Chair, English, Foreign Language and Humanities Department, Associate Professor of English

Northwestern - Alva
Vinson Hall 210
Phone: (580) 327-8474
rjjames@nwosu.edu

Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION

• Ph. D., University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2014
• M.A., Northwestern State University, 2008
• B.A., Northwestern State Univeristy, 2009
• B.A., Louisiana State University, 2006

COURSES TAUGHT

• ENGL. 1113: Composition I
• ENGL. 1213: Composition II
• ENGL. 3303/5413: Popular Literature: The Dirty, The Scary, and The Scandalous
• ENGL. 3423: Multicultural Literature
• ENGL. 3503: Mythology
• ENGL. 4413: Restoration and 18th Century English Literature 

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Romantic and Victorian Literature
• Restoration and Eighteenth Century British Literature
• American Literature to circa 1900
• Children’s Literature
• Dirt Theory and Studies

FAVORITE QUOTE

• "But a stranger in a strange land, he is no one; men know him not—and to know not is to care not for." --Bram Stoker

Associate Dean of Graduate Studies,
Professor of English

Northwestern - Alva
Ryerson Hall 212
Phone: (580) 327-8589
spholliday@nwosu.edu

Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 1999
• M.A., Marshall University, 1993
• B.A., Marshall University, 1991

COURSES TAUGHT

• ENGL. 2883: American Literature Since Whitman
• ENGL. 3303/5413: Popular Literature: The Western
• ENGL. 3343/5433: 19th Century American Novel
• ENGL. 3463/5463: American Literature: Twain & James
• ENGL. 4163: Literary Criticism
• ENGL. 4203/5203: Contemporary Poetry
• ENGL. 4273/5273: 20th & 21st Century American Novel
• ENGL. 4480/5180: Seminar (20th Century American Playwrights; Jazz and American Literature)
• HUM. 4900: The History of Rock and Roll

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• American Realism and Naturalism
• Modernism
• Appalachian Literature
• Literature of the American West
• Music and Literature
• Literary Criticism

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS               

• Recipient, Oklahoma Humanities Council Opportunity Grant to give a series of talks on the Oklahoma poets laureate at high at schools, museums, and libraries around the state of Oklahoma, 2014. 
• Recipient, Everett T. Helm Fellowship to support research using the Clifford Odets papers at Indiana University’s Lilly Library, 2008.
• Recipient, Zelda and Paul Gitlin Literary Prize for best article published on Thomas Wolfe in 2006, 2007.      
• Recipient, William B. Wisdom Grant in Aid of Research to support research using the Thomas Wolfe papers at Harvard University’s Houghton Library, Thomas Wolfe Society, 2006.
• Recipient, Berger Foundation Grant to Teach Abroad for a semester in London, England, 2005.
• Recipient, Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award, Alice Lloyd College, 2003.
• Fellow, Salzburg Seminar session in Contemporary American Literature, 2003. Faculty Mentor: Shirley Geok-lin Lim.

WHO AM I AWAY FROM WORK?

• I spend most of my time away from work writing conference papers, articles, and books on different aspects of American literature. Besides that, I love to cook, grill, read, travel, and spend time with my wife and daughter. I also enjoy playing the bass guitar. The Beatles are a special passion of mine, too.

FAVORITE QUOTE

• “Each of us is all the sums he has not counted: subtract us into the nakedness and night again, and you shall see begin in Crete four thousand years ago the love that ended yesterday in Texas.” --Thomas Wolfe

Assistant Professor of English

Northwestern - Alva
Vinson Hall 214
Phone: (580) 327- 8470
dlvaughan@nwosu.edu

Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., Oklahoma State University, 2021
• M. A., Boston University, 2009
• ​B. A., Oklahoma State University, 2008

COURSES TAUGHT

• ENGL. 1113: Composition I
• ENGL. 1213: Composition II
• ENGL. 2543: British Literature to 1865
• ENGL. 3403: World Literature

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Seventeenth-Century British Literature
• Early Modern Print Culture
• English Civil War
• Archival and Textual Scholarship
• Ancient Greek Drama
• Roman Poetry
• Shakespeare

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

• Presenter, "Why is Lil Nas X in Milton’s Garden?: Allusion, Adaptation, and Unoriginal Genius.” The Conference of John Milton. 2022.
• Presenter, "A Tyranny of Words: Rhetoric and Reason in John Milton." The Conference on John Milton. 2019.
• Presenter, "Milton and Catullus: The Sounds of Allusion in Latin Poetry." The 12th International Milton Symposium. 2019.

Assistant Professor of Spanish

Northwestern - Alva
Vinson Hall 123
Phone: (580) 327-8466
rcvest@nwosu.edu

Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., Purdue University, 2018
• M.A., Purdue University, 2012
• B.A., Northern Michigan University, 2010

COURSES TAUGHT

• SPAN. 1114: Spanish I
• SPAN. 1224: Spanish II
• SPAN. 2183: Conversation/Reading I
• SPAN. 2193: Composition/Grammar I
• SPAN. 3103: Introduction to Hispanic Literature
• SPAN. 3113: Peninsular/Spanish American Culture
• SPAN. 3183: Conversation II
• SPAN. 3193: Composition/Grammar II
• SPAN. 4103: Survey of Peninsular Literature
• SPAN. 4183: Conversation III
• SPAN. 4193: Composition/Grammar III
• SPAN. 4223: Survey of Spanish American Literature

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Realism/Naturalism in Latin American Literature
• Literature of the Boom/Post-Boom
• Latin American short story
• Science and Literature

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

• Helping lead a study abroad in Madrid, Spain
• Helping plan and pull off cultural activities with Spanish Club
• Publishing an article in an academic journal as an undergraduate with a great faculty advisor

WHO AM I AWAY FROM WORK?

• I love to travel every chance I get. My favorite place to travel is Mexico, especially Mexico City and Guanajuato. When I am not traveling, I am normally reading a new book or looking for people to play board games.

FAVORITE QUOTE

• "What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it." - Gabriel García Márquez

Assistant Professor of English

Vinson Hall
Northwestern - Alva
cmxan@nwosu.edu