English Department
Department News
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The English Department welcomes Jessica Gravely as our newest Assistant Professor. Prof. Gravely earned a BA in History from the University of North Carolina and an MA in English from Wake Forest University. She also trained as a teaching associate at Guilford Technical Community College in North Carolina. Before joining us at Prairie State, Prof. Gravely taught at Oakton Community College and at Guilford Technical Community College.
Adjunct Professor Kathleen Lamp's dissertation, "A City of Brick": Visual and Material Rhetoric in the Principate of Augustus, was awarded the American Society for the History of Rhetoric Dissertation Award for 2009. The dissertation examines how non-traditional rhetorical media such as coins, monuments, city planning, and altars promoted dynastic succession and influenced practices of citizenship in the period between the Roman Republic and Empire (31 BCE-14 CE) and challenges the long-standing disciplinary narrative that rhetoric faded away in this period. The award committee agreed that the "study of visual rhetoric of the Augustan period was not only a superb piece of scholarship but also constituted an important contribution to the field." The award is granted annually to the best dissertation by a member of ASHR. Lamp recently received her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Assistant Professor Thomas Nicholas gave a presentation entitled "The Use of Tablet PCs to Increase Student Engagement in the Developmental Classroom" at the League for Innovation the Community College’s Annual Conference on Information Technology.
Associate Professor Jason Evans was accepted as a participant in the Global Skills for College Completion Project (GSCC). He will join twelve other faculty in developmental writing from around the country. The project will aim to create innovations to transform how basic skills in English are taught in the US colleges.