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
2024
Breanna Beaty (M.A. in Literature)
Thesis Title: The Hidden Atheism and Criticism of Calvinism in Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus
Adjunct Instructor, Language Arts Department, Northern Oklahoma College
Hann Bingham Brunner (Ph.D. in TESOL/Linguistics)
Dissertation Title: Crip languaging: A linguistic and rhetorical analysis
Assistant Professor of Writing, Department of Core Education, Landmark College
Sarah Carvajal (M.F.A. in Creative Writing)
Thesis Title: The Blue
B2B Sales Program at AT&T
Sean Coolican (Ph.D. in Creative Writing)
Dissertation Title: Northeast Passage: The Incredible True Tale of Henry Hudson’s Return
Educator, Creative, Performing, and Media Arts School, San Diego
Danny Dobbs (M.A. in Screen Studies)
Thesis Title: A Cultural Dynasty: Joel Silver in 1980s High Concept
Ph.D. Student, Department of English, Oklahoma State University
Amanda Gaines (Ph.D. in Creative Writing)
Dissertation Title: The Memory Palace Has Many Doors (revised as Animaled)
Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Tennessee
Brianne Grothe (M.F.A. in Creative Writing)
Thesis Title: And Her Original Shame Was Hunger
Caleb Jordan (Ph.D. in Creative Writing)
Dissertation Title: Title of Dissertation: You're Gonna Break My Heart
Kaitlyn Long (M.A. in Rhetoric and Writing Studies)
Thesis Title: Finding Our Way: The Entangled Experiences of NPE Graduate Student-Instructors in First-Year Composition
Ph.D. Student, Rhetoric and Writing, Virginia Tech University
Payam Rahmati (Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics)
Dissertation Title: Exploring teachers' cognition and practices of pronunciation instruction: The impact of an online professional development program
Instructor at the ELIC
Alexandra Serbinovskaya (Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics)
Dissertation Title: Working with newcomer multilingual students: language policies, teachers’ needs, and professional development
Adjunct Instructor, Department of English, Oklahoma State University
2023
Rebecca Brings (Ph.D. in Literature)
Dissertation Title: Caring for Postcolonial Animals
Grant Currier (Ph.D. in Creative Writing)
Dissertation Title: We Will Not Grieve
Fulbright Instructor, American Literature and Culture, University of Debrecen, Hungary
Sara Gilbert (Ph.D. in Creative Writing)
Dissertation Title: 64 Baggot Street: A Novel
Communications Manager, Fr0ntierX
Dillon Hawkins (Ph.D. in Screen Studies)
Dissertation Title: Neoliberal Film Schools
English 12 teacher, Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences
Dani Putney (Ph.D. in Creative Writing)
Dissertation Title: Mix-Mix
Technical Editor, Stantec
Remi Recchia (Ph.D. in Creative Writing)
Dissertation Title: Addiction Apocalypse
Technical Editor, Fire Protection Publications
Amy Takebe (Ph.D. in TESOL/Linguistics)
Dissertation Title: Japanese Disaster Warning: Honorifics, Multimodality, Identity and Ideology
Associate Professor, Center for Language Studies, Otaru University of Commerce, Japan
2022
Alysse Gopalakrishnan (Ph.D. in Creative Writing)
Dissertation Title: FishWife
Associate Professor, Department of English, Colorado Mountain College
Svetlana Koltovskaia (Ph.D. in TESOL/Linguistics)
Dissertation Title: Automated writing evaluation for formative second language assessment: Exploring performance, teacher use, and student engagement
Assistant Professor, Department of Languages and Literature, Northeastern State University
Courtney Lund O’Neil (Ph.D. in Creative Writing)
Dissertation Title: Blooming: A Memoir
Lecturer, Analytical Writing Program, University of California-San Diego
Chrissy Martin (Ph.D. in Creative Writing)
Dissertation Title: Redshift: Poems
Visiting Assistant Professor of Poetry, Department of English, Centenary College of Louisana
Clare Paniccia (Ph.D. in Creative Writing)
Dissertation Title: Attachment Theories
Marketing Specialist, Wolf Tooth Components
Robert Redmon (Ph.D. in TESOL/Linguistics)
Dissertation Title: On the Development of a Twig: a Suite of Tools for the Analysis of Discourse on Twitter
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of English, Oklahoma State University
Rachele Salvini (Ph.D. in Creative Writing)
Dissertation Title: A History of Rock ‘n’ Roll Told By All My Exes
Emerging Writer Lecturer in Creative Writing, Department of English, Gettysburg College
Gretchen VanWormer (Ph.D. in Creative Writing)
Dissertation Title: Wormery: Essays
Lecturer in Creative Writing, Department of English, University of Vermont
Lisa Wright (Ph.D. in Creative Writing)
Dissertation Title: The Ring of Fire: A Memoir
Lecturer, Krieger School of Arts & Sciences, University Writing Program, Johns Hopkins University
Jared Young (Ph.D. in Literature)
Dissertation Title: Narrative Triage: Veterans, Disability, Race and the Popular Fiction of the Cold War
Assistant Professor, Department of English, SUNY-Orange
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
Assistant Professor, Eastern New Mexico 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
Nawal Ali Alzahrani (Ph.D. in TESOL/Linguistics)
Dissertation Title: A Comparative Study of Oral Proficiency in Direct (OPI) and Semi-direct (VOCI) Testing Modes: Measures of Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency
Deputy Director, English Language Center, Umm Al-Qura University
Tomie Bitton (Ph.D. in Creative Writing)
Dissertation Title: The Book of Tomie
Instructor, Pikes Peak Community College
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”
Visiting Assistant Professor, 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
Recent MA/MFA Alumni
2023
Mackenzie Tomlinson (MA in Literature)
Dissertation Title: Jane Austen and the Landscape Debate
Ph.D. Student, Department of English, Oklahoma State University
2022
Chris Baker (MFA in Creative Writing)
Thesis Title: Until Valhalla
Adjunct Instructor, Department of English, Oklahoma State University
Saga Savage (MFA in Creative Writing)
Thesis Title: Reliquary of the Rabbit-Hearted
Title Examiner, Western Land Services
2021
Andy Bodinger (MFA in Creative Writing)
Thesis Title: More Like Admiration and Other Stories
Ph.D. Student, Ohio State University
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
Ashlee Pilcher (MA in Rhetoric and Writing Studies)
Thesis Title: Starting the Studio: Creating and Operating a Multimodal Tutoring Center
Ph.D. Student, Texas Christian University
2020
Shima Dokhtzeynal (MA in TESOL/Linguistics)
Thesis Title: Second Generation Persians’ Participation in the Oklahoma Dialect
Ph.D. Student, Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies, University of Kentucky
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”
Graduate Admissions Counselor, American International College
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”
Student Advisor, Dept. of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, 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