Each month during the academic year, we assemble a newsletter of the department’s recent publications, presentations, announcements, and awards. The issue for September showcases a greater range of research, scholarship, and creative activity that our faculty and students have shared beyond Kansas State, given that it covers the summer months of May, June, July, and August.
Here, we celebrate faculty and student success in research, scholarship, and creative activity in a variety of venues and media.
Want to catch up on past successes or to find future announcements? Visit our archive of monthly newsletters Reading Matters as well as related blog posts.
Have news to report? Email us at english@ksu.edu.
— Karin Westman, Department Head
Publications (May – August 2025)
Traci Brimhall, Eat Your Words: A Kansas Poetry Cookbook. Meadowlark Books, 2025.
Mark Crosby, William Hayley: A Biographer’s Influence on Long 18th C Life Writing and Romantic Networks. Co-edited with Lisa Gee. Palgrave MacMillan, 2025.
“Another Honest Chronicler.” Co-authored with Lisa Gee. William Hayley: A Biographer’s Influence on Long 18th C Life Writing and Romantic Networks, edited by Mark Crosby and Lisa Gee, Palgrave MacMillan, 2025, pp. 1-22.
“When Hayley Met Cowper: The ‘private affections’ of William the Conqueror!” William Hayley: A Biographer’s Influence on Long 18th C Life Writing and Romantic Networks, edited by Mark Crosby and Lisa Gee, Palgrave MacMillan, 2025, pp. 81-111.
“William Hayley: Milton Biographer and ‘violent Republican.’” William Hayley: A Biographer’s Influence on Long 18th C Life Writing and Romantic Networks, edited by Mark Crosby and Lisa Gee, Palgrave MacMillan, 2025, pp. 217-246.
“Hayley, Romney, and Blake: A Conversation.” Co-authored with Alex Kidson, Morton D. Paley, and Lisa Gee. William Hayley: A Biographer’s Influence on Long 18th C Life Writing and Romantic Networks, edited by Mark Crosby and Lisa Gee, Palgrave MacMillan, 2025, pp. 333-359.
“William Blake Apprentice Engraver.” Co-authored with John Barrett and Adam Lowe. Print Quarterly, Vol. XLII, no. 2, 2025, pp. 64-66.
“The Gothic Artist: William Blake’s Apprentice Drawings and Copperplates in the Bodleian Library.” Bodleian Library Record, Vol. 37, nos. 1-2, June 2025, pp. 146-184.
Sydney Kelso (MA ’27), “Patience is Key.” Eastman’s Hunting Journal, May 2025, pages 34, 36.
Mary Kohn and Trevin Garcia (BA ’18), “Demographic Shift and Language Contact Outcomes.” Immigrant Englishes Around the World, edited by Erik Thomas, Taylor & Francis, 2025, 23 pages.
Marci McMahon, “Sounding Latinidades.” Latinx Literature in Critical Futurities, 1992-2020 (Vol. 3 of Latinx Literature in Transition series), edited by William Orchard, Cambridge UP, 2025, pp. 258-278.
Philip Nel, “Small Book, Big Ideas: Harold and the Purple Crayon and the Art of Imagination.” Lit Hub, 28 Jul. 2025.
Ania Payne, “Mapping the Landscape of Community-Engaged English Courses: A Content Analysis of Syllabi.” Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric, Volume 24, no. 2, Spring 2025, pp. 231-274.
Thomas Xaiver Sarmiento, “The Queer Techno-Orientalist Aesthetics of Disney’s Big Hero 6.” Techno-Orientalism 2.0: New Intersections and Interventions, edited by David S. Roh, Betsy Huang, Greta A. Niu, and Christopher T. Fan, Rutgers UP, 2025, pp. 298–314.
Presentations (May – August 2025)
Mary Adeyemo (MA ’26), “Young Advocates for Public Health: The Construction of Children’s Rhetorical Agency Through Multimodal Elements in Niyi Akinmolayan’s Animation Videos.” Lagos Studies Association Conference. University of Lagos. Online. 18 June 2025.
“Young Advocates for Public Health: The Construction of Children’s Rhetorical Agency through Multimodal Elements in Niyi Akinmolayan’s Covid- 19 Animation Videos.” Children’s Literature Association Conference. Online. 10 June 2025.
“Interpersonal Communication & Perception” (guest lecturer). Bow Valley College, Alberta, Canada. 10 June 2025.
“‘Follow Who Know Road’: Communality, Social Influence and the Rhetoric of Health and Medicine. Rhetorical Society of Canada Conference. Online. 31 May 2025.
Cydney Alexis and Theresa Merrick Cassidy, with the K-State Libraries and K-State Teaching and Learning Center, “AI Teaching, Research, and Writing Retreat.” 18 Aug. 2025.
“Creating a Microcredential in Writing with AI: Locating Evergreen Skills and Navigating University Contexts.” Teaching and Learning with AI Conference. Orlando, FL. 28 May 2025.
Traci Brimhall, Book Launch for Eat Your Words: A Kansas Poetry Cookbook.Union Street Social, Emporia, KS. 25 Aug. 2025.
“Art Unplugged!” Conversation with Kelly Yarborough and Clive Fullagar about Memory Palace art show, Manhattan Public Library. 18 June 2025.
“Glad Astra: Poems of the Kansas Prairie.” Symphony of the Flint Hills, Emporia/Strong City, KS. 14 June 2025.
Reading from Love Prodigal, Books and Brews Series. Ad Astra Books, Council Grove, KS.10 June 2025.
Reading from Love Prodigal, Cork International Poetry Festival. Cork, Ireland. 15 May 2025.
Reading poems about spring for VanCleef and Arpels “Spring is Blooming.” Rockefeller Center, New York, NY. 3 May 2025.
Reading for “Poem for Deep Thinkers” stage. Guggenheim Museum of Art, New York, NY. 2 May 2025.
Gregory Eiselein, “Alcott Scholarship in the Twenty-First Century.” American Literature Association Conference. Boston, MA. 22 May 2025.
“Stoic Joy: Emerson, Whitman, and U.S. Literature.” American Literature Association Conference. Boston, MA. 22 May 2025.
Michele Janette, “More than War: Vietnamese American Literature.” Department of English, Germanic, and Romantic Languages, University of Copenhagen. 16 May 2025.
Mary Kohn, “100 Years of Language Change in Kansas.” Kansas Humanities Speakers Bureau. Kansas Oil Museum, El Dorado, KS. 14 Aug. 2025.
“Lost Towns of Kansas.” Council Grove Rotary Club. Council Grove, KS. 9 July 2025.
“Preserving the Kaw Language: A Documentary.” UFM, Meadowlark Hills. Manhattan, KS. 1 July 2025.
“Photo Preservation and Digitization Workshop.” UFM, Meadowlark Hills, with Riley County Historical Society. Manhattan, KS. 1 July 2025.
Anuja Madan, “Tribal Ecologies and Ecofeminism in Indian Children’s Picture Books about the Environment” (online poster and video presentation). International Research Society for Children’s Literature Congress. Online. 21-25 June 2025.
“Representing Female Agency and Resistance in Zubaan Books’ Comics Anthology Drawing the Line: Indian Women Fight Back” (virtual presentation). Beyond the Comic Strip: Exploring Graphic Narratives and Arts-Based Research. London Arts-Based Research Centre. Online. 24 June 2025.
Philip Nel, “How to ‘Other’ Whiteness in Children Literature Studies: A Transnational Conversation About Difference.” Co-presented with Élodie Malanda. International Research Society for Children’s Literature Congress. University of Salamanca. Salamanca, Spain. 25 June 2025.
“The Misuses of Enchantment: Nostalgia, Children’s Literature, and the Struggle for the Imagination” (invited talk). University of Münster, Germany. 5 June 2025.
“Banned Books and Censorship” (master class). University of Münster, Germany. 5 June 2025.
Miracle Okpala (MA ’26), “Timeless Lessons on Navigating Nature’s Laws and Order: The Classroom in Kipling’s Jungle as a Catalyst for Personal Development.” Children’s Literature Association. Online. 11 June 2025.
Anne Phillips, “Is There a Backfisch in the Works of Louisa May Alcott?” Children’s Literature Association. Online. 10 June 2025.
“Twelve Ways of Looking: Eight Cousins in the Collegiate Classroom.” American Literature Association, Boston, MA. 22 May 2025.
Shirley Tung, “Rectifying the Controversial Afterlife of Mary Wollstonecraft’s Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (1796)” (keynote). 47th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for 18th-Century Studies. Keio University. Tokyo, Japan. 28 June 2025.
Karin Westman, “Bridging Disciplinary Divides: The Future of ‘Kiddie Lit in Academe.’” Children’s Literature Association Conference. Online. 11 June 2025.
“Editor’s Roundtable” (panelist). Children’s Literature Association Annual Conference. Online. 10 June 2025.
“How University Budgets Work—and What to Do When They’re Not Working for You” (discussion group moderator). ADE-ADL Summer Seminar East. New York, NY. 31 May 2025.
“Making Budget Models Work for You” (plenary panelist). ADE-ADL Summer Seminar East. New York, NY. 30 May 2025.
Awards (May – August 2025)
Allison Meerian (BA ’26) has received a Patti Johnson Wilson scholarship of $10,000. The scholarship supports students in Oklahoma and Kansas who are majoring in liberal arts, engineering, or music, who are working part time, and who have financial need.
Michele Janette received the department’s 2025 Award for Excellence in Teaching, and Allison Kuehne received the department’s 2025 Excellence Award for Term Instructors.
Abby Knoblauch has received the 2025-2027 Donnelly Faculty Award.
Shirley Tung has been named a 2025 University Outstanding Scholar.
Announcements (May – August 2025)
Theresa Merrick has been named a Presidential Engagement Fellow. During this three-year appointment, Theresa will represent K-State during school and community visits across Kansas, help lead engagement initiatives, and contribute to strategies that strengthen K-State’s statewide impact.
Quoted in Media (May – August 2025)
Traci Brimhall appeared on HPPR’s High Plains Morning with Jenny Inzerillo, 22 Aug. 2025, and on NPR’s Here and Now with Peter O’Dowd, 6 Aug. 2025.
Mark Crosby’s research on James Basire’s copperplate, Le Champ de Drap d’Or(1774,) was featured in the Factum Foundation Newsletter.
Research and Creative Activity from Alumni (May – August 2025)
Katie Cline (MA ’20) was interviewed by her local news station WTOL11 for expert analysis following the engagement announcement from Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. Katie is completing her Ph.D. dissertation on Swift at Bowling Green SU.
Tolu Daniel (MA ’23) has published “Fugitive Kindness and the Joy of the Migrants” (essay) in The Common Reader journal (31 Aug. 2025) and “The False Crisis of African Literary Estrangement” (essay) in Olongo Africa. Another essay, “Notes of a Nonresident Alien,” won the 2025 Isele Nonfiction Prize.
Natasha Muhametzyanova (MA ’21) has been named as a Teaching Fellow by the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University.
Chelsea Osademe (MA ’19) defended her dissertation in August 2025 and is on a 2-year PRODiG+ Fellowship in the English Department at Stony Brook University (Long Island, NY) that will promote to a tenure track position in her third year.
Adam Szetela (MA ’15) has published a book, That Book Is Dangerous! How Moral Panic, Social Media, and the Culture Wars Are Remaking Publishing (MIT Press, 2025).
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