Center for American Literary Studies

Faculty and graduate students

Penn State Graduate Students in American Literature

Penn State University Faculty in American Literature

Michael Anesko	Associate Professor of English
Bernard Bell	Liberal Arts Research Professor of English
Michael Bérubé	Paterno Family Professor of Literature
Hester Blum	Assistant Professor of English
Robert Burkholder	Associate Professor of English
Robert L. Caserio	Professor of English
Christopher Castiglia	Professor of English
Deborah Clarke	Professor of English
Jonathan Eburne	Josephine Berry White Early Career Professor of the Humanities and Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and English
Keith Gilyard	Distinguished Professor of English
Kathryn Hume	Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English
Lovalerie King	Assistant Professor of English
Shirley Moody	Assistant Professor of English
Mark Morrisson	Associate Professor of English
Carla Mulford	Associate Professor of English
Aldon Nielsen	George and Barbara Kelly Professor of American Literature
Iyunolu Osagie	Associate Professor of English
Robin Schulze	Professor of English and Department Head
Linda Selzer	Assistant Professor of English
Sandra Spanier	Professor of English
James L. W. West III	Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English

Penn State faculty in American literature have won grants from every major agency that supports humanistic study, including the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Humanities Center, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Fulbright Program, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the American Academy in Rome.

The ranks of the Americanists at Penn State include four prestigious endowed chairs, the Paterno Family Professor in Literature (Michael Bérubé), the George and Barbara Kelly Professor in American Literature (Aldon Lynn Nielsen), and two Edwin Erie Sparks Professorships in English (Kathryn Hume and James L. W. West, III).

Penn State is the home of two distinguished ongoing editorial projects in American literature. Professor James West, III, is the general editor of the Cambridge Edition of the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald, a comprehensive multi-volume project that constitutes the first scholarly edition of the whole of Fitzgerald's oeuvre. Professor Sandra Spanier is the general editor of the Hemingway Letters Project, which will result in the publication of a comprehensive scholarly edition of Hemingway's estimated 7,000 letters, most of which have never before been published. Both of these grant-winning projects provide funding and research opportunities for Penn State graduate and undergraduate students.

The members of the Penn State faculty in American literature are also committed mentors and teachers, as their many awards for outstanding work in the classroom attest. Deborah Clarke and Robin Schulze are both winners of the George W. Atherton Award, a university-wide prize for excellence in undergraduate teaching. Mark Morrisson is a winner of the Milton S. Eisenhower Award, a university-wide prize that acknowledges excellence in teaching and the mentoring of other teachers. Carla Mulford and Linda Selzer are both winners of the Penn State College of Liberal Arts Teaching Awards.