Author: Margaret

Q: What is your area of specialty?
A: I specialized in Literature, with a British Literature concentration, but I teach composition and have a supplemental career in creative writing. I dabble where I please.

Q: What was the title of your master’s thesis or dissertation?
A: The Master’s program I attended allowed PhD courses with mini-dissertations in lieu of a defended thesis. For one, I decoded prophetic dream meanings in Alliterative Morte Arthure, based on time period beliefs. For another, I traced the corsi e ricorsi theory of Giambattista Vico throughout A.S. Byatt’s Possession,according to the novel’s structure, theme, and plot.

Q: What is your most recent publication?
A: I’ve been writing speculative romance novels for crossover audiences that are imbued with literary nuances: ancient astronomical theories, Greek mythology, and Welsh fairy mythology—across three series. My most recent publication is Fever (The Immortal Transcripts book II), which has a four first-person point-of-view epistolary narrative style and follows Greek gods today in a reinvention of Apuleius’s Cupid and Psyche.

Q: What is your favorite assignment to assign?
A: My favorite assignment is my ENGL 102 Critical Research Analysis Paper. I ask students to analyze a short story by using a preferred school of thought to assert a position about a chosen topic found within the text, while evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the piece in relation to that topic.

Q: What was the last book you read?
A: Reading a lot of romance and/or speculative fiction for the escapism in these stressful times, the last being a paranormal thriller Ambrosia by Madison Wheatley. 

Q: What are your favorite events on campus?
A: I wish I had more time to attend more events, but something about the Farmer’s Market on Prince lawn makes me happy. Love seeing small local businesses getting support. Also, I just love seeing all the accomplishments of humanities’ students in the halls of EHFA.

Q: Where is your favorite place to eat on campus?
A: I tend to pack my lunch but occasionally hit up Starbucks for a scone and a caramel macchiato.

Q: What do you enjoy most about CCU?
A: I got my B.A. in English and B.A. in Dramatic Arts from CCU so watching and being part of its growth has been an amazing experience. What I enjoy most, though, is simply walking across the beautiful campus to class on a sunny day.

Q: What is your area of specialty?
A: My graduate degrees and areas of interest are in creative nonfiction and fiction.

Q: What was the title of your master’s thesis or dissertation?
A: My MAW thesis, a collection of essays, was titled My Father’s Ashes and my MFA thesis, a collection of short stories, was titled Baptized in Black Water.

Q: What is your most recent publication?
A: My most recent publications, all in the latter half of last year, were in Chautauqua, SmokeLong Quarterly, and Broad River Review.

Q: What is your favorite assignment to assign?
A: I don’t know that I necessarily have a favorite assignment. Generally speaking, though, I try to assign work that gives students a deeper sense of humanity, that widens their worldviews.

Q: What was the last book you read?
A: Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Q: What are your favorite events on campus?
A: I most enjoy Words to Say It (our visiting writer series), any of the sports events, and the Farmer’s Market on Prince Lawn.

Q: Where is your favorite place to eat on campus?
A: If I had the time, my favorite place to eat on campus would probably be one of the tables near Wall Pond, but I’m usually scarfing down a brown-bagged lunch in my office between classes.

Q: What do you enjoy most about CCU?
A: The people—colleagues and students alike.

Q: What is your area of specialty?
A: I specialize in feminist and anti-racist literature and poetry, that requires a computer to be accessed, produced, played, or otherwise experienced.

Q: What was the title of your master’s thesis or dissertation?
A: My dissertation is titled Hypermaterial Language Art: Digitality, Materiality, and Contemporary Anti-Racist Poetics–a long and overly complicated title for research about multimedia poetry and art that use the logic of digital computers to work to challenge or dismantle the logics of colorblind racism. (That might have been a long and overly complicated explanation).

Q: What is your current scholarly project?
A: Right now I am working on a couple of projects related to literature and / on / for social media platforms: one project is called Filter, a new ‘zine that I started and edit for literature and poetry on Instagram; the other is a series of conference presentations (that will become article(s) or something bigger) on different aspects of storytelling on TikTok, especially that which works against algorithmic discrimination on the platform.

Q: What is your favorite assignment to assign?
A: Literary Twitterbots– an assignment where students write a simple program that runs on Twitter and tweets out poetry or stories automatically, based on the program the students write.

Q: What was the last book you read?
A: I just finished Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson and am currently reading The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green. 

Q: What are your favorite events on campus?
A: Most of my time on campus has sadly been COVID-times when we haven’t had many events, but I have really enjoyed all the music events I’ve been able to go to–the choir’s concerts in the courtyard and the Music on the Lawn. I also had a lot of fun DCD’s jackbox games event last Fall.

Q: Where is your favorite place to eat on campus?
A: Has to be Starbucks or Einstein’s.

Q: What do you enjoy most about CCU?
A: I really enjoy working in a place with such an engaged faculty, and the range of classes I get to teach in DCD.

Q: What is your area of specialty?
A: I’m mostly interested in 19th Century British literature written by Jane Austen, Mary Shelly, and Charlotte Brontë (not to forget Emily and Anny Brontë, George Eliot, and Charles Dickens) as well as how their novels have been adapted for both the Internet and film.

Q: What was the title of your master’s thesis or dissertation?
A: Fashioning Chastity: British Marriage Plots and the Tailoring of Desire, 1789-1928

Q: What is your most recent publication?
A: My most recent publication is “’I Am Not an Angel’: Madness and Addiction in Neo-Victorian Appropriations of Jane Eyre.” I’m currently writing an article exploring a variety of filmic and digital adaptations of the Brontë sisters’ novels.

Q: What is your favorite assignment to assign?
A: My favorite is a classic: close reading of a paragraph making heavy use of the Oxford English Dictionary. With visual media, I do a similar exercise focusing on minute details within a single frame’s mise en scene.

Q: What was the last book you read?
A: Over the winter break, I discovered that the Horry County Library system does not own Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), so I read it. 

Q: What are your favorite events on campus?
A: I always enjoy the yearly tree lighting, but this year’s COHFA 20th Anniversary Open House was a stupendous showcase of CCU’s talented arts and humanities students.

Q: Where is your favorite place to eat on campus?
A: Most of the time, I pack my lunch and eat in my office, but when I venture out, my favorite spot is Chauncey’s Choice.

Q: What do you enjoy most about CCU?
A: I enjoy encouraging CCU students to take chances in the classroom and to believe in themselves as scholars. There is no greater source of pride than knowing you are showing up and doing your best work every day.

Q: What is your area of specialty?
A: I have a dual Master’s degree in English Literature and Appalachian Studies, and a Certificate in Rhetoric and Composition.

Q: What was the title of your master’s thesis or dissertation?
A: I have two master’s theses. The thesis for Appalachian Studies is Dear Johnny Depp, Would You Please Buy the State of West Virginia: Autoethnography of an Appalachian Woman. The thesis for English Literature is An Autoethnographic Curriculum for Appalachian Studies: Merging Humanities and Social Science Theories and Methods.

Q: What is your most recent publication?
A: I have many interests. I wrote about the graphic novel, The Walking Dead, for my certificate, I love folklore, and have an ongoing passion for growth in the Appalachian Region. My most recent publication was a simple book review of a new release of Muriel Rukeyser’s, The Book of the Dead, with an introduction by Catherine Venable Moore.

Q: What is your favorite assignment to assign?
A: I most like to assign a rhetorical analysis of an image or protest song.

Q: What was the last book you read?
A: The last book that I read is Ken Follett’s, The Evening and the Morning.

Q: What are your favorite events on campus?
A: I enjoyed the Gullah Geechee and African Diaspora Conference in 2020.

Q: Where is your favorite place to eat on campus?
A: Starbucks!

Q: What do you enjoy most about CCU?
A: The diversity.

Q: What is your area of specialty?
A: I teach courses in First-Year Writing, New Media, and Digital Culture and Design, as well as in the MALS and MAW graduate programs.

Q: What was the title of your master’s thesis or dissertation?
A: Improving Metacomprehension and Calibration Accuracy Through Embedded Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategy Prompts.

Q: What is your current scholarly project?
A: Currently, I am writing my second book, A Philosophy of Gun Use, which proposes a model of gun reform using theoretical frameworks from Science and Technology Studies (STS).

Q: What is your favorite assignment to assign?
A: In English 231, each student designs and builds a mobile app prototype that addresses a specific need of the CCU student population. This assignment introduces key design principles to 231 students while encouraging innovation and creativity.

Q: What was the last book you read?
A: Mike Monteiro’s Ruined By Design.

Q: What are your favorite events on campus?
A: I love that there are so many events on campus for students and faculty throughout the year. I particularly enjoy the English Futures Speaker Series, hosted by the English Department.

Q: Where is your favorite place to eat on campus?
A: I don’t typically eat meals on campus, but I love to drop by Einstein’s to grab a quick coffee and a bagel in the morning!

Q: What do you enjoy most about CCU?
A: I value the camaraderie with my peers and colleagues. The English Department is such a supportive, friendly environment for all faculty and for students.

Q: What is your area of specialty?
A: Rhetoric and composition. I also have a background in creative writing (mainly poetry).

Q: What was the title of your master’s thesis or dissertation?
A: “Physical Training for the Body, and Philosophy for the Soul”: Reviewing the Literature of Embodied Rhetoric.

Q: What is your most recent publication?
A: My most recent publication is “Pictured with My Father,” a poem which appears in Rue Scribe.

Q: What is your favorite assignment to assign?
A: Either the profile essay or the fieldwork essay. These papers really allow students to apply our classroom theories to interesting aspects of their everyday lives.

Q: What was the last book you read?
A: Ficciones by Jorge Borges, which I revisited after reading it in Anna Oldfield’s magic realism class years ago. Spasibo, Anna!

Q: What are your favorite events on campus?
A: The theater productions, without question.

Q: Where is your favorite place to eat on campus?
A: Can we consider Irish cream Americanos food? Yes? Then Starbucks.

Q: What do you enjoy most about CCU?
A: The variety of backgrounds and worldviews of my students. I can honestly say I finish each semester having learned something new myself.

Q: What is your area of specialty?
A: Poetry. 

Q: What was the title of your master’s thesis or dissertation?
A: PhD dissertation: Byron, Hemans, and the Reviewers, 18-7-1835: Two Routes to Fame (1995). MFA thesis: Roll Call at the River (2002). 

Q: What is your most recent publication?
A: I recently assembled my third full-length collection of poems. Its title, which may change, is Candy. I published a chapbook titled Or Air and Earth in 2019 with Unicorn Press. I’ve published ten poems in literary journals (such as 32 Poems, Southern Indiana Review, and Four Way Review) since 2021.

Q: What is your favorite assignment to assign?
A: I enjoy the first poem assignment I give my students in Poetry I. It’s titled “The Kitchen Sink,” and it asks them to include a host of poetic techniques in a very short poem. It also throws them a curveball. But that’s a secret.

Q: What was the last book you read?
A: Nina Simone’s Gum by Warren Ellis.

Q: What are your favorite events on campus?
A: The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series. Hosting accomplished writers on campus provides our students and faculty with a great opportunity for greater exposure to the diverse and vibrant (though often “hidden”) world of contemporary literature.

Q: Where is your favorite place to eat on campus?
A: My desk.

Q: What do you enjoy most about CCU?
A: The students. I’ve been blessed with some great ones over the years.

Q: What is your area of specialty?
A: Creative Writing, primarily Fiction

Q: What was the title of your master’s thesis or dissertation?
A: Here is something hopeful: That thesis (many revisions later) became my first book, which by then was titled, It Had Been Planned and There Were Guides.

Q: What is your most recent publication?
A: My most recent publication is the short story, Flock, which is up in a literary exhibit at Neon Door. https://neondoorlit.com/exhibit/flock-327

Q: What is your favorite assignment to assign?
A: In my multi-genre Creative Writing classes we do an image walk. It’s like a scavenger hunt for observable images around campus that fit predetermined criteria, and as we find them, we describe them exhaustively. We defamiliarizing them ala Victor Shklovsky who famously said the writer’s job is to defamiliarize what we think we know and “make the stone stoney again.” Aer our walk, we use our favorite clippings to assemble a poem that rhymes with, or is dissonant with, the quality of images we’re working with. Some of us have been searching for bright images, some sharp, or bumpy, etc. I love how the results come out. Many of us were staring at similar objects, and yet the poems are so different. Yet they are of a piece, since all the images within them share an overarching feature. We also do a community publication project at the end of those classes that delights me, but I can’t describe it, because each new class designs it. It’s always different.

Q: What was the last book you read?
A: Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr.

Q: What are your favorite events on campus?
A: Creative Writing hosts a reading series called Word to Say It that brings authors from all over the country and beyond to read from their books and talk with our students. I’m definitely biased, but I love the series and have been inspired by so many writers that have come through. I also enjoy attending plays, concerts, and lectures, the most memorable of which was Cornel West’s talk to inaugurate the Joyner Institute in 2016–that was thrilling.

Q: What is your favorite place to eat on campus?
A: My office. Heh.

Q: What do you enjoy most about CCU?
A: The people. And turtle pond.

Q: What is your area of specialty?
A: In a phrase: Non-standard Syntactic Variation. Broadly, I’m a combination of a sociolinguist, a theoretical syntactician, and perhaps a bit of a dialectologist. I usually combine these, as I study how social factors affect variation in sentence structure especially in Southern English and Appalachian English.

Q: What was the title of your master’s thesis or dissertation?
A: Dissertation: “This might could help us better understand syntactic variation: The double modal construction in Tennessee English”
MA Thesis: “What do yall think?: A study of language attitudes in the South”

Q: What is your most recent publication?
A: Dr. Childs and I have been collaborating for several years now on a study of subregional variation in Appalachian English among speakers under 30. My most recent publications from the project:
J. Daniel Hasty and Becky Childs. 2021. Investigating Appalachian Englishes: Subregional variation in the new Appalachia. Journal of Appalachian Studies 27.1: 69-88.
J. Daniel Hasty. 2020. Just what and where are Appalachian Englishes: Subregional language variation in Appalachia. In Kirk Hazen (ed.) Appalachian Englishes in the Twenty-first Century. Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University Press, 3-19.

Q: What is your favorite assignment to assign?
A: In my ENGL 350 “Language Variation in North America” class, I have students do several rounds of sociolinguistic data collection, which they eventually write an article type paper on for the Final.

Q: What was the last book you read?
A: Rural voices: Language, identity, and social change across place, edited by Elizabeth Seale and Christine Mallinson (for a solicited book review). The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R Tolkien (for fun).

Q: What are your favorite events on campus?
A: I have really enjoyed running the English Futures Speaker Series.

Q: Where is your favorite place to eat on campus?
A: A sack lunch in my office.

Q: What do you enjoy most about CCU?
A: I like the growth in the university that I’ve seen since 2012.