Faculty

Our faculty are deeply committed to the creation and transmission of knowledge about literature and its related fields. We teach our students to read and analyze; to write in scholarly, creative, and public ways; and to put their knowledge and skills to work for the benefit of many communities. Visiting scholars and lecturers bring expertise in diverse areas of study, and our graduate students come from all over the globe as both students and graduate assistants/instructors, bringing their unique research interests to their teaching.

Regular Faculty

Name Contact Specialties
Aamina Ahmad
Assistant Professor

110D Pillsbury Hall
612-625-0332
ahmad291@umn.edu

 

Creative writing: fiction, playwriting, screenwriting
Elaine Auyoung
Associate Professor
310K Pillsbury Hall
612-624-7803
eauyoung@umn.edu
Humanistic learning and higher education, feminist epistemology, the experience of reading, psychological approaches to the arts, 19th-century British literature and culture
Timothy Brennan
Professor
204 Nicholson Hall
612-626-1638
brenn032@umn.edu
Continental literary and cultural theory, 19th-20th century comparative literature
Peter Campion
Professor
110C Pillsbury Hall
612-625-3503
pcampion@umn.edu
Creative writing: poetry writing, poetry and the visual arts, literary editing
Siobhan Craig
Associate Professor
320A Pillsbury Hall
craig026@umn.edu
Italian and German cinema; literary, cultural, film, feminist, and queer theory
Andrew Elfenbein
Professor
320C Pillsbury Hall
612-624-1373
elfen001@umn.edu
British literature and history, 1700-1900; reading and cognition; queer theory; linguistics
Lianna Farber
Associate Professor
320I Pillsbury Hall
612-626-7126
farbe004@umn.edu
Lyric poetry, children's literature, theories of literature, medieval literature and thought
Megan Finch
Assistant Professor
310B Pillsbury Hall
finch128@umn.edu
20th- and 21st-century US and African-American Literature, black feminism, queer theory, dystopian fiction, afropessimism, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison
V.V. Ganeshananthan
Associate Professor
310I Pillsbury Hall
612-626-7123
vganesha@umn.edu
Creative writing: fiction, journalism
Megan Giddings
Assistant Professor
320G Pillsbury Hall
612-625-5075
giddi054@umn.edu
Creative writing: fiction
Brian Goldberg
Associate Professor
320B Pillsbury Hall
612-626-7125
goldb016@umn.edu
British romantic literature, restoration and 18th-century literature, poetry
Jessica Horvath Williams
Assistant Professor
210F Pillsbury Hall
612-625-0183
jchwil@umn.edu
Critical and Feminist Disability Studies; 19th-century U.S. Literature; 19th-century U.S. women writers; neurodiversity; short fiction
Douglas Kearney
Associate Professor
310H Pillsbury Hall
612-626-9921
dkearney@umn.edu
Creative writing: poetry, nonfiction, libretti; black aesthetics/poetics/literature; poetics/prosody; experimental writing; writing for performance; popular/cultural criticism; hip hop studies; graphic design
Rebecca Krug
Professor
320D Pillsbury Hall
612-626-7127
krugx001@umn.edu
Late Medieval literature, religion, culture, literacy, nature, women's studies
Josephine Lee
Professor
110A Pillsbury Hall
612-625-9510
jolee@umn.edu
Dramatic literature, theater history, performance studies; Asian American studies
Nabil Matar
Professor
210H Pillsbury Hall
612-626-8320
matar010@umn.edu
Early modern Euro-Islamic contacts, 17th century British religious literature
Ellen Messer-Davidow
Professor
110H Pillsbury Hall
612-625-2071
emd@umn.edu
Cultural and social theory; 20th century American social movements, policy, and law
Nathaniel Mills
Associate Professor

310G Pillsbury Hall
612-625-8444

mills175@umn.edu

20th-century African American and US literature, the 1930s-1950s African American literary left, US culture and leftist political movements
Kathryn Nuernberger
Associate Professor
knuernbe@umn.edu Creative writing: poetry, creative nonfiction, biography, environmental writing
Dan Philippon
Associate Professor
320H Pillsbury Hall
612-624-4209
danp@umn.edu
Environmental literature, history, and ethics; ideas of nature, culture, and place; food studies
Jani Scandura
Associate Professor
310D Pillsbury Hall
612-625-9017
jani@umn.edu
Cultural studies and critical theory; 20th century North American literatures, film, mass culture
Andrew Scheil
Professor
210C Pillsbury Hall
612-625-9518
ascheil@umn.edu
Anglo-Saxon language and literature, literatures of late antiquity/early Middle Ages
Katherine Scheil
Professor
210K Pillsbury Hall
612-625-6592
kscheil@umn.edu
Shakespeare, early modern lit, theatre, women writers, history of reading, 18th c lit
Julie Schumacher
Regents Professor
310E Pillsbury Hall
612-625-3459
schum003@umn.edu
Creative writing: fiction, contemporary fiction, children's literature
Kim Todd
Professor
320F Pillsbury Hall
612-625-6095
kftodd@umn.edu
Creative writing: nonfiction, science and environmental writing, history of creative nonfiction
Rachel Trocchio
Assistant Professor
310A Pillsbury Hall
612-625-0134
trocc004@umn.edu
17th- through 19th-century American literature, puritan studies, early modern studies, religion and cognition
John Watkins
Professor
310F Pillsbury Hall
612-624-8879
watki005@umn.edu
Historiography, sovereignty and queenship, medieval and early modern diplomacy
Amit Yahav
Associate Professor
310C Pillsbury Hall
612-626-7124
ayahav@umn.edu
18th century British cultures and literatures, narrative theory, literature and philosophy, historical humanities, history and theory of popular culture

 

Affiliate Faculty

Name Contact Specialties
Tony C. Brown
Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature
235C Nicholson Hall
612-626-6123
tcbrown@umn.edu
Philosophy, literary, aesthetic and political theory, Enlightenment philosophy and anthropology, statelessness, the new world, the South Pacific, colonial and postcolonial literature and theory
Keya Ganguly
Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature
222 Nicholson Hall
612-625-5871
gangu003@umn.edu
Critical theory, film, postcolonialism, politics and practice of ethnography, sociology of culture
Laura Gurak
Writing Studies
233 Nolte Hall
612-624-1784
gurakl@umn.edu
Rhetorical theory; Internet studies; technical writing and communication; digital research methods
Kirsten Jamsen
Writing Studies
10 Nicholson Hall
612-625-5355
kjamsen@umn.edu
Writing across the curriculum, composition pedagogy, technology in writing centers and classrooms
Leslie Morris
German, Nordic, Slavic & Dutch
327A Folwell Hall
612-624-4047
morri074@umn.edu
20th century German and Austrian literature, poetry, Jewish studies
Christopher Pexa
American Indian Studies
19 Scott Hall
612-624-1338
cpexa@umn.edu
Native American and Indigenous literatures, Dakota language and literature, 19th- and 20th-century American literature, U.S. federal Indian law, critical indigenous theory, sovereignty studies, settler colonial studies
Donald Ross
Writing Studies
223 Nolte Hall
612-625-5585
rossj001@umn.edu
Travel writing; rhetoric of argument; computers in writing instruction; writing in academic disciplines
Matthew Reznicek
Medical Humanities
Diehl Hall 525C
reznicek@umn.edu
Health Humanities, Disability Studies, British and Irish Romanticism, and Victorian Literature
William R. Viestenz
Spanish and Portuguese Studies
214L Folwell Hall
612-625-0010
wviesten@umn.edu
Contemporary Iberian literature and culture; post-secularism and the sacred; bullfighting and animal rights; neo-ruralism; violence and cultural memory

 

Emeriti Faculty

Name Contact
Charles Baxter
Former Edelstein-Keller Professor in Creative Writing
baxte087@umn.edu
Michael Dennis Browne
Professor Emeritus
mdb@umn.edu
Lois Cucullu
Associate Professor Emerita
lcucullu@umn.edu
Maria Damon
Professor Emerita
damon001@umn.edu
Genevieve Escure
Professor Emerita
escur001@umn.edu
M. J. Fitzgerald
Associate Professor Emerita
fitzg007@umn.edu
Shirley Garner
Professor Emerita
sngarner@umn.edu
Art Geffen
Associate Professor Emeritus
geffe001@umn.edu
Ray Gonzalez
Professor Emeritus
gonza049@umn.edu
Edward Griffin
Professor Emeritus
griffin@umn.edu
Patricia Hampl
Regents Professor Emerita
hampl@umn.edu
Michael Hancher
Professor Emeritus
mh@umn.edu">mh@umn.edu
Gordon Hirsch
Professor Emeritus
hirsc002@umn.edu
Calvin Kendall
Professor Emeritus
kenda001@umn.edu
Toni McNaron
Professor Emerita
mcnar001@umn.edu
Valerie Miner
Professor Emerita
miner002@umn.edu
Paula Rabinowitz
Professor Emerita
rabin001@umn.edu
Geoffrey Sirc
Professor Emeritus
sirc@umn.edu
Robert Solotaroff
Professor Emeritus
solot001@umn.edu
Madelon Sprengnether
Regents Professor Emerita
spren001@umn.edu
Ellen Stekert
Professor Emerita
steke001@umn.edu
Joel Weinsheimer
Professor Emeritus
weins001@umn.edu
John Wright
Professor Emeritus
wrigh003@umn.edu

 

Instructors

Name Contact
Ciara Alfaro
Lecturer
210J Pillsbury Hall
612-625-3503
alfar067@umn.edu
Eric Daigre
Senior Lecturer
110I Pillsbury Hall
612-626-9555
daig0004@umn.edu
Heather Holcombe
Lecturer
210E Pillsbury Hall
612-626-7122
hholcomb@umn.edu
Matthew Hubbell
Contract Assistant Professor
110F Pillsbury Hall
612-626-7119
hubbe071@umn.edu
Jennifer Jodell
Teaching Specialist
210D Pillsbury Hall
612-625-3503
jodel002@umn.edu
Janna Knittel
Lecturer
210I Pillsbury Hall
612-625-1325
knittel@umn.edu
Jake Lancaster
Lecturer
110B Pillsbury Hall
612-624-6642
lanca044@umn.edu
May Lee-Yang
Lecturer
210B Pillsbury Hall
leex0765@umn.edu
Melissa Licht
Lecturer
210A Pillsbury Hall
612-625-2563
licht003@umn.edu
Amanda Minoff
Lecturer
302E Pillsbury Hall
minof001@umn.edu
Sruthi Narayanan
Lecturer
110J Pillsbury Hall
naray216@umn.edu
Kristina Popiel
Lecturer
210G Pillsbury Hall
612-626-7614
popie007@umn.edu
Miriam Queensen
Teaching Specialist
302E Pillsbury Hall
mqueense@umn.edu
David Rodriguez-Martinez
Lecturer
210I Pillsbury Hall
612-625-1325
rodri966@umn.edu
Ann Tandy-Treiber
Senior Lecturer
110G Pillsbury Hall
612-626-7115
tandy004@umn.edu
Elizabeth Weixel
Lecturer
210J Pillsbury Hall
612-625-3503
weix0010@umn.edu

 

Visiting Faculty

In accordance with University of Minnesota Policies, we welcome visiting scholars.  Please note that all visiting positions are subject to the approval of the chair.

Name Contact
Krys Belc
Edelstein-Keller Writer in Residence
110E Pillsbury Hall
612-625-3744
belc0019@umn.edu
Pei-Chen Liao
Visiting Fulbright Fellow
302A Pillsbury Hall
612-626-0373
pliao@umn.edu