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 |
|---|---|---|
| Elaine Auyoung Associate Professor |
310F Lind Hall 612-624-7803 eauyoung@umn.edu |
19th-century British literature, the novel, psychology of reading, aesthetics |
| Timothy Brennan Professor |
204 Nicholson Hall 612-626-1638 brenn032@umn.edu |
Continental literary and cultural theory, 19th-20th century comparative literature |
| Peter Campion Associate Professor |
14 Lind Hall 612-625-3503 pcampion@umn.edu |
Creative writing: poetry; poetry and the visual arts; prosody |
| Siobhan Craig Associate Professor |
50H Lind Hall 612-625-6087 craig026@umn.edu |
Italian and German cinema; literary, cultural, film, feminist, and queer theory |
| Andrew Elfenbein Professor |
207C Lind Hall 612-624-1373 elfen001@umn.edu |
British literature and history, 1700-1900; reading and cognition; queer theory; linguistics |
| Lianna Farber Associate Professor |
210K Lind Hall 612-626-7126 farbe004@umn.edu |
Medieval literature and thought |
| Megan Finch Assistant Professor |
15 Lind 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 Assistant Professor |
210M Lind Hall 612-626-7123 vganesha@umn.edu |
Creative writing, fiction, journalism |
| Brian Goldberg Associate Professor |
210L Lind Hall 612-626-7125 goldb016@umn.edu |
British romantic literature, restoration and 18th century literature, poetry |
| Ray Gonzalez Professor |
330A Lind Hall 612-625-0332 gonza049@umn.edu |
Creative writing: poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction; US Latino literature |
| David Haley Professor |
310C Lind Hall 612-625–6615 dbhaley@umn.edu |
History, literature and politics from 16th to 19th century, drama, Bible as literature |
| Michael Hancher Professor |
310B Lind Hall 612-625-5075 mh@umn.edu |
Victorian studies, book history, lexicography, digital humanities |
| Douglas Kearney Assistant Professor |
210C Lind 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 |
210E Lind Hall 612-626-7127 krugx001@umn.edu |
Late Medieval literature, religion, culture, literacy, nature, women's studies |
| Josephine Lee Professor |
310D Lind Hall 612-625-9510 jolee@umn.edu |
Dramatic literature, theater history, performance studies; Asian American studies |
| Nabil Matar Professor |
330C Lind Hall 612-626-8320 matar010@umn.edu |
Early modern Euro-Islamic contacts, 17th century British religious literature |
| Ellen Messer-Davidow Professor |
22 Lind Hall 612-625-2071 emd@umn.edu |
Cultural and social theory; 20th century American social movements, policy, and law |
|
Associate Professor
|
50C Lind Hall
|
20th-century US and African American literature; Ralph Ellison; literature and culture of the Great Depression;
The Literary Left and Communism in the US; critical theory
|
|
Assistant Professor
|
Creative writing: poetry, nonfiction | |
| Dan Philippon Associate Professor |
21 Lind Hall 612-624-4209 danp@umn.edu |
Environmental literature, history, and ethics; ideas of nature, culture, and place |
| Jani Scandura Associate Professor |
210D Lind Hall 612-625-9017 jani@umn.edu |
Cultural studies and critical theory; 20th century North American literatures, film, mass culture |
| Andrew Scheil Professor |
310E Lind Hall 612-625-9518 ascheil@umn.edu |
Anglo-Saxon language and literature, literatures of late antiquity/early Middle Ages |
| Katherine Scheil Professor |
330B Lind Hall 612-625-6592 kscheil@umn.edu |
Shakespeare, early modern lit, theatre, women writers, history of reading, 18th c lit |
| Julie Schumacher Professor |
336 Lind Hall 612-625-3459 schum003@umn.edu |
Creative writing: fiction, contemporary fiction, children's literature |
| Kim Todd Associate Professor |
20 Lind Hall 612-625-6095 kftodd@umn.edu |
Creative writing (literary nonfiction), science and environmental writing |
|
Assistant Professor
|
210J Lind Hall 612-625-0134 trocc004@umn.edu |
17th- through 19th-century American literature, puritan studies, early modern studies, religion and cognition |
| John Watkins Professor |
204 Lind Hall 612-624-8879 watki005@umn.edu |
Historiography, sovereignty and queenship, medieval and early modern diplomacy |
| Amit Yahav Associate Professor |
50A Lind Hall 612-626-7124 ayahav@umn.edu |
18th century, the novel, aesthetics, theory |
Affiliate Faculty
| Name | Contact | Specialties |
|---|---|---|
|
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 |
|
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 |
|
Writing Studies
|
233 Nolte 612-624-1784 gurakl@umn.edu |
Rhetorical theory; Internet studies; technical writing and communication; digital research methods |
|
Writing Studies
|
10 Nicholson 612-625-5355 kjamsen@umn.edu |
Writing across the curriculum, composition pedagogy, technology in writing centers and classrooms |
|
German, Nordic, Slavic & Dutch
|
327A Folwell Hall 612-624-4047 morri074@umn.edu |
20th century German and Austrian literature, poetry, Jewish studies |
|
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 |
|
Writing Studies
|
223 Nolte 612-625-5585 rossj001@umn.edu |
Travel writing; rhetoric of argument; computers in writing instruction; writing in academic disciplines |
Emeriti Faculty
Instructors
| Name | Contact |
|---|---|
| James Cihlar Senior Lecturer |
210G Lind Hall 612-624-6642 cihla002@umn.edu |
| Eric Daigre Senior Lecturer |
257 Lind Hall 612-626-9555 daig0004@umn.edu |
| Jenna Dreier Lecturer |
leste101@umn.edu |
| Heather Holcombe Lecturer |
259 Lind Hall 612-626-7614 hholcomb@umn.edu |
| Chris Kamerbeek Senior Lecturer |
256 Lind Hall 612-626-7119 kame0026@umn.edu |
| Erin Kottke Teaching Speclialist |
ekottke@umn.edu |
| Annemarie Lawless Lecturer |
258 Lind Hall 612-625-4881 lawle053@umn.edu |
| Melissa Licht Lecturer |
253 Lind Hall 612-626-7122 licht003@umn.edu |
| Steph Opitz Teaching Specialist |
opit0013@umn.edu |
|
Lecturer
|
|
| Miriam Queensen Teaching Specialist |
16 Lind Hall 612-625-3503 mqueense@umn.edu |
| Anne Roth-Reinhardt
Lecturer
|
258 Lind Hall 612-625-4881 roth0042@umn.edu |
| Ann Tandy-Treiber Senior Lecturer |
252 Lind Hall 612-626-7115 tandy004@umn.edu |
| Michael Tortorello Adjunct Assistant Professor |
17 Lind Hall 612-625-1325 torto005@umn.edu |
| Elizabeth Weixel Lecturer |
259 Lind Hall 612-626-7614 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 | Specialties |
|---|---|---|
|
Edelstein-Keller Writer in Residence
|
Creative Writing: literary nonfiction, memoir, children's literature |