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  Victoria Aarons, Chair Coleen Grissom    
  Scott Baird Larry Kutchen    
  Peter Balbert Andrew Porter    
  John Brazil David Rando    
  Jenny Browne Willis Salomon    
  Duane Coltharp Norman Sherry    
  Michael Fischer Michael Soto    
  Judith Fisher Claudia Stokes    
Angela Florschuetz Betsy Tontiplaphol
   

VICTORIA AARONS

Northrup 344A, x7574

1981: 1993

Professor and Chair, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
H. G. Barnard Faculty Fellow, recipient of Z. T. Fellowship for excellence in teaching and advising and the Minnie Stevens Piper Award for Excellence in Teaching. American Jewish literature and culture; Holocaust studies. Books: A Measure of Memory: Storytelling and Identity in American Jewish Fiction (CHOICE Award for Outstanding Academic Title, 1996) and What Happened to Abraham? Reinventing the Covenant in American Jewish Fiction (CHOICE Award for Outstanding Academic Title, 2005). Essays in such scholarly journals as Contemporary Literature, Modern Jewish Studies, Shofar, Studies in American Jewish Literature, Jewish Quarterly Review, Xavier Review, Literature and Belief, as well as Holocaust Literature: An Encyclopedia of Writers and Their Work.

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SCOTT BAIRD

Northrup 342, x7579

1974: 1976

Associate Professor, Ph.D., University of Texas

Linguistics: former Fulbright lecturer and NEH Fellow; author of books, articles and papers in applied linguistics—especially on grave marker language.

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PETER BALBERT

Northrup 382, x7519

1988

Professor, Ph.D., Cornell University

Modern and contemporary American literature and modern British literature. Author of books and articles on twentieth-century literature, with special emphasis on the work of D. H. Lawrence; articles on university administration and department strategy. Author of D. H. Lawrence and the Phallic Imagination and D. H. Lawrence and the Psychology of Rhythm, and co editor of D. H. Lawrence: A Centenary Consideration. His essays have been published in Papers on Language Literature, Studies in the Novel, Twentieth Century Literature, Modern Fiction Studies, the D. H. Lawrence Review, The Hemingway Review, English Literature in Transition, Innovative Higher Education, National Issues in Higher Education, Academic Leader, and in numerous collections and anthologies.  Former panelist for Challenge Grants at the National Endowment for the Humanities and currently Associate Editor of Planning for Higher Education. English Department Chair at Trinity, 1988-2004.

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JOHN BRAZIL

Northrup 440, x8401

President of the University, Ph.D. Yale

John R. Brazil became the 17th president of Trinity University in June 1999. Drawing on a distinguished academic and administrative career, he has charted an ambitious course for the University, where his leadership has inspired a number of special initiatives that build on Trinity’s considerable strengths and achievements.

Dr. Brazil’s oft stated vision is to move Trinity from its position of eminence to preeminence and propel it into the front ranks of America’s finest smaller colleges and universities. Progress toward this goal includes the hiring of numerous new faculty members, a redesigned common curriculum, a re-conceptualization of student life, implementation of an Academic Honor Code, the “internationalization” of both the faculty and student body, and dramatic increases in the number, quality, and diversity of applicants for admissions.   Major new facilities added to the Trinity campus include the Robert A.M. Stern-designed administrative and academic building, Northrup Hall; the Dicke Art and Smith Music buildings; an information commons in the Coates library; and a renovated Ruth Taylor Recital Hall. The Trinity University Press has been re-established and to date has 25 volumes in print.  An historic $200 million capital campaign, Dream Inspire, Achieve., launched in September 2005 is nearing completion and will serve to sustain and secure a variety of forward thinking academic initiatives as well ensure access to the nation’s best and brightest students. 

Prior to coming to Trinity, Dr. Brazil served as president of Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.  Prior to Bradley, he was president and chancellor of the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. Dr. Brazil received his A.B. degree in history from Stanford University in 1968. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, he earned the Master of Philosophy and Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University. He is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the Phi Kappa Phi honor society, Beta Gamma Sigma international honor society in business administration and an honorary member of Gold Key and Delta Mu Delta national honor society in business administration. 

Prior to beginning his career in higher education administration, Dr. Brazil taught at Yale and San Jose State University, reaching the rank of professor. His scholarly publications have appeared in American Quarterly, Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, American Literary Realism, and the Mississippi Quarterly. He was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Sydney in 1980 and a delegate in U.S. Department of Education and American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ mission to the Soviet Union in 1989. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Samara State Aerospace University in Russia in 1997.  He is currently writing two books, Murder and Twenties America and The Twenties on Trial.

Dr. Brazil currently is active with the following academic organizations: the Associated Colleges of the South (ACS), Independent Colleges and Universities (ICUT), the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities (APCU),  and the Higher Education Council of San Antonio (HECSA). Additionally, he is a commissioner of the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association on Colleges and Schools.

Outside academia, he is active in numerous professional and civic organizations, currently serving on the boards of Caterpillar, Inc., San Antonio Medical Foundation, United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County, the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, Southwest Research Institute, and the World Affairs Council of San Antonio.

Dr. Brazil is married to the former Janice Hosking, and they have two grown children.

Dr. Brazil's Curriculum Vitae

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JENNY BROWNE

Northrup 376, x7567

2007

Assistant Professor, M.F.A., University of Texas

A former James Michener Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, she currently teaches creative writing at Trinity University and lives with her family in downtown San Antonio.  She is the author of The Second Reason (University of Tampa Press, 2007), At Once (UT Press, 2003) and the chapbook, Glass (Pecan Grove, 2000). She is also the editor of Provide and Protect, Writers on Planned and Unplanned Parenthood (Wings Press, 2005).

Jenny Browne Poetry

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DUANE COLTHARP

Northrup 353, x7527

1993: 1999

Associate Professor, Ph.D., University of Michigan

Restoration and eighteenth-century British literature. Author of several articles on Restoration and eighteenth-century literature and culture, with special emphasis on Dryden's poetry and drama.

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MICHAEL FISCHER

Northrup 410F, x8201

Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty

Ph.D. Northwestern University

Dr. Michael Fischer has been Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty and professor of English at Trinity University since July 1, 2000. Dr. Michael Fischer directs Trinity University’s academic programs as well as oversees intercollegiate athletics, international programs, Trinity University Press, and admissions and financial aid.

 Prior to joining the Trinity administration, Dr. Fischer was Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of English at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. 

Dr. Fischer graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in English from Princeton University.  He earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. in English from Northwestern University.  An authority on modern literary criticism and critical theory, Dr. Fischer has published five books, 21 articles, 15 book chapters, and numerous reviews. 

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JUDITH FISHER

Northrup 372, x7570

1986: 2004

Professor, Ph.D., University of Illinois-Urbana

Nineteenth-century British studies, specializing in prose fiction, relations between the verbal and visual, and textual studies. Author of Thackeray's Skeptical Narrative and the 'Perilous Trade’ of Authorship (Ashgate, 2002), William Makepeace Thackeray.  Lives of Victorian Literary Figures.  London:  Pickering and Chatto, 2007 as well as numerous articles and book chapters on British Medievalism, fiction, drama, and illustrated periodical.  Forthcoming is a scholarly edition of Thackeray’s last complete novel, The Adventures of Philip, and she is currently at work on ‘The Empire of the Tea-Table,  a Literary History of Tea, 1660-1900.'

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ANGELA FLORSCHUETZ

2008

Assistant Professor, Ph.D., Rutgers University

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COLEEN GRISSOM

Northrup 385, x7467

1958: 1975

Professor, Ph.D., University of Texas

As Professor of English, Dr. Grissom teaches courses in contemporary fiction, writing workshop, and first year seminar (functions of humor in literature) for entering students. She also teaches literary courses in Boerne and at Gemini Ink for “older” students interested in challenging reading and dialogue.
Among her many awards and titles, the Trinity University Alumni Association honored her in 2004 with a resolution naming her the first “honorary alumna” of that institution. In January, 2006, she was nominated as one of the “50 Most Influential Educators in San Antonio” by Scene of San Antonio Magazine. In the spring of 2007 she was the Autograph Series speaker for Gemini Ink’s celebration of writers and readers. Compiling and editing her many speeches delivered over the past five decades is Coleen’s latest challenge with plans to publish the collection through the Trinity University Press in the fall, 2008.
After 17+ years of living in one of Trinity University’s residences on Oakmont Court, Coleen moved in December, 1999 to the boonies. She resides there with not only 3 self-assured felines but also a veritable herd of tiny poodles gamboling under the live oaks in the shadow of the windmill, secured by cedar posts and hog wire fence! Life is good.
 

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LARRY KUTCHEN

Northrup 349, x8254

2003

Assistant Professor, Ph.D., University of California-Berkeley

Early American literature, nineteenth-century American literature, circum-Atlantic studies.  Special interests in literature and cultural memory, and literatures of cultural exchange. Winner of Richard Beale Davis Prize for essay on literature of the American Revolution.

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ANDREW PORTER

Northrup 343, x8568

2004

Assistant Professor, M.F.A., University of Iowa Writers' Workshop

Creative Writing/Fiction.  Author of The Theory of Light and Matter (forthcoming 2008), which won the Flannery O'Connor Award in Short Fiction. Recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, including the 2004 W.K. Rose Fellowship in the Creative Arts, a James Michener-Copernicus Fellowship, a Helene Wurlitzer Fellowship, a Tennessee Williams Scholarship, the Glenna Luschei Award and a Pushcart Prize. Stories in various anthologies and journals, including One Story, Epoch, The Ontario Review, The Threepenny Review, The Antioch Review, Story Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, and The Pushcart Prize Anthology, among others.  For more information visit www.andrewporterwriter.com

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DAVID RANDO

Northrup 374, x8923

2006

Assistant Professor, Ph.D., Cornell University

Twentieth-century British and American literature, history, and culture; media studies. Current book projects on modernism & news and modernism & archive. Recent articles on James Joyce and Neutral Milk Hotel. Current articles projects on George Saunders, Thomas Pynchon, and Online Music File Sharing.

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WILLIS SALOMON

Northrup 384, x7556

1983: 1989

Associate Professor, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Early modern British literature and culture; theory, especially psychoanalysis; literature and philosophy. Chair, Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

 

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NORMAN SHERRY

Northrup 379-A, x7548

1983

O.R. and Eva Mitchell Distinguished Professor in Literature, Ph.D., University of Singapore

Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Author of Conrad's Eastern World (Cambridge UP, 1966), Conrad's Western World (Cambridge UP, 1971), The Life of Graham Greene (volumes I, II and III) and works on Jane Austen and the Brontes, contemporary fiction, and continental novels.

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MICHAEL SOTO

Northrup 347, x7561

1999: 2005

Associate Professor, Ph. D., Harvard University

Twentieth-century American literature, ethnic studies, cultural studies. Author of The Modernist Nation: Generation, Renaissance, and Twentieth-Century American Literature (2004), winner of the Elizabeth Agee Prize for Outstanding Study of American Literature, and Resources for Teaching the Bedford Anthology of American Literature (forthcoming). Essays in American Quarterly, Hemingway Review, Jean Toomer and the Harlem Renaissance (2000), Literature on the Move (2002), MELUS, Sites of Ethnicity (2004), and elsewhere. Director of the McNair Scholars Program.

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CLAUDIA STOKES

Northrup 351, x7833

2001:

Associate Professor, Ph.D., Columbia University

Nineteenth-century American literature with special interests in American literary history and the late nineteenth century.  Former Tom and Mary Turner Faculty Fellow and William Dean Howells Fellow of the Houghton Library, Harvard University.  Author of Writers in Retrospect: The Rise of American Literary History 1875-1910 (University of North Carolina Press, 2006) and articles on nineteenth-century American literature. Co-editor with Michael A. Elliott of American Literary Studies:  A Methodological Reader (New York University Press, 2003). Co-director of Women's and Gender Studies.

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BETSY TONTIPLAPHOL

Northrup 373, x8253

2005

Assistant Professor, Ph.D., University of Virginia

Nineteenth-century British literature and culture, especially Romantic and Victorian poetry; poetic form and lyric tradition.  She has spoken and/or written about a number of nineteenth-century authors, including Jane Austen, John Keats, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Alfred Tennyson, Anthony Trollope, and Gerard Manley Hopkins.  Her essays have appeared in such publications as Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal On-Line and Romanticism on the Net, and she is currently at work on a book-length project treating John Keats and his Victorian legacies.

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