MA Faculty

Arielle Bernstein Senior Professorial Lecturer CAS | Literature

Arielle Bernstein is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Literature at American University, where she also co-directs the MA in Literature, Culture, and Technology. She is a writer and cultural cri

  arielle@american.edu

Fiona Brideoake Assistant Professor CAS | Literature

Fiona Brideoake’s teaching and research focuses on British literature and culture of the long eighteenth century. Her particular interests include Bluestocking feminism, queer historiography, Jane Aus

  fbride@american.edu

  (202) 885-2998

Edward Comstock Hurst Senior Professorial Lecturer CAS | Literature

Edward Comstock holds a PhD from American University's School of Education, Teaching, and Health, as well as an MA in Literature. At the intersection of rhetoric, writing studies, educational psycholo

  ecomst@american.edu

  (202) 885-2975

Benjamin Djain Professorial Lecturer CAS | Literature

Benjamin Djain is a Professorial Lecturer in the Writing Program and the Department of Literature at AU. He is a comparative early modernist who focuses on English and Spanish theatre. Professor Djain

  djain@american.edu

Erik Dussere Professor CAS | Literature

Professor Dussere's teaching and research are primarily focused on the literature, film, and culture of 20th- and 21st-century America. He has published two critical studies, Balancing the Books (a st

  dussere@american.edu

  (202) 885-2428

Laura Ewing Professorial Lecturer CAS - Literature

Laura Ewing's research focuses on technical communication, intercultural communication, and rhetoric & technology. Before coming to AU, Laura spent five years in Japan, writing and consulting with int

  ewing@american.edu

Dustin Friedman Associate Professor CAS | Literature

Dustin Friedman's fields of research and teaching are Victorian and modernist literature, aestheticism and decadence, queer theory, the history and theory of aesthetics, and global nineteenth-century

  dustinfr@american.edu

  (202) 885-2963

Lindsey Green-Simms Professor and Department Chair, Literature CAS | Literature

Lindsey Green-Simms’ teaching and research focuses on film and literature from the Global South, with a particular emphasis on African cultural production. Professor Green-Simms' most recent book, Que

  lgs@american.edu

  (202) 885-2901

Chelsea Horne Senior Professorial Lecturer CAS | Literature

Dr. Chelsea L. Horne's areas of research encompass communication, digital culture, information integrity, privacy, internet governance, AI policy, and cultural and performance studies. Recent work has

  horne@american.edu

  (202) 885-2825

Despina Kakoudaki Associate Professor and Director, Humanities Lab CAS | Literature

Professor Kakoudaki teaches interdisciplinary courses in literature and film, visual culture, and the history of technology and new media. Her interests include cultural studies, science fiction, apoc

  kakoudak@american.edu

  (202) 885-2796

David Keplinger Professor CAS | Literature

A professor of Literature at AU since 2007, David Keplinger is the recipient of the 2022 American University Teacher/Scholar of the Year Award. He is the author of eight collections of poetry, most re

  keplinge@american.edu

  (202) 885-2748

Keith Leonard Associate Professor CAS | Literature

Keith D Leonard is the author of Fettered Genius: The African American Bardic Poet from Slavery to Civil Rights. His publications, presentations, and courses have revolved around his study of

  kdl@american.edu

  (202) 885-2961

Daisy Levy Senior Professorial Lecturer CAS | Literature

Dr. Levy's work focuses on embodied rhetorics, particularly how they intersect with cultural rhetorics and decolonial theory and practice. She joined AU in the fall of 2019, and has felt at home ever

  levy@american.edu

  (202) 885-2909

Jeffrey Middents Associate Professor CAS | Literature

Jeffrey Romero Middents studies and teaches film and world literature at American University in Washington, DC, specifically focusing on Latin American narratives from the 1960s to the present. His sc

  middents@american.edu

  (202) 885-2979

Marianne Noble Professor CAS | Literature

Professor Noble's teaching and research interests include American literature, intimacy and the emotions, and philosophical approaches to literature. She is the author of Rethinking Sympathy and Human

  mnoble@american.edu

  (202) 885-2988

Deborah Payne Associate Professor CAS | Literature

An expert on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century theatre, Professor Payne has published on topics ranging from the Restoration actress to baroque opera. She is the editor of “The Cambridge Companion t

  dcpayne@american.edu

  (202) 885-2997

Dolen Perkins-Valdez Assoc Professor CAS - Literature

Dolen Perkins-Valdez is the New York Times bestselling author of two novels: Wench and Balm. *USA Today* called Wench "deeply moving" and "beautifully written." *People* called it "a devastatingly bea

  perkinsv@american.edu

  (202) 885-2978

David Pike Professor CAS | Literature

Professor Pike has taught in the Department of Literature since 1995. His most recent book is After the End: Cold War Culture and Apocalyptic Imaginations in the 21st Century, forthcoming fro

  dpike@american.edu

  (202) 885-2996

Richard C. Sha Professor CAS | Literature

Professor Sha is the author of three books, the latest of which is Imagination and Science in Romanticism (Johns Hopkins, 2018). This book won the 2018 Jean-Pierre Barricelli Prize for the best book p

  rcsha@american.edu

  (202) 885-6300

Anita Sherman Professor CAS - Literature

Anita Gilman Sherman studies 16th and 17th century literature, specializing in works that have problems of knowledge and interpretation at their thematic center. Her book, Skepticism and Memory in Sha

  asherm@american.edu

  (202) 885-2988

Kathleen Smith Assistant Professor CAS | Literature

Kathleen Smith’s teaching and research focus on the later Middle Ages. Her current book project draws together legal, literary, religious, and social history and examines the concept of intention as a

  kathlees@american.edu

Sarah Trembath Professorial Lecturer CAS | Literature

Sarah Trembath is an editor, writer, and educator. She has been teaching since 1998 and joined the AU faculty in 2014. Her written work has appeared in Radical Teacher, the Santa Fe Writer’s Project Q

  trembath@american.edu

  (202) 885-1456

Linda Voris Associate Professor CAS | Literature

Professor Voris’s teaching and research interests include 20th century American and British literature, the intellectual history of modernism and its relation to the visual arts, as well as contempora

  voris@american.edu

  (202) 885-2930

Lily Wong Associate Professor CAS | Literature

Lily Wong is an Associate Professor in the departments of Literature (LIT) and Critical Race Gender & Culture Studies (CRGC) at American University. She also serves as an Associate Director of Faculty

  wong@american.edu

  (202) 885-2987

Lacey Wootton Hurst Senior Professorial Lecturer CAS | Literature

Lacey Wootton has taught in the Writing Studies Program since 1999. She holds a PhD in Writing and Rhetoric from George Mason University and an MA in Literature from AU. Prior to her time at AU, she e

  lwoott@american.edu

  (202) 885-2982