Faculty
Ted Atkinson is an assistant professor of English at Augusta State University. He teaches courses in composition, humanities, American literature and culture, literature and culture of the American South, and film appreciation. Atkinson’s research interests include late 19th- and early 20th-century American literature and culture, Southern literature and culture, modernism, social realism, and historical and cultural approaches to the study of literature and film. Atkinson has published journal articles on the work of William Faulkner, as well as a book from the University of Georgia Press entitled Faulkner and the Great Depression: Aesthetics, Ideology, and Cultural Politics. In the spring of 2001, Atkinson received his Ph.D. in English from LSU, specializing in twentieth-century American literature and culture. He received his M.A. in English from Mississippi College in 1996 and his B.A. in Journalism with a minor in English from the University of Mississippi in 1990. After earning his undergraduate degree, Atkinson worked for three and a half years in politics before coming to his senses and pursuing an academic career. |
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Associate Professor of German We aren't quite sure, why Dr. Bledsoe insists on wearing those Birkenstock sandals almost everywhere--Is it his little contribution to the German economy or an attempt to hang on to those student days in Berkeley? We do know that he stayed at Berkeley long enough to get three degrees (B.A. in History and German, M.A. and Ph.D. in German) from the University of California and spend time in Göttingen, Tübingen and Paris. We also know that if you want to learn German, he is your man on campus Dr. Bledsoe also teaches in the Humanities Program and promotes the medicinal qualities of beer--if brewed according to the German purity law--coffee and tea. |
William A. Bloodworth also is president of the university. He is the author of Upton Sinclair (1977), Max Brand (1993), and articles on American literature, especially the literature of the American West. He grew up in San Antonio, Texas. Prior to joining Augusta State in 1993, he served on the faculty at Central Missouri State University and East Carolina University, teaching courses in composition, literature, folklore, and American studies. |
M. Michelle Cook Michelle teaches College Composition I and II. Her research interests include 20th century poetry and conflict literature (with a Master’s thesis entitled “Sleepers, Dreamers, and Inescapability in the Poetry of Wilfred Owen: ‘A dream from which there is no awakening’”), popular culture and postmodernism, language and movement, children’s literature, creative writing, and live literature (Michelle was a founding reader at the First Friday poetry series in Pendleton, SC). She recently presented "The House has Fangs: Children's Fiction and the Monstrous Feminine" at the 2007 conference of the Popular Culture Association of the South. Michelle is also the English Club advisor. Her interests and obsessions somewhat less academic include Harry Potter (books, audiobooks, and movies), modern fantasy literature (specifically Tolkien, Terry Brooks, Tad Williams, and Mervyn Peake), Lost, art and art history, Carnivàle, teaching modern dance, and miniature schnauzers named Moose. |
His publications include the book Nameless Flowers: Selected Poems of Gu Cheng. Aaron feels joy when exchanging ideas in the classroom. He is very gratified to find, almost invariably, remarkable students expressing new thoughts and doing creative work in his classes. |
He teaches courses in Humanities and in American literature. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the Université de Rouen in France, has served as Director of the Humanities Program since 1995, in 2005 directed the Cullum program on Russia and received ASU’s Outstanding Faculty Member award. He edited The Best of Sand Hills and several versions of The Humanities Handbook, has a dozen short story publications (Midlands, Chelsea, Oyez, The Long Story, The Best of Cimarron Review, etc.), and has had two plays produced. He has published 16 essays in books and 15 in academic journals, principally on American literature, many on the American short story. |
Sara Griswold |
Christina Heckman specializes in medieval language and literature. She teaches courses in Anglo-Saxon and Middle English literature, Chaucer, the history of the English language, hinguistics, Renaissance literature, writing, humanities, and the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Her research focuses on the intersections of violence and piety in the Middle Ages, with a particular emphasis on anti-semitism, the cross as a cultural symbol, and medieval conceptions of justice. She began her teaching career in Chicago, her hometown, and worked in New York and Ohio before coming to ASU. She presents her research regularly at conferences and has contributed to Essays in Medieval Studies and The J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia. |
Todd Hoffman, Ph.D. |
As Hamlet observes, "There are more things in heaven and earth … Than are dreamt of in your philosophy”—or, for that matter, in psychology, history, science, mathematics, business, or communications. If, like Hamlet, you yearn to discover more of your universe than is dreamt of in other academic disciplines, Wes Kisting is the “renaissance man” to know. Wes specializes in the literature and culture of early modern (“Renaissance”) England . He is particularly interested in ways secular and religious discussions of authority intersect and affect each other. His published and presented work examines how theological teachings about the conscience shaped secular and literary attitudes toward power and interiority in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. An award-winning teacher, Wes teaches courses in Shakespeare, Renaissance literature, Milton , humanities, and composition. Embracing the Renaissance belief in literature's unique power “to teach and delight,” he blends traditional lecturing with vigorous discussion, student presentations, creative activities, and humor. |
Susan Polonus Mucha is a former registered nurse from Pittsburgh, Pa. She has worked as an emergency room nurse in Pittsburgh and New Orleans and moved to Augusta in 1974. She has a degree in English and Spanish from ASU and a masters in writing popular fiction from Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pa. She is the author of Deadly Deception (ISBN: 1-891799-25-8), a thriller set on the grounds of Augusta National and in the historic city of Lima, Peru, and is working on a sequel. She has written for many publications and has served as editor of Healthscope Magazine. Susan teaches freshman English, runs a mentoring program at Immaculate Conception School on Laney Walker Blvd, and writes – always writes. |
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She has a six-year history of teaching in high school and college upon graduation, followed by eight years in television as a writer, producer, reporter, anchor, and talk show host. She also used her creative abilities in an historical documentary and numerous commercials and promotions. Other benefits of her English degree led to jobs in public relations and marketing in the health care industry, as well consulting in customer relations and politics. Her communications abilities enhanced her involvement in numerous school and civic committees and boards. Moreover, she is an avid exerciser and horsewoman. Her greatest joy, however, is working with second language speakers whose strengths and struggles she finds supremely admirable. |
Seretha D. Williams is an associate professor of English . She earned a B.S. in journalism from Northwestern University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Georgia. She also earned a graduate certificate in Women's Studies and participated in the Fulbright Hayes Swahili Language program in Tanzania. Her areas of specialization are African and African diaspora literatures. She has published essays on Gwendolyn Brooks and Leon Forrest. |
Department of English and Foreign Languages
2500 Walton Way Augusta, GA 30904
(706) 737-1500 http://efldept.aug.edu
Dr. Rob Bledsoe
William A. Bloodworth, Ph.D.
Aaron Crippen, Ph.D.
Walter Evans, Ph.D. 
Christina M. Heckman, Ph.D
Susan Polonus Mucha
Norm Prinsky, Ph.D. 
Seretha Williams, Ph.D.