fiction, poetry, book reviews, and interviews have been published in a number of journals and anthologies. He also holds a Bachelors degree in Business Administration and has extensive professional experience as a technical, legal, and corporate writer and editor. He teaches courses in American literature, cultural studies, creative writing, film, and business and technical writing. Michael enjoys spending time with his wife, Heather, their sons, Huxley, Jackson and Cameron. Michael is also advisor to WSKB, the campus radio station, and Persona, the campus literary journal. Visit his website at http://www.wsc.ma.edu/mfilas/
Office Phone: 572-5683
Email: mfilas@wsc.ma.edu
Dr. Delia Fisher, Associate Professor
Delia Fisher received her B.A. and M.A. in English from California State University, Fullerton, and her Ph.D. in Twentieth-century American Literatures at the University of Oregon. Before coming to Westfield State, she taught for the University of Oregon's Office of Multicultural Affairs and at Auburn University. Her academic interests have focused on women writers and their attempts to revise the heroic narrative and to define a feminized quest. In addition, she enjoys teaching women's literature and the development and influences of myth and classical literatures. Her current writing project is preparation of her dissertation, "Never-Ending Story: Re-forming Hero in the Helen Epics of H. and Judy Grahn," for publication. Classes at WSC have included Major American Writers, Comp I and II, Development of the Novel, Special Topics on Women Writers on Writing, Advanced Grammar, World Literature, and Honors: "Angels, Monsters, and Anorexics". When time permits, Dr. Fisher will be found in her garden.
Office Phone: 572-5755
Email: dfisher@wsc.ma.edu
Charles Fister, Visiting Professor
Office Phone: 572-8010
Nancy Foley, Visiting Professor
Denise Flaim, Assistant Professor
Denise Flaim holds a B.A. in English from Georgetown University and an M.A.L.S. (Master of Arts in Liberal Studies) from Dartmouth College, where her terminal project was a collection of original poetry. After Dartmouth, she had a career as a technical writer, trainer, editor, and manager before returning to teaching, studying, and writing. Her reliable academic interests are the Victorian novel, intertextuality in the novel, and the literature of mental illness, as well as any scrap of paper written by, about, or to women. She's also in various stages of completing creative projects, including: "Pregnant with Mandrakes"--a novel entirely in dialogue, an updated collection of poetry, and essays on topics ranging from the curse of freckles to the salvific role of libraries.
Office Phone: 572-5601
Email: dflaim@wsc.ma.edu
John Grady, Assistant Professor
Office Phone: 572-8783-4
John Haag, Visiting Professor
Email: jhaag@wsc.ma.edu
Joyce Hayden, Assistant Professor
Joyce Hayden received her MFA in poetry from Vermont College of the Union Institute in 2001. In addition to teaching Composition and Literature at WSC, she works as a writing coach in the Western MA area. Her clients range from teenagers testing their voices to retired science professors working on memoirs. Ms. Hayden has taught creative writing workshops since 1996. Her own work has appreared in Syracuse University's Corresponding Voices, Cimarron Review, Earth's Daughters, Cedar Hill Press, Amherst Artists and Writers' journal Peregrine, and other publications. Ms. Hayden's poetry manuscript, Lost Handprint, was a semi-finalist in last year's Elixir Press competition, and is still seeking a publisher. While writing remains Ms. Hayden's main focus, she has recently begun exhibiting her oil paintings and watercolors in area galleries and art shows.
Phone: 5609
Email: jhayden@wsc.ma.edu
Sara Heim, Visiting Professor
Office Phone: 572-5621
Ann Higgins, Visiting Professor
Office Phone: 572-8783-3
Email: mhennessy@wsc.ma.edu
Trevor Hodge, Visiting Professor
Office Phone: 572-8089
Email: thodge@wsc.ma.edu
Jeanne Humphrey, Visiting Professor
Joseph Hynes, Visiting Professor
Office Phone: 572-2550
Email: jghynes@amherst.edu
Robert Jenkins, Visiting Professor
Mary Keator, Visiting Professor
Nancy Keyes, Visiting Professor
Sabine Klein, Assistant Professor
Sabine Macris Klein teaches primarily dramatic literature and criticism courses for the Theatre Program in the Department of English. Her specific areas of interest are German theatre and the history of women in theatre. Dr. Klein has a PhD from the City Univesity of New York Graduate Center, where her writing focused on the working conditions of actresses in early twentieth-century Germany and early productions of Ibsen plays in Germany and America. As a part of her doctoral studies, she spent a year abroad with the Graduate Program in Theatre at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. Before coming to Westfield State College, Dr. Klein began her teaching career at SUNY-Oneonta. She has also performed or directed with a variety of professional and semi-professional theatre companies, most notably the Los Angeles Theatre Workshop, Glimmerglass Opera, and the Cooperstown Theatre Festival, and Orpheus Theatre (Oneonta, NY). She has presented papers at the American Society for Theatre Research and the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, and published in the journal, Western European Stages. Most recently she presented a paper about Edward Albee's new play, Homelife, to the Central New York Conference on Language and Literature. In her free time, Dr. Klein enjoys travel to foreign countries and cooking.
Office Phone: 572-8119
Email: sklein@wsc.ma.edu
Kristie Knotts, Visiting Professor
Office Phone: 572-5544
Email: kknotts@wsc.ma.edu
M. K. Laughlin, Visiting Professor
Office Phone: 572-8782-4
Dr. George W. Layng, Associate Professor
George Layng, The English Department's Professional Writing Specialist, teaches courses in composition, journalism, creative writing, and literature. He joined Westfield State College in 1999 after earning a Ph.D. in English from Tufts University. He also holds an M.A. in English from the University of Maine and a B.S. in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University. Before becoming a college teacher, Dr. Layng worked as a newspaper reporter in Connecticut and Vermont and won a Vermont Press Association award. He also worked as an editorial assistant for a scholarly publisher. Dr. Layng has published poetry and fiction in small literary journals and scholarly articles on The Great Gatsby and W.C.W.. His dissertation, The Rude Style, examined the cultural dimensions of poetic rhythm by studying the influence of ballads and songs on contemporary American poetry. When not on campus, Dr. Layng enjoys hiking and camping, Irish music and literature, photography, biking and cross-country skiing.
Office Phone: 572-5334
Email: glayng@wsc.ma.edu
Beverly Lucey, Visiting Professor
Bridget Matthews-Kane, Visiting Professor
Office Phone: 572-8278-1
Kevin Meek, Assistant Professor
Office Phone: 572-5621
Dr. Gregg Neikirk, Professor
Gregg Neikirk earned his Ph.D. in American and British literature from the University of Kentucky. He currently teaches classes in American and British literature at Westfield State, and he also teaches the department's Journalism I and II courses. His specialty is formally known as the "transatlantic relationship between early American and British Renaissance literatures." He joined the English department in 1994, and since has served as an officer on several campus-wide and departmental governance committees. He recently completed research on Hemingway's Garden of Eden manuscript, and delivered an important paper to the International Hemingway Society in Stse. Maries de-la-mar, France, comparing the Hemingway work to John Milton's Paradise Lost. Professor Neikirk's hobbies include reading, "keeping a step ahead" of his twin 18-year-old sons Adam and Lee, and, when he can find time, playing acoustic or electric guitar.
Office Phone: 572-5331
Email: gneikirk@wsc.ma.edu
Leah Nielsen, Assistant Professor
Office Phone: 572-8069
Mark Nimkoff, Visiting Professor
Office Phone: 572-5672
Email: mnimkoff@wsc.ma.edu
Lawrence O'Brien, Visiting Professor
Sean O'Connell, Assistant Professor
Sean O’Connell is an alumnus of St. Lawrence University (B.A. English Literature) and UMass Boston (M.A. English Composition). He’s taught English at a variety of levels (middle school, high school, college) and in a variety of cities in the northeast (Washington DC, Philadelphia, Boston). As a freshman composition instructor, he uses the concept of discourse communities to foster critical thinking and writing skills among students. His literary interests include contemporary shorts stories, Irish literature, and writings from the Beat Generation. In his free time he enjoys hiking and skiing, watching sports on television, and listening to live music.
Office Phone: 572-5335
Email: soconnell@wsc.ma.edu
Lori Paige, Visiting Professor
Elinor Parker, Assistant Professor
Elinor Parker is an Assistant Professor at Westfield State College. Elinor has a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Kansas. Her degree is in Scenography, a specialized stage design degree that involves extensive practice in costume, lighting and set design. She has a BFA from The Cooper Union School of Art in New York City. Though her specialty is costume design, she is extensively involved with all the design and technical aspects of the theatre productions in the English department's theatre program. She is a member of the United States Institute of Theatre Technology and is active in the American College Theatre Festival, New England Theatre Conference, and the Southeastern Theatre Conference. In 2003, she participated and had work displayed at the Prague Quadrennial, an international theatre design conference held in Prague every four years. Before beginning her teaching career at WSC, she worked as a freelance costume designer in cities all over midwest and east coast. Just a few of her design credits include "Singin' In The Rain" at the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, and the New Jersey 2004 summer premiere of "Cats."
Office Phone: 572-8121
Email: eparker@wsc.ma.edu
Alissandra Paschkowiak, Visiting Professor
Alix has a website, which has helpful information for her students.
Office Phone: 572-8278-2
Email: apaschkowiak@wsc.ma.edu
Deirdre Phelps, Visiting Professor
Jennifer Plant, Visiting Professor
Susan Quandt, Assistant Professor
Office Phone: 572-8038
James Raschilla, Visiting Professor
Office Phone: 572-5621
Dr. Beth Ann Rothermel, Professor
Beth Ann Rothermel came to Westfield State College in the fall of 1996 to teach classes in writing and American literature, and to serve as Composition Coordinator. It was as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, however, that she discovered the pleasures of both reading and writing poetry and decided to pursue a career in English studies. While she continued both to study and write poetry as a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, she found a new interest in the field of rhetoric and composition. Since she had also spent time studying in Europe, Professor Rothermel was especially curious about the ways in which writing and literature are taught in other countries. Her dissertation, presented in the summer of 1996, compares language-arts instruction in Sweden and the USA. Based on her research, she went on to publish an article in a Dutch language-arts journal and to present her findings at several academic conferences and seminars both in Europe and the USA. More recently, she has been doing research on the history of women's education in reading, speaking, and writing at Massachusetts Normal Schools. Her essay on the experiences of nineteenth-century women at the Westfield State Normal School appeared in the Winter 2003 issue of Rhetoric Society Quarterly. At Westfield State, Professor Rothermel looks for opportunities to incorporate what she has learned through her research into her teaching approaches. She strives to convince her students of the value of a good argument, stressing that writing persuasive essays may be as creative an endeavor as writing poetry or fiction. In her spare time, Professor Rothermel enjoys traveling, especially to points near the Arctic Circle, and is hoping to soon visit Iceland and Alaska. She also has a website, which has some help helpful links for anyone interested in resources on writing and literature.
Office Phone: 572-5336
Email: brothermel@wsc.ma.edu
Chivas Sandage, Assistant Professor
Dr. Marilyn Sandidge, Professor
Professor Marilyn Sandidge specializes in Medieval and Renaissance British literature, teaching not only survey courses in those periods, but also elective courses such as Chaucer and the Arthurian Legends. She especially enjoys teaching History of the English Language. Much of her scholarship examines the portrayals of female characters in the literature and art of the periods. She also frequently teaches Business and Technical Writing. Professor Sandidge earned her Ph.D. at Pennsylvania State University. She received her M.A. at Virginia State University and her B.A. at Longwood College. Professor Sandidge is currently the Director of the Graduate Program in English. Marilyn is also the English Advisor for the Division of Graduate and Continuing Studies.
Office Phone: 572-5666
Email: msandidge@wsc.ma.edu
Deborah Savage, Instructor
Office Phone: 572-8235
John J. Shea, Professor
Jack Shea is the Coordinator of the English department's Theatre Arts Program, which offers a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts. He teaches acting, directing, playwriting, script analysis and interpretation, and theatre management, and he directs many of the Program's theatrical productions. Before joining the Westfield State faculty in 1997, Professor Shea was an Assistant Professor and Guest Artist in Residence for four years in the Department of Theatre and Dance at The University of Memphis where he taught acting in its B.F.A. program and directing in its M.F.A. program. During his time in Memphis, he also worked as an actor and director at Theatre Memphis. He taught as an Instructor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles prior to teaching at Memphis. Professor Shea worked for many years as an actor and director in San Francisco and Los Angeles, appearing on stage and in film and television. He is a member of all three professional acting unions - Actors' Equity Association, the Screen Actors Guild, and the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists (AFTRA). He is a member of and trains regularly with the New York-based Michael Chekhov Association (MICHA), working with Mala Powers, Joanna Merlin, Lisa Dalton, Phelim McDermott, David Zinder, and Lenard Petit among others. In addition to holding two certifications as a teacher of the Chekhov acting technique, he also has extensive training and experience in the Stanislavski system of acting, having worked with Delia Salvi, Peggy Fuery, Salome Jens, Jean Shelton, and Harold Clurman among others. He recently acted and directed for four years with the Becket Playwrights Festival in Becket, Massachusetts. Professor Shea earned a bachelor's degree in History from Stanford University (Phi Beta Kappa), and an M.A. in Critical Studies, an M.F.A. in Acting, and an M.F.A. in Directing from UCLA's School of Theatre, Film, and Television where he studied with George Schaefer, Michael Gordon, Michael McLain, Catherine Fitzmaurice, Delia Salvi, Edit Villareal, Rae Allen, and Frank Condon. His master or arts thesis was titled "The Realist and the Dreamer: The Duality of the Irish Character in Sean O'Casey's Dublin Trilogy." He is also a member of the Westfield State chapter of Phi Kappa Phi.
Office Phone: 572-5333
Email: jshea@wsc.ma.edu
Martha Sienkiewicz, Visiting Professor
Joseph Shinn, Visiting Professor
Office Phone: 572-5676
Email: jshinn@wsc.ma.edu
Christopher Slaughter, Associate Professor
Professor Christopher Slaughter took a position in fall 2007 at King College in Bristol, Tennessee, after 12 years at Westfield State College.
Regina Smialek, Administrative Assisstant
Having joined the staff of Westfield State College in 1995, Regina brings well-rounded knowledge of college procedures and office management to her current position as the secretary of the English Department. Regina, with her prior experience in the Multicultural Development office, is responsible for handling student accounts, student support services, purchasing, and budgeting, among many other administrative areas. A native of Poland, Regina currently resides in Westfield with her husband and her two children: a high school student and a WSC sophomore. Students and faculty members may call or email Regina with questions.
Office Phone: 572-5330
Email: rsmialek@wsc.ma.edu
Elizabeth Starr, Associate Professor
Elizabeth Starr earned her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2001. She teaches a variety of courses in British literature, composition and women's studies at Westfield State College. Her current research interests include analyzing ways that British "social-problem" novels have been grouped together as a distinct genre both in and after the nineteenth century, and exploring ongoing debates about the status of work and writing--and the work of writing--during the Victorian period. Her essay "'Influencing the Moral Taste': Literary Work, Aesthetics, and Social Change in Felix Holt," appeared in Nineteenth-Century Literature (June 2001); another essay, "'A Great Engine for Good': the Industry of Fiction in Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton and North and South," is in Studies in the Novel (Winter 2002).
Office Phone: 572-5672
Email: estarr@wsc.ma.edu
Dr. Harry Stessel, Professor
Professor Harry Stessel earned a Ph.D from the University of Pennsylvania and joined the WSC English Department in September 1986. He teaches American Literature, Film and Speech classes for the English Department.
Office Phone: 572-5684
Russell Swift, Visiting Professor
Office Phone: 572-5522
Dr. Emily Todd, Associate Professor
Emily B. Todd teaches a variety of American literature and composition courses in the English department. She earned her B.A. in American studies from Amherst College and her M. Phil. in Scottish literature from St. Andrews University, and she completed her doctoral dissertation, "The Transatlantic Context: Walter Scott and the Nineteenth-Century American Literary History," in the English Department at the University of Minnesota. She has received Andrew W. Mellon fellowships from the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Massachusetts Historical Society to support her archival research into reading and publishing practices in nineteenth-century America, and she has presented papers and published articles on transatlantic literary relations, library history, reading history, historical fiction, and Harriet Beecher Stowe and Walter Scott. Her article on Scott and antebellum Richmond readers, in Papers of the BIbliographical Society of America, won the 2001 Virginia Library History Award. Currently she is co-editing a collection of essays entitled Transatlantic Stowe: Essays on Harriet Beecher Stowe and European Culture.
Office Phone: 572-5337
Email: etodd@wsc.ma.edu
Chris Tolpa, Visiting Professor
Aubin Tyler, Visiting Professor
Beverly Army Williams, Visiting Professor
Office Phone: 572-8294
Page last updated 10/3/08
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