University of Indianapolis Full-Time English Faculty

Liz Whiteacre headshot

Liz Whiteacre

Associate Professor & Department Chair
English

317-788-3373
whiteacree@uindy.edu

Areas of Expertise

Creative writing (especially poetry); editing; publishing; composition; disability literature; tutoring; Writing Labs

Background

Whiteacre is from the Midwest. She has taught composition, creative writing, publishing, and literature in the past at Ball State University, College of DuPage, and Southern Illinois University. She often works with community members through organizations like the Indiana Writers Center and Midwest Writers Workshop. When she isn't working with writers on craft, Whiteacre writes poetry. She is the author of Hit the Ground, and her poetry has appeared in Disability Studies Quarterly, Wordgathering, Kaleidoscope, and other literary magazines.

Research Interests

poetry, disability literature, Writing Labs

Education

  • MFA, Creative Writing, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 2002
  • BA, English & Criminal Justice, Indiana University, 1998

Fun facts

Swam with sharks and UIndy students on a spring term trip to Belize. 

Favorite thing about UIndy

Conversations at the cafeteria or the Perk (I, II or III).

Destiny Brugman headshot

Destiny Brugman

Assistant Professor
English 

317-788-3249
brugmand@uindy.edu

Areas of Expertise

Digital writing and rhetoric, feminist rhetorics, embodied rhetorics, writing pedagogies, writing centers

Background

Destiny Brugman is originally from Montana and has since spent time in the Pacific Northwest and Midwest. She is a proud first-generation college student and loves exploring the connections between college writing and our everyday and professional lives. She loves taking risks with her writing and inviting others to take risks with their writing. She loves doing collaborative work, some of which has appeared in Writing Center Journal and WPA: Writing Program Administration. 

Research Interests

Digital rhetoric and writing, feminist rhetorics, writing centers/labs, public rhetoric.

Education

  • PhD, Composition and Rhetoric, Miami University
  • MA, English Studies, Western Washington University
  • BA, Writing Studies, Montana State University

Fun facts

Destiny used to teach women’s fitness boxing. In high school, she worked for a professional Shakespeare company. And, she loves seeing movies (good and bad). 

Favorite thing about UIndy

How welcoming the campus community is.

Dr. Jennifer Camden headshot

Dr. Jennifer Camden

Professor
English 

317-788-3234
jcamden@uindy.edu

Areas of Expertise

19th century British literature, gothic literature, women's literature, transatlantic studies

Background

Dr. Camden published her first book, Secondary Heroines in Nineteenth-Century British and American Novels, in 2010, and her second book, Transmedia Storytelling: Pemberley Digital's Adaptations of Jane Austen and Mary Shelley, co-authored with Kate Faber Oestreich, in 2018. She has also published articles on 19th century fiction, and collaborated with UIndy students and faculty to publish an annotated and illustrated scholarly edition of Ann Radcliffe's first gothic novel, The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne in 2020. 

She frequently leads travel courses to the United Kingdom, including a summer study abroad in Scotland. 

Research Interests

She is currently working on an edited collection of previously unpublished Gothic texts and print culture with Professor JoEllen Delucia.   

Education

  • PhD, English, The Ohio State University
  • MA, English, The Ohio State University
  • BA, English and Theatre, Hollins University (with distinction, summa cum laude)

Fun facts

I had an English accent as a child, but lost it when my family moved back from England to the U.S.

Favorite thing about UIndy

Getting to work with students on their own interests. Students have great opportunities here through Honors projects, M.A. theses, and independent studies to work with faculty one-on-one.

Barney Haney headshot

Barney Haney

Associate Professor
English

317-788-2072
haneyb@uindy.edu

Areas of Expertise

Fiction, creative nonfiction, and composition

Background

Haney’s work appears in Mid-American Review, Marathon Literary Review, Barely South Review, and Sport Literate, among others. He was awarded the 2019 Chris O’Malley Fiction Prize for his story, “The Passage,” which will appear in The Madison Review, published out of the University of Wisconsin.

Research Interests

Writing, 21st century writers, ghost stories

Education

MFA, Creative Writing, Purdue University

Fun facts

When I was eight, my goat, Scottie Pippen, won Grand Champion Wether at the Kosciusko County Fair.

Favorite thing about UIndy

The students, the faculty, the staff, hosting the Kellogg Writers Series, and running in the Hound Hustle!

Alexandra Krasova headshot

Alexandra Krasova

Assistant Professor
English

317-788-3245
krasovaa@uindy.edu

Areas of Expertise

Digital writing, cultural rhetoric, multimodal writing, translanguaging, and advanced composition.

Background

Krasova’s work has appeared in The Peer Review, Computers and Composition, Writing Spaces, and Currere Exchange. She is a Fulbright alumna and received a Teaching Excellence Award from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2023. 

Research Interests

Multilingual writing, TESOL, AI, digital storytelling, Wikipedia.

Education

  • PhD, Composition and Applied Linguistics, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Fun facts

Alexandra enjoys traveling and has visited 17 countries! 

Sarah Macdonald headshot

Sarah Macdonald

Associate Adjunct Faculty
English

317-788-2072
macdonalds@uindy.edu

Dr. Molly Martin headshot

Dr. Molly Martin

Professor
English

317-788-3241
martinma@uindy.edu

Areas of Expertise

Medieval literature and language (Old and Middle English), Arthurian legend, gender studies, space/place theory, linguistics

Background

Molly has published several articles and two books (Vision and Gender in Malory's Morte Darthur; Castles and Space in Malory's Morte Darthur) on Arthurian literature, Chaucer, gender, vision, space and ghosts. She is an associate editor of Arthuriana.

Research Interests

Arthurian literature, castles, space, vision, medieval travel literature, medieval maps and geography, and ghosts

Education

  • PhD, English, Purdue University
  • MA, English, Purdue University
  • BA, English and Classics, Vanderbilt University

Fun facts

In high school, I ran the projectors at a (very old school) movie theater.

Favorite thing about UIndy

The students. And the canal!

Rebecca McKanna headshot

Rebecca McKanna

Associate Professor
English

317-788-2072
mckannar@uindy.edu

Areas of Expertise

Fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, professional writing, editing

Background

Rebecca grew up in Iowa and worked as a newspaper reporter and a corporate writer before returning to graduate school to study creative writing. Her fiction, nonfiction, and poetry have been published by Narrative, Michigan Quarterly Review, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and other journals. She is a reader for the literary journal Midwestern Gothic and volunteers with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Indiana.

Research Interests

Rebecca's fiction address themes of the Midwest, feminism, and murder. She is currently revising a novel-in-stories and drafting a novel.

Education

MFA, Creative Writing, Purdue University, 2015

Fun facts

My dog is named Hans Gruber, after the true hero of Die Hard.

Favorite thing about UIndy

Getting to know my students and helping them become stronger writers

Dr. Leah Milne headshot

Dr. Leah Milne

Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Programs
English

317-788-6163
milnel@uindy.edu

Areas of Expertise

Multiethnic American literature, postcolonial literature & theory, post-1865 American literature, young adult (YA) literature

Background

Dr. Milne is a first-generation college student who teaches multicultural American and postcolonial literature. Her first book is entitled Novel Subjects: Authorship as Radical Self-Care in Multiethnic American Narratives (University of Iowa Press, 2021). Her co-authored book, The Honeyfish Collective Presents Fieldnotes on Contemporary Black Poetry, is forthcoming with Duke University Press. Her work has also appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as MELUS, African American Review, and College Literature, and magazines such as Newsweek.

Research Interests

African American and Asian American literature, authorship, ethnicity and Indigeneity, Afrofuturism, postcolonialism

Education

  • PhD, English, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  • MA, English, Old Dominion University
  • BA, English, summa cum laude, University of North Florida

Fun facts

Dr. Milne has lived all over the U.S. and (for a brief time) in the Philippines. Indiana is the farthest she has lived from an ocean!

Favorite thing about UIndy

The sense of community we have with students and faculty. Also, the flowers and changing leaves on campus!

Dr. Kristine Newton headshot

Dr. Kristine Newton

Instructor 
English

317-788-2072
newtonc@uindy.edu

Areas of Expertise

English as a Second Language, English Composition, Academic Writing, International Education. 

Background

Dr. Newton is originally from the US Virgin Islands, although she has spent most of her life in the state of Ohio. She has been teaching English Composition since 2004, and began teaching in China for UIndy in 2018. Her most recent publication, "My China," reflects on her experience living overseas.  

Research Interests

International education, Teaching and Learning, English as a Foreign Language, women's empowerment, education and marginalized communities. 

Education

  • PhD, Cultural Foundations, Kent State University 
  • MEd, Higher Education Administration, Wright State University 
  • BA, English, Wittenberg University 

Fun facts

Dr. Newton has a multitude of hobbies. She even took ballroom dancing lessons for two years. 

Favorite thing about UIndy

The supportive environment. Everyone here wants each other to succeed.

Nick Reading headshot

Nick Reading 

Associate Adjunct Faculty
English

317-788-2532
readingn@uindy.edu

Areas of Expertise

Literature, Contemporary Poetry, Creative Writing, Rhetoric & Composition

Background

Nick Reading is the author of Love & Sundries (Split Lip Press) and The Party in Question, winner of the Burnside Review Chapbook Contest. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in many journals, including Twyckenham Notes, New Ohio Review, Cortland Review, Painted Bride Quarterly and jubilat. 

Research Interests

The expanding landscape of contemporary literature and tracking the voices shared through what Ezra Pound called, "The antennae of the people." 

Education

  • MFA, Fiction, Purdue University
  • MFA, Poetry, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • BA, English/Creative Writing, Butler University

Fun facts

Reggie Miller once patted me on the back and said, Good hustle." I'll take that. 

Favorite thing about UIndy

Everyone opens doors for each other.

Daniel Vice headshot

Daniel Vice

Associate Professor
English

317-788-2072
viced@uindy.edu

Areas of Expertise

creative writing (esp. fiction), composition, and literature

Background

Dan Vice read Catch-22 and Waiting for Godot when he was 16 years old, and his world was changed forever. He has been teaching at UIndy since 2010. He is also Director of the Young Writers Workshop, UIndy's creative writing summer camp for high school students. Vice writes fiction and poetry, both of which he should probably be working on right now.

Research Interests

fiction & poetry, film, media ecology

Education

MFA, Creative Writing (Fiction), Eastern Washington University

Fun facts

Sang at Carnegie Hall at age 10, with a small touring group of the Indianapolis Children's Choir

Favorite thing about UIndy

Community: running into current and former students all over campus, and working with this dream team in the third floor of Good Hall

Dr. Stephen Zimmerly headshot

Dr. Stephen Zimmerly

Associate Professor & Associate Chair
English

317-788-2072
zimmerlys@uindy.edu

Areas of Expertise

Young Adult and Children’s literature, 20th century American literature, Early American literature

Background

Dr. Zimmerly has taught a variety of literature and composition courses at the college level since 2009. Originally from rural Pennsylvania, he and his family moved here in 2017. His book, The Sidekick Comes of Age, is an investigation into how literature uses heroes and sidekicks. He is also the editor of Cancer and Young Adult Literature (2024), from Rowman & Littlefield.

Research Interests

Sidekicks, archetype studies, secondary characters in the novel, myth in literature

Education

  • PhD, Literature & Criticism, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
  • MA, English, Gannon University
  • BA, English (minors in History and Theology), Gannon University

Fun facts

I was born in Alaska, I'm ambidextrous, and I love building LEGO empires with my kids.

Favorite thing about UIndy

Being able to recognize students, staff, and faculty as you walk around campus.