Faculty and Staff

Elmaz Abinader
Professor of English
Mills Hall Room 313, 510.430.2225, moses@mills.edu
Professional Interests: Creative writing, fiction and nonfiction, theories of creativity, teaching creative writing

Diane Cady
Associate Professor of English
Mills Hall Room 314, 510.430.2218, dcady@mills.edu
Professional Interests: Chaucer, late medieval culture, medieval romance, medieval and early modern drama, new economic criticism, gender studies, cultural studies

Janet L. Holmgren
Susan B. Mills Professor of English
On leave 2012-2013
Mills Hall Room 344, 510.430.2041, janeth@mills.edu
Professional Interests: Linguistics and literary analysis; language, rhetoric, and public speaking; American literature; higher education leadership and governance; women's education and empowerment; K-16 educational reform

Ajuan Mance
Professor of English
May Treat Morrison Professorship
On sabbatical Spring 2013
Mills Hall Room 311, 510.430.3378, amance@mills.edu
Professional Interests: African American literature, 19th-century American literature, US popular culture, the oral tradition in US literature, Black feminist thought, African American art

Cornelia Nixon
Professor of English
Mills Hall Room 312, 510.430.2221, cnixon@mills.edu
Professional Interests: Fiction writing, modern British literature, contemporary fiction

Sarah Pollock
Professor of English, Part-time
Program Head of Journalism
Mills Hall Room 347, 510.430.2359, pollock@mills.edu
Professional Interests: The journalism revolution (digital media, social media, legacy news values, etc.), magazine and news writing and editing for traditional media; creative nonfiction (in print and other forms), historical and geographic narratives, environmental and natural history writing

Patricia Powell
Associate Professor of English
Mills Hall 351, 510.430.2204, ppowell@mills.edu
Professional Interests: Creative writing: fiction and nonfiction; Caribbean literature; African women writers; gay and lesbian literature; contemporary fiction

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Stephen Ratcliffe
Professor of English
John and Martha Davidson Professorship
Faculty Executive Committee Division Representative
Mills Hall Room 303, 510.430.2245, sratclif@mills.edu
Professional Interests: Creative writing, modern American poetry, Shakespeare, Renaissance poetry, English Romantic poetry, contemporary poetry and poetics

Kathryn Reiss
Associate Professor of English, Part-time
Mills Hall Room 307, 510.430.2216, kreiss@mills.edu
Professional Interests: Creative writing, fiction for juveniles and young adults, historical fiction, suspense fiction, literature and time

Kirsten Saxton
Associate Professor of English
Mills Hall Room 306, 510.430.2214, ktsaxton@mills.edu
Professional Interests: Women and the law, the history of the novel, 18th-century British literature and culture, post-colonial literature and culture, theories of sexuality, pedagogy, composition studies

Ruth Saxton
Professor of English
Mills Hall Room 301, 510.430.2151, rsaxton@mills.edu
Professional Interests: Modern British literature, feminist theory, the novel, Doris Lessing, Virginia Woolf, American women writers, teaching of writing, composition, contemporary fiction

Cynthia Scheinberg
Professor of English
Chair of the English Department
Dean of Graduate Literary Studies
Mills Hall Room 319, 510.430.2213, cyns@mills.edu
Professional Interests: Victorian literature, emphasis poetry, Anglo-Jewish literature, women's studies, religion and literature, feminist theory, genre studies, cinema studies, composition and pedagogy, community service/service learning curriculum development

Juliana Spahr
Professor of English, Director of Creative Writing
Aurelia Henry Reinhardt Chair
On sabbatical Spring 2013
Mills Hall Room 315, 510.430.2289, jspahr@mills.edu
Professional Interests: Poetry and poetics, cultural studies, anti-colonial literature and theory

Thomas Strychacz
Professor of English
Mills Hall Room 304, 510.430.2208, toms@mills.edu
Professional Interests: American literature, mass culture, political and cultural approaches to literature, science fiction

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Visiting Scholars

Faith Adiele
Distinguished Visiting Writer
Mills Hall Room 130, 510.430.2337, fadiele@mills.edu
Professional Interests: Creative writing, literary nonfiction and hybrid forms; travel writing; international and diasporic literature; documentary and socially-engaged narrative; women’s and spiritual memoir; intersections of public and personal identity

Kate Brubeck
Visiting Assistant Professor, Fall
Director of Language Diversity Resources
kbrubeck@mills.edu
Professional Interests: Writing: grammar, style and voice; language learning; creative process; pedagogy

David Buuck
Visiting Assistant Professor
Mills Hall Room 348, 510.430.2188, dbuuck@mills.edu
Office Hours: Mondays, Wednesdays 1:30-2:15, Tuesdays 10:30-12:00, and by appointment
Professional Interests: Poetry, postcolonial literature, site-specific and conceptual art, cultural studies, globalization theory

Tarah Demant
Visiting Assistant Professor
Mills Hall 305, 510.430.2219, tdemant@mills.edu
Office Hours: Mondays, Wednesdays 10:00-1:00 and by appointment
Professional Interests: American nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature, women and gender studies, gender and critical race theory, American nationalisms and foreignisms, whiteness studies, transnational literature, writing and composition

Rebekah Edwards
Visiting Assistant Professor
Mills Hall Room 344, 510.430.2250, redwards@mills.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays, Thursdays 4:00-5:00, and by appointment
Professional Interests: Queer theory; problem bodies in 19th and 20th century British and American literatures; visual culture and the aesthetics of alterity; passing narratives; poetics; race, gender and dis/ability in early 20th century US cultures

Romeo Garcia
Lecturer, Fall
rgarcia@mills.edu
Professional Interests: Developing and providing quality education to public school students, higher education for low-income, potential first-generation college students, Co-principal and Executive Director of ARISE High School, non-profit organizations

Susan Gevirtz
Visiting Assistant Professor, Spring
MIlls Hall Room 350, 510.430.2185, susangev@gmail.com
Office Hours: Thursdays 10:45-11:45
Professional Interests: Poetry and poetics, modern Greek poetry, cultural studies

Kiala Givehand
Visiting Assistant Professor
Mills Hall Room 128, 510.473.5602, kgivehand@mills.edu
Office Hours: Wednesdays 3:00-4:00 by appointment
Professional Interests: Poetry and poetics; narrative poetry; Southern women writers; young adult literature (coming of age, dystopian societies, and verse novels); the intersections of poetry and book art; community teaching and arts advocacy; distance learning

Marisa Handler
Visiting Assistant Professor, Spring
MIlls Hall Room 346, 510.430.2340, marisahandler@gmail.com
Office Hours: Mondays 4:15-6:15
Professional Interests: Fiction, literary nonfiction, songwriting, global literature, the intersections between creative writing and personal and social transformation

Marc Bamuthi Joseph
Lecturer, Spring
Mills Hall 310, 510.430.2358, mjoseph@ycba.org
Office Hours: Fridays 12:00-2:00
Professional Interests: Performance poetry, African American studies, hip hop aesthetics, playwriting, drama

Ali Liebegott
Visiting Assistant Professor
Mills Hall 310, 510.430.2358, aliebegott@mills.edu
Office Hours: Thursdays 2:15-3:45
Professional Interests: Creative writing, fiction and nonfiction, teaching creative writing, Small Press Publishing, poetry, Anne Carson, Lynda Barry, hybrid texts, Emily Dickinson, LGBT literature, illustration, zine-making, community building, bestiaries

Bula Maddison
Visiting Assistant Professor
Mills Hall Room 330, 510.430.2372, bmaddiso@mills.edu
Office Hours: Mondays 4:00-5:00, Thursdays 1:00-2:00, and by appointment
Professional Interests: Bible, bible in modern literature, Bakhtinian theory

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Kim Magowan
Visiting Assistant Professor
Siekhaus Faculty Achievement Award
Mills Hall Room 349, 510.430.2169, magowan.kim@gmail.com
Office Hours: Tuesdays, Thursdays 9:30-11:00 and by appointment
Professional Interests: Nineteenth- and 20th-century American literature, modernism, the gothic, African American literature, film

Micheline Aharonian Marcom
Visiting Assistant Professor
Mills Hall Room 310, 510.430.2358, michelinemarcom@gmail.com
Office Hours: Tuesdays 1:30-2:30 and 5:00-6:00 and by appointment
Professional Interests: Creative writing, the novel

Meredith May
Visiting Assistant Professor, Fall
mmay@mills.edu
Professional Interests: Reporter, San Francisco Chronicle; travel writing; screenwriting; speaker: sex trafficking issues, beekeeping

Victoria Nelson
Visiting Assistant Professor, Spring
MIlls Hall Room 344, 510.430.2250, Victoria.Nelson@goddard.edu
Office Hours: Wednesdays 5:15-6:30
Professional Interests: Creative nonfiction, short and long fiction, film and dramatic writing, Gothic literature, Eastern European culture and literature, the European Middle Ages

Erin Peterson
Visiting Assistant Professor
Mills Hall 346, 510.430.2340, eripeterson@mills.edu
Office Hours: Thursdays 2:30-4:00 and by appointment
Professional Interests: Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century poetry and drama, literature and religion, lyric, epic, soliloquy, reception and transmission of classical literature

Barbara Jane Reyes
Visiting Assistant Professor, Fall
bjanepr@gmail.com
Professional Interests: Political and multilingual poetry

Truong Tran
Visiting Assistant Professor
Mills Hall Room 350, 510.430.2185, truong.celan@gmail.com
Office Hours: Tuesdays 12:00-2:00, 5:30-6:30, and by appointment
Professional Interests: Poetry and poetics, visual arts

Kara Wittman
Visiting Assistant Professor
Director of Rhetoric and Composition
Mills Hall Room 336, 510.430.3136, kwittman@mills.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays 11:00-1:00 and by appointment
Professional Interests: Nineteenth century British literature, British romanticism, the novel, 19th-century science and culture, the history of science, composition and pedagogy

Stephanie Young
Visiting Assistant Professor
Mills Hall Room 317, 510.430.3130, syoung@mills.edu
Office Hours: Mondays 1:00-2:30 and by appointment
Professional Interests: Contemporary poetry, cross-genre and hybrid writing, documentary poetics, performance, lyric essay and memoir, digital and new media, feminist theory, cultural studies, poetry communities and movements

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Staff

Jess Heaney
Graduate Programs Coordinator
Mills Hall Room 316, 510.430.2240, jheaney@mills.edu

Tonianne Nemeth
Executive Assistant
Mills Hall Room 321, 510.430.2217, tnemeth@mills.edu

Stephanie Young
Graduate Programs Director
Mills Hall Room 317, 510.430.3130, syoung@mills.edu

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