Chair, English, Foreign Language and Humanities Department, Associate Professor of English

Northwestern - Alva
Vinson Hall 210
Phone: (580) 327-8474
rjjames@nwosu.edu

Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION

• Ph. D., University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2014
• M.A., Northwestern State University, 2008
• B.A., Northwestern State Univeristy, 2009
• B.A., Louisiana State University, 2006

COURSES TAUGHT

• ENGL. 1113: Composition I
• ENGL. 1213: Composition II
• ENGL. 3303/5413: Popular Literature: The Dirty, The Scary, and The Scandalous
• ENGL. 3423: Multicultural Literature
• ENGL. 3503: Mythology
• ENGL. 4413: Restoration and 18th Century English Literature 

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Romantic and Victorian Literature
• Restoration and Eighteenth Century British Literature
• American Literature to circa 1900
• Children’s Literature
• Dirt Theory and Studies

FAVORITE QUOTE

• "But a stranger in a strange land, he is no one; men know him not—and to know not is to care not for." --Bram Stoker

Instructor of English, Program Coordinator English Education

Northwestern - Alva
Vinson Hall 212
Phone: (580) 327-8472
lmcherry@nwosu.edu

Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION

• M.A., University of Central Oklahoma, 2014
• B.A., University of Central Oklahoma, 2009  

COURSES TAUGHT

• ENGL. 1113: Composition I
• ENGL. 1213: Composition II
• ENGL. 4173/5173: English Usage
• ENGL. 4093: Young Adult Literature
• ENGL. 4333: Teaching English in the Secondary School
• HUM. 2413: Introduction to Literature

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Modernism
• Poststructuralism
• Hyperreality and Simulation
• Feminist Theory
• American Literature post 1900
• American Indian Literature
• Music and Poetry

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

• Author, “Eliot and Godard,” Reading With Jean-Luc Godard, Caboose, expected publication 2020 
• Author, “Woolf and Godard,” Reading With Jean-Luc Godard, Caboose, expected publication 2020
• Recipient, Innovation in Teaching Award, Redlands Community College, 2019
• Invited Speaker, Association of Career and Technology Education National Conference, 2018
• President, Oklahoma Career and Technology Education Services-Special Populations, 2015 - 2018
• Recipient, Most Outstanding Graduate Student, University of Central Oklahoma, 2013-2014
• Author, “Curiosity,” Edgar Allan Poe in Context, Cambridge UP, 2013
• Recipient, Outstanding Paper Presented by a Graduate Student, College English Association, 2010

WHO AM I AWAY FROM WORK?

• I am a mother of two brilliant daughters and two giant dogs. I love taking road trips with my husband; we often travel to music festivals and try to attend Austin City Limits at least every other year. Teaching and learning are my true passions, and being able to do both for a living is a dream realized.

FAVORITE QUOTE

• “For words, like nature, half reveal / And half conceal the soul within” - Alfred, Lord 

Associate Dean of Graduate Studies,
Professor of English

Northwestern - Alva
Ryerson Hall 212
Phone: (580) 327-8589
spholliday@nwosu.edu

Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 1999
• M.A., Marshall University, 1993
• B.A., Marshall University, 1991

COURSES TAUGHT

• ENGL. 2883: American Literature Since Whitman
• ENGL. 3303/5413: Popular Literature: The Western
• ENGL. 3343/5433: 19th Century American Novel
• ENGL. 3463/5463: American Literature: Twain & James
• ENGL. 4163: Literary Criticism
• ENGL. 4203/5203: Contemporary Poetry
• ENGL. 4273/5273: 20th & 21st Century American Novel
• ENGL. 4480/5180: Seminar (20th Century American Playwrights; Jazz and American Literature)
• HUM. 4900: The History of Rock and Roll

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• American Realism and Naturalism
• Modernism
• Appalachian Literature
• Literature of the American West
• Music and Literature
• Literary Criticism

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS               

• Recipient, Oklahoma Humanities Council Opportunity Grant to give a series of talks on the Oklahoma poets laureate at high at schools, museums, and libraries around the state of Oklahoma, 2014. 
• Recipient, Everett T. Helm Fellowship to support research using the Clifford Odets papers at Indiana University’s Lilly Library, 2008.
• Recipient, Zelda and Paul Gitlin Literary Prize for best article published on Thomas Wolfe in 2006, 2007.      
• Recipient, William B. Wisdom Grant in Aid of Research to support research using the Thomas Wolfe papers at Harvard University’s Houghton Library, Thomas Wolfe Society, 2006.
• Recipient, Berger Foundation Grant to Teach Abroad for a semester in London, England, 2005.
• Recipient, Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award, Alice Lloyd College, 2003.
• Fellow, Salzburg Seminar session in Contemporary American Literature, 2003. Faculty Mentor: Shirley Geok-lin Lim.

WHO AM I AWAY FROM WORK?

• I spend most of my time away from work writing conference papers, articles, and books on different aspects of American literature. Besides that, I love to cook, grill, read, travel, and spend time with my wife and daughter. I also enjoy playing the bass guitar. The Beatles are a special passion of mine, too.

FAVORITE QUOTE

• “Each of us is all the sums he has not counted: subtract us into the nakedness and night again, and you shall see begin in Crete four thousand years ago the love that ended yesterday in Texas.” --Thomas Wolfe

Assistant Professor of English

Northwestern-Alva
Vinson Hall 214
Phone: (580) 327-8469
bcstephens@nwosu.edu

Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., University of Houston, 2022
• M. F. A, University of Central Florida, 2017
• M. A. T., Frostburg State University, 2012
• ​B. A., Frostburg State University, 2009

COURSES TAUGHT

• ENGL. 1113: Composition I
• ENGL. 1213: Composition II - Understanding Conspiracy Theories
• ENGL. 3513: Technical Writing
• ENGL. 4113: Creative Writing
• HUM. 1900: Graphic Novels

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Creative Writing
• Fabulism
• Graphic Novels
• Working Class Literature
• Game Theory
• Cognitive Disorders and Disability

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

• Author, Short Story: “Hell’s Mountain,” Cleaver Magazine, Best American Short Story nominee, Issue 42, Summer 2023
• Author, Short Story: “The Medusa Border,” The Pinch Journal, Pushcart Prize nominee, Issue 43.1, Spring 2023
• Honored in the Wigleaf Top 50 Very Short Fictions, 2023
• Winner of the Inprint Marion Barthelme Prize in Creative Writing, 2021
• Winner of the 2019 Fiction Contest, Into the Void Magazine, 2019
• Winner of the 2019 New Writer Award, Sequestrum, 2019

WHO AM I AWAY FROM WORK?

• When I am not teaching, you'll find me tinkering away in my own creative works, leafing through books, riffing on guitar, experimenting with new tofu recipes, or slinging spells in Dungeons & Dragons. Sometimes I go on walks around town, but mostly I'm an indoor person through-and-through.

FAVORITE QUOTE

• “The difficult thing isn't living with other people, it's understanding them.” – José Saramago

Assistant Professor of English

Northwestern - Alva
Vinson Hall 214
Phone: (580) 327- 8470
dlvaughan@nwosu.edu

Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., Oklahoma State University, 2021
• M. A., Boston University, 2009
• ​B. A., Oklahoma State University, 2008

COURSES TAUGHT

• ENGL. 1113: Composition I
• ENGL. 1213: Composition II
• ENGL. 2543: British Literature to 1865
• ENGL. 3403: World Literature

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Seventeenth-Century British Literature
• Early Modern Print Culture
• English Civil War
• Archival and Textual Scholarship
• Ancient Greek Drama
• Roman Poetry
• Shakespeare

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

• Presenter, "Why is Lil Nas X in Milton’s Garden?: Allusion, Adaptation, and Unoriginal Genius.” The Conference of John Milton. 2022.
• Presenter, "A Tyranny of Words: Rhetoric and Reason in John Milton." The Conference on John Milton. 2019.
• Presenter, "Milton and Catullus: The Sounds of Allusion in Latin Poetry." The 12th International Milton Symposium. 2019.

Assistant Professor of Spanish

Northwestern - Alva
Vinson Hall 123
Phone: (580) 327-8466
rcvest@nwosu.edu

Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., Purdue University, 2018
• M.A., Purdue University, 2012
• B.A., Northern Michigan University, 2010

COURSES TAUGHT

• SPAN. 1114: Spanish I
• SPAN. 1224: Spanish II
• SPAN. 2183: Conversation/Reading I
• SPAN. 2193: Composition/Grammar I
• SPAN. 3103: Introduction to Hispanic Literature
• SPAN. 3113: Peninsular/Spanish American Culture
• SPAN. 3183: Conversation II
• SPAN. 3193: Composition/Grammar II
• SPAN. 4103: Survey of Peninsular Literature
• SPAN. 4183: Conversation III
• SPAN. 4193: Composition/Grammar III
• SPAN. 4223: Survey of Spanish American Literature

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Realism/Naturalism in Latin American Literature
• Literature of the Boom/Post-Boom
• Latin American short story
• Science and Literature

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

• Helping lead a study abroad in Madrid, Spain
• Helping plan and pull off cultural activities with Spanish Club
• Publishing an article in an academic journal as an undergraduate with a great faculty advisor

WHO AM I AWAY FROM WORK?

• I love to travel every chance I get. My favorite place to travel is Mexico, especially Mexico City and Guanajuato. When I am not traveling, I am normally reading a new book or looking for people to play board games.

FAVORITE QUOTE

• "What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it." - Gabriel García Márquez