About the Faculty and Staff

The faculty of the Department of English and Fine Arts have won more than half a dozen awards for Distinguished Teaching, Research, and Service to the Institute. They represent a wide range of expertise reflected in the special topics courses and the independent studies that they regularly direct. Members of the department have published short stories and poems; produced films on Mexico and Poland; and written scholarly works on Spenser, Donne, Hemingway, Ginsberg, Stella Benson, E.A. Robinson, John Harington, Vietnam literature, Arthurian legend, Porgy and Bess, composition theory, and artistic genres.

Academic Translation of Military Rank:

Faculty Profiles

Col. Emily Miller, Dept. Head

Emily Miller has been department head since 1992. She has a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. Her expertise is Renaissance Literature, in particular Shakespeare, and she holds the Navas-Read Chair for English Literature. She also has spearheaded innovative methods of teaching Composition at VMI, especially the portfolio.

Col. Bill Badgett

Bill Badgett, a VMI alumnus, is both an English professor and the resident art historian. He has a Masters from Harvard and is the senior professor at VMI. In addition to general art history, he teaches special courses in Art and Propaganda (a course in the art and literature of World War I), architecture, and Introduction to Music.

Col. Meredith Bedell

Meredith Bedell's expertise is in Romantic and Victorian literature. She is the author of Stella Benson (Twayne's English Authors Series #359). She has a Ph.D. from Florida State University. In addition to 19th- and 20th-century British literature, she teaches Classics in translation.

Col. John Leland

John Leland's major field is Renaissance poetry, but he has also written the books A Guide to Hemingway's Paris and Porcher's Creek: Life Between the Tides, a meditation on the environment and his childhood. When he is not teaching Shakespeare, he also teaches courses in John Milton, Literature of the Bible, and Modern European Literature. He has a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Col. Gordon Ball

Gordon Ball is an expert on the Beat Generation and Film. He was a close friend of Allen Ginsberg, about whom he has written extensively, and has edited two volumes of Ginsberg's journals, including Journals: Early Fifties, Early Sixties. His book Allen Verbatim: Lectures on Poetry, Politics, Consciousness was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. He has published a memoir, 66 Frames, as well as short stories. He is also a celebrated independent film maker and photographer and is adviser to the VMI chapter of the Sigma Tau Delta English Honors Society . He has a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Col. Alan Baragona

Alan Baragona is the department's medievalist, specializing in Chaucer and Arthurian Legend. He is the webmaster of the Arthuriana Pedagogy Page and is a charter member of the group that created The Chaucer MetaPage. He also teaches Medieval Drama and History of the English Language. He has a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and serves as adviser to the Timmins-Gentry Music Society and co-adviser to the English Society.

Col. Rob McDonald

Rob McDonald has a Ph.D. from Texas Christian University. He has published work in his major field, 20th-century American literature, particularly Southern Literature, and on methods of teaching Composition. He has edited two books on Erskine Caldwell, The Critical Response to Erskine Caldwell and an collection of letters. He also co-edited the books Southern Women Playwrights: New Essays in Literary History and Criticism, Teaching Composition in the 90s: Sites of Contention, and Teaching Writing: Landmarks and Horizons. In addition to American Literature, he teaches Applied Literary Theory and Modern and Contemporary American Drama. In his spare time, he is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.

Lt. Col. Kurt Ayau

Kurt Ayau, a novelist and short story writer, teaches Composition, American Literature and Contemporary American Literature, as well as Creative Writing, and serves as co-adviser to the English Society. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He won a Virginia Prize for Literature in 1988 and is the co-author, with David Rachels, of Flagrant Fouls, a screenplay, currently in development with Scriptstar Pictures. His novel Nana's House was a winner in the first Virginia Festival of the Book Great American Novel contest.

Lt. Col. David Rachels

David Rachels earned his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the editor of Augustus Baldwin Longstreet's Georgia Scenes Completed: A Scholarly Text and co-editor of The First West: Writing from the American Frontier, 1776-1860. He is the co-author, with Kurt Ayau, of Flagrant Fouls, a screenplay, currently in development with Scriptstar Pictures. His research and teaching interests include Southern literature, Civil War literature, American humor, the short story, bad poetry, and the blues.

Lt. Col. Christina McDonald

Christina McDonald has a Ph.D. from Texas Christian University. She has published work in her field, Rhetoric and Composition, teaches Composition and Advanced Composition, organizes the annual Spilman Symposium, and directs VMI's writing programs. She co-edited the book Teaching Writing: Landmarks and Horizons.

Maj. Roger Thompson

Roger Thompson received his Ph.D. from Texas Christian University in American Literature and Rhetoric. His major field of study is transcendentalist rhetoric and literature, but his interests range from classical rhetoric and philosophy to 20th century American literature. He is currently co-editing two volumes of The Dictionary of Literary Biography, American Nature Writers. His teaching interests include rhetoric, American Renaissance literature, and composition. To see his home pages, click here.

Mr. Drummond Ayres

Drummond Ayres, VMI class of '57, worked for The New York Times for thirty-five years as a reporter on the National Political desk. He teaches Journalism and Writing for the Professions for the department.

Dr. Robert Bedell

Robert Bedell has an M.A. in English and an M.A.T. in Humanities from Florida State and a doctorate of English Education from Virginia Tech. He teaches Composition at VMI.

Ms Agnes Carbrey

Agnes Carbrey teaches the Studio Art courses, including painting, printmaking, and etching.

Ms Sue Coleman-Croushorn

Sue Coleman-Croushorn has an M.A. in English from California State University.  She has a particular interest in learning and teaching styles, especially for Learning Disabled students.  She teaches Composition at VMI.

Ms Lynne McCombs

Lynne McCombs has an M.A.T. in English from The Citadel. Her experience includes teaching freshman English in a community college in Colorado, as well as coordinating the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in a Colorado high school. She teaches Speech for the department.

Ms Emily Scott

Emily Scott teaches Composition and Technical Writing for the department.

Mrs. Mary Deyo

Mary Deyo is the departmental secretary. She knows where everything is and how everything is supposed to be done and generally keeps the faculty from getting lost in procedure and paperwork. If you really want to know anything, talk to her.

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This page was last updated on April 18, 2003