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Graduate Faculty
Graduate Faculty
The faculty below, who teach one or more courses in the MA, are available to direct thesis or capstone work in the Professional and Digital Media Writing Program.
Please get in touch with the faculty member you are interested in working with to see whether he or she is currently available. Although we love working with our graduate students, we can work with only so many at one time. To ensure you have the best chance at working with your top choice, contact him or her early--long before you plan to begin your project--to check availability. If you have no idea where to start, begin with the graduate program coordinator, Dr. Jasmine Villa.
Jasmine Villa, Ph.D.
Program Coordinator
Dr. Villa earned her MA in Rhetoric and Writing Studies and PhD in Rhetoric and Composition from the University of Texas at El Paso. Prior to arriving at ESU, Dr. Villa was the Assistant Director of the First-Year Composition Program at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) from 2016 – 2018, taught undergraduate courses in composition and technical writing, and co-taught graduate level courses in grant writing and community literacy.
Due to her research interests on how Latinx organizations form their own ecologies and her commitment to the Latinx community, Dr. Villa worked as a Latinitas staff member while teaching and attending graduate school. She wore many hats in the organization, but she predominantly focused on serving as the Editor-in-Chief of Latinitas Magazine (144 articles per year) and as the Coordinator for the Latinitas Youth Editorial Advisory Board. Her research predominantly focuses on the professional writing trends related to nonprofit organizations and social media, public and cultural rhetorics, and composition pedagogy. Her work has been published in Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric and the Literacy in Composition Studies Journal. She has presented her work on Latinx nonprofit organizations as ecologies, public and cultural rhetorics, community writing, identity formation, and multimodal composition at several conferences including the Conference on College Composition and Communication, Conference on Community Writing, Cultural Rhetorics, and Computers and Writing Conference. She welcomes projects dealing with professional writing trends related to nonprofit organizations and social media, community writing, organizational writing, public and cultural rhetorics, rhetoric (in general), community engagement, service learning, and composition pedagogy. Education:B.A., 2011, University of Texas at El PasoM.A., 2014, University of Texas at El PasoPh.D., 2018, University of Texas at El Paso
Holly Wells, Ph.D.
Holly Wells came to East Stroudsburg University in 2013, after teaching at Youngstown State, Kent State, Texas Lutheran, and Concordia University of Texas. Prior to attending graduate school, Dr. Wells worked as a technical and marketing communications writer for several different companies.
At ESU, Wells teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in professional writing, research methods, visual rhetoric, autoethnography, life writing, creative nonfiction, and document design. Her research interests include feminist critical studies, rhetoric of adoption, and Newfoundland and Labrador, and her publications include several book chapters and co-authored journal articles.
Dr. Wells particularly welcomes projects related to autoethnography, place studies, creative nonfiction, rhetoric of science (broadly conceived), rhetoric and visual rhetoric (in general).
Education:B.A., 1988, Youngstown State UniversityM.A., 2001, Youngstown State UniversityPh.D., 2012, Kent State University
Bill Broun, MFA
A novelist, short-story writer, and widely published journalist, Bill Broun teaches professional and creative writing at ESU at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, with a special interest in journalism and digital media.He serves as faculty adviser to the student newspaper, the Stroud Courier, and he assists with the Master’s in Professional and Digital Media Writing, a program he helped design.
Before coming to ESU in 2006, Broun spent many years as a news reporter, music journalist, and news editor, including long stints as the editor of several weekly newspapers in Texas. In London, he was employed as a copy editor at a host of British newspapers and magazines, with staff positions at the Guardian and Architects’ Journal. Immediately before teaching at ESU, he was a lecturer in writing for four years at Yale University.
His byline has appeared in Alternative Press Magazine, the Washington Post, New York Times, the Times (London), the Times Literary Supplement, as well as specialty publications such as the Architects’ Journal and Publishers Weekly.
His debut novel, Night of The Animals (Ecco/HarperCollins), was published in 2016 to international critical acclaim, with positive reviews in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, and in many other publications. It was chosen as one of Slate’s Best Books of 2016.
Broun lives in Hellertown, Pennsylvania, and on Twitter at @Broun.
Education:B.A., 1989, Miami University of OhioM.A., 1993, Miami University of OhioM.F.A., 1998, University of Houston
Nancy VanArsdale, Ph.D.
Dr. Nancy VanArsdale earned her Ph.D. in English from New York University. She co-edited Approaches to Teaching F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, a volume in the noteworthy MLA series. Having completed a graduate business certificate program, VanArsdale previously worked as a professional writer and consultant at Time Inc.
Her research interests include American literature, modernism, and professional writing trends related to advertising, public relations, and corporate communication. She began her ESU career in 1990 and chaired the English Department from 1998 to 2014. VanArsdale has also served as President of ESU-APSCUF, the faculty association, since 1998.
Dr. VanArsdale is now semi-retired and, as such, is limited in her availability.
Education:B.A., 1979, Bucknell UniversityM.A., 1981, New York UniversityPh.D., 1991, New York University
Jan Selving, MFA
Jan Selving has been teaching at ESU since 2002. Among the classes she teaches are Intro to Creative Writing, Women in Literature, Reviewing the Arts, and Senior Sem. in Creative Writing. She also teaches Visual Rhetoric and Writing in the Genres for the graduate program in Professional and Digital Media Writing.
Selving was raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a state rich in environmental and cultural diversity, and a place that has had a major impact on her poetry. The changing desert landscape and the varied intersections of Latino, Pueblo, and Anglo cultures are among her main areas of interest.
Selving has also written many poems in response to art, largely due to her background in art history and her work as a visual artist. Her paintings, assemblages, and works on paper have appeared in regional and national galleries.
Selving’s poems have been published in a number of national literary magazines, including Crazyhorse, Ploughshares, Antioch Review, Denver Quarterly, Sou’wester, and Ekphrasis. She is currently working on a volume of ekphrastic poetry based on Medieval, Expressionist, and contemporary art.
Education:B.A., 1990, Indiana UniversityM.F.A., 1994, Arizona State University
Erica Dymond, Ph.D.
Dr. Erica Joan Dymond came to East Stroudsburg University in 2013. Prior to this, she taught film and literature for ten years at Lehigh University with concurrent teaching at Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth.
As a result of her academic achievements, Dr. Dymond attended Lehigh University's Ph.D. program on a full teaching fellowship. In her time at Lehigh, Dr. Dymond was also awarded a senior teaching fellowship which granted her advanced classes in film and literature.
Dr. Dymond has been a consulting editor for the peer-reviewed, academic journal The Explicator since 2011. She has also acted as a manuscript reviewer for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award and a peer-reviewer for Focal Press.
Horror film theory is Dr. Dymond's specialty. The majority of her research resides in this area. Other areas of expertise include: art house and international cinema, Gothic-period literature, British Romantic poetry, and postcolonial theory.
When not behind the podium, Dr. Dymond enjoys losing countless hours in World of Warcraft ("For the Horde!"), dissecting The Walking Dead, and seeking the wisdom of Louis C. K.
Education:B.A., 1995, Marywood UniversityM.A., 2000, University of ScrantonPh.D., 2009,Lehigh University
Jeff Hotz, Ph.D., Department Chair
Jeffrey Hotz has been a faculty member in the English Department at East Stroudsburg University since 2007. His main area of specialization is early American literature. He is the author of Divergent Visions, Contested Spaces: The Early United States through the Lens of Travel (Routledge, 2006), a study of real and imagined travels in the Early Republic and the antebellum period. He is currently finishing a book on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s late career, the period from 1861 until the poet’s death in 1882. In 2015, he was awarded the Diana Korzenik Research Fellowship from the Friends of the Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site to research the letters and journals of Frances Elizabeth Appleton Longfellow, the wife of the poet.
Education:B.A., 1994, Georgetown UniversityM.A., 1997, Georgetown UniversityPh.D., 2004, George Washington University
Sandra Eckard, Ph.D.
Sandy Eckard began at East Stroudsburg University in 2005. She has also taught at West Virginia University and Frostburg State University. While at FSU, she served as a Reading Specialist, coordinated tutoring and study skills programs, and taught literature and writing.
Dr. Eckard directs the Writing Studio here at ESU, the hot-spot for writing tutoring on campus. In addition, she works with education students and teaches a variety of writing and literature courses. Her specialty is teaching with popular culture. In addition to presenting and publishing on tutoring pedagogy, she has published her dissertation, The Ties that Bind: Storytelling as a Teaching Tool for Composition Classrooms and Writing Centers.
Her latest book, from Rowman and Littlefield Education, is titled Yin and Yang in the English Classroom: Teaching with Popular Culture Texts.
Education:B.A., 1994, Frostburg State UniversityM.A., 1996, West Virginia UniversityPh.D., 2001, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Laura Kieselbach, Ph.D.
Dr. Laura Kieselbach joined the ESU English Department in the Fall of 2016. She instructs Teaching of English, Composition, Literary Analysis, Diversity Literature, and works closely with the Education College in advising student teachers in the field.
Prior to arriving at ESU, Dr. Kieselbach worked full time in the public school system advising new teachers as a lead mentor, writing curriculum to meet changing standards, leading workshops on collaborative learning and dynamic student-centered classroom strategies, and instructing English for middle and high school students. She also worked at Daytona State College instructing Composition and Critical Thinking courses. These experiences make her suited to understand evolving demographics and strategies that work in secondary education classrooms, reaching students of all backgrounds, and cultivating a cultural competence among her students, including student teachers who are honing their own pedagogical craft.
Teaching InterestEducation/PedagogyDiversityLiteratureEnvironmentMusicCompositionSocial Justice
Research InterestDr. Kieselbach's thesis discussed ways to use multicultural literary texts in order to attain a more rigorous and intentional application of Culturally Responsive Pedagogical Practices in the English Language Arts Classroom. An advocate for equity and change, her Ed.D. is in Curriculum and Teacher and Learning Leadership and embedded in social justice advocacy for students of marginalization and minority populations and continues to research ways to make campuses, classrooms, and instruction more diverse and inclusive.
Artress Bethany White, Ph.D.
Dr. White joined the East Stroudsburg University Department of English in fall 2020 after completing a National Endowment of the Humanities visiting professorship at Albright College. She is a poet, essayist, and literary critic. Her teaching, research, and writing interests include African American literature, contemporary poetry and poetics, BIPOC social justice literacy, and the memoir essay.
http://www.artressbethanywhite.com/
Teaching InterestDr. White teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in African American literature, poetry, BIPOC literature, creative nonfiction, and composition.
Research Interest
- African American Literature
- Poetry
- Poetics
- Slave Archives Service
- Faculty Advisor for Sigma Tau Delta International English Honor Society
- Women of Color Initiative (WOCI) Steering Committee
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee
- Frederick Douglass Institute Committee
- ESU Strategic Planning Committee (2022-2023)
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