Graduate Faculty


Sarah Allen, Ph.D.

Classical Rhetoric (pre-Socratic Greek)

Ecological Rhetoric

Rhetorical Theory

Writing Program Administration

Nandini Chandra, Ph.D.

Marxism, Critical Theory, Popular Culture, Literary Modernism, Gender Studies, Comics and Graphic Novels, Childhood Studies, South Asian Film and Literature

Reed Dasenbrock, Ph.D.

modernism, literary theory, post-colonial literature, comparative literature

Daphne Desser, Ph.D.

rhetorical history, theory, and criticism; writing and difference; Jewish identity construction and negotiation; the Holocaust and life-writing; film and literature of the Holocaust.

Anna Feuerstein, Ph.D.

  • 18th and 19th -Century British Literature and Culture
  • Victorian Studies
  • British Slavery and Empire
  • Black Studies
  • Animal Studies and Posthumanism

Cynthia Franklin, Ph.D.

Contemporary US literatures, critical ethnic studies, life writing, disability studies, queer and feminist theory, genre studies, cultural studies, university politics, Palestine

Candace Fujikane, Ph.D.

Hawaiʻi literatures; Asian American lit & theory; Kanaka Maoli & critical settler cartographies; Indigenous knowledges & climate change; decolonial & abolitionist futures; critical ethnic studies; ecocriticism; cultural studies

Joseph Han,

Creative Writing, Novel writing, the Short Story Collection, Short Form Writing, Hybrid & Experimental forms, Literatures of Hawaiʻi, Asian American Literature, Speculative fiction, Surrealism, Fiction-to-Film Adaptations, Non-fiction

Derrick Higginbotham, Ph.D.

  • Late Medieval and Early Modern Theatre
  • Literary History, Genre, and Cultural Change
  • Shakespeare and his contemporaries
  • Queer theory/Gender Studies/Feminist Theory
  • Marxism, Materialism, and the New Economic Criticism
  • Queer African Literatures

kuʻualoha hoʻomanawanui, Ph.D.

Moʻolelo Hawaiʻi (Native Hawaiian literary traditions) / 'Ōiwi (Native Hawaiian) literary studies / Kanaka ʻŌiwi Intellectual History / Nā moʻolelo o Hawai‘i (Literatures of Hawaiʻi) / Nā moʻolelo o Moana Nui (Oceanic, Pasifika literature) / ʻŌiwi and Indigenous literary nationalism / Indigenous Digital Humanities / Indigenous Rhetorics and Writing / Indigenous and Oceanic feminisms/ Children’s literature / Translation studies / Curriculum development for Hawaiian language immersion and culturally-based charter schools / Place-based literacy / Environmental humanities

Craig Howes, Ph.D.

 

Biography and life writing, 19th-century literature, literary theory, drama and performance, research methods, professional editing, Hawaiʻi literatures

Ruth Y. Hsu, Ph.D.

Reading (all genres), films, excellent meals with friends, US political discourse. Favorite authors right now include: Atwood, Muriel Barbery, Sesshu Foster, Gao Xingjian, Ed Bok Lee, Morrison, Orhan Pamuk, Karen Tei Yamashita.

Kristiana Kahakauwila, MFA

creative writing and craft theory, fiction writing, creative nonfiction writing, journalism, travel writing, Oceanic/Pacific literature, literatures of Hawai'i, contemporary Native American literature

Laura E. Lyons, Ph.D.

post-colonial literatures and theory, cultural studies, life writing,  corporations, Irish literature and culture

Hannah Manshel, Ph.D.

  • American literature pre-1900
  • Law
  • Black studies & literatures
  • Indigenous studies & literatures
  • Queer studies
  • Decolonization & Abolition

Georganne Nordstrom, Ph.D.

Indigenous pedagogy & rhetorical practices, Literacy/Linguistic Social Justice, Writing Center Studies, & Research Methodologies, 

P. Darin Payne, Ph.D.

rhetorics of technology and space, new media rhetorics, globalization, composition studies, collaborative learning, cultural reproduction

Noʻu Revilla, Ph.D.

creative writing; spoken word; Indigenous and decolonial poetics; lyric essays, hybrid, multi-lingual, and experimental writing; ʻŌiwi literature and theory; Pacific poetry and performance; feminist studies; queer theory; cultural studies

Todd H. Sammons, Ph.D.

Renaissance and 17th-century English literature, Milton, early modern drama, science fiction, rhetoric, writing center pedagogy

Danielle Seid, Ph.D.

  • U.S. Film & Television History
  • Film Theory
  • Feminist and Queer Media Studies
  • Videographic Criticism (Video Essays)
  • Popular Culture
  • Celebrity
  • Critical Race and Ethnic Studies
  • Autobiographical Studies
  • Transgender Studies

S. Shankar, Ph.D.

Postcolonial theory and literature, creative writing, critical caste studies, cultural journalism, literary theory and cultural studies, translation and translation studies, US literature of immigration

Jack Taylor, Ph.D.

African American literature (with a focus on modernism), African American visual culture, African literature, literature of the Black diaspora, and theory

Isaac K. Wang,

Indigenous Rhetorics; Writing Center & Writing Program Administration; Empirical Methods & Methodologies in Composition; AI Writing; Decolonial Pedagogies; Rhetorics of Love

Emily West, Ph.D.

Eighteenth-century literature, material culture and textual materiality, gender and sexuality studies, embodiment, history of science, children’s literature and childhood

Emily Yoon,

John David Zuern, Ph.D.

life writing, fiction, literary theory, comparative literature, digital literature