Faculty for English, Foreign Language and Humanities

Faculty Quick Links

Roxie J. James, Ph.D.

Shawn P. Holliday, Ph.D.

David L. Vaughan, Ph.D.

Robert C. Vest, Ph.D.

Dr. Christina Xan

Roxie J. James, Ph.D.

Roxie J. James, Ph.D.

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

Curriculum Vitae

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

“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

Shawn P. Holliday, Ph.D.

Shawn P. Holliday, Ph.D.

Associate Dean of Graduate Studies,
Professor of English

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

Curriculum Vitae

  • Ph.D., Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 1999
  • M.A., Marshall University, 1993
  • B.A., Marshall University, 1991
  • 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
  • American Realism and Naturalism
  • Modernism
  • Appalachian Literature
  • Literature of the American West
  • Music and Literature
  • Literary Criticism
  • 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.

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.

“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

David L. Vaughan, Ph.D.

David L. Vaughan, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of English

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

Curriculum Vitae

  • Ph.D., Oklahoma State University, 2021
  • M. A., Boston University, 2009
  • ​B. A., Oklahoma State University, 2008
  • ENGL. 1113: Composition I
  • ENGL. 1213: Composition II
  • ENGL. 2543: British Literature to 1865
  • ENGL. 3403: World Literature
  • Seventeenth-Century British Literature
  • Early Modern Print Culture
  • English Civil War
  • Archival and Textual Scholarship
  • Ancient Greek Drama
  • Roman Poetry
  • Shakespeare
  • 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.
Robert C. Vest, Ph.D.

Robert C. Vest, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Spanish

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

Curriculum Vitae

  • Ph.D., Purdue University, 2018
  • M.A., Purdue University, 2012
  • B.A., Northern Michigan University, 2010
  • 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
  • Realism/Naturalism in Latin American Literature
  • Literature of the Boom/Post-Boom
  • Latin American short story
  • Science and Literature
  • 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

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.

“What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.”

– Gabriel García Márquez

Dr. Christina Xan

Dr. Christina Xan

Assistant Professor of English

Vinson Hall
Northwestern – Alva
cmxan@nwosu.edu