Faculty Of The Department Of English

Amanda Adams, Assistant Professor of English

Amanda Adams joined the faculty at Muskingum in 2010, after teaching at Miami University and Temple University. She has a Master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania (2001) and a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon (2007). Her specialty is nineteenth-century literature, with a transatlantic focus. Recent publications include a forthcoming book, Performance, Authorship, and the Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic Lecture Tour (Ashgate Press), and articles on nineteenth-century literature in the journals Symbiosis: A Journal of Anglo-American Literary Relations and American Literary Realism. She teaches Masterpieces of Literature, the American Literature surveys, Nineteenth-Century Literature, Arts and Humanities in Western Culture, Composition, and other courses.

Andre DeCuir, Associate Professor of English

Dr. DeCuir joined Muskingum in 1997. His Ph.D. is from the University of Kentucky, and he specializes in Victorian literature. He teaches composition, Masterpieces of Literature, developmental English, business and technical writing, Arts and Humanities, Romantic and Victorian literature, History of the British Novel, senior seminar, and topics classes on writers such as Dickens and the Brontes. He has presented and published on these writers, and he is a recipient of the William Rainey Harper Award for Scholarship. He enjoys painting and writing short stories and plays.

Donna M. Edsall, Professor of English

Dr. Edsall joined the Muskingum faculty in 1989. She has a Ph.D. from Ohio University in Athens, specializing in Medieval literature. She teaches composition, masterpieces of literature, the British literature surveys, Chaucer, and Medieval literature courses. She serves as the coordinator of the university's art and humanities course (IDIS 150). She is a past recipient of the university's award for Excellence in Teaching and also the Cora I. Orr Service Award. The author of Unified Vision: The Art of Jianmin Dou and co-author of A Song of the Seasons: Paintings by Jianmin Dou, her interests are eclectic. Her play, Making Sausage, was performed on Muskingum's campus in October 2007.  Most recently she has published a textbook called Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo: A Textbook for Language Structure and Usage.

Kekoa Kaluhiokalani, Assistant Professor of English

Dr. Kaluhiokalani has a Master's Degree from Brigham Young University (Utah) in British Literature, and a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University (2001) in English and Anglo/Irish literature. He has a special interest in theater and interdisciplinary studies. Dr. Kaluhiokalani teaches composition, masterpieces of literature, non-western literature, twentieth century British fiction, and IDIS 150:Arts and Humanities in the Western World.

CHAIR:  Jane Varley, Associate Professor of English

Dr. Varley has an M.A. from the University of Idaho and a Ph.D. from the University of North Dakota. Her specialization is poetry, and she teaches creative writing, literature, and composition. She is a past winner of the William Oxley Thompson Excellence in Teaching Award and a two-time William Rainey Harper Scholarship Award winner. Her publications include a book of creative non-fiction, Flood Stage and Rising [U of Neb. P], and a chapbook of poetry, Sketches at the Naesti Bar [Finishing Line P]. She co-wrote and edited You Must Play to Win, a memoir by National Fastpitch Hall of Fame member and legendary NCAA D-III coach Donna Newberry [McDonald & Woodward]. Dr. Varley has taught at Muskingum since 2000, and she lives in New Concord with her husband, Gary Atkins of the Admissions Office, and their daughter Iris.   

Vivian Wagner, Associate Professor of Journalism

Dr. Wagner is a past winner of the Sheridan Barker Advisor of the Year Award, given by the Society of Collegiate Journalists. She received her Ph.D. in 1996 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has a great deal of experience as a freelance journalist. Her articles have appeared in a variety of regional and national publications. She advises the weekly student newspaper, The Black and Magenta, and teaches journalism courses, such as introduction to journalism, news story types, feature and editorial writing, editing and make-up, public relations writing, and journalistic ethics. She recently won first-place honors in a competition held by the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists. Her book, Fiddle: One Woman's Search for Tunes, Grit, and Authenticity was recently published by Citadel Press and she is hard at work on a new book about the world of bikers. She serves as coordinator for the university's writing across the curriculum program. She also has a Ph.D. in American literature and teaches composition and Modern and Contemporary American Fiction for the English department.

James Wells, Assistant Professor of English

Dr. Wells has a Ph.D. from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio (2002) and a Master's from the University of South Carolina (1994). He comes to Muskingum from Belmont University in Tennessee, where he was an associate professor and director of the graduate program in English. He now serves as the Muskingum University Renaissance literature specialist and teaches composition, masterpieces of literature, Shakespeare, Renaissance literature, and senior seminar.

Meghan Wynne, Instructor of English

Professor Wynne has an MFA from The Ohio State University (2001). Twice she has received an Individual Excellence Grant from the Ohio Arts Council for her fiction. Her short-stories have appeared in The Sun, Southern Indiana Review, StoryQuarterly, and The Journal. She advises the school yearbook and teaches composition, masterpieces of literature, and post-modern literature.