
Faculty and Staff
Faculty
Holly Pickett
Department Head and Associate Professor of English
- Payne Hall 124
- Email: picketth@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8078
Pickett teaches courses on Shakespeare, early modern drama and contemporary drama. Her research interests include religion and drama, history of the senses, and early modern religious identities and controversies.
Edward Adams
John Lucian Smith, Jr. Professor of English
- Payne Hall 110
- Email: adamse@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8764
Adams teaches courses such as Victorian poetry, Hitchcock and 19th century British novel. His research interests include history and fiction, novel and epic, and high culture and pop culture.
Michael Berlin
Visiting Assistant Professor of English and Director of the Writing Program
- Payne Hall 202
- Email: mberlin@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8757
Laura Fairchild Brodie
Visiting Associate Professor of English
- Payne Hall 302
- Email: brodiel@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-5896
Brodie teaches courses in creative writing and 18th through 21st-century literature. Her books include novels and nonfiction, and her scholarship has focused on the representation of widows in British literature.
Lubabah Chowdhury
Assistant Professor of English
- Washington Hall 111
- Email: lchowdhury@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8755
Freddy Fuentes
Visiting Assistant Professor of English
- Payne Hall 309
- Email: fuentesf@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-4990
Fuentes teaches entry level writing courses as well as topics in creative writing. He has researched Spanish-American literature and privilege in America.
Chris Gavaler
Associate Professor of English
- Payne Hall 305
- Email: gavalerc@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8279
Gavaler teaches courses on creative writing, contemporary fiction and comics, which are also his main areas of research.
Genelle Gertz
Associate Dean of Strategic Initiatives and Thomas H. Broadus Professor of English
- Payne Hall 108
- Email: gertzg@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8763
Gertz teaches courses on Milton, the Tudors and the Bible. She is currently working on methods of social network analysis as they apply to our understanding of the rise and fall of women mystics in English literary history.
K. Avvirin Gray
Assistant Professor of English
- Washington Hall 116
- Email: kagray@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8377
Leah Naomi Green
Visiting Assistant Professor of Writing and Environmental Studies
- Payne Hall 213
- Email: greenl@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-4821
Green’s courses include Eco-Writing, “Wilderness, Wildness, & Cultivation,” and topics for first-year writing seminars. She has researched creative writing (poetry), environmental literature, Buddhist practice, and food justice.
Jane Harrington
Visiting Assistant Professor of English
- Payne Hall 302
- Email: harringtonj@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8308
Harrington teaches British Literature, creative writing and children’s literature. She has researched the Great Hunger of Ireland (folk narratives and history), 19th Century poet/activist Lady Wilde, fairy tales by 17th Century French salon women and issues in contemporary children’s literature.
Lena Hill
Provost and Professor of English
- Washington Hall
- Email: lmhill@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8746
In addition to her many duties as Provost, Hill researches and teaches courses primarily in 19th- and 20th-century African-American literature. She has written a number of books and articles on the subject.
Wan-Chuan Kao
Associate Professor of English; Head of the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program
- Payne Hall 214
- Email: kaow@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8345
Professor Kao’s teaching and research interests include medieval literature, especially Chaucer; whiteness studies; critical theory; race and ethnicity; gender and sexuality; queer studies; hotel theory; affect; and cute studies.
Emily King
Visiting Assistant Professor of Writing and English
- Payne Hall 111
- Email: elking@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8924
Diego Millan
Assistant Professor of English and Core Faculty in Africana Studies
- Washington Hall 108
- Email: dmillan@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8759
Millan teaches upper-level courses in black diasporic literature. He has researched 19th- and 20th-century American and African-American literature and culture, black studies, performance studies, and theories of laughter and comedy.
Bill Oliver
Director of the Writing and Communications Center, Visiting Associate Professor of English
- Leyburn Library 138
- Email: oliverb@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8278
Oliver has served as the CommCenter director since 2015 and now directs the Writing Center as well. He teaches first-year writing seminars and courses in American literature and fiction writing. His research interest is fiction.
Kary Smout
Associate Professor of English
- Washington Hall 112
- Email: smoutk@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8979
Smout teaches courses on the literature of the American South, American West and business in American literature. His research interests include language and culture, writing instruction and the politics of higher education.
Beth A. Staples
Assistant Professor of English and Editor, Shenandoah
- Payne Hall 304
- Email: bstaples@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8761
Staples teaches courses in creative writing, editing and publishing. She is also the editor of W&L’s literary magazine, Shenandoah.
Lesley Wheeler
Henry S. Fox Professor of English
- Payne Hall 308
- Email: wheelerlm@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8758
Wheeler teaches courses in poetry, creative writing and speculative fiction. Her research interests include 20th- and 21st-century poetry in English, especially as it involves sound, gender, politics and world-building.
Leslie Wingard Cunningham
Associate Provost for Faculty Development and Professor of English and Africana Studies
- Washington Hall
- Email: lwcunningham@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-4875
As Associate Provost, Wingard Cunningham serves as a member of the provost’s leadership team, working to cultivate a coordinated, intentional and robust effort to strengthen diversity, equity, and inclusion across Academic Affairs.
Staff
Emeritus Faculty
Deborah A. Miranda
Thomas H. Broadus, Jr. Professor of English Emeritus
Miranda primarily taught courses on creative writing (poetry and memoir) and contemporary American literature by authors from the margins of U.S. culture. Her research pertains to Native American and Chicana/o poetry and fiction, women’s literature and LGBTQ literature.