Madeline Gottlieb, Literature

Madeline Gottlieb is a second year MA Literature student, with plans to continue on her academic track to receive her PhD. Originally from Long Island, New York, she earned her BA from Binghamton University in 2016. Her research interests include Nineteenth and Twentieth Century American Literature, specifically the study of aesthetics, and also marginalized children within both popular and lesser known texts of the time.

Elizabeth Ricketts, Literature

Elizabeth Ricketts is a 2nd year PhD Literature student. She earned her B.A. from The College of New Jersey and her M.A. from Marymount University. Before beginning her studies at USF, Elizabeth taught English in the public school system for ten years. Her research focuses on the study of Irish literature from a postcolonial theoretical lens, specifically the influence of myth and mythologized history upon the construction and expression of national identity in Irish literature.

Kimber Wiggs, Literature

Kimber Wiggs is a third-year PhD in Literature student. She earned her Bachelor's in English from Washington and Lee University in 2010 and her Master's in Literature and Modernity from the University of Edinburgh in 2012. Kimber's primary area of research is Modern/Contemporary US Multiethnic Literature. Kimber is a native of Lakeland, FL and in her free time, enjoys cooking and watching more TV than she should.

Harley Campbell, Literature

Harley Campbell is a second year MA Literature student and instructor for FYC. She earned her BA in English from USF in 2015 after spending most of her secondary and collegiate education in STEM. Prior to entering the MA program, Harley gained experience in teaching phonics and reading comprehension through the Institute of Reading Development. Her primary research areas include translation, theology, biblical studies, and gender studies in Medieval and Early Modern British Literature and DH.

Alexander Cendrowski, MFA

Alexander Cendrowski is a third year fiction candidate in the MFA Creative Writing program, where he is completing his hybrid novel, The Aquanaut Hotel. A writer, cartoonist, and octopus enthusiast from some beach in Florida, he focuses his writing on marine environmentalism as it relates to gender, sexuality, and the pursuit of knowledge. He teaches creative writing and literature at USF, where he also hosts 6x6, a biannual reading event featuring six undergrads and six grad students.

Sheldon Menery, Literature

Sheldon Menery is a 2nd year MA Literature student. He earned his BA from USF courtesy of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, after having retired from the US Air Force in 2004. His research interests include Shakespeare and film, gravitating toward the crossing of traditional gender divides. He’s been a singer in a rock and roll band, the owner of a wine shop, and an internationally-recognized expert in facets of nerd culture. He lives in Lakeland with his wife, who is an actual rocket scientist.

Courtney Clute, MFA

Courtney Clute is an MFA Fiction candidate. She is originally from Orlando. Courtney is currently experimenting with flash fiction and prose poetry, and her work is often centered on feminine identity and social expectations of women. Following the completion of her degree, Courtney intends to pursue a career in publishing.

Adam Phillips, Rhet & Comp

Adam Phillips is a first year PhD Rhetoric and Composition student. He hails from Niles, Ohio and earned his BA from Youngstown State University in Youngstown, OH, in 2010. Adam completed his MA in 2015 at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL. His research interests include: Multimodal Composition, Food and Rhetoric, First-year Composition, and Digital Humanities.

Lesley Brooks, Literature

Lesley Brooks is a doctoral student in the Ph.D. in Literature program at the University of South Florida. She earned her B. A. from the University of Virginia and her M. A. from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her research interests are vast and varied, ranging from the treatment of sexuality, gender, and motherhood to discussions of space, movement, and confinement in the works of Early Modern British authors and 18th century British authors.

Meg Mandell, Literature

Megan earned her BA from SUNY Stony Brook and her MA in Science Fiction and Fantasy Lit from Florida Atlantic University. She is currently a PhD student in 20th Century British Literature, focusing on disaster narratives, Ecocriticism, and the Rhetoric of Science. She is co-editor of A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing Practices and is earning a certificate in Technical and Professional Writing. She currently teaches Composition and Technical Writing for Health Science Majors.

Stephanie Derisi, Literature

Stephanie Derisi is a doctoral student of literature at USF. She received a BA and MA in literature from Florida Atlantic University. Her academic interests include 20th century transatlantic literature, critical animal studies, and theories of space and place. She instructs first-year composition courses at USF in addition to working as a tutor at the writing studio. Prior to her PhD studies, she was an adjunct instructor at various higher education institutions.

Elan Justice Pavlinich, Literature

Elan Justice Pavlinich is a Presidential Doctoral Fellow in the Literature program with research interests in medieval and early modern literature and drama, cognition, and queer theory. Elan's scholarly publications include interdisciplinary approaches to Anglo-Saxon literature, as well as creative work such as poetry, personal essays, and photography. He is currently writing about embodied cognition in the Old English Boethius.

Tim Curran, Literature

Tim Curran is a third-year Ph.D. student in Literature, journeying south from Seton Hall University in New Jersey (don’t judge, he’s from New York originally) where he received his M.A. He specializes in 19th-Century British Studies, primarily the Victorian novel, and his scholarly interests have tended toward the fascinating interdisciplinary field of cognitive science and literature and the development of the cognitive paradigm in literary studies.

Heather Fox, Literature

Heather Fox is a third year PhD (literature) student, studying nineteenth and twentieth century American literature with a particular interest in the literature of the American South. Her dissertation project uses an interdisciplinary approach to examine the implications of narrative decision in first short story collections by southern women writers, 1894-1944.

Dana Laitinen, Literature

I am a second-year PhD student with an interest in early modern, eighteenth century and African American literature. I am also interested in epistemology and philosophy, Ecocriticism and the history of the novel. I also enjoy travel and vegetarian cooking, and in the past, I played the bass in a 70’s style boogie band and the drums in a heavy metal band.

Tiffany Wilgar, Rhet & Comp

Tiffany moved to Tampa from Las Vegas and is now a doctoral student in Rhetoric & Composition. Her research interests include Risk Communications, WPA, and visual rhetoric. Tiffany's current project analyzes differences between expert and popular reporting of radiation exposure from the Nevada Test Site (less than 60 miles from her birthplace). Tiffany studied E.A. Poe in her literature days and has a soft spot for all kinds of American Lit (Vonnegut, Diaz, Twain, Salinger, O'Brien.

Jose Aparicio, Literature

Jose's research interest include Irish, British, and American literature with an emphasis on Latina/o writers of the 20th-21st centuries. All of which he teaches to his classes. He has also worked at writing and tutoring centers at a number of colleges and universities where he had the opportunity to tutor students in his side interests of philosophy, ethics, history, and composition--all areas he still addresses inhis literature classes.

Jon Ray, Rhet & Comp

Jon is a second year MA in Rhetoric and Composition. He holds a B.S. in Electronic Media Production and has a background in journalism and documentary work. His current interests vary from usability to visual rhetoric. Some of his favorite things include writing, sportsball, and puppies.

Sophie Gourgiotis, Rhet & Comp

Sophie is a 2nd year M.A. student in Rhetoric and Composition. She received a B.A. in Fort Lauderdale at Nova Southeastern University. Currently her research interests include technical writing, visual rhetoric, and gender studies. Sophie’s non-academic interests include binge watching shows on Netflix, drawing, photography, and sticking it to the man.

Annalise Mabe, MFA Poetry

Annalise Mabe is completing an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of South Florida where she writes Nonfiction, Poetry, and Comics. She reads for Sweet: A Literary Confection and is a poetry and art/graphic editor at Saw Palm: Florida Literature and Art. She teaches creative writing and compostion at USF and is currently working on a chapbook of poetry and drafting her first memoir.She can be reached at annalisemabe@mail.usf.edu or on Twitter: @AnnaliseMabe

Carmella Guiol, MFA Creative Nonfict

Carmella is a proud Miami native and a second year MFA student on the creative nonfiction track. She has taught everything from gardening to French grammar, and she is looking forward to working as a First Year Composition instructor. Her BA is in Environmental Studies from Amherst College and she loves nothing more than spending the day in her garden or exploring a wild river on her kayak.

Cassie Childs

Joanna Phelps Hillen, Rhet & Comp

Johanna is a PhD student in Rhetoric and Composition. She received her BA in Philosophy and German from the University of New Mexico and her MA in English from Weber State University. While finishing coursework, she is researching and implementing novel community engaged pedagogies. She is an Office of Community Engagement and Partnerships Graduate Research Fellow and a Graduate School Fellowship recipient. Johanna currently serves as an Assistant Coordinator of The Writing Studio at USF.

Elizabeth Loyer, Rhet & Comp

Elizabeth Loyer is a second-year MA student with a concentration in Rhetoric and Composition. She graduated from USF in 2015 with dual degrees in Math and English - PWRT. She is the webmaster for EGSA and the Assistant Director of Rhetoric and Composition. She has served as a technical writer for My Reviewers. Her research interests include RSTM (particularly the rhetoric of scientific controversies), digital media, and rhetoric and gaming.

Seth Spencer, Literature

I have spent the last four years in the public high school classroom and am delighted to be back in the university setting. I am interested in a diverse range of literary genres and time periods, but I would like to study the effects of isolation on narrative form.