Graduate Alumni
Below is a partial list of some of OSU English’s recent doctoral and master’s student placements. Our graduates have gone on to take academic and professional positions across the globe, and we celebrate them.
Recent Ph.D. Alumni
2021
John Andrews (Ph.D in Creative Writing)
Dissertation Title: Colin is Changing His Name: A Collection of Poems with a Critical
Introduction
Academic Counselor, Honors College, Oklahoma State University
Jeaneen Canfield (Ph.D in Rhetoric and Writing Studies)
Dissertation Title: (Re)Imaging Mapping Technology in Writing Pedagogy
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Central Oklahoma
Clayton Dillard (Ph.D in Screen Studies)
Dissertation Title: Space, Representation and Realism in Contemporary European Art
Cinema
Lecturer, School of Arts and Humanities, University of Texas-Dallas
Alex Hughes (Ph.D in Creative Writing)
Dissertation Title: Dutzow: Stories
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of English, Oklahoma State University
Sarah Lonelodge (Ph.D in Rhetoric and Writing Studies)
Dissertation Title: “Rattle Their Doorknob and They Collapse”: Propaganda Strategies
of the Church of Scientology
Teaching Assistant Professor, Department of English, East Carolina University
Micol Martinelli (Ph.D in TESOL/Linguistics)
Dissertation Title: Illuminating Collaborative Talk in Healthcare Interactions with
People with Aphasia: Three Linguistic Approaches
Lecturer, Department of English, Midwestern State University
2020
Harbhajan Hira (Ph.D in Literature)
Dissertation Title: Identity and Home in Three Caribbean Authors
Adjunct Instructor, Department of English, Oklahoma State University
Ho’omana Nathan Horton (Ph.D in TESOL/Linguistics)
Dissertation Title: An Ethnolexicography of the Skateboarding Subculture
Visiting Assistant Professor and International Teaching Assistant Program Coordinator,
Department of English, Oklahoma State University
Thamer Kalfut (Ph.D in TESOL/Linguistics)
Dissertation Title: The Centrality of Writing Materials in Saudi Arabian English Classrooms:
Evaluating L2 Textbooks from an Ecological Perspective
Assistant Professor, King Saud University
Bryce McCleary (Ph.D in TESOL/Linguistics)
Dissertation Title: Oklahoma Drag and Queer Linguistics
Lecturer, Department of Linguistics, Rice University
Eric Riddle (Ph.D in Literature)
Dissertation Title: Embodied Monsters: From Fear to Domestication in Gothic Monster
Literature
Professor, Department of Language Arts, Northern Oklahoma College
2019
Jacqueline Alnes (PhD in Creative Writing)
Dissertation Title: “Well Developed Female in No Acute Distress”
Assistant Professor, Department of English, West Chester University
Hillary Coenen (PhD in Rhetoric and Writing Studies)
Dissertation title: “Collaborating Accountably: Interpersonal Antiracism Activism
as a Site for Feminist Invitational Rhetoric and Writing Center Pedagogy”
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Humanities & Philosophy, Midwestern State
University
Andrew Davis (PhD in Screen Studies)
Dissertation title: “Selling Queer Cinema: The Emergence and Decline of New Queer
Cinema and its Impact on American and Transnational LGBTQ Cinemas (1990-2010)”
Assistant Professor, Department of Language, Arts and Humanities, Seminole State College
Jacob Eutenuer (PhD in Rhetoric and Writing Studies)
Dissertation title: “The Ludic Garden: The Work of Play in Composition and Rhetoric”
Assistant Professor, Rhetoric Program, Hampden-Sydney College
Katherine Markey (PhD in Creative Writing)
Dissertation title: “How Hungry the Earth: Poems”
Adjunct Instructor, Department of English, Oklahoma State University
Josiah Meints (PhD in Rhetoric and Writing Studies)
Dissertation title: “The Rhetorical Playbook: Football, Race, Rhetoric and Play Possibility
Spaces of the American University”
Adjunct Instructor, Department of English, Oklahoma State University
Olga Muranova (PhD in TESOL/Linguistics)
Dissertation title: “Theory-constitutive Metaphors, Similes, and Scientists’ Narratives
about Their Travel/Research Experience in Popular Science Articles/Examining Linguistic
and Rhetorical Features”
Lecturer, Program in Academic English, University of California-Irvine
2018
Michael McCombs (PhD in Rhetoric and Writing Studies)
Dissertation title: “Industrial Energy Audit Reports: A Heuristic for Improved Efficacy”
Assistant Director, Industrial Assessment Center, Oklahoma State University
Yelin Zhao (PhD in TESOL/Linguistics)
Dissertation title: “Both Sides of the Interaction: Native Speaker and Nonnative Speaker
Tutors Serving Nonnative Speaker Students in a University Writing Center”
Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Delaware
2017
Mahmoud Abdi Tabari (PhD in TESOL/Linguistics)
Dissertation title: “The Effects of Planning Time Conditions on Complexity, Accuracy
and Fluency in Second Language Written Narratives”
Lecturer, Center for American English Language & Culture, University of Virginia
Jean Alger (PhD in Literature)
Dissertation title: “Fictional Ethnographies and Ethnographic Fiction: ‘Preserving,’
Constructing and Representing Indigenous and Folk Identities in Interwar America”
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Trinidad State University
Tahani Alsaigh (PhD in TESOL/Linguistics)
Dissertation title: “Language Processing in Arabic-English Bilinguals: A Mixed Methods
Investigation”
Consultant, Institute of Public Administration, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Eduardo Astigarraga (PhD in Creative Writing)
Dissertation title: “Once a King”
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Broward College
Alan Blair (PhD in Creative Writing)
Dissertation title: “The Mermaid’s Brother with Critical Introduction”
Lecturer, Department of English, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lindsay Clark (PhD in Rhetoric and Writing Studies)
Dissertation title: “Complicating and Clarifying Disciplinary Writing Practices: The
Toggling Move for Building Rhetorical Flexibility”
Assistant Professor of Business Communication, Department of General Business and
Finance, Sam Houston State University
Autumn Finley (PhD in Literature)
Dissertation title: “Samuel Richardson’s ‘Clarissa’ and the Byronic Hero: A Libertine’s
Progress Through the Gothic”
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Southwestern Baptist University
Bryan Jones (PhD in Rhetoric and Writing Studies)
Dissertation title: “V is What Democracy Looks Like: Image Politics and the Guy Fawkes
Mask”
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of English, Oklahoma State University
Dustin Morris (PhD in Rhetoric and Writing Studies)
Dissertation title: “Texts in the Age of Digital Reproduction: A Rhetoric of Authenticity
in the Multimodal Classroom”
Post Doctoral Researcher, Department of English, University of Delaware
Christopher Perkins (PhD in Rhetoric and Writing Studies)
Dissertation title: “Laughing From the Outside: Hipsters and American Stand-up Comedy”
Assistant Professor, Department of Liberal Arts/Communications, Tulsa Community College
James Seth (PhD in Literature)
Dissertation title: “Shakespeare’s Sea Creatures”
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Central Washington University
Recent MA/MFA Alumni
2021
Anthony Freeman (MFA in Creative Writing)
Thesis Title: Death Says Hello
Adjunct Instructor, Department of English, Oklahoma State University
Lyndsey Key (MA in Rhetoric and Writing Studies)
Thesis Title: Works in Progress: Establishing Best Practices for Graduate Pedagogy
Ph.D Student, Department of English, Oklahoma State University
2020
Jennifer Hudgens (MFA in Creative Writing)
Thesis Title: How We Met With Our Ghosts
Ph.D Student, Department of English, Oklahoma State University
Kaila Lancaster (MFA in Creative Writing)
Thesis Title: For Your Safety and Other Stories
Ph.D Student, Department of English, Oklahoma State University
Wyeth Leslie (MFA in Creative Writing)
Thesis Title: This Machine Keeps the Ghost
Adjunct Instructor, Department of English, Tulsa Community College
Jenna Neece (MFA in Creative Writing)
Thesis Title: Raise a Glass to My Body
Adjunct Instructor, Department of English, Oklahoma State University
Jonathan Drake Swails (MFA in Creative Writing)
Thesis Title: Clouds of Dirt and Glass
Adjunct Instructor, Department of English, Oklahoma State University/Northern Oklahoma
College
Masoud Sheikhbahaie (MA in TESOL/Linguistics)
Thesis Title: A Sociophonetic Analysis of Farsi Vowel Systems Among Heritage Speakers
and Immigrants of Persian Ethnicity in Oklahoma
Graduate Student, Department of Linguistics, North Carolina State University
2019
Lyn Broyles (MA in Screen Studies)
Thesis title: “Female Authorship in the Slumber Party Massacre Trilogy”
Evaluator, Department of Undergraduate Admissions, Oklahoma State University
Eunhye Hess (MA in TESOL/Linguistics)
Thesis title: “Intercultural Communicative Competence in an IEP Listening and Speaking
Course: A Needs Analysis”
PhD Student, Department of English, Oklahoma State University
Courtney Whited (MA in Literature)
Thesis title: “My Body is Not Something You Can Land On: Indigenous Feminisms in Erika
T. Worth’s Prose”
Ph.D Student, University of Minnesota
2018
Liz Deegan (MA in Screen Studies)
Thesis title: “Disgustingly Queer: George Kuchar’s Video Diaries”
PhD Student, Department of English, Michigan State University
Tyler George (MA in Screen Studies)
Thesis title: “Literature Review: Stan Brakhage and the Institutions of the Avant-Garde”
Adjunct instructor, Department of English, Oklahoma State University
Vincent Landino (MA in Screen Studies)
Thesis title: “‘A Never-Ending Crescendo of Flair and Spectacle’: The Industrial Conditions Behind
Post-Continuity Hollywood”
Content Editor, ConsumerAffairs.com
Isabelle Sackett (MA in Literature)
Thesis title: “The Narrative of Salvation: Reading Four William Holman Hunt Paintings
as One Complete Story of Grace”
Undergraduate Admissions Counselor, Oklahoma State University
Emilie Tallent (MFA in Creative Writing)
Thesis title: “Octopus Rice: Stories”
Proposal Development Specialist, Department of Engineering Research, Oklahoma State University
Natasha Tinsley (MFA in Creative Writing)
Thesis title: “Limbs of a Starfish”
Assistant Professor, Department of Language and Literature, Southwestern Oklahoma
State University
Ian C. Williams (MFA in Creative Writing)
Thesis title: “I-80 Elegies”
English/Language Arts Teacher, Stillwater High School, Stillwater OK
2017
Austin Arkell (MA in Literature)
Thesis title: “Dressing in the City: An Examination of Jean Rhys’s Women and Their
Clothing”
English/Language Arts Teacher, Caurus Academy High School, Anthem, AZ
Galen Bunting (MA in Literature)
Thesis title: “‘A Kind of Ecstasy’: Queer Moments and the Power of the Closet in Mrs.
Dalloway”
PhD Student, Department of English, Northeastern University
Clemonce Heard (MFA in Creative Writing)
Thesis title: “Fella Fella”
Ronald Wallace Poetry Fellow, Department of Creative Writing, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Tulsa Art Fellow
Emma Murray (MFA in Creative Writing)
Thesis title: “Poems by Emma Murray”
Lecturer, Department of English, Iowa State University
Dakoda Smith (MA in Literature)
Thesis title: “Not Quite Satisfied: Theoretical Curiosity and Queer Africa”
PhD Student/Assistant Director of Composition, Department of English, University of
Louisville
Shanley Wells-Rau (MFA in Creative Writing)
Thesis title: “The House Feels it as a Wind”
Adjunct Instructor, Department of English, Oklahoma State University
Kate Click Williams (MFA in Creative Writing)
Thesis title: “What the Body Can Bear”
Adjunct Instructor, Department of English, Georgia Military College