Graduate Alumni Updates

Submit your alumni news at Drop Us a Line, and check out the English Department Alumni e-Newsletter.

2007-2008 Graduates

Dan Monaco (MA) is working as an editorial manager at The Doe Fund, a New York-based organization committed to reducing homelessness and criminal recidivism through paid transitional work.

The journal he co-founded, "The Straddler," () just published its fourth issue, with work by by Fanny Howe, Emanuel Merle, and Eleanor Stride. _{Updated 10/09}

Jessica (Krenek) Witty (MA) has been accepted into the doctoral program in Theater at the University of Maryland._{Updated 4/09}

2006-2007 Graduates

2005-2006 Graduates

Amy Kaufman (PhD) accepted a position at Wesleyan College in Macon, GA, beginning Fall 2007. _{Updated 6/07}

Summer McLin (MAW) was accepted into the doctoral program at the University of Maryland, College Park, starting Fall 2007. _{Updated 10/07}

Michelle Teti (MA) accepted an offer for a Doctoral Assistantship while pursuing a PhD in Medieval Literature at Western Michigan University, starting Fall 2007. _{Updated 6/07}

2004-2005 Graduates

Jennifer Jefferson (MA) was promoted from Writing Center Coordinator to Writing Center Director at Endicott College, Fall 2007. _{Updated 10/07}

Donna Decker Reck (PhD) is an Associate Professor of English, the Director of the Women in Leadership Certificate Program, and the Honors Director for the College at Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire. _{Updated 4/07}

2003-2004 Graduates

Ken Garriques (MA) was accepted, with support, into the PhD program at Drew University in 2004. _{Updated 4/04}

Karen Gulbrandsen (MTPW) is enrolled in Iowa State University's PhD program in Rhetoric and Professional Communication. _{Updated 10/07}

Lisa Perdigao (PhD) is an Associate Professor at the Florida Institute of Technology and has a number of publication projects in the works or forthcoming. Her essay "Re-membering Beloved" will appear in a collection of essays forthcoming from the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), an essay on teaching William Faulkner's novel As I Lay Dying will be included in the MLA Approaches to Teaching series volume on Faulkner; and she has articles forthcoming in a collection on "Politics in Children's and Adolescent Literature" and in a collection titled 'Catch if you can your country's moment': Recovery and Regeneration in the Poetry of Adrienne Rich." Lisa has also won a teaching award for the second consecutive year. _{Updated 11/09}

Leane Perius (MA) is a full-time Instructor of Composition at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. _{Updated 10/07}

2002-2003 Graduates

Mary Annas (PhD) teaches at Northeastern University and taught a Spring 2008 seminar at Boston University Medical School in Medicine and Literature. Mary has been licensed as an EMT-Basic in Massachusetts since August 2006. _{Updated 11/07}

Mark Bates (PhD) is an assistant professor at Quinsigamond Community College in Worchester, Massachusetts. _{Updated 10/07}

Pavel Cenkl (PhD) has recently been appointed Academic Dean at Sterling College in Craftsbury, Vermont, where he has been a faculty member in Humanities and Northern Studies since 2006. His first book, This Vast Book of Nature: Writing the Landscape of New Hampshire's White Mountains, 1785-1911, was published by the University of Iowa Press in 2006. He is currently editing a collection of essays titled Nature and Culture in the Northern Forest, which is under contract with Iowa and should be published in 2008. _{Updated 4/07}

James Gorham (MA) is currently in the PhD program at the University of Rhode Island. _{Updated 10/07}

Brett Ingram (MA) is currently enrolled in the University of Massachusetts-Amherst's PhD program in Communication, with a concentration in Public Culture, Performance Studies, and Rhetoric. He's working on his dissertation on the intersection of fascist aesthetics, rhetorical theory, and the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty, and teaching classes in communication theory, film history, and writing at UMass Amherst. Brett writes, "I have nothing but fond memories of Northeastern, my graduate cohort, and my professors. I'd love to hear from any of you, and wish you all the best." He can be contacted at: bdingram@comm.umass.edu. _{Updated 4/09}

2001-2002 Graduates

Kara Scerra Yee (MA) received the Adjunct Faculty Teaching Excellence Award from Eastern Nazarene College on November 7, 2003. _{Updated 4/04}

2000-2001 Graduates

1999-2000 Graduates

In Spring 2009, Kara Andersen (MA, PhD University of Pittsburgh '09) accepted an assistant professor position in the Film Department at Brooklyn College CUNY. _{Updated 8/09}

Douglas Reichert Powell (PhD) has a tenure-track position at Columbia College, Chicago. This year he is celebrating the release of the Encyclopedia of Appalachia, for which he was an editor of the "Media" section, as well as the acceptance of his book manuscript, Critical Regionalism by University of North Carolina Press. _{Updated 5/06}

1998-1999 Graduates

Aaron Kuntz (MA) received his Doctorate in Education from UMass Amherst and is now in a tenure track position at the University of Alabama as Assistant Professor of Qualitative Research Methodology._{Updated 11/07}

Erin V. Obermueller (MA, PhD Saint Louis University '04) is Assistant Professor of English and Director of the Fellows (honors) Program at Concordia College-New York. She teaches courses in Irish literature, European Novel, and Victorian Literature. Erin has published an article in Early Theater and also in a guide to the British Short Story. The first chapter of her book project appears in Women's Writing (Spring 2004). Other publications include articles on Meridel LeSueur in Legacy (2005) and an article on post-colonialism in the work of Irish poet Eavan Boland. _{Updated 10/09}

Karen Paley (PhD), is an Assistant Professor of English at Rhode Island College. Southern Illinois University Press published her book I-Writing: The Politics and Practice of Teaching First-Person Writing, in 2001. Her book manuscript, Caring for the Whole Student: A Look at Some Writing Assignments in the Disciplines, is now under review with Robert Brooke at Studies of Writing and Rhetoric. _{Updated 9/06}

Daisy Pignetti (MA ; PhD University of South Florida '09) has accepted a position as Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, beginning August 2008. _{Updated 3/08}

Mark Walsh (MA) is a member of the English Department at Massasoit Community College. His teaching focuses on Irish-American literature, science fiction, philosophy and online course development. He has developed two online courses and is active in mentoring faculty interested in teaching online. In June 2007, Walsh was awarded a Course of Distinction (COD) Award from Mass Colleges Online for his English Composition II course. _{Updated 12/07}

1997-1998 Graduates

Erin (Corthell) Brenner (MA) is Copy Chief and Associate Editor for ClickZ, the largest resource of interactive marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion, research, and reference in the world, online or off-. Erin has been with ClickZ for seven years, starting as a copy editor and growing with the site, as Web publishing has taken off. _{Updated 11/07}

Jennifer C. Cook (MA, PhD Brandeis University '04) has been appointed to a tenure-track position at Bentley College in Waltham. Her book, Machine And Metaphor: The Ethics of Language in American Realism, was published by Routledge in 2006. She also has an essay appearing in The Best Women's Travel Writing 2007. _{Updated 4/07}

Jennifer Rabold (MA) has been accepted into Boston University's School of Education as a doctoral candidate in Curriculum and Teaching. _{Updated 4/07}

1996-1997 Graduates

Lolly Ockerstrom (PhD) is an Assistant Professor of English at Park University in Missouri. _{Updated 10/07}

Tony Trigilio (PhD), is tenured at Columbia College, Chicago, where he directs the Graduate and Undergraduate Programs in Creative Writing - Poetry. His newest book came out in March 2008: an anthology of immigration literature (co-edited with Tim Prchal, who earned his M.A. in English at Northeastern in 1990): Visions and Divisions: American Immigration Literature, 1870-1930 (Rutgers University Press). Tony also presented a paper at the 2007 Modern Language Association convention, "Allen Ginsberg's 1966 United States Senate Testimony: Language, Confession, and the Limit of Romanticism." His poems were published in various journals, including Cream City Review, MiPoesias, and Pebble Lake Review. In January 2008, Tony was interviewed by novelist Greg Herriges for a documentary film on T.C. Boyle's short story "Chicxulub," and in March 2008, he was interviewed by Ram Devineni (publisher of Rattapallax) for a documentary film on Allen Ginsberg's early-1960s travels in India._{Updated 4/08}

1995-1996 Graduates

Karen Cajka (MA, PhD University of Connecticut '03) has been an Assistant Professor of English and Women's Studies at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN, since 2004. _{Updated 5/06}

1994-1995 Graduates

Pegeen Reichert Powell (MA) has a B.A. in English and Spanish from the University of St. Thomas, an M.A. in English from Northeastern University, and a Ph.D. in English from Miami University (Oxford, OH). Her research interests include composition studies and pedagogy, critical discourse analysis, and more recently, feminist motherhood studies. She has published articles in College Composition and Communication and in edited collections, has presented at numerous conferences, and was named the "Maverick Mom of the Year" by Working Mother magazine for her activism surrounding parenting issues at Duke University. _{Updated 4/06}

1993-1994 Graduates

Alexandra Polychronidou (MA) has been working for the Greek state, as a teacher of English, for 12 years now. She is an examiner for the Foreign Languages State Certificate in Greece, and has recently co-authored two books with practice tests for the Michigan Proficiency Exams. _{Updated 11/07}

1992-1993 Graduates

Philip Cavalier (MA) earned his PhD at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He went on to become Associate Professor and Assistant Dean at Catawba College. In 2005-2006, he was a Fulbright Scholar at Kiev International University. _{Updated 5/06}

Elizabeth Swanson Goldberg (MA) earned her doctorate from Miami University of Ohio and has taught at a variety of campuses including Northeastern, Stonehill College, and Fisher College. She is currently an associate professor of English at Babson College in Wellesley, MA, where she was voted Professor of the Year, 2007. Her book, Beyond Terror: Gender, Narrative, Human Rights was released this year from Rutgers University Press. _{Updated 11/07}

1991-1992 Graduates

Patricia Fox (MAW) is director of the Coastal Georgia Writing Project. She also directs the National Writing Project Teacher Exchange program. _{Updated 10/07}

Jeff Westover (MA), who earned his PhD at BC, is a tenure-track member of the English Department at Howard University. His first book, The Colonial Moment: Discoveries and Settlements in Modern American Poetry, was published by Northern Illinois University Press in 2004. _{Updated 10/07}

1990-1991 Graduates

1989-1990 Graduates

Stuart Selber (MTPW), who earned a PhD from Michigan Tech in 1994, is an Associate Professor at Penn State, where he directs the composition program and holds faculty positions in English; Science, Technology, and Society; Information Sciences and Technology; and Distance Education. His research focuses on the social and pedagogical dimensions of human-computer interaction. Selber's 2004 book, Multiliteracies for a Digital Age (Southern Illinois University Press), won the Distinguished Book Award from Computers and Composition and was also named Best Book in Technical or Scientific Communication by the National Council of Teachers of English. His 2004 co-edited collection, Central Works in Technical Communication (Oxford University Press), was named Best Collection of Essays in Technical or Scientific Communication by the National Council of Teachers of English. _{Updated 6/07}

Daniel Springer (MA) is a painter who lives and works on Cape Cod. Daniel has shown two solo exhibits of his work at the Brewster Ladies Library, in 2006 and 2007 and is currently represented by the Left Bank Gallery in Orleans, MA.

In addition to his MA in English from NEU, Daniel received a BFA from Parsons School of Design in NYC and studied performance and theater design at Syracuse University. He currently chairs the Fine & Performing Arts Department at Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School, sits on the Advisory Board of the Cape Cod & Islands Art Educators Association and teaches at the Cape Cod Museum of Art. Daniel has also presented workshops at three National Art Education Association national conferences in Boston, Chicago and NYC. _{Updated 12/08}

1988-1989 Graduates

Kevin Cassell (MA) taught at the University of New Mexico from 2002-2006. He then moved to Costa Rica, got TEFL certified and taught English at Inlingua International Language Center. Currently, Kevin is a Graduate Teaching Instructor at Michigan Technological University where he's working on his doctorate in Rhetoric and Technical Communication. _{Updated 11/08}

Beth (Schoenholtz) Udoma (MA) recently became the Senior Communications Editor for the Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies, at Tufts Medical Center, Boston. _{Updated 4/08}

Stephen Sutherland (MA) received his PhD in Composition at the University of Pittsburgh and has been teaching in the Expository Writing Program at Harvard University. He has just been appointed to a tenure-track position at UMass-Boston._{Updated 4/07}

1987-1988 Graduates

1986-1987 Graduates

1985-1986 Graduates

1984-1985 Graduates

Thomas Reilly (MA) worked in Corporate Information Services for State Street Bank for sixteen years. He was responsible for writing and/or editing many of the critical documents that company put out regarding the protection of data and personnel. In 2003, Tom took an opportunity to work closer to home in Millbury, MA and got his state teaching license. Tom writes, "I would love to hear from any of my former colleagues and classmates." He can be contacted at: reillythomasm@yahoo.com. _{Updated 11/07}

1983-1984 Graduates

1982-1983 Graduates

Ginny Gostanian Ryan (MA) has developed and instructed a wide variety of English courses for 22 years, most recently at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, NY as an Assistant Professor. _{Updated 11/07}

John Waggoner (MA) is a columnist at USA Today, in the Money section. He also appears monthly on PBS, for the Nightly Business Report and has written two books on personal finance. He writes poetry and is working on novel. _{Updated 4/08}

1981-1982 Graduates

1980-1981 Graduates

Barbara Lundeen Collins (MA), after leaving part-time instructor/lecturer posts in NU's English Department and University College, lived in England for nearly ten years. She taught for a short time at a private grammar school, and thereafter worked in various senior administrative posts for the U.K.'s National Health Service.

Barbara returned to the States in the fall of 1992 and worked as a medical transcriptionist from home, while caring for her terminally ill father. After her father's death, Barbara moved to Gloucester, MA where she continued to work on a contract basis for Children's Hospital Boston, and was a volunteer English tutor at her local adult learning center, working primarily with immigrants.

Barbara retired from full-time employment in 2007. She would enjoy hearing from graduate school classmates and faculty of the 1978-1983 era. Barbara can be contacted at: beblc@netzero.net._{Updated 2/08}

1979-1980 Graduates

John P. Travis (MA) is an adjunct professor at Our Lady of Holy Cross College, New Orleans, LA. He recently published his novel, Pitching in the Dark, available at Amazon.com. James has served on the board of NAMI-New Orleans and is a member of the Sports Literature Association. _{Updated 1/09}

1978-1979 Graduates

1977-1978 Graduates

1976-1977 Graduates

1975-1976 Graduates

David S. Ferriero (BA '72, MA) has been nominated by President Barack Obama to the position of Archivist of the United States. Read more online. _{Updated 8/09}

1974-1975 Graduates

Ted Buswick (MA) and his wife Judy have recently published a book, Slate of Hand: Stone for Fine Art & Folk Art (Trafford, 2007). Ted was also a guest editor in 2005 for a special issue of the Journal of Business Strategy on arts-based learning. Ted's friends or alumni interested in the book or in the relationship between the arts and business can contact Ted at: buswick.ted@bcg.com._{Updated 11/07}

1973-1974 Graduates

1972-1973 Graduates

Donna Halper (MA) is an assistant professor of Communications at Lesley University. Her fourth book, Icons of Talk: The Media Mouths That Made America, is being published by Greenwood Press in January 2009. Donna was featured in the Boston Globe article, "She blazed a trail locally, and now her career comes full circle," October 2008. _{Updated 11/08}

Find current student news at Graduate Student Accomplishments 2007-2008.