Faculty & Staff

Faculty

Dr. Amy Branam Armiento

Professor

Office: 315C Dunkle Hall
Phone: 301.687.4293
Email: abranam@frostburg.edu

Degrees:

Ph.D., Marquette University
M.A., Ball State University
B.A., University of St. Francis

Areas of Interest:

19th Century Transatlantic Literature, Edgar Allan Poe, Women's Studies

• Additional Information

  Bio:

  Amy Branam Armiento earned her PhD in English at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Before taking the position at FSU, she was a visiting assistant professor at Carroll University in Waukesha, Wisconsin. She specializes in transatlantic nineteenth-century literature, primarily literature of the United States and Great Britain. Since 2011, she has served on the executive committee of the Edgar A. Poe Studies Association.
  
  Dr. Armiento teaches the survey of U.S. literature survey, romanticism, realism and naturalism, women and literature, first-year composition, and literary theory.

Brad Barkley

Professor

Office: 309 Dunkle Hall
Phone: 301.687.3092
Email: bbarkley@frostburg.edu

Degrees:

M.F.A., University of Arkansas
B.A., University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Areas of Interest:

Creative Writing, Fiction, Composition

• Additional Information

  Bio:

  Brad Barkley is the author of the novel, Money, Love (Norton), a Barnes and Noble "Discover Great New Writers" selection and a "BookSense 76" choice. Money, Love was named one of the best books of 2000 by the Washington Post and the Library Journal. Brad was named one of the “Breakthrough Writers You Need To Know” by Book Magazine. His novel Alison's Automotive Repair Manual (St. Martin’s) was also a "BookSense 76" selection. He has published two collections of short stories, Circle View (SMU Press) and Another Perfect Catastrophe (St. Martin’s). His short fiction has appeared magazines including Southern Review, Georgia Review, the Oxford American, Glimmer Train, Book Magazine, and the Virginia Quarterly Review, which twice awarded him the Emily Balch Prize for Best Fiction. His work was anthologized in New Stories from the South: The Year's Best, 2002. His first YA novel, Scrambled Eggs At Midnight (Penguin) was a summer 2006 “Booksense 76” choice. His second YA novel, Dream Factory, was also “BookSense 76” selection, a Library Guild “Book of the Month, pick” and was voted the Texas Institute of Arts and Letters “Best Young Adult Book” for 2007. Brad has won four Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Arts Council and a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Jennifer Browne

Lecturer

Director, Center for Literary Arts

Office: 312 Dunkle Hall
Phone: 301.687.4286
Email: jabrowne@frostburg.edu

Degrees:

M. Ed., Frostburg State University
B.A., Frostburg State University

Areas of Interest:

Composition and Rhetoric
Environmental literature

• Additional Information

  Bio:

  Jennifer Browne is the Director of the Frostburg State University Center for the Literary Arts. She began teaching college-level composition and literature courses in 1997 at Garrett College, which fostered her interest in advocacy for underprepared and educationally-disadvantaged students, an interest that was enhanced while she served as Director of the Upward Bound Program at Potomac State College of West Virginia University, a federally-funded educational-opportunity program for low-income and first-generation high school students. Upon joining the faculty of Frostburg State University in 2008, she returned to teaching, focusing on the needs of developing writers, who frequently describe her as “passionate,” “knowledgeable,” and “boring.”

  In addition to issues of educational access, Jennifer is interested in gender, ecology, and popular culture, which she investigates in her own writing. She has published poetry in The Peninsula Review, Maryland Poetry Review, American Writing: A Magazine, Backbone Mountain Review, and The Potomac, among others.

  Within the community, she serves on the Advisory Boards of CASA and WFWM Radio.

Andy Duncan

Professor

Office: 220 Dunkle Hall
Phone: 301.687.4241
Email: arduncan@frostburg.edu

Degrees:

M.F.A., University of Alabama
M.A., North Carolina State University
B.A., University of South Carolina

Areas of Interest:

Fiction Writing, Journalism, Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, Contemporary Legends

• Additional Information

  Bio:

  Andy Duncan joined the English faculty of Frostburg State University in 2008. He teaches writing courses, including journalism, fiction, creative nonfiction, business writing and advanced composition, and is coordinator of the minors in journalism and public relations. He holds a B.A. in journalism (news/editorial) from the University of South Carolina, an M.A. in creative writing (fiction) from North Carolina State University, and an M.F.A. in fiction writing from the University of Alabama.

  In 2013 and again in 2019, he received Frostburg State University’s Faculty Achievement Award for professional development. Duncan’s books include three fiction collections, An Agent of Utopia: New and Selected Stories (Small Beer, 2018); The Pottawatomie Giant and Other Stories (PS, 2011) and Beluthahatchie and Other Stories (Golden Gryphon, 2000); two novellas, Wakulla Springs (Tor, 2015; co-written with Ellen Klages) and The Night Cache (PS, 2009); a travel guide, Alabama Curiosities (Globe Pequot, 2005; revised second edition, Globe Pequot, 2009); and a fiction anthology co-edited with F. Brett Cox, Crossroads: Tales of the Southern Literary Fantastic (Tor, 2004).

  As a fiction writer, Duncan has won three World Fantasy Awards, a Nebula Award and a Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award and has been a finalist 32 times for major awards in science fiction, fantasy, and horror. His stories have been published in periodicals including Analog, Asimov’s, Clarkesworld, Conjunctions, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Lightspeed, PodCastle, StarShipSofa and Tor.com and in multiple original and reprint anthologies, including 16 year’s-best volumes. A complete bibliography of his fiction is at https://sites.google.com/view/andy-duncan/home. His published nonfiction ranges from guest commentaries in the Cumberland Times-News to critical articles in Cascadia Subduction Zone, Children’ Literature Review, Foundation and the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts.

  A 1994 graduate of the Clarion West writers’ workshop in Seattle, he has returned to teach Clarion West twice (2005 and 2015) and the Clarion workshop four times (2004, 2013, 2016 and 2019). He will teach Clarion West again in 2020. An active member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, he served one term on its board of directors (2017-2019). An annual attendee at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, he is a frequent speaker at other conferences nationwide. Duncan has been a juror for the Bram Stoker Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, the Kurt Vonnegut Fiction Prize and the World Fantasy Award.

  Duncan also has 14 years of full-time journalism and public-relations experience: writing and editing, for newspapers and magazines, in print and online. He worked at the News & Record, a daily newspaper in Greensboro, N.C., for four years as a features reporter and three years as a news editor. For two years he advised student publications at the University of Alabama. For five years he was a senior editor at Overdrive, a monthly business magazine covering the trucking industry, and had primary responsibility for the magazine’s news site, eTrucker.com. He supervises journalism and public relations internships for the Department of English and Foreign Languages and is a longtime supporter of Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Student Press Law Center and Frostburg State’s independent student-run news organization, The Bottom Line.

Dr. Sydney B. Duncan

Professor

Office: 305-B Dunkle Hall
Phone: 301.687.4225
Email: sduncan@frostburg.edu

Degrees:

Ph.D., University of Alabama
M.F.A., Virginia Commonwealth University
B.A., Roanoke College

Areas of Interest:

Professional Writing, Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, and Mystery Literature

• Additional Information

  Bio:

  Sydney B. Duncan earned an M.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Ph.D. from the University of Alabama. She joined the English faculty at Frostburg State University in 2006. Since then, she has published both critical articles and poetry while serving on a number of university committees. She has received Frostburg's Student Organization Advisor of the Year award and the President's Distinguished Faculty Award.

  She teaches Business Writing and Technical Writing. She is interested in many aspects of experiential learning, and students in her courses have worked with local clients to produce brochures and other documents. Clients have included the Family Crisis Resource Center, the Allegany County Animal Shelter, and Ark of Hope Animal Rescue, among others.

  Dr. Duncan is active in science fiction and fantasy scholarship. She is the Immediate Past President, a board member, and one of the conference organizers for the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. Last year she received the organization's highest honor for a board member, the Robert A. Collins Award.

Dr. Naomi C. Gades

Assistant Professor

Office: 313-A Dunkle Hall
Phone: 301.687.4239
Email: ncgades@frostburg.edu

Degrees:

Ph.D. English, Loyola University Chicago
M.A., English, Loyola University Chicago
M.A., Liberal Arts, St. John's College, Santa Fe
B.A., English, German, Secondary Education, Augustana University

Areas of Interest:

Rhetoric and composition, pedagogy, science and literature, modernist literature

• Additional Information

  Bio:

  Naomi C. Gades earned her PhD in English at Loyola University Chicago. As a Crown Fellow and Arthur J. Schmitt Fellow there, she completed her dissertation on the intersection of modernist American poetry and science. Her research won her the 2018 Fathman Young Scholars Award from the T. S. Eliot Society.

  She completed student teaching placements in Sioux Falls, SD, and Wiesentheid, Germany, on her way to teaching licenses in English and German. She has taught high school English, pre-college courses, and college composition. She has also served as a lead tutor and co-manager of the Loyola Community Literacy Center, a nightly free tutoring service for adults in the Chicago area. She started teaching FSU students in 2021.

  At FSU, Dr. Gades teaches freshman writing and college composition. If you want to get her started on a tangent, ask her about Robert Frost, video games or juggling.

Dr. Farhad Idris

Professor

Office: 307-A Dunkle Hall
Phone: 301.687.4246
Email: fidris@frostburg.edu

Degrees:

Ph.D., University of Arkansas
M.A., Clemson University
B.A., Dhaka University

Areas of Interest:

Postcolonial Literature, Postmodern Literature, Advanced Composition

• Additional Information

  Bio:

  Farhad Idris has been on the English faculty of Frostburg State University for more than a decade and teaches courses in Postcolonial literature, Postmodernism, Modernism, Seminar in Critical Theory, Asian and African literature, and Honors Comparative literature. He also teaches English composition. His publications number nearly two scores. In these, he addresses issues in literary theory and cultural studies. Idris’s recent works include translations of Rabindranath Tagore in The Essential Tagore, contributions to Wiley-Blackwell’s The Encyclopedia of literary and Cultural Theory, and the entry on Salman Raushdie in Dictionary of Literary Biography: South Asian Writers in English.

  In addition to teaching and writing about literature, Idris has a keen interest in Indian Raga music, also known as Indian Classical Music. He plays and teaches the sitar, devoting several hours a day to his instruments—though most of this time he is fixing them for that perfect sound.

Dr. Kevin Kehrwald

Professor, Department Chair

Office: 309 Dunkle Hall
Phone: 301.687.4367
Email: kkehrwald@frostburg.edu

Degrees:

Ph.D., Purdue University
M.A., Arizona State University
B.A., University of Oklahoma

Areas of Interest:

Film, Postmodern Literature,and Literary Theory

• Additional Information

  Bio:

  Kevin Kehrwald grew up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota (aka, the better Dakota). After graduating in English from the University of Oklahoma, he worked a job in a shutter factory so mind-numbingly boring it compelled him to get his master’s degree in English from Arizona State University and his PhD in English from Purdue University. His mind has not been numb since, filled as it is with all kinds of fancy thoughts about books and movies.

  Upon arriving at FSU in 2001, he founded the Film Studies program and began serving as the coordinator of the Film Studies minor. In addition to teaching the majority of film courses, he teaches American Literature, Postmodernism and Literary Theory.

  In 2017 he published Prison Movies: Cinema Behind Bars, a book that traces the cinematic fascination with incarceration from the silent era to the present. By examining films like Cool Hand Luke, Midnight Express, Women’s Prison and The Shawshank Redemption, the book argues that prison narratives are ideally suited for exploring issues of race, class, gender and sexuality, as well as expounding on such fundamental human themes as freedom, justice and mercy. The book also addresses post-9/11 prison documentaries that focus on human rights, recidivism and the inequities of the current system of mass incarceration.

  Kevin spends his off time going on adventure trips with his fearless wife, Kristin, and his wickedly smart daughter, Ella. When he’s not getting woken up by his dog, Loocy, at 4 o’clock every morning, he enjoys writing things, pretending he can cook, and taking long walks on the trail while listening to podcasts about criminals, unknown character actors and science he doesn't’t fully understand. His ever-present goal is to seek warm weather wherever he can find it.

Dr. Kevin W. Knott

Associate Professor

Office: 315-A Dunkle Hall
Phone: 301.687.4696
Email: kwknott@frostburg.edu

Degrees:

Ph.D., Indiana University
M.A., Miami University of Ohio
M.A., The Ohio State University
B.A., Bridgewater College

Areas of Interest:

18th-century British literature and culture, Popular culture (esp. video games), Cultural studies and media theory

• Additional Information

  Bio:

  Kevin Knott completed his Ph.D. at Indiana University (Bloomington) in November 2011, writing his doctoral thesis on the popular 1760s verse satires of actors and acting entitled The Children of Thesis: The Moral Economy of Audience and Satire in Eighteenth-Century Theater, 1761-1769. The dissertation argued that mid-century satirists advanced a moral economy of spectatorship, using the term merit, to discipline the audience’s attention (or inattention in some cases) in the playhouse.

  He continues to study eighteenth-century British literature and history, especially the print culture (theater reviews, celebrity biographies, etc.) of the mid-century London stage, with upcoming projects on eighteenth-century attitudes toward merit and the historical development of the satiric review. He has also written numerous book reviews and presented papers on video game studies, the history of horror and the paranormal, and role-playing games, with a primary focus on audience reception and cultural history.

  At Frostburg State University, he has taught Freshman Composition (English 101), Introduction to Literature (English 150), and Social Sciences Advanced Composition (English 308), and in the past he has worked as an academic style editor and taught courses on rhetoric and the paranormal.

Gerry LaFemina

Professor

Office: 313-B Dunkle Hall
Phone: 301.687.4024
Email: glafemina@frostburg.edu

Degrees:

M.F.A., Western Michigan University
M.A., Western Michigan University
B.A., Sarah Lawrence College

Areas of Interest:

Creative Writing (poetry and fiction), Modern and Contemporary Literature, Creative Writing Pedagogy

• Additional Information

  Bio:

  Gerry LaFemina's five full-length collections of poetry include The Parakeets of Brooklyn, which received the 2003 Bordighera Prize and was published in a bilingual edition of English and Italian and he’s also the author of two collections of prose poems. His collection of short stories, Proofreading America, came out in 2009, and The Vanishing Horizon, a collection of poems, came out in 2010. A noted writer, editor and teacher, LaFemina was nominated for the Michigan Governor's Arts Educator of the Year award in 2000, served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP), has been awarded numerous awards for his work, including a Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs grant and an Pushcart Prize.

Dr. Jill A. Morris

Associate Professor

Office: Dunkle Hall
Phone: 301.687.4238
Email: jamorris@frostburg.edu

Degrees:

Ph.D., English, Wayne State University
M.S., Rhetoric and Technical Communication, Michigan Technological University
B.S., Scientific and Technical Communication, Michigan Technological University

Areas of Interest:

Technical Communication, Gaming in Composition, New Media, Digital Rhetoric, Robotics and Writing

• Additional Information

  Bio:

  Jill A. Morris earned her M.S. in Rhetoric and Technical Communication from Michigan Technological University and her Ph.D. in English from Wayne State University. She previously held the Director of College Writing position at Baker College of Allen Park and joined the Frostburg State faculty in the fall of 2011.

  Dr. Morris is involved in national research and service projects dealing with gaming and writing. Most notably, she is teaching a course in conjunction with North Carolina State University, George Mason University, and Baker College in which some students create and others play an alternate reality game about a pandemic. She is also on the board of C's the Day, the annual conference game at the CCCC's where the grand prizes are publications. She is also an Assistant Editor for Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy where she works on the Praxis Wiki. She regularly presents papers at national conferences including the CCCC's, Feminisms and Rhetorics, and Computers and Writing--where she is part of a featured panel this year. She has past experience working in technical communication and web design, and uses those personal experiences in her teaching.

  Outside of the University, Jill is a member of the Cumberland Chorale Society and past board member of the Southern Great Lakes Symphony Orchestra. She loves dogs and lives with her two Pomeranians--Delilah and Riddle. She loves dancing and community theater as well, and enjoys being involved in community arts projects.

Dr. John F. Raucci

Associate Professor

Office: 301-B Dunkle Hall
Phone: 301.687.4715
Email: jfraucci@frostburg.edu

Degrees:

Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
M.A., Clarion University of Pennsylvania
B.A., Allegheny College

Areas of Interest:

Composition, Rhetoric

Dr. Kristin Shimmin

Associate Professor

Office: 301C Dunkle Hall
Phone: 301.687.4084
Email: ksshimmin@frostburg.edu

Degrees:

Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University
M.A., Pennsylvania State University
B.S., University of Minnesota
B.A., University of Minnesota

Areas of Interest:

Professional Writing, Technical Writing, and Expert to Non-expert Communication

• Additional Information

  Bio:

  Kristin Shimmin joined the English faculty at Frostburg State University in 2016 and teaches courses in composition. Kristin earned a duel degree in English and Mathematics from the University of Minnesota in 2002. After college she taught 8th grade mathematics in Brooklyn for a few years, and dabbled in sales support in San Francisco for a few more. She earned an MA in English from Penn State in 2009 and a PhD in Rhetoric from Carnegie Mellon University in 2016. Her research interests focus on rhetoric of science, discourse circulation, and public understanding of science.

  Having grown up in northern Minnesota, Kristin is eager to be living somewhere she can once again enjoy outdoor activities year round.

Dr. Rochelle Smith

Professor

Office: 305-A Dunkle Hall
Phone: 301.687.4280
Email: rsmith2@frostburg.edu

Degrees:

M.A., Ph.D. University of Chicago
B.A., Oberlin College

Areas of Interest:

Shakespeare, Shakespeare on Film, Early Modern Literature, the English and American Literature Survey, First-Year Writing

• Additional Information

  Bio:

  Rochelle Smith joined the English Faculty at Frostburg State University in 1994. She holds a BA in English from Oberlin College and an MA and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, with a primary specialization in Shakespeare and the early modern period, and a secondary concentration in composition theory. At Frostburg, she serves as the department’s Shakespearean and as the Director of Freshman Composition. In Shakespeare studies, her scholarship explores the interplay between drama and popular literature, especially the late medieval and early modern broadside ballad. Her most recent article, “King-Commoner Encounters in the Popular Ballad, Elizabethan Drama, and Shakespeare,” is published in SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500-1900. In composition studies, her research interests focus on paragraph theory. Dr. Smith hires, trains, and mentors adjunct faculty in the composition program. She also runs the Frostburg State University Shakespeare Festival.

Staff

JoAnna Skelley

Administrative Assistant II

Part-Time Faculty

• Carmen Alvarez-Harden
• Lynn Bowman
• Sharon Brescoach
• Martha Rowe Dolly
• Charles Ewers
• Rebeccah McCauley
• Paige Walker

Faculty Emeriti

• Dorothy Howard
• Phillip Goepp
• Pauline Hobbs
• Helene Baldwin
• Alan M. Rose
• Howard C. Adams
• Molly Walter-Burnham
• Glynn R. Baugher
• Eira Patnaik
• Richard M. Trask
• Robert E. Pletta
• Dennis D. Gartner
• Keith W. Schlegel
• Zita M. McShane
• Barbara Hurd
• Judith J. Pula
• A. Franklin Parks
• Charles J. Ewers
• Martha Rowe Dolly
• Mary Anne Lutz
• Dr. Gerald F. Snelson
• Ralph Brewer