Distinguished Alumni Accomplishments
Recent Alumni
- Mary Bonvillain (2016)
Project Title: Shifting intersections: Fluidity of gender and race in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah
After graduation: Lecturer, English Department, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa - Eric Burdock (2018)
Project Title: Villains, victims, and virgins: Asexuality in the films of Alfred Hitchcock
After graduation: PhD program in English, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri - Sarah Chase Crosby (2016)
Project Title: Letting gendered spaces go: Striving toward gender and nature balance through bonding in Disney’s Frozen and Maleficent
After graduation: Lecturer, English Department, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa - Sonia Del Hierro (2017)
Project Title: Fashioning high-heeled identity in Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Gather Together in My Name - Spencer Dodd (2019)
Project Title: Body doubles: Confinement and dissociation in the nineteenth century novel - Samantha Dunn (2016)
Project Title: Fandom and fiction: Adolescent literature and online communities - Benjamin Evans (2017)
Project Title: Beyond transhumanism: The dangers of transhumanist philosophies on human and nonhuman beings - Kristina Greenfield (2015)
Project Title: Shaping thoughtful, committed citizens: Teaching LGBTQ-themed literature and queer theory as catalysts for social change
After graduation: English Language Arts teacher in New York, New York and then in Humboldt Community Schools, Humboldt, Iowa - Emily Grzywacz (2019)
Project Title: Trees in/as Trauma - Carolyn Gonzalez (2019)
Project Title: Chaucer and Malory’s treatment of outlawry in middle English literature
After graduation: Tutoring Services Outreach Specialist, Iowa State University Academic Success Center, Ames, Iowa - Rachel Grotzke (2018)
Project Title: The systematic subjugation of women and the environment in The Hunger Games and The Windup Girl
After graduation: Continue as English teacher in Ankeny Community School District, Ankeny, Iowa - Adam Haenlein (2015)
Project Title: The emergence and evolution of trans-corporeality in Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and Henry David Thoreau’s Walden and Walking - Logan Heim (2018)
Project Title: The Dickensian benefactor: Complication and change in Oliver Twist and Bleak House - Sherry Leksell (2015)
Project Title: Age of distrust: A technology-enhanced look at Dystopian young adult literature
After graduation: Continue as high school teacher in Eagle Grove School District, Eagle Grove, Iowa - Kevin Hee-Seong Lim (2018)
Project Title: The echoes of Buddha, Jesus Christ, and Fredrich Nietzsche in Cormac McCarthy’s The Sunset Limited
After graduation: PhD in English with a film studies concentration, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Caroline Martin (2015)
Project Title: Anticipating the new woman figure through subversions of feminine identity: Rhoda Broughton, Ouida, and female sexuality - Stacy Petersen (2018)
Project Title: Manipulation within the language of love: Politeness theory, abuse, and Woody Allen’s Match Point - Joshua Prindle (2017)
Project Title: Morality and medicine: Opium and addiction in Wilkie Collins’s Armadale and The Moonstone
After graduation: Lecturer, English Department, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa - Mary Reding (2016)
Project Title: Harry Potter’s Heroics: Crossing the thresholds of home, away, and the spaces in-between
After graduation: Librarian at Wartburg College, Forest City, Iowa - Ellen Rhodes (2017)
Project Title: The adaptability of women’s captivity narratives in American literature
After graduation: Lecturer, English Department, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa; Instructor at Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) - Lucas Rodewald (2016)
Project Title: (Mis)Representation at the movies: Film, pedagogy, and Postcolonial theory in the secondary English classroom
After graduation: Advanced Placement English teacher at Luther Preparatory School, Watertown, Wisconsin - Meredith Smith-Lane (2019)
Project Title: The identity and role of the mother in late Nineteenth Century literature by women
After graduation: Theatrical Manager, Party Productions, Fort Dodge, Iowa - Amanda Stewart (2017)
Project Title: Teaching adult African American literature: Teaching Warriors Don’t Cry and Literature Circles to Grade 12
After graduation: Adjunct Instructor, St. Charles Community College, St. Charles, Iowa - Mary Stoecklein (2015)
Project Title: Subversion and reclamation: Indigenous languages in Power, Washburn, and Owens - Evan Taylor (2015)
Project Title: Artistic (mis)representation and commodity culture in The Picture of Dorian Gray and The House of Mirth
After graduation: Operations Manager, KHOI Radio, Ames, Iowa - Tonya Tienter (2015)
Project Title: Cather and the Turner Thesis: Reimagining America’s open frontier - Brenda Tyrrell (2017)
Project Title: Creating a binary-free world: H. G. Wells and disability studies - Allison Watson (2015)
Project Title: Dante Rossetti: Re-envisioning desire in the domestic sphere of Victorian society - Michael Wettengel (2018)
Project Title: Cogwheels of the fantastic: The mechanisms of medieval fantasy
After graduation: MFA program in Creative Writing and Environment, English Department, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa - Leah Wilson (2015)
Project Title: Finding the erotic, embracing ambiguity, and escaping extremes: Unearthing the queer experience in Dorothy Allison’s Cavedweller
After graduation: Lecturer, Women’s and Gender Studies, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa - Imelda Wistey (2016)
Project Title: Displaced heroism in 18th and 19th century American literature
After graduation: Lecturer, English Department, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa