English Department Faculty

Dr. Payne
Dr. Tredennick
Dr. Hecht
Suzanne Black

Dr. Suzanne Black

Associate Professor
Netzer 313
607-436-2493
Suzanne.Black@oneonta.edu

Office Hours (Spring 2024):
W 9:30-11:30, 2-3 and by appointment

Courses (Spring 2024):
COMP 4039 - Advanced Professional Writing
ELIT 3074 - Modern British Poets
LING 3015 - Intro to Editing and Publishing

Suzanne Black (Ph.D., University of Michigan) came to Oneonta in Fall 2008 after working in Indiana and Minnesota. She teaches courses in modern world and British literature, professional writing, and composition. In addition to her background in French and comparative literature, she has an undergraduate degree in chemistry and experience as a grant writer.

She remains interested in popular science writing and in more humanistic aspects of the sciences, such as scientific images. Her current research focuses on two novels by the Anglo-Sudanese writer Leila Aboulela and work by the Mozambican writer and environmental consultant Mia Couto.

Martin Christiansen

Adjunct Assistant Professor
Netzer 319
mart1023@yahoo.com

Office Hours (Spring 2024):
M-F 9:30-4:30 via phone

Courses(Spring 2024):
COMP 1000 - Composition
LITR 1000 - Themes in Literature

Martin Christiansen earned an M.A. from Central Michigan University in 1998.

View Martin Christiansen's CV

Amie A. Doughty

Dr. Amie Doughty

Professor
Fitzelle 367
607-436-3332
Amie.Doughty@oneonta.edu

Amie Doughty's Website

Office Hours (Spring 2024):
MWF 11-11:45, W 1-2, and by appointment


Courses (Spring 2024):
COMP 1000 - Composition
LING 2001 - Language and Society
WLIT 3031 - Mythology

Dr. Doughty joined the faculty in Fall 2006 after spending several years teaching at Lake Superior State University in Michigan. She earned her MA from Indiana State University and her Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. A generalist, she has taught classes in linguistics, composition, and literature, particularly children's literature, fantasy, and folk literature. She is the author of Folktales Retold: A Critical Overview of Stories Updated for Children (2006) and "Throw the book away": Reading versus Experience in Children's Fantasy (2013). Dr. Doughty's research interests are varied but lean toward the intersection of literature and linguistics, as well as language in popular culture.

Her research includes papers examining magic and technology in the Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl, and Faerie Wars series; language attitudes about the Junie B. Jones series; environmentalism in children's and YA fantasy; gender in urban fantasy by women; and storytelling, fate, and self-determination in Robin McKinley's folktale revisions. She is the Area Chair of the Children's and YA Literature and Culture area of the Popular Culture Association and the editor of the collection Children's and Young Adult Literature and Culture: A Mosaic of Criticism (2016).

Jessica Femiani

Adjunct Lecturer
Netzer 322
607-436-3446

Office hours (Spring 2024):
TTh 6:45-7:45 Schumacher 212/213 and by appointment

Courses (Spring 2024):
COMP 1000 (2 sections)

Mark Ferrara photo

Dr. Mark Ferrara

Professor
Physical Science 139
607-436-2427
Mark.Ferrara@oneonta.edu

Office Hours (Spring 2024):
MWF 1-2

Courses (Spring 2024):
COMP 2050 - Intro to Creative Writing
LITR 1000 - Themes in Literature
WLIT 4094 - SpTp: Orhan Pamuk

Mark S. Ferrara, Ph.D. University of Denver, 2004, is author of seven books, including Palace of Ashes (Johns Hopkins UP, 2015), Sacred Bliss (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016), American Community (Rutgers UP, 2020), and The Raging Erie (Columbia UP, 2024). His recent work of creative nonfiction, Living the Food Allergic Life (Top Light Books, 2023), chronicles the everyday challenges of living with life-threatening allergies to food. Ferrara has also published fourteen peer-reviewed articles on literary and cultural studies and was appointed Visiting Scholar in the Department of English at University of California, Berkeley during the spring 2015 semester.
In addition, Ferrara has taught for universities in South Korea, China, and on a Fulbright scholarship in Turkey. His courses are internationally focused, interdisciplinary, and aim to raise critical insight of other cultures through their literatures.

View Mark Ferrara's CV

Kathryn Finin

Dr. Kathryn Finin

Associate Professor
Fitzelle 361
607-436-3036
Kathryn.Finin@oneonta.edu

Office Hours (Spring 2024):
On Sabbatical

Courses (Spring 2024):
On Sabbatical

Dr. Finin joined the English Department in 2003, after teaching Shakespeare and Literary/Critical Theory for several years as a part-time instructor at SUNY-Oneonta.In 2001, she received the college’s Simphiwe Hlatswayo Award for Excellence in Part-Time Teaching. Dr. Finin received her doctorate from Binghamton University in 1997, earning the Distinguished Research Award for her work on English Renaissance Drama. She has presented many scholarly papers at The Shakespeare Association of America, as well as other conferences, and published several essays on plays by Shakespeare, Webster, and Middleton.

Dr. Finin's teaching interests include courses on Shakespeare, Early Modern English literature, literary and critical theory, and various introductory survey courses. Currently, Dr. Finin is involved in two major research projects: one on Shakespeare’s female icons and a second on early modern English writers’ representations of Ireland and its people in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. She is developing courses on Spenser's The Faerie Queene and the notoriously fluid genre of Romance in English Literature. In addition to her teaching and scholarly interests, Dr. Finin is a trained labyrinth facilitator who offers various community labyrinth walks, lectures and workshops.

J. Michael Green

Adjunct Lecturer
Netzer 322
607-436-2493

Office Hours (Spring 2024):
TTh 2:30-3:30

Courses (Spring 2024):
COMP 1000 - Composition (2 sections)

Roger Hecht

Dr. Roger Hecht

Associate Professor
Netzer 319
607-436-3033
Roger.Hecht@oneonta.edu

Office Hours (Spring 2024):
W 10-12, Th 10-11, and by appointment



Courses (Spring 2024):
ALIT 4073- Upstate New York Writers
COMP 3060 - Poetry Workshop
LITR 3470 - Environmental Humanities

Dr. Hecht joined the English Department as an Assistant Professor in 2006, after teaching literature and creative writing as a full-time lecturer at SUNY, Oneonta for several years. Dr. Hecht earned his MFA in Poetry from the University of Arizona (1990) and his Ph.D. from Syracuse University (2002). His dissertation addressed the intersection of politics and landscape representation in early American literature. He has published essays on James Fenimore Cooper, Herman Melville, and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

His books include two edited anthologies: The Erie Canal Reader: 1790-1950 (Syracuse University Press, 2004)-literary writings about the Erie Canal-and Freemen Awake!: Rally Songs and Poems from New York's Anti-Rent Movement (Delaware County Historical Association (2017). His poetry has been published widely in literary journals and websites, such as Denver Quarterly, Prick of the Spindle, Sheila-Na-Gig on-line, and Yes Poetry. His first poetry collection is Talking Pictures (Cervena Barva Press, 2012). Dr. Hecht is currently researching a book on environmental themes in the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. He teaches courses in American literature, Literary/Critical Theory, and Creative Writing.

George Hovis

Dr. George Hovis

Distinguished Teaching Professor
Fitzelle 362
607-436-2571
George.Hovis@oneonta.edu

“George Hovis publishes debut novel.” See article from “Carolina Weekly”

"Thomas Wolfe and the Lost Generation" lecture
at Boston Athenaeum

Office Hours (Spring 2024):
M 2-2:30, W 5:25-6:35, F 2-3 and by appointment


Courses (Spring 2024):
ALIT 2001 - 1865 to Present
COMP 2050 - Intro to Creative Writing
LITR 1050 - Intro to Literary Studies

George Hovis earned a Ph.D. from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2001 and was on the faculty at Murray State University before coming to SUNY Oneonta in 2006, where he is currently a professor of English. His teaching and research interests lie in the areas of American literature, fiction writing, creative writing, and literature of the American South, especially as it addresses issues of race in America.

His debut novel, The Skin Artist (SFK Press, 2019), was nominated for the 2019 Sir Walter Raleigh Award. His short fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and has been honored as a 2018 prize winner in The Carolina Quarterly’s national contest “Wake and Dream Again,” selected by Daniel Wallace. His nonfiction has received the 2007 Denny C. Plattner Award from Appalachian Heritage magazine. His stories, essays, and poetry have appeared widely, in anthologies and in journals such as Southern Cultures, The North Carolina Literary Review, The Mississippi Quarterly, The Fourth River, Stone Canoe, The Southern Literary Journal, The Thomas Wolfe Review, New Madrid, Appalachian Heritage, and The Carolina Quarterly. His book of literary scholarship Vale of Humility: Plain Folk in Contemporary North Carolina Fiction was published in 2007 by the University of South Carolina Press. George has served as President of the Thomas Wolfe Society and has attended the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. In 2017 he received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. More information available at www.georgehovis.net

George Hovis CV

Virginia Kennedy

Dr. Virginia Kennedy

Adjunct Lecturer
Netzer 322
607-436-3446

Office Hours (Spring 2024):
MW 3-3:45pm, 7-8pm, and by appointment

Courses (Spring 2024):
COMP 1000 - Composition

CV

Dr. Joshua Lewis

Adjunct Assistant Professor
Netzer 314
607-436-3446
Joshua.Lewis@oneonta.edu

Office Hours (Spring 2024):
TTh 9-9:50


Courses: (Spring 2024):
COMP 1000 - Composition (2 sections)

Joshua Lewis has taught composition at various institutions, such as SUNY Broome Community College, Hartwick College, and SUNY Oneonta. He received his Ph.D. in English from Binghamton University, and he has been part of the Greater Binghamton Community for over 13 years. In his spare time, he writes poetry and fiction along with facilitating poetry workshops at the Broome County Arts Council, an organization dedicated to serving the arts.

Quinn Lewis

Adjunct Assistant Professor
Netzer 322
607-436-2493

Office Hours (Spring 2024):
Virtually by appointment

Courses (Spring 2024):
COMP 1000 - Composition (2 sections, online)

Sheena Mason photo

Dr. Sheena Mason

Assistant Professor
607-436-3473
sheena.mason@oneonta.edu

Dr. Sheena Mason is 1 of 8 new Visiting Fellows with the Program on Pluralism & Civil Exchange at Mercatus Research Center at George Mason University.

Learn more about her fellowship here: https://www.mercatus.org/announcements/eight-new-visiting-fellows-program-pluralism-and-civil

Office Hours (Spring 2024):
MWF 10:30-11:30am and by appointment

Courses (Spring 2024):
ALIT 2050 - African American Literature
INTD 1094 - SpTp: Turning Point
WLIT 2070 - Postcolonial Literature & Culture: Africa

Sheena Mason earned her Ph.D. in English literature from Howard University, her M.A. from the University of Houston, and her B.A. from SUNY Plattsburgh. Before coming to SUNY Oneonta, she taught at the College of William and Mary, California Lutheran University, and Howard University. Her forthcoming book, Theory of Racelessness: A Case For Antirace(ism) is expected to print in early 2022. Additionally, she co-authored “The Harlem Renaissance,” a chapter of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Artexamining what, if anything, is the proper role of race in the aesthetic productions of or about members of racialized populations. “‘A WHITE SLAVE:’ Albinism in Barbara Chase-Riboud’s Sally Hemings” from Cosmopolitanisms, Race, and Ethnicity(2019) analyzes how race functions as racism in Chase-Riboud’s Sally Hemings. Dr. Mason works actively to decolonize language and, therefore, our thoughts. In “No Malcolm X in My History Text” (2018), she examines the iterations of the folklore figure Stagger lee, the figure’s relation to the public sphere, and racism. Ultimately, she concludes that Stagger lee persists in the American imagination and is a simultaneously and paradoxically subversive and stereotypical figure, highlighting the pervasiveness of racism and society’s response to racism. In her teaching, scholarship, and service, Dr. Mason consistently and unwaveringly promotes anti-racism, though her “anti-racism” necessarily differs from traditional thought and practices.

Her sustained interest in understanding systemic racism and being a change agent for social justice resulted in her primary specialization in African American literature. Her secondary specializations are American and Caribbean literature. Through her teaching, research, and service, Dr. Mason inspires and informs individuals and organizations on anti-racism and provides revolutionary anti-racist initiatives and policy-changing efforts. One of her mantras is “freeing ourselves together,” which she aims to cultivate: healing, unification, and recognition of shared humanity.

Daniel Payne

Dr. Daniel Payne

Distinguished Teaching Professor, Emeritus

Daniel.Payne@oneonta.edu

Daniel Payne's Website

Since Dr. Payne began teaching at SUNY Oneonta in the fall 2001 semester, he has created several new courses including creative writing workshops in screenwriting and creative nonfiction, and courses in American and environmental literature such as Hawthorne and Melville, Environmental Literature, Rachel Carson, and The River as Metaphor and Reality. Prior to teaching at SUNY Oneonta, Dr. Payne earned a J.D. at Albany Law School, and his experience as a practicing attorney included service as Counsel to the New York State Senate Transportation Committee. He then completed his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University at Buffalo, where his dissertation was a multidisciplinary study of American Nature Writing and Environmental Politics.

His book-length works include Voices in the Wilderness: American Nature Writing and Environmental Politics (1996); The Palgrave Environmental Reader (2005); Writing the Land: John Burroughs and His Legacy (2008); Why Read Thoreau’s Walden? (2013); and Orion on the Dunes: A Biography of Henry Beston (2016). Dr. Payne also directs the biannual John Burroughs Nature Writing Conference & Seminar, commonly referred to as the “Sharp Eyes” Conference, at SUNY Oneonta. In 2012, Dr. Payne was honored with the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Dr. Michael Peters

Adjunct Assistant Professor
Netzer 314
607-436-2493

Office Hours (Spring 2024):
M 3-5, and by appointment


Courses (Spring 2024):
COMP 1000 - Composition
LITR 1000 - Themes in Literature

CV
Lit Art Sound CV

Dr. Deirdre Riley

Lecturer
Netzer 322
607-436-3446

Office hours (Spring 2024):
MW 12:30-2

Courses (Spring 2024):
COMP 2000 - Advanced Composition
ELIT 2070 - Shakespeare
ELIT 4094 - SpTp: Revenants, Demons and Dead

Jonathan Sadow

Dr. Jonathan Sadow

Associate Professor and Chair
Fitzelle 173
607-436-2459
jonathan.sadow@oneonta.edu

Office Hours (Spring 2024):
W 10:30-1:30



Courses (Spring 2024):
ELIT 2087 - From Romance to Gothic
LITR 3050 - Approaches to Literature

Jonathan Sadow is a specialist in eighteenth-century British literature who received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He teaches classes in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century literature that emphasize shifting conceptions of fiction, poetry, theater, gender, print culture, philosophy, and empire, as well as courses on literary theory, postmodernism, and irony. He has published articles and book chapters on genre, gender, puppets, and bagels. His recent chapter "Moral and Generic Corruption in Fenwick's Secresy" is part of the book collection Didactic Novels and British Women's Writing, 1790-1820, ed. Hilary Havens (Routledge 2017). He is affiliated with the Department of Women's and Gender Studies, and his current research interests primarily involve eighteenth-century women writers like Eliza Fenwick, Charlotte Smith, and Eliza Haywood.

Bianca Tredennick in Rockport

Dr. Bianca Tredennick

Associate Professor
Fitzelle 360
607-436-2395
Bianca.Tredennick@oneonta.edu

Office Hours (Spring 2024):
On Sabbatical

Courses (Spring 2024):
On Sabbatical

Dr. Tredennick is a specialist in nineteenth-century British literature, especially the novel. Her dissertation explores a materialist metaphorics of death prevalent in this era. She continues to like texts with corpses in them. Prior to coming to SUNY, Oneonta, Dr. Tredennick taught at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, and at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. In addition to creepy Victorian stuff, her interests include composition (no, really), the Seattle Mariners, and Grand Theft Auto. She is the author of the predictably morbid "'A Labor of Death and a Labor against Death': Scott's Cenotaphic Paratexts" (European Romantic Review) and "Some Collections of Mortality: Dickens, the Paris Morgue, and the Material Corpse" (Victorian Review), and she is the editor of the less cadaverous Victorian Transformations, 2011.

Simone Tucker

Adjunct Lecturer
Netzer 322
607-436-2493

Office Hours (Spring 2024):
MF 11-12, Milne Library, 1st Floor

Courses (Spring 2024):
COMP 1000 - Composition (2 sections)

Andrew Tully

Adjunct Assistant Professor
Netzer 314
607-436-3116
AndrewTully@oneonta.edu

Office Hours (Spring 2024):
TTh 5:30-6:30

Courses (Spring 2024):
COMP 1000 - Composition
COMP 2050 - Intro to Creative Writing

Andrew Tully earned an M.F.A. from Emerson College, 1994.

Akira Yatsuhashi

Dr. Akira Yatsuhashi

Associate Professor
Fitzelle 359
607-436-3900
Akira.Yatsuhashi@oneonta.edu

Office Hours (Spring 2024):

Courses (Spring 2024):
COMP 2045 - Writing About Literature
WLIT 4083 - Odysseys: Ancient and Modern

Akira Yatsuhashi joined the English Department in 2011 after teaching Classics in the Upper Midwest. He earned his Ph.D. in Classical Studies from Duke University (2010) and also holds MAs in Classics (Tufts, 2003) and Comparative Literature and Japanese Poetics (Dartmouth, 2001). He teaches courses in Greek and Roman literature, Greek and Latin language, and composition. His research focuses on the uses of literature and scholarly writing in shaping and defining cultural and ethnic identity in colonial and imperial contexts. He is currently researching the role the Library of Alexandria and its literary products played in allowing elites reimagine and reorder their cultural pasts in the wake of the conquests of Alexander of the Great.

Department Chair

Dr. Jonathan Sadow
Associate Professor, Department Chair
Netzer 322
607-436-3035
jonathan.sadow@oneonta.edu

Secretary

Ruth Carr
Ruth.Carr@oneonta.edu
322 Netzer Administration Building
(607) 436-3446

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