English Faculty Accomplishments


Faculty Books

Aton Book - River Flowing from the Sunrise  Aton Book - Powell  Aton Book - River Knows Everything  Book - Dr. Kyle Bishop - American Zombie Gothic    Book - Bryce Christensen - Winning  Book by Dr. Wynne Summers - Women Elder's Life Stories from the Omaha Tribe  Book-ToddPetersen-Rift  Book - Todd Petersen - Long After Dark  

Book - Darrell Spencer - Bring Your Legs With You  Book - Darrell Spencer - Caution: Men in Trees  Book- Darrell Spencer - One Mile Past Dangerous Curve  Book - Darrell Spencer - Our Secret's Out

Spring 2015 - Michelle Frey at Knopf has acquired Rosalyn Eves's debut novel, The Blood Rose Rebellion. The romantic fantasy adventure set during the political unrest of 19th-century Europe follows a 16-year-old British socialite exiled to Hungary and swept up in a revolution to overturn world order. Publication is scheduled for fall 2016; Josh Adams at Adams Literary brokered the three-book deal for North American rights.

Spring 2014 - Dr. Julie Simon announced that her novel, "The Ghost Town Preservation Society," has been accepted for publication by Riverbend Publishing in Montana. She said this publisher primarily reprints books by Montana writers. She anticipates a year or more until actual publication.

Fall 2013 - Dr. James M. Aton has written a new book about artist Jim Jones. One section of the book, Jim Jones: The San Blas Years, was issued by SUU Press in September 2013 in conjunction with the Braithwaite Gallery. The gallery presented a show of the same name and Dr. Aton also curated the show that ran September 12 through November 9, 2013.

Spring 2013 - Dr. Bryce Christensen's book 'The Portals of Sheol' and Other Poems (Torrance: White Violet Press) was published in late 2012. It gained national attention with a favorable review in June 2013 in the American Library Association's Booklist. The illustrations and cover art for this book are by Jodi Dahlin, 2008 SUU valedictorian. One of the poems in this collection (namely, "English 101" - one of 41 poems comprised in this collection) was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Dr. Kyle Bishop's book American Zombie Gothic: The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of the Walking Dead in Popular Culture was published by McFarland & Co., Publishers in 2010.

Dr. Darrell Spencer's book Caution: Men in Trees was published in 2010 by University of Georgia Press (and in 2002 by W.W. Norton & Company. First published in 2000.)

Dr. Wynne Summers's book Women Elders' Life Stories from the Omaha Tribe, Macy, Nebraska, 2004-2005 was published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2010.

Dr. James M. Aton's book, John Wesley Powell, His Life and Legacy, was published by the University of Utah Press in 2009.

Dr. James M. Aton's book The River Knows Everything: Desolation Canyon and the Green was published by Utah State University Press in 2009.

Dr. Todd Petersen's novel Rift was published by Zarahemla Books in 2009.

Dr. Todd Petersen's book Long After Dark was published by Zarahemla Books in 2007.

Dr. Bryce Christensen's book Winning was published by Whiskey Creek Press in 2007.

Dr. Darrell Spencer's book One Mile Past Dangerous Curve was published in 2005 by University of Michigan Press/Regional.

Dr. Darrell Spencer's book Bring Your Legs With You was published in 2004 by University of Pittsburgh Press.

Dr. James M. Aton's book River Flowing From Sunrise: An Environmental History of the Lower San Juan was published by Utah State University Press in 2000.

Dr. Darrell Spencer's book Our Secret's Out was published in 1993 by University of Missouri.

Dr. Darrell Spencer's book Woman Packing A Pistol was published by Dragon Gate Inc. in 1987.

Back to top


Faculty Awards & Features

Fall 2014 - Dr. Danielle Dubrasky's chapbook “Ruin and Light” won the 2014 Anabiosis Press Chapbook Competition.

Spring 2014 - Dr. Lisa Arter was the Member Spotlight for Kappa Delta Pi Global website for winter 2014. KDP is the international honors society for educators and she was chosen for her work with pre-service teachers.

Fall 2013 - Dr. Julie Simon won first place in the novel category of the Utah Arts Council's Original Writing Contest. Her novel is titled "The Ghost Town Preservation Society." It was judged by Brian Evenson who had the following commentary about the book:

"A complex story about the relationship of the present to the past, about the way the present is formed by the ghosts and secrets that exist behind it. There's a great vividness to the writing style here as well as a careful attention to small detail, and characters in particular are built with care. Strongest of all is the rendering of the place, and the way in which the writer consistently demonstrates the way places take on a sometimes painfully human resonance. A quiet but strong story that tries to get at the heart of what it means to a person who comes from somewhere."

http://heritage.utah.gov/arts-and-museums/ops-competition-original-writing-competition

Fall 2013 - Dr. Danielle Dubrasky received an Award for Achievement in Experiential Learning by the SUU University College for 2013-2014.

Fall 2013 - Dr. Bryce Christensen was chosen for the Distinguished Faculty Lectureship for 2014.

October 2013 - The Department of English presented the following outstanding faculty awards for 2012-13: Outstanding Educator – Dr. Danielle Dubrasky; Outstanding Scholar – Dr. Bryce Christensen; Outstanding Lecturer – Dr. Julia Combs.

August 2013 - Dr. Darrell Spencer was featured in an article in SUU's 2013 "Extraordinary Educators" publication.

Dr. James M. Aton was named the first recipient of the Trustees Award of Excellence (2011).

Dr. Danielle Dubrasky's poem "The Sand Man" won first place in the 2011 Utah Arts Council Original Writing Competition for best poem. The poem was written as a residence fellow at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and the poetry competition was judged by Wyn Cooper from Vermont (Cooper is author of The Country of Here Below [Ahsahta Press, 1987], The Way Back [White Pine Press, 2000], Postcards from the Interior [BOA Editions, 2005], Chaos is the New Calm [BOA Editions, 2010], and Secret Ad [Chapiteau Press, 2002]).

Dr. James M. Aton was recognized as the 2010 "Outstanding Scholar" for SUU.

Drs. Kyle Bishop and Wynne Summers were named as SUU "Distinguished Educators" in 2010.

Dr. Todd Petersen won the 2009 Association for Mormon Letters Award for his novel, Rift.

Back to top


Faculty Publications

February 2015 - Dr. Lisa Arter had an article published in the Education Update by ASCD (in Feb).

Dr. Bryce Christensen's sonnet "Gated Community" just appeared in the April 2015 issue of First Things. At this point, it is available on-line only to subscribers. After it is archived, non-subscribers can access it. Here is a scanned copy.

Spring 2015 - Artist's Of Utah - 15 Bytes - SUNDAY BLOG READ: Dr. Danielle Beazer Dubrasky - by DAVID G. PACE on Mar 15, 2015 - three works, including the opening poem from her chapbook, Ruin and Light, forthcoming in May from Anabiosis Press.
http://artistsofutah.org/15Bytes/index.php/sunday-blog-read-danielle-beazer-dubrasky/

Spring 2015 - Contrary Magazine - Six poems by Dr. Danielle Beazer Dubrasky - These poems are excerpts from a manuscript that won the 2014 Anabiosis Press Chapbook competition. http://contrarymagazine.com/2015/six-poems/

Spring 2015 - Dr. Kyle Bishop had an article published titled: “L’émergence des Zombie Studies: comment les morts-vivants ont envahi le monde universitaire et pourquoi nous devrions nous en soucier.” Z pour Zombies. Eds. Bernard Perron, Antonio Dominguez Leiva, and Samuel Archibald. Montreal: Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 2015. 31–44.

Spring 2015 - Dr. Kyle Bishop had an article published titled: "'I always wanted to see how the other half lives': The Contemporary Zombie as Seductive Proselyte." The Zombie Renaissance in Popular Culture. Laura Huber, Marcus Leaning, and Paul Manning, eds. London: Palsgrave Macmillan, 2015. 26-38.

Fall 2014 - Dr. Kyle Bishop had an article published titled "What Happens Next?: Endgames of a Zombie Apocalypse." With David Tufte and Mary Jo Tufte. Economics of the Undead: Zombies, Vampires, and the Dismal Science. Glen Whitman and James Dow, eds. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. 51-63.

Summer 2014 - Dr. Bryce Christensen had an article published titled “Closing America’s ‘Factory of Individual Character’: The Social and Political Consequences of a Bankrupt Home Economy”—in The Free Market and the Human Condition: Essays on Economics and Culture, edited by Lee Trepanier, published in 2014 by Lexington Books (Lanham, Maryland). This book is a collection of scholarly articles based on a conference sponsored in 2013 by the Grace A. Tanner Center for Human Values at Southern Utah University.

Summer 2014 - Dr. Rosalyn Eves published “Finding Place to Speak: Sarah Winnemucca’s Rhetorical Practices in Disciplinary Spaces,” Legacy 31.1 (2014): 1-22.

Summer 2014 - Dr. Rosalyn Eves (With Aesha Adams and Elizabeth Rohan) published “ ‘With the Tongue of [Wo]men and Angels’: Apostolic Rhetoric among Religious Women.” Renovating Rhetoric and the Christian Tradition. Eds. Elizabeth Vander Lei, Tom Amorose, Beth Daniell, and Anne Gere. Pittsburgh, PA: U of Pittsburgh P, 2014

Summer 2014 - Dr. Julia Combs has had an article published titled "There’s No Place like Home:Constructing Ethos in Dorothy Leigh’s Seventeenth-Century Conduct Manual.” Ben Jonson Journal 21.1 (2014):114-126. Edinburgh University Press

Spring 2014 - Dayna J. Defeo and Fawn R. Caparas published “Tutoring as Transformative Work: A Phenomenological Case Study of Tutors’ Experiences” in the Journal of College Reading & Learning. 44.2 (2014):141-163.

Spring 2014 - Dr. Bryce Christensen's essay "Family Disintegration and Religious Apostasy," a review of How the West Really Lost God: A New Theory of Secularization, by Mary Eberstadt was published in the latest issue of Modern Age.

March 2014 - Dr. Rosalyn Eves, Aesha Adams Roberts, and Liz Rohan published an article titled “ ‘With the Tongue of [Wo]men and Angels’: Apostolic Rhetorical Practices among Religious Women” in Renovating Rhetoric in Christian Tradition, ed. Elizabeth Vander Lei, Thomas Amorose, Beth Daniell, Anne Ruggles Gere. Pittsburgh: U of Pitt P, 2014.

Fall 2013 - Dr. Darrell Spencer's story "Squeeze Me, I Sing" was published in Georgia Review (Vol. 66, No. 1) in 2012. The publication received recognition and a listing in the "Other Distinguished Stories of 2012" category in The Best American Short Stories 2013; an anthology selected from US and Canadian magazines.

Fall 2013 - Dr. Bryce Christensen has had a sonnet published. "Monuments" just appeared in the October issue of First Things. The poem is only available in print through October 2013, but can be accessed at the First Things website when it is archived in November. A scanned .pdf version is available.

Summer 2013 - Dr. Bryce Christensen published an article (titled "A God or a Biological By-Product? Rethinking the Imaginative Place of Man in the Post-Copernican Cosmos" in The Human in July 2013.

Spring 2013 - Dr. Bryce Christensen had a published sonnet: “Collections.” Trinacria 9 (2013): 69. Nominated for a 2014 Pushcart Prize. Spring 2013.

Fall 2012 - Modern Age published three sonnets by Dr. Bryce Christensen ("Purchase," "Clausius in Bonn," and "Sun Dial") in its Fall/Winter 2012 issue.

Fall 2012 - Adjunct Lecturer Dallin Bundy wrote the following book review for the Western American Literature literary magazine: "Riding Shotgun into the Promised Land by John Lloyd Purdy." Western American Literature 47.3 (2012): 317-138. Print.

Fall 2012 - Dr. Danielle Dubrasky's 2nd poetry manuscript, Ruin and Light, was recognized in the Elixer Press 13th Annual Poetry Awards as a semi-finalist. There were around 500 submissions nationwide and 14% were selected a semi-finalists. This manuscript includes the new set of poems "Ruin and Light" that she worked on while at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts during her sabbatical and are the same poems she read at the Fall 2012 RMMLA Conference.

Fall 2012 - Dr. Kyle Bishop presented “‘We Are the Walking Dead!’: Why Zombies Matter” on Tuesday, Sept. 4, as the 2012 Tanner Distinguished Faculty Lecturer.

Fall 2012 - Dr. Darrell Spencer's story "Can I Help Who's Next?" (originally published in the Idaho Review) was listed in Best American Short Stories 2012 in the "Other Distinguished Stories 2011."

Fall 2012 - Dr. Bryce Christensen's article "Tragedy Without Tears? Confronting the Temporal Contradictions in C.P. Snow's Understanding of Tragedy in a Scientific World" appeared in the November 2012 issue of Philament TIME.

Fall 2012 - A poem by Dr. Bryce Christensen "English 101" was re-published in The Victorian Violet Press Poetry Journal.

Fall 2012 - A poem, "Travel Magazine - Revised" by Dr. Bryce Christensen was published in the November 2012 issue of First Things journal. It is available online at http://www.firstthings.com.

Dr. Jess Tvordi's chapter "The Poet in Exile: Robert Herrick and the "loathed Country-life" was published in Rural Space in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age, ed. Albrecht Classen (De Gruyter, 2012).

Dr. Kyle Bishop and Dr. Todd Petersen co-authored the chapter “From the Earth to Poe to the Moon: The Science Fiction Narrative as Precursor to Technological Reality,” which appears in the new critical anthology Adapting Poe: Re-Imaginings in Popular Culture (eds. Dennis R. Perry and Carl H. Sederholm; Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012; 165–177).

Dr. Danielle Dubrasky's poem "Snow in March" was accepted for publication in by Cave Wall Press.

Dr. Jeffrey W. Perry's essay "Critical Validity Inquiry" was published in Practicing Research in Writing Studies by Hampton Press.

Dr. Bryce Christensen's essay “'Only Collect[ing] the Fragments’: The Inadequacy of an Entirely Secular Approach to the Liberal Arts" was published in The Liberal Arts in America by Southern Utah University Press/Grace A. Tanner Center for Human Values.

Dr. Bryce Christensen's essay "The Mandarin Moralist and the Reckless Rebel: The Improbable Literary Friendship of Du Fu and Li Bai" was published in Rupkatha.

Dr. Bryce Christensen's sonnet "Undone" appeared in the January '12 issue of First Things.

Dr. Bryce Christensen's essay “Darwin vs. Wallace: When Poetry Dies and When Poetry Survives in the Not-So-Natural Selection of Memetic Evolution” was accepted for publication in the December issue of Changing English.

Dr. Kyle Bishop's essay "'If Only Your Father Were Here!': The Threat of the Gothic Patriarchy in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds"was published in the fall 2011 issue of The Rocky Mountain Review.

Dr. Bryce Christensen's article "From Inert Insight to Incendiary Indictment: The Rhetorical History and Future of C.P. Snow's 'Two Cultures'" was published in The International Journal of the Humanities.

Dr. Rosalyn Eves published "That We Might Become 'A Peculiar People': Spatial Rhetoric as a Resource for Identification" in Rhetoric: Concord and Controversy (edited by Antonio de Valasco and Melody Lehn) from Waveland Press (2011 [265-74]).

Dr. Nozomi Irei's article, "Celan and Poetic Communication: The Poem and Becoming Word," was published in Southern Review, Vol. 25, December 2010.

Dr. Danielle Beazer Dubrasky's manuscript "Drift Migrations" was selected as a finalist for the 2010 White Pines Poetry Book Prize. Her manuscript was one of 20 chosen out of 500 manuscripts for this national competition. A selection of her poems has been published in a poetry anthology titled Fire in the Pasture.

Dr. Christensen published "The Xing Moment: How the Li Ho-Edgar Allan Poe Connection Creates a Cross-Cultural Bridge" in Trans-Portal: The Hub of Transformation Studies.

Dr. Kyle Bishop contributed a chapter titled "The Pathos of The Walking Dead: Bringing the Terror Back to Zombie Cinema" to the new Smart Pop book Triumph of the Walking Dead: Robert Kirkman's Zombie Epic on Page and Screen" (edited by James Lowder).

Dr. Kyle Bishop's essay "Vacationing in Zombieland: The Classical Functions of the Modern Zombie Comedy" appeared in the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts.

Dr. James M. Aton's article with Steven L. Gerber, "Empires and Homesteads: Making a Living in Range Creek," appeared in the Winter 2011 issue of Utah Historical Quarterly.

Dr. Bryce Christensen's sonnet "Ultimate Grammar" appeared in the December issue of First Things.

Dr. Jessica Tvordi's essay "Banishing Ganymede at Whitehall: Jove’s 'loathsome staines' and Fictions of Britain in Thomas Carew’s Coelum Britannicum" was published in volume 31 of Quidditas (2010).

Professor Charles Cuthbertson's poems "Jenny on the Water, Jenny on the Beach" and "Flying" were published in new graffiti.

Dr. Bryce Christensen published a sonnet titled "Final Perspective" in Lucid Rhythms. In addition, his poem "Bayside Immortals" was anthologized in Grace Notes, edited by Paul Lake and Losana Boyd, an anthology of poetry selected from poems published during the last twenty years in the monthly journal First Things.

Dr. Bryce Christensen's essay “Schooling for ‘the Democracy of the Dead’: How the Liberal Arts Connect Us with the Legacy of the Past”  was published in The Democratic Discourse of Liberal Education, edited by Lee Trepanier (Southern Utah University Press/Grace A. Tanner Center for Human Values, 2010).

Dr. Jessica Tvordi's essay, "The Comic Personas of Milton's Prolusion VI: Negotiating Masculine Identity through Self-Directed Humor" was published in Laughter in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times (De Gruyter, 2010).

Dr. Bryce Christensen's essay “In the Beginning, the Word. In the End, the Image? The Cultural and Political Consequences of the Visual Mentality” was published in Technology,Science, and Democracy, edited by Lee Trepanier (Southern Utah University Press/Grace A. Tanner Center for Human Values, 2010).

Dr. Kyle Bishop's article, "Assemblage Filmmaking: Approaching the Multi-Source Adaptation and Reexamining George Romero's Night of the Living Dead," was published in Adaptation Studies: New Beginnings (Farleigh Dickinson UP, 2010).

Dr. Kyle Bishop's essay, "The Idle Proletariat: Dawn of the Dead, Consumer Ideology, and the Loss of Productive Labor," was published in the April 2010 issue of The Journal of Popular Culture (43.2).

Dr. Bryce Christensen published two poems, the original "The Portals of Sheol" and the translation "A Song to Death," in the summer 2009 issue of Lucid Rhythms.

Dr. Jessica Tvordi's essay "'In quarter and in terms like bride and groom': Reconfiguring Marriage, Friendship, and Alliance in Othello" was published in the 2009 issue of The Journal of the Wooden O Symposium.

Three of Dr. Bryce Christensen’s poems were accepted for publication in spring 2009: “Dragonfly” (in Lucid Rhythms) and “John von Neumann” and “Alamogordo” (in The Centrifugal Eye).

Dr. Kyle Bishop’s essay "Dead Man Still Walking: Explaining the Zombie Renaissance" was published in The Journal of Popular Film and Television in May 2009.

Dr. Julie Simon's essays, "Voiceprinting—How Its Failures Speak," was published in a Cambridge Scholars Publishing anthology entitled Negotiating a Meta-Pedagogy in February 2009.

Dr. Julie Simon's article "'Tutorizing' Certification Programs" was published in The Writing Lab Newsletter in January 2009.

Back to top


Faculty Presentations, Workshops, and Readings

Four SUU professors presented papers at the SWAPCA Conference in Albuquerque, NM, February 11-14, 2015. Dr. Danielle Dubrasky presented a creative non-fiction work titled "Drift Migration." She also presented "Intersecting Borders of Identity: Poetry from “Contemporary Rural Social Work” Journal." Dr. Lisa Arter presented "Children’s Perceptions of Gender." Professor Joy Sterrantino presented "Want to Understand Shakespeare’s Plays? Read Comics." Dr. Kyle Bishop presented "Unnatural Selection: (De)Evolution and the Future of Zombie Television." Dr. Bishop also participated in a panel titled "Roundtable: What Is a Zombie?"

Dr. Lisa Arter was appointed to participate on the Governor's Panel for Evaluating Utah Core Standards: Language Arts Committee. She traveled to Salt Lake City numerous times during November and December 2014.

Dr. Jessica Tvordi attended the "What is an Educated Person" Conference in Midway, Utah October 30-31, 2014.

On October 30, 2014, in conjunction with the “50 from 6” exhibition at the Braithwaite Gallery, Dr. Danielle Dubrasky, Associate Professor of Creative Writing, read from her poem “The Sandman” as part of a "Making Metaphor in the Literary and Visual Arts" presentation. After the reading, Russell Wrankle, Assistant Professor of Art, and Dr. Dubrasky sat down to discuss the creative intersection of making metaphor in the literary and visual arts.

Dr. Danielle Dubrasky was invited by the Zion Arts & Humanities Council to give a day-long creative writing workshop in Springdale, Utah at the Zion Canyon Community Center on October 25, 2014. The workshop was titled "Symbolic Landscapes: A Poetry Workshop."

Three SUU Writing Center Tutors and Writing Center Director Dr. Julia Combs presented papers at the 2014 joint conference of the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing and the International Writing Center Association October 30 through November 1 in Orlando, Florida. Rebekah Tobler presented "Tutors as Imagineers: Rethinking the Rhetoric of Writing Center Websites." Chris Christiansen presented "A Whole New World: Using Unfamiliar Tools to Chart Unfamiliar Territory Across Disciplines." Naomi White presented "Wish Upon a Star: How the Writing Center Makes Dreams Come True." Dr. Combs was on two panels discussing "Writing Center Research: a Portal for Professionalizing Undergraduate Staff" and"The Everyday Emotions of Students, Consultants, and Writing Center Directors."

Three English Department professors presented at the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Conference October 9-11, 2014 in Boise, Idaho. Professors Eric J. Morrow and Nathan Price presented “Put Down the Phone and Write: Engaging First Year Writing Students through Mindfulness and Ken Bain’s Strategies for Effective College Teaching.” Dr. Bryce Christensen presented “Resisting ‘Single Vision and Newton’s Sleep’: The Poetic Vision of the ‘Heretic’ Freeman Dyson.”

Three English Department professors presented papers at the Popular Cultural Association of the South Conference in New Orleans October 2-4, 2014. Dr. Kyle Bishop presented "The Last of Us and Mycological Zombies: The Digital Evolution of the Walking Dead." He also chaired the session "Playing with the Zombie." Professor Charla Strosser presented "Sherlock and the Case of the Feminist Fans." And Dr. Todd Petersen presented "From the iPhone to the Dinemagraphe: A Digital Return Non-Narrative Short Film."

The annual SUU "Great Raft Debate: Who will survive for the sake of humanity?" was held September 23, 2014. English Professor Charla Strosser argued for the College of Humanities & Social Sciences and English Department Chair Dr. Kyle Bishop argued the Devil's Advocate position.

On September 4, 2014, Dr. Bryce Christensen presented the SUU Distinguished Faculty Honor Lecture as part of the university's Convocations series. His topic was "Protecting the Magic: How Poetry Survives in a Scientific World."Lecture booklet

Dr. Danielle Dubrasky and Scott R. Sorensen presented "Embracing Regional Diversity: An Introduction to the Poetry Section of Contemporary Rural Social Work" during the National Rural Social Work Conference at Western New Mexico University in Silver City, New Mexico July 18, 2014.

Professor Patricia Eagan presented her manuscript chapter "Scene: The Essential Building Blocks of Story" at the University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival in Iowa City, Iowa June 15-20, 2014.

Dr. Danielle Dubrasky, Scott Sorensen, Andrea Donovan, and Grant Corser presented "Identifying Sacred Space Through Poetry: Collaborative Interdisciplinary Group Research Alongside Women Resisting Intimate Partner Violence" at the Symposium of the International Association for Social Work with Groups in Calgary, Alberta, Canada June 5-8, 2014.

Dr. Lisa Arter presented "Peer Predators: YA Literature and the Problem of Bullying" at the Louisiana State University Young Adult Literature Conference & Seminar in Baton Rouge, Louisiana June 2-6, 2014. She also led a workshop session for secondary teachers on incorporating more historical narrative and non-fiction in the classroom.

Dr. Bryce Christensen presented "'Ah, There's the Grief' - A Biographical Reading of the Poetry of Li Ching-chao" at the American Culture Association/Popular Culture Association Conference in Chicago, Illinois April 16-19, 2014.

Dr. Julia Combs attended the National Council of Teachers of English Conference on College Composition and Communication in Indianapolis, Indiana March 19-22, 2014.

Professor Nathan Price attended the National Council of Teachers of English Conference on College Composition and Communication in Indianapolis, Indiana March 19-22, 2014.

Dr. Kyle Bishop presented "New York City as Infected Zombie Body: The Cynical Nostalgia of Colson Whitehead's 'Zone One'" at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando, Florida March 19-23, 2014. He was also chair of the session "Graphic by Design."

Dr. Danielle Dubrasky attended pedagogy workshops at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference in Seattle, Washington February 25-March 1, 2014.

Dr. Kyle Bishop was panel chair of "Zombie Culture 4: Unique Narratives"; sat on a panel: "Zombie Culture 6: Roundtable: "Whither the Zombie?"; and presented "The Game Show Zombie: 'Dead Set,' 'Uncle Vanya and Zombies,' and the Reality-TV Monster" at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference February 19-22 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Dr. Lisa Arter presented "Predatory Peers: The Power of Young Adult Realistic Fiction and the Culture of Bullying" at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference February 19-22 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Dr. Danielle Dubrasky presented "Dreamers at the Threshold: The Poetics of Symbolic Transformation in Rita Dove's 'Thomas and Beulah'"at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference February 19-22 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Professor Joy Sterrantino presented "Integration and Emulation: Video Games in Subject and Form in the Composition Classroom" at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference February 19-22 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Professor Jennifer Sorensen presented "Personal Phatness: Image Manipulation in Social Media" at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference February 19-22 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Professor Charla Strosser presented "A Study in Transformation: Rediscovering Sherlock Holmes" at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference February 19-22 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

During his Fall 2013 sabbatical, Dr. Bryce Christensen gave his presentation "Of Sonnets and Subphylums: How Poetry Lives (or Dies) in a Scientific World" for the Utah Valley University Honors Program, for a conference at BYU sponsored by the Office for Research and Creative Activity, and for the Forum Series at Dixie State University. He also gave this presentation at a number of high schools.

Dr. Kyle Bishop presented "Zombie Depression: Metaphors and Anthropology in 'The Walking Dead'" at the Identity and Emotions in Contemporary TV-Series Conference October 24-26, 2013 at the Universidad de Navarra in Pamplona, Navarra, Spain.

Dr. Julia Combs attended the Utah State University Educated Person Conference October 17-19, 2013 in Midway, Utah.

Dr. Julia Combs attended the Rocky Mountain Peer Tutoring Conference October 18-19 at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

Fall 2013 - At the 2013 Rocky Mountain Language Association Conference in Vancouver, Washington, SUU English Department faculty presented the following papers: Dr. Kyle Bishop presented "Zombie Friend, Zombie Lover: When the Walking Dead Becomes the Monsterous Boyfriend," Dr. Bryce Christensen presented "Black Magic vs. White Magic in Hawthorne’s ‘Birthmark’: The Science of Control vs. the Poetics of Imagination," Dr. Danielle Dubrasky presented "From Dreamer to Poet: The Symbolic Transformation of Thomas in 'Thomas and Beulah,'" and Professor Charla Strosser presented "The Censored Cinderella: Incest, Punishment, and Redemption in the Cinderella Tale Types."

Dr. Julia Combs presented "The House the Dorothy Built: Constructing Ethos in Dorothy Leigh’s Seventeenth- Century Conduct Manual" at the Global Space and Place Conference September 6-15, 2013 at Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom.

Dr. Danielle Dubrasky presented "The Inclusion of Rural Landscape for Healing in Poetry Therapy Groups" at the National Institute for Social Work and Human Services in Rural Areas Conference sponsored by Millersville University July 16-21, 2013 in Millersville, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Nozomi Irei presented the results of a semester-long distance mentoring project titled "Topics in Japanese Literature: "Iki" and the West" at the annual COPLAC Conference at Shephard's University in West Virginia June 21, 2013. The project consisted of participation in semester-long distance-mentoring pilot project for COPLAC upon invitation by the COPLAC Director. It was a semester-long research course conducted via weekly interactive video conferencing and experimentation with other media. It was an independent study-like course on Japanese Literature with comparative component since the student was an English major and French minor. Major texts such as from classical poetry were introduced but also relevance to modern Japanese literature, as in Akutagawa Ryunosuke's short stories and Mishima Yukio and Endo Shusaku's novels. The course culminated in investigating the difficult notion of "Iki" as analyzed by philosophers Kuki Shuzo and Martin Heidegger. The project was significant in that 1) content-wise, it allowed further exploration of the problem of "Iki" and whether it can be located in the "West", which is a yet-unresolved question that affects how any cross-cultural analyses are conducted (e.g., how do we approach World Literature courses?); and 2) the student and I were able to experiment with recent technology to see how distance-mentoring was/was not a viable path for other COPLAC universities to pursue on a larger scale. It was a successful semester; taking advantage of video conferencing, etc.

Spring 2013 - Dr. Bryce Christensen gave a presentation at a scholarly conference: “‘White Clouds that Never End’: The Poetry of Wang Wei as Buddhist Koan.” It was the joint annual convention of the Popular Culture Association Conference and the American Culture Association. Washington Marriot Wardman Park. March 28, 2013.

Fall 2012 - Dr. Bryce Christensen gave a presentation “A God or a Biological By-Product? Rethinking the Imaginative Place of Man in the Post-Copernican Cosmos” at the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, Sixty-Sixth Annual Convention in Boulder, Colorado, October 12, 2012.

Fall 2012 - Dr. Julia Combs presented "Mother Knows Best: Ethos in Dorothy Leigh's Seventeenth-Century Conduct Manual The Mother's Blessing" at the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, Sixty-Sixth Annual Convention in Boulder, Colorado, October 12, 2012. Leigh's Mother's Blessing is bound in three editions with The Father's Blessing, an adaptation of King James's conduct manual for princes: Basilikon Doron. Combs' paper argues that Leigh's careful construction of ethos moved her writing beyond the conduct manual genre and into a public debate with the "father" of the entire British realm.

Fall 2012 - Professor Charles Cuthbertson presented a paper, "'Seeds Blowin' Up the Highway': Archetypes and Relevance in the Lyrics of Bruce Springsteen" at the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, Sixty-Sixth Annual Convention in Boulder, Colorado, October 12, 2012. His paper argues that Springsteen's song lyrics follow the tradition of lyric verse and reflect a poetic consciousness that will continue to remain relevant long after the specific circumstances of the songs' composition is forgotten.

Fall 2012 - Dr. Nozomi Irei presented a paper, "Mishima's Cinematic Image vs. Literary Image; Haptic Space and the Unrepresentable" at the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, Sixty-Sixth Annual Convention in Boulder, Colorado, October 12, 2012. She also served as chair of the Special Topics section discussing "Blanchot and the Space of Literature."

Fall 2012 - Dr. Kyle Bishop presented "To Live, to Die, or to Go Zombie: Teenage Anxiety in The Forest of Hands and Teeth" at the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, Sixty-Sixth Annual Convention in Boulder, Colorado, October 12, 2012.

Fall 2012 - Dr. Kyle Bishop presented “‘We Are the Walking Dead!’: Why Zombies Matter” on Tuesday, Sept. 4, as the 2012 Tanner Distinguished Faculty Lecturer.

Summer 2012 - Dr. Julia Combs successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation "'Carefull' Ethos: The Construction of Ethos in Dorothy Leigh's The Mother's Blessing" on July 19, 2012 from the University of Nevada Las Vegas (Writing and Rhetoric emphasis).

Summer 2012 - Dr. Kyle Bishop was the lead keynote speaker at "Invasion Montreal," the First International Academic Conference on Zombies. He presented “The Rise of Zombie Studies: How the Walking Dead Invaded the Academy—and Why It Matters" to a bilingual audience of international scholars in July 2012.

Summer 2012 - Dr. Kyle Bishop gave a presentation on The Walking Dead at the 2012 World Horror Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Spring 2012 - Dr. Kyle Bishop and Professor Charles Cuthbertson both presented at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando, the former on zombie cinema and the latter on Planet of the Apes.

Spring 2012 - Dr. Danielle Dubrasky gave a poetry reading at Ken Sanders Rare Books in Salt Lake City on Saturday, February 25, at 7:00. The reading featured poets from a recently published poetry anthology, Fire in the Pasture.

Spring 2012 - Dr. Danielle Dubrasky's poem "The Sand Man" won first place in the 2011 Utah Arts Council Original Writing Competition for best poem. The poem was written as a residence fellow at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and the poetry competition was judged by Wyn Cooper from Vermont (Cooper is author of The Country of Here Below [Ahsahta Press, 1987], The Way Back [White Pine Press, 2000], Postcards from the Interior [BOA Editions, 2005], Chaos is the New Calm [BOA Editions, 2010], and Secret Ad [Chapiteau Press, 2002]).

Spring 2012 - Dr. Kyle Bishop and Professor Charles Cuthbertson both presented at SUU as part of Black History Month.

Dr. Kyle Bishop spoke as the featured guest for a zombie symposium at Brown University, presenting “Walking Dead U: How the Zombie Renaissance Makes Zombie Studies Possible."

Dr. James M. Aton spoke at the Moab River Rendezvous, November 12. He discussed his award-winning book on the environmental history of the San Juan River, River Flowing from the Sunrise.

Dr. Julia Combs presented "Selective Amnesia: Discourses of Feminism in Early Seventeenth-Century Conduct Manuals" at the Feminism and Rhetorics 2011 in Mankato, Minnesota in October.

Dr. Kyle Bishop spoke as the featured Halloween MAD lecturer for the SUU Honors Program. His presentation, “Zombie Nation: The Allegorical Function(s) of the Walking Dead in Twenty-first Century Culture,” took place on Wednesday, October 26, at 7 p.m. in the Sterling Church Auditorium.

Dr. Rosalyn Eves presented a paper, "Mapping Rhetorical Frontiers: Rhetorics of Space in Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona," at the Western States Rhetoric and Literacy Conference, October 21, in Phoenix, AZ.

Dr. Danielle Beazer Dubrasky read her poetry on Thursday, Oct. 13, at 11:30 at the Outdoor Engagement Center in the Student Center as part of the Outdoor Education Series.

A number of faculty presented academic papers at the annual Popular Culture Association of the South, October 5-8, in New Orleans.

  • Dr. Kyle Bishop: "'We are the walking dead!': Human Monstrosity and the Victimization of the Twenty-first Century Zombie"
  • Charles Cuthbertson: "The Two Doctors: The Use of Paratext in Promoting Doctor Who"
  • Allison Porter: "E for Evey: Evaluating Effigy and Effeminization in V for Vendetta"
  • Charla Strosser: "The Lonely Detective: The Evolution from Exceptionalism to Isolationism in Detective Fiction"
  • Joseph Willis: "Object or Objectified?: The Lesbian in the Batman Universe"

Dr. Julia Combs read "A Room with a View: Assessing Student Writing Within the Disciplines" at the Rocky Mountain MLA Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, in October.

Dr. Bryce Christensen presented "Black Magic vs. White Magic: The Science of Control vs. the Poetics of Imagination in Hawthorne’s 'Birthmark'" at the Tanner Summer Symposium: Great Teachers and Texts, August 11, at Southern Utah University.

Dr. Bryce Christensen presented "From Inert Insight to Incendiary Indictment: The Rhetorical History and Future of C.P. Snow's Two Cultures" at the 9th Conference on New Directions in the Humanities, June 8-11, at the University of Granada in Spain.

A number of SUU English faculty presented at the April 2011 nation conference the Popular and American Culture Associations in San Antonio, Texas: Dr. Kyle Bishop: "They’re Supposed to be Scary: How The Walking Dead Remembers What George Romero Forgot"; Dr. Bryce Christensen: "The Tang Dynasty’s 'Tell-Tale Heart': Li Ho as Chinese Literature's Edgar Allan Poe"; and Charles Cuthbertson: "Bourne into Bond-age: Redefining Espionage Film Heroes in the Post-9/11 Era".

Dr. Kurt Harris gave a guest lecture to 150 students of the Foreign Studies College of Hunan Normal University in Changsha, China, December 21. His lecture's title was "British Literature and the Legacy of Charles Dickens."

Dr. James M. Aton was a keynote speaker at the "Writers of the Purple Sage" writing conference, presenting "John Wesley Powell: Surveying the Arizona Strip and the Colorado Plateau" in Kanab, Utah (October 8).

Dr. James M. Aton was the keynote speaker at the Escalante Canyon Arts Festival, presenting “John Wesley Powell: Surveying in Escalante and Beyond”(September 2010).

Dr. Wynne Summers presented " Native American Women Elders Significance in Maintaining Cultural Autonomy and Sovereignty" at the Tenth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities, and Nations in Belfast, Northern Ireland (July 2010).

Dr. Danielle Dubrasky enjoyed a two-week residency fellowship the summer of 2010 for the Virginia Center of Creative Arts, competing a collection of poems and giving a lecture at Sweet Briar College.

Dr. Wynne Summers presented "Importance of Elders for Culture Continuity and Sovereignty" at the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association conference in Tucson (May 2010).

Dr. Julia Combs presented "If I Were a Man: Intersections of Genre and Gender in A Mother’s Blessing, Dorothy Leigh’s Seventeenth-century Conduct Manual" at the 2010 Conference of the Rhetoric Society of America in Minneapolis (May 2010).

Dr. Rosalyn Eves presented "'To Be a More Distinct People': Spatial Rhetoric as a Resource for Identification" at the 2010 Conference of the Rhetoric Society of America in Minneapolis (May 2010).

Dr. Jessica Tvordi presented her essay, "Constructing the Early Modern Criminal through Suetonius: The Cases of Buckingham and Castlehaven," at the 8th International Symposium on Medieval and Early Modern Culture, University of Arizona, Tucson, May 6-9, 2010. The special topic for the conference is "Crime and Punishment."

Dr. Kyle Bishop discussed the origins and history of the cinematic zombie as part of the 2010 Thunderbird Film Festival on Friday, April 9.

Dr. Todd Robert Petersen was a featured reader at the King's English Bookshop's quarterly "Local Author Showcase" event on April 6, 2010, at 6:30 p.m.

Dr. Bryce Christensen presented a paper ("The Mandarin Manqué and the Reckless Rebel: The Improbable Literary Friendship of Du Fu and Li Bai") at the 2010 Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference, in St. Louis, Missouri, 31 Mar.–3 Apr. 2010.

Dr. Danielle Dubrasky was featured in "Our Visions, Our Voices: A Mormon Women's Literary Tour," a historic multi-state, multi-university readings series by established and emerging Mormon women writers on March 25.

Dr. Danielle Dubrasky gave a poetry reading on March 23 at Arizona State University.

Dr. Kyle Bishop presented "Defending Zombieland: How the Apocalypse Saved the American Family" at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando (March 2010).

Professor Charles Cuthbertson presented "'Is it the Terrorists?': Cultural Anxiety in Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds" at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando (March 2010).

Charles Cuthbertson presented "'Is it the Terrorists?': Cultural Anxiety in Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds" at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando (March 2010).

Julia Combs presented “When the First Voice You Hear Is Not the Professor's: Inviting Peer Reviews into Composition Wikis," at the 2010 Annual Convention of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) in Louisville (March 2010).

Dr. Rosalyn Eves presented "Finding Place to Speak: Sarah Winnemucca's Place-Based Rhetorical Strategies" at the 2010 Annual Convention of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) in Louisville (March 2010).

Dr. Danielle Dubrasky was a guest writer for the Redrock Writers Seminar, March 12-13, in St. George where she gave a reading as well as a workshop titled "Imagery and Landscape."

Dr. Danielle Dubrasky gave a presentation on March 11 for SUU's National Women's Week titled "Understanding Our Vision and Voice through Writing."

Dr. Danielle Dubrasky was the featured writer for the Z-Arts Creative Writing Workshop on February 6, 2010, in Springdale, Utah.

Dr. James M. Aton was invited to give a convocation lecture at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on February 9, 2010. He discussed his latest book, The River Knows Everything.

Jon M. Smith's and English Professor James M. Aton's film, Jimmie Jones: Redrock Painter, premiered on October 15; Jones's recent paintings are currently showing at the Braithwaite Gallery. The DVD of the film is included in the show's catalog about Jones's life and work, for which Aton has also written the article "Coming Home to the Land."

Dr. James M. Aton gave the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies lecture on Wednesday, October 21, at BYU. He was also an invited author for the Utah Humanities Book Festival on Saturday, October 24, at the Salt Lake City Library. At both venues he discussed his new book, The River Knows Everything: Desolation Canyon and the Green.

Dr. Kyle Bishop presented "The Homes fires Are Burning: Domestic Conflagration as Failed Ganacea for Twentieth-Century Racial Tension" at the Annual Convention of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association in Snowbird in October 2009.

Dr. Bryce Christensen presented "Tragedy without Tears? Confronting the Contradictions in C.P. Snow's Understanding of Tragedy in a Scientific World" at the Annual Convention of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association in Snowbird in October 2009.

Julia Combs presented "Let the Sheepman Ride: Rhetorical Analysis of a Southern Utah Rancher's Letter of Advice to the College of Southern Utah" at the Annual Convention of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association in Snowbird in October 2009.

Charles Cuthbertson presented "'Those Departed Days': The War of the Worlds and Cultural Anxiety" at the Annual Convention of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association in Snowbird in October 2009.

Dr. Rosalyn Eves presented "Leaving Switzerland: Discipline-Based Tutoring and the Complex Interrelationship between Professors and Tutors" at the Annual Convention of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association in Snowbird in October 2009.

Dr. Nozomi Irei presented "Storytelling and Writing in Our Time: Decoded Flows of Desire in Silko's Ceremony" at the Annual Convention of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association in Snowbird in October 2009.

Dr. Todd Petersen presented "From Robin Hood to Danny Ocean: Theft as Restorative Transgression" at the Annual Convention of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association in Snowbird in October 2009.

Dr. Jessica Tvordi presented "Reformation Nostalgia and Sexual Politics in Andrew Marvell's 'Upon Appleton House, To my Lord Fairfax'" at the Annual Convention of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association in Snowbird in October 2009.

Dr. James M. Aton presented the 2009 Grace A. Tanner Distinguished Faculty Lecture, A Region of the Wildest Desolation: History Along the Green River.

Dr. Jessica Tvordi presented her paper "Donne's Family Romance: The Eroticization of Domestic Space in 'The Perfume'" at the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association Conference in Flagstaff in April 2009.

Dr. Kyle Bishop presented his essay “‘If Only Your Father Were Here!’ The Threat of the Gothic Patriarchy in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds” at the Popular and American Culture Associations Conference in New Orleans in April 2009.

Dr. Bryce Christensen presented his essay “Omar Khayyám on the Yangtze: Li Bai’s Drinking as Defiance, or as Despair?” at the Popular Culture Association Conference in New Orleans in April 2009.

Dr. Danielle Dubrasky gave a poetry reading at the KJ Templeton Studio in Helper, Utah.

Dr. Danielle Dubrasky’s poems “What is Visible” and “Retrieval” were on exhibit in the Zion National Park Museum as part of “Zion: A Creative Response.”

Dr. S.S. Moorty read selections of his poetry to the Center for the Study of Ethics at Utah Valley University in Orem in March 2009.

Dr. Danielle Dubrasky's poem “The Tree Spirits of Takasago” was performed at the SUU Faculty Dance Show through the choreography of Paul Ocampo and with original composition by Gerard Yun.

Dr. Bryce Christensen presented “Schooling for ‘the Democracy of the Dead’: How the Liberal Arts Connect Us with the Legacy of the Past” at the SUU Tanner Center Symposium on “Democracy and Education” in January 2009.

Back to top