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Faculty and Staff

dr. zak watsonZak Watson


Department Chair, Language and Literature

PhD in English from the University of Missouri
Master of Arts in Comparative Literature from the University of Georgia

Teaching Responsibilities:  Literature, Composition
Research Interests:  The aesthetics of the sublime, Gender and genre, Psychoanalysis, Time in and of reading
Advising Areas:  Literary Studies, BSE in English

Office: Kuhn Hall 203B
Phone: 417-625-3054
E-mail: watson-z@mssu.edu 

Dr. Susana Liso-AldazDr. Susana Liso-Aldaz


Associate Professor of Spanish

Doctorate in Spanish Peninsular Literature from Ohio State University
Master's in Spanish Linguistics from Ohio State University

Teaching Responsibilities: Spanish Grammar, Spanish Literature and Culture
Research Interests: Re-creation of a nation's identity in 18th, 19th, and 20th century Spanish Peninsular literature, Discourse of domestic women in 18th, 19th, and 20th century Spanish Peninsular literature
Advising Areas: Senior Assessments (all languages), Sigma Delta Pi, Spanish Club, Spanish Concentration Majors (BA, FL02)

Office: Kuhn Annex 106
Phone: 417-625-9655
Email: liso-s@mssu.edu


dr. michael beilfussMichael Beilfuss


Associate Professor

PhD in English from Texas A & M University
Master of Arts in English from SUNY New Paltz

Teaching Responsibilities:  Composition and American Literature
Research Interests:  19th- and 20th-century American Literature, Ecocriticism, Southern Literature, Rhetoric
Advising Areas:  Literary Studies

Office: Kuhn Hall 203E
Phone: 417-625-3594
E-mail: Beilfuss-M@mssu.edu


dr. hannah dowHannah Dow


Assistant Professor

PhD in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing (Poetry) from the University of Southern Mississippi
Master of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Creative Writing (Poetry) from the University of California Irvine
Master of Arts in English from Loyola Marymount University

Teaching Responsibilities: Creative Writing, Literature, Composition
Research Interests: Contemporary Poetry, Romanticism 

Office: Kuhn Hall 236
Phone: 417-625-9642
Email: dow-h@mssu.edu

 

dr. amy gatesAmy Gates


Associate Professor of English

PhD in English Studies from the University of Illinois - Chicago
Master of Arts in English from Truman State University

Teaching Responsibilities: British Literature from the Romantic Period to the Present, Shakespeare, Literary Theory, Medicine and Literature, Compositions
Research Interests: British Literature of the long 19th Century, Literary Depcitions of Corpses and Graves in British Romantic and Early Victorian Literature, Emerging Concepts of "Vocation" and Career Guidance in Literature of the Long 19th Century, Digital Humanities, Pedagogy
Advising Areas: Literary Studies

Office: Kuhn Hall 234
Phone: 417-625-3554
E-mail: gates-a@mssu.edu 

dr. michael howarthMichael Howarth


Professor of English

PhD in Literary and Cultural Studies from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette
Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing-fiction from the University of Alaska-Anchorage

Teaching Responsibilities: Children's Literature, Young Adult Literature, American Literature to 1900, British Literature of the Nineteenth Century, Narrative Film, Creative Writing
Research Interests: Gothicism, Children's Literature, Narrative Film, Creative Writing-Fiction, Creative Writing-Nonfiction
Advising Areas: Honors

Office: Kuhn Annex 108
Phone: 417-625-9748
E-mail:  howarth-m@mssu.edu

dr. jody jensenJody Jensen


Assistant Professor

 PhD in English with an emphasis in Postcolonial Literature from the University of North Dakota
Master of Arts in English with an emphasis in African-American Literature and Critical Race Theory from the University of St. Thomas

Teaching Responsibilities: Composition and World Literature
Research Interests: Postcolonical Literatures and Theory, Postcolonial Pedagogy, Diasporic Literatures, Professional Writing, Global Film and Visual Media, Gender and Transnationalism, Partition Literatures of India, South African Literatures, African-American Literatures and Theory

Office: Kuhn Hall 240
Phone: 417-625-3196
Email: jensen-jody@mssu.edu

dr. lisa mcgunigalLisa McGunigal


Assistant Professor 

Ph.D. in English from Pennsylvania State University
M.A. in English from University of Virginia
Teaching Responsibilities: Early American Literature, Nineteenth-Century American Literature, Multiethnic American Literature, Sports Literature, Food and Literature, Composition, Podcasting in the Humanities
Research Interests: Nineteenth-Century American Literature, Early Twentieth-Century American Literature, Women and Gender Studies, Hawaiian Studies,  Performance Studies, Material Culture Studies
Advising Area: Literary Studies

Office: Kuhn Hall 203A
Phone: 417-625-9641
Email: mcgunigal-l@mssu.edu

dr. rebecca mouserRebecca Mouser


PhD in English with an emphasis in Medieval Literature from the University of Missouri
Master of Arts in English with an emphasis in Medieval Literature from the University of Missouri

Teaching Responsibilities: British Literature From its Beginnings to the Eighteenth Century, Linguistics, History of the English Language, Shakespeare, Composition
Research Interests: Oral Tradition, Medieval Literature, Gender and Sexuality
Advising Areas: Literary Studies, BSE in English

Office: Kuhn Hall 203D
Phone: 417-625-9756
E-mail:  mouser-r@mssu.edu


ms. carley petersen-durdenCarley Durden


Master Instructor of English

Master of Arts in Writing with an emphasis in Composition and Rhetoric from Missouri State University
Master of Arts in Education with an emphasis in Curriculum and Instruction from Drury University

Teaching Responsibilities: Composition
Research Interests: Popular Culture, Literacy

Office: Kuhn Annex 104
Phone: 417-625-7054
E-mail:  PetersenDurden-C@mssu.edu  
 

Dr. Leslie SmithDr. Leslie Smith


Associate Professor of Spanish

Doctor of Education in Literacy, Culture and Language Education from Indiana University - Bloomington
Master of Arts in Spanish from University of Arkansas

Teaching Responsibilities: Spanish, Education
Research Interests: Proficiency Development, Bilingual Education
Advising Areas: Certificate of Language Competency (all languages) & Senior Assessments (French & Spanish)

Office: Kuhn Annex 103
Phone: 417-625-3109
Email: smith-leslie@mssu.edu 

 

emily boydstonEmily Boydston


Administrative Assistant

Office: Kuhn Hall 203
Phone: 417-625-9377
E-mail:  boydston-e@mssu.edu  

 


Adjunct Faculty



Amanda Anderson

ChloÉ casey

Trisa Moss

Jean Lozano-Pittsley