English Faculty and Staff
Dr. Kimberly V. Adams
Distinguished Professor of English
adamsk@etown.edu | 717-361-1230
Kimberly V. Adams is an associate professor of English and a member of the Women and Gender Studies faculty. She teaches courses in Victorian and twentieth-century British literature, American women's writing, literary theory, and feminist and gender theory. Her publications include Our Lady of Victorian Feminism: The Madonna in the Work of Anna Jameson, Margaret Fuller, and George Eliot, and articles on Harriet Beecher Stowe and nineteenth-century female literary critics. She has also co-written the endnotes to the Modern Library edition of George Eliot's Romola. Professor Adams received her Ph.D from Harvard University.
Dr. Patrick S. Allen
Assistant Professor of English Literature
mailto:allenp@etown.edu
Patrick Allen teaches courses in American literatures and cultures. He specializes in African American literatures, multiethnic American literatures, critical race studies, Black feminisms, medical and health humanities, and graphic medicine. He has published on nineteenth-century Black medical women’s writing as well as forced sterilization in the context of Toni Morrison’s novel Home. Dr. Allen currently serves as Vice President of Organizational Matters for the Society for the Study of American Women Writers. He holds a PhD from the Pennsylvania State University.
Erica M. Dolson
Lecturer in English
Director of the English Creative Writing Program
dolsone@etown.edu | 717-361-1231
Erica M. Dolson teaches courses in first-year writing, professional writing, and writing about illness and disability. She also teaches a First-Year Seminar on creative nonfiction. She earned her M.F.A in Creative Writing (Creative Nonfiction) from George Mason University and her B.A. from Villanova University. Prior to entering her graduate program, she worked as a newspaper reporter in Central Pennsylvania. Her creative nonfiction has been published on Culinate.com and in Full-Stop, Critical Read, and borrowed solace.
Dr. Louis Martin
Distinguished Professor of English
martinlf@etown.edu | 717-361-1236
Louis Martin received honors in English and psychology at the University of the South, along with the Guerry Award in Literature. An M.A.T in English Education preceded his Ph.D.at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he received the Dougald Macmillan Prize for the Best Dissertation. Currently researching evolutionary psychology and literature, he has published articles on Shakespeare and on George Herbert, as well as on various other topics. His greatest academic pleasure, though, comes from being in the classroom.
Dr. Tara Moore
Assistant Professor of English
Director of the English Professional Writing and First Year Writing Program
mooret@etown.edu | 717-361-1250
Tara Moore teaches courses on technical writing, web writing, Young Adult literature, and composition. Her research interests currently include representations of girls and dystopian young adult novels. She has published two books about the culture of Christmas, both past and present. Dr. Moore received her Ph.D. from the University of Delaware.
Dr. John Rohrkemper
Distinguished Professor of English
rohrkemj@etown.edu | 717-361-1229
John Rohrkemper teaches American and modern literature and writing with particular interest in the writing of Mark Twain, Willa Cather, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Toni Morrison He also teaches playwriting, has written and produced several plays, and often acts in local theatre productions. He is a graduate of Michigan State University.
Dr. Matt Skillen
Ralph W. Schlosser Professor of English
skillenm@etown.edu | 717-361-1232
Matt Skillen is the director of the Etown Teaching and Learning Design Studio and he advises students in the Secondary English Education Program . Previously, Matt has taught seventh and eighth grade language arts students in traditional, inclusion, gifted and remedial settings. Matt is a recipient of the Kansas Horizon Award for exemplary service in the first year of teaching and he is a co-editor of Voices from the Middle — a peer-reviewed journal of the National Council of Teachers of English . Matt's research interests include narrative inquiry, teacher education and Young Adult literature. Dr. Skillen received his Ph.D from Kansas State University. .
Dr. Suzanne E. Webster
Professor of English
Director of the English Literature Program
websterse@etown.edu | 717-361-1235
Professor Webster holds a BA in English Literature from the University of Sheffield, and an MPhil and DPhil in English from the University of Oxford. Most of her research focusses upon British Romantic literature (1770–1835), especially the private notebooks of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, upon which she has published a monograph, a book chapter, and several articles. Her other research interests include poetics and ecocritical theory: currently, she is completing a collaborative project that applies an original, ecologically informed understanding of “the pastoral” to British Romantic poetry. This innovative work combines her skills and specialisations with those of an accomplished Etown alumna, an English / Environmental Science Double Major who is now pursuing a PhD in Ecology at Penn State.
Dr Webster’s research interests directly inform the courses that she teaches at our College. In addition to delivering classes in British Romanticism, she offers survey courses on British Literature of 1660 to the present day; a Creative Writing class (“Poetry and Poetics”); and a First-Year Seminar that explores literature and art about nature, the environment, and sustainability. Engaging with her students in the classroom is Dr Webster’s favourite aspect of being a professor, and she has been recognised for excellence in teaching by both Etown and the University of Pennsylvania (where she taught as an adjunct from 2000–2003).
Dr Webster is from Liverpool in England, UK. She has lived in the USA since 1999, and in 2016 she became a UK/USA Dual Citizen. She enjoys hiking, travel, music, art, and spending time with her family and friends.
Jesse Waters
Director of the Bowers Writers House
watersj@etown.edu | 717-361-3762
Jesse Waters has been runner-up for the Iowa Review Fiction Prize, finalist in the Glimmer Train 2003 Poetry Open and The Davoren Hanna International Poetry Contest, and a winner of the 2001 River Styx International Poetry Contest, and is author of the poetry collection, Human Resources. Jesse's fiction, poetry and non-fiction work has appeared in such journals as 88: A Journal of Contemporary Poetry, The Adirondack Review, Coal Hill Review, The Cortland Review, Cimarron Review, Iowa Review, and Southeast Review among others. Jesse was granted the MFA in Poetry from University of North Carolina at Wilmington in 2001, and teaches both Technical and Creative Writing classes. He is the director of the Bowers Writers House.
