The English faculty consists of seven full-time members, each of whom holds a PhD in English, one visiting assistant professor, and four adjunct members. Areas of expertise include American literature, Shakespeare and Renaissance literature, eighteenth-century British literature, Irish literature, Jane Austen, literature and the environment, rhetoric and composition, business writing, creative writing, and more. Outside the classroom, faculty members are readily available to meet with students one-on-one and in small groups--from advising and writing assistance to informal discussions about literature.

Independent Study Option (35KB PDF)*: For any student who wishes to pursue further study with a particular professor, the procedure is as follows: 1) Contact the professor and arrange a study plan; 2) Download the Independent Study form from this site; 3) You and your professor of choice need to fill out the form together, sign, and turn the form into the Dean's office.

Full-Time English Faculty

Joseph A. Cirincione
Professor

"Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own."
--The Battle of the Books, 1704, Jonathan Swift

• B.A., Canisius College, 1967
• M.A., Michigan State University, 1969
• Ph.D. University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1978
• M.B.A., Rockhurst College, 1989

Dr. Cirincione is an 18th Century specialist with a more recent emphasis on Report Writing and Business Communication in the Rockhurst M.B.A. Program.

Office:  Sedgwick 312

Phone: (816) 501-4109
e-mail: joseph.cirincione@rockhurst.edu

John Kerrigan, Chair
Associate Professor

“The annals say: when the monks of Clonmacnoise
Were all at prayers inside the oratory
A ship appeared above them in the air.
The anchor dragged along behind so deep
It hooked itself into the altar rails
And then, as the big hull rocked to a standstill,
A crewman shinned and grappled down a rope
And struggled to release it. But in vain.
`This man can't bear our life here and will drown,'
The abbot said, `Unless we help him.' So
They did, the freed ship sailed and the man climbed back
Out of the marvelous as he had known it.”

--from Seamus Heaney’s 1991 collection, Seeing Things

• B.A., Dickinson College, 1993
• M.A., University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 1995
• Ph.D., University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2001

Dr. Kerrigan specializes in modern and contemporary literature in English, particularly Irish literature. His scholarly interests also include dramatic literature, postcolonialism, and the teaching of writing. 

Office: Sedgwick 318A

Phone: (816) 501-4315
e-mail:john.kerrigan@rockhurst.edu
Faculty Web Page

Charles M. Kovich
Professor

"The Utopian way of life provides not only the happiest basis for a civilized community, but also one which, in all human probability, will last forever. They've eliminated the root-causes of ambition, political conflict, and everything like that."
--Utopia, 1516, Thomas More

• B.A., Rockhurst College, 1970
• M.A., Saint Louis University, 1973
• Ph.D., Saint Louis University, 1981

Dr. Charles Kovich is a Rhetoric and Linguistic specialist who has turned his attention more recently to the English Club, the Plays in Progress Workshop, and the Jesuit Honor Society.

Office: Sedgwick 316

Phone: (816) 501-4034
e-mail: charles.kovich@rockhurst.edu

Daniel J. Martin
Asssociate Professor

Honors Director

"In literature it is only the wild that attracts us. Dullness is but another name for tameness. . . . A truly good book is something as natural, and as unexpectedly and unaccountably fair and perfect, as a wild-flower discovered on the prairies of the West or in the jungles of the East."
--"Walking," 1862, Henry David Thoreau

• B.A. Xavier University, 1983
• M.A. Saint Louis University, 1988
• Ph.D. University of Kansas, 1997

Dr. Martin specializes in nonfiction writing, environmental literature, and American literature. He works with students on designing web pages, teaches for the School of Professional Studies, and is fond of reading and writing familiar essays.

Office: Sedgwick 203

Phone: (816) 501-4120
e-mail: dan.martin@rockhurst.edu

Patricia Cleary Miller
Professor

"As a stallion full fed at the manger, stalled too long, breaking free of his tether gallops down the plain, out for his favorite plunge in a river's cool currents, thundering in his pride--his head flung back, his mane streaming over his shoulders, sure and sleek in his glory, knees racing him on to the fields and stallion-haunts he loves-- so down from Pergamus heights came Paris, son of Priam, glittering in his armor like the sun astride the skies, exultant, laughing aloud, his fast feet sped him on."
--Iliad, ca. 9th Century BCE, Homer

• B.A., Harvard/Radcliffe, 1961
• M.A., University of Missouri, Kansas City, 1970
• Ph.D., University of Kansas, 1979
• Poet Laureate of the Harvard Alumni Association, 2004

Dr. Miller is Editor-in-Chief to the Rockhurst Review and Poet-in-Residence. She also teaches Creative Writing and publishes award-winning poetry.

Office: Sedgwick 311

Phone: (816) 501-4043
e-mail: patricia.miller@rockhurst.edu

Rev. Louis J. Oldani, S.J.
Professor

"Consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life."
--Moby Dick, 1852, Herman Melville

• A.B., Saint Louis University, 1957
• Ph.L., Saint Louis University, 1959
• M.A., Saint Louis University, 1962
• S.T.B., Saint Louis University, 1966
• Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1972

The Rev. Oldani specializes in American Literature and frequently team teaches with members of the Modern Languages Department in special fields.

Office:  Sedgwick 205A

Phone: (816) 501-4033
e-mail: louis.oldani@rockhurst.edu

Margaret Enright Wye
Associate Professor
Website Administrator

"Oh it is only a novel!.... in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language."
--Northanger Abbey, 1817, Jane Austen

• B.S., University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 1971
• M.A., University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 1973
• M.A., University of Southern California, 1988
• Ph.D., University of Southern California, 1992

Dr. Wye is a Rhetoric and Jane Austen specialist who also teaches all levels of courses in the departmental literature, education, and writing tracks.

Office: Sedgwick 218

Phone: (816) 501-4472
e-mail: margaret.wye@rockhurst.edu
Web Page: Margaret Enright Wye, Ph.D.

 Jeff Mack

 Visiting Assistant Professor

• B.A. in English & Journalism, Valdosta State University, Georgia, 1988

• M.A. in English, University of Kentucky, 1991
• ABD, in English University of Kansas

Office: Sedgwick 223

Phone: (816) 501-4345
Email: jeff.mack@rockhurst.edu

Adjunct English Faculty

Dr. John Coakley
Instructor

• B.A. Religious Education, St. Mary's College, Winona, Minn., 1960
• M.Ed. Education w. English Emphasis, St. Mary's College, Winona, Minn., 1966
• M.A. Public Address/Theatre, UMKC, 1970
• Ph.D. Ed. Administration, University of Kansas, 1978

Courses

• College Composition I (EN1110)
• English Composition (EN1140)
• World Literature Since 16th Century (EN2760)
• Fundamentals of Communication (CT2000)
• Supervision of Student Teachers (2003) and Educational Psychology (2004)--Education Department

Dr. Coakley has taught high school and served as a high school principal. On the college level he has taught educational psychology, public speaking, debate, oral communication and composition

Office:  Sedgwick 214K

Phone: (816) 501- 4105
Voice mail: (816) 501-4366
Campus e-mail: john.coakley@rockhurst.edu

Michael Fabrizio
Instructor

"We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time"

--"Little Gidding," 1942, T.S. Eliot

• B.S., Temple University

• M.A., New Jersey City University

Courses

• Integrated Humanities

• College Composition I and II (EN1110, EN 1120)

Office:  Sedgwick VA200C

Phone: (816) 501-4814
Email: michael. fabrizo@rockhurst.edu

Silvia Kofler

Much Madness is divinest Sense-

To a discerning Eye-

Much Sense-the starkest Madness-

‘Tis the Majority

In this, as All, prevail-

Assent- and you are sane-

Demur- you’re straightway dangerous-

And handled with a Chain-

                        Emily Dickinson (1862)

Instructor

• B.A. in English from William Jewell College, 1991
• M.A. in English from University of Missouri, Kansas City, 1995

Courses

• Composition I (EN1110)
• World Literature Through the 16th Century (EN2740)

Silvia Kofler was born in Graz, Austria, and has lived in London and Paris before she moved to Kansas City in 1979. Her work has been published in Mid-America Poetry Review, New Letters, Black Moon, Potpourri, Coal City Review, Anykey Review, The Kansas City Star, and numerous other publications.  She also teaches English at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. as we as teaching online for Park University. Her most recent book of poetry, titled From the Suburbs with the Wedding Dress in Its Coffin, was published by The Edwin Mellen Press in 2003.

Office:  Sedgwick 205C

Phone: (816) 501-4472
Email: silvia.kofler@rockhurst.edu

Margot Stafford
Instructor

Isn’t it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive – it’s such an interesting world. It wouldn’t be half so interesting if we knew all about everything, would it? There’d be no scope for imagination then, would there?

Anne of Green Gables, 1908, L. M. Montgomery

• BA, University of King’s College, 1995
  
• MA, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2001
  
• ABD, University of Pittsburgh

Margot Stafford’s areas of interest include the history of reading, children’s literature, the novel, and the teaching of writing.

Office: SED 214A
Phone: 816-501-3154
Email: margot.stafford@rockhurst.edu

Ann Volin

Instructor & Learning Center Director

while the imagination strains

after deer

going by fields of goldenrod in

the stifling heat of September

Somehow

it seems to destroy us

It is only in isolate flecks that

Something

is given off

No one

to witness

and adjust, no one to drive the car

--"To Elsie” in Spring and All, 1951, William Carlos Williams

• B.S., South Dakota State University, 1979
• M.Ed., University of Kansas, 1997
• M.A., University of Kansas, 1999
• Ph.D., University of Kansas 2006

Courses

• College Composition II (EN1120)

• English Composition (EN1140)

   

Dr. Volin directs the Rockhurst University Learning Center.  Her literary interests are in poetry, specifically Williams Carlos Williams, the Imagist Movement, and the sonnet.  She also has studied teaching English as a Second Language.

Office:  Van Ackeren 200
Phone:   X4052  
Email: ann.volin@rockhurst.edu