Experts List for Media Inquiries

The following is a list of faculty and staff in the Department of English who are easily reachable and willing to serve as experts for purposes of media inquiry. If you seek information about a topic not covered here, please contact the department’s Communications Director Kristen LaRue (480-965-7611) for more information or to reach another member of the faculty not listed here.

→ More information and additional media resources are available in the comprehensive ASU Experts Directory. ←

Joni Adamson

President's Professor, Environmental Humanities, Department of English
Senior Sustainability Scholar, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability
Director, Environmental Humanities Initiative, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability
Inaugural Affiliate, Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing
Affiliate, School for the Future of Innovation in Society

Joni.Adamson@asu.edu
480-727-3675

• Environmental literature and film

• Climate fiction

• Climate change

• Sonoran Desert cultures, literatures and ethnobotany

• Desert cities and urban humanities

• Global Indigenous literatures and scientific literacies

• Stories plants tell

• Environmental justice movements

• Food justice/sovereignty

Sally Ball

Professor, Creative Writing, Department of English
Associate Director, Four Way Books (New York City)

sally.ball@asu.edu (pref)
480-965-5829

• Contemporary American poetry (from the avant to the more mainstream)

• Literary publishing, editing

Lee Bebout

Professor, Department of English
Affiliate Faculty, School of Transborder Studies
Affiliate Faculty, Program in American Studies, School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies

Lee.Bebout@asu.edu

• Race

• Immigration

• White supremacy

• Mexican American literature and culture

James Blasingame

Professor, Department of English
Affiliate Faculty, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College
Executive Director, Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the National Council of Teachers of English (ALAN)

James.Blasingame@asu.edu

• Young adult literature

• Teacher training

• Indigenous education

• Secondary writing instruction

• Cowboy poetry

• Viennese waltz (dancer)

Ron Broglio

Professor, Department of English
Director, Desert Humanities Initiative, Institute for Humanities Research
Senior Sustainability Scholar, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability

ron.broglio@asu.edu
404-723-1130

• Animals and culture

• History of agriculture 1700-present

• History of livestock 1700-present

• Continental philosophy from Kant to the present

Jessica Early

Professor / Director, English Education, Department of English
Director, Central Arizona Writing Project

Jessica.early@asu.edu
480-965-0742

• Secondary (grades 6-12) writing instruction

• English education

• College and career-ready writing

• Professional development

• Teaching of secondary (grades 6-12) writing

Ed Finn

Associate Professor, Arts, Media and Engineering / Department of English
Director, Center for Science and the Imagination
Affilate Faculty, Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes
Affiliate Faculty, Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing
Affiliate Faculty, Human & Social Dimensions of Science & Technology
Affiliate Faculty, Barrett, The Honors College

edfinn@asu.edu
480-382-2116

• Contemporary fiction

• Digital culture

• Science fiction

• Imagination

• Creativity

• Understanding the imagination

• Using storytelling to change how we think about the future

• Future of the book

• The modern myth of Frankenstein and its relationship to creativity and responsibility

Melissa Free

Assistant Professor, Department of English
Faculty, Barrett, The Honors College
Affiliate Faculty, School of Social Transformation

melissa.free@asu.edu

• Victorian and Edwardian literature and culture

• British empire

• Postcolonial studies

• Feminism

• Female action hero

• Adventure fiction

Brian Goodman

Assistant Professor, Department of English
Affiliate, Jewish Studies
Affiliate, Melikian Center: Russian, Eurasian & East European Studies

brian.k.goodman@asu.edu
973-865-7341

• American literature

• American Jewish literature

• Czech literature

• East-West cultural relations during the Cold War

• History of human rights

• Cultural dissent

• Free speech and free expression

• Beat movement

• Franz Kafka

• Philip Roth

David Hawkes

Professor, Department of English

David.Hawkes@asu.edu

• Usury

• Debt

• Money-lending

• Idolatry

• Literature and economics

• Literature and religion

• Shakespeare

• Milton

Julia Himberg

Associate Professor / Director, Film and Media Studies, Department of English
Advisory Board, LGBT Studies Certificate

Julia.Himberg@asu.edu

• LGBT media and politics

• Television history

• Gender politics

• Media and marketing

Kathleen Lamp-Fortuno

Associate Professor, Department of English
Past President, American Society for the History of Rhetoric

kslamp@asu.edu
480-965-3796

• Classical rhetorical theory and practice

• History of rhetoric

• Place, culture, identity

• Material rhetoric

• Roman rhetoric (Cicero, Quintilian)

• Visual communication

• Monuments and memorials

• Augustus

• City Beautiful Movement

• Rhetoric of cities

Neal A. Lester

Foundation Professor, Department of English
Founding Director, Project Humanities

neal.lester@asu.edu
480-727-7030

• African American literature and culture

• Race and gender politics of hair

• Popular culture

• American race relations

• African American children’s literature

• Black women writers

• The N-word

• Privilege and anti-bias

• Cultural appropriation

Joe Lockard

Associate Professor, Department of English
Affiliate, African and African American Studies Program
Affiliate, Jewish Studies

Joe.Lockard@asu.edu

• American literature

• African American literature

• US slavery

• Antislavery/abolitionist literature

• Prison education

• Prison writing

• Censorship

• Jewish American Literature

Devoney Looser

Regents Professor, Department of English
Guggenheim Fellow
NEH Public Scholar

devoney.looser@asu.edu
480-965-3925

• British literature

• Women’s writings

• Jane Austen

• Feminism

• History of the novel

• Aging and old age in history

• Roller derby

Paul Kei Matsuda

Professor / Director of Second Language Writing, Department of English
Concurrent Professor of Applied Linguistics, Nanjing University, China
Concurrent Professor of Applied Linguistics, Zhengzhou University, China

pmatsuda@asu.edu

• Language and writing issues for international students in U.S. higher education

Bruce Matsunaga

Associate Research Professional / Director of Technology, Department of English

bhm@asu.edu
480-965-3884

• Digital humanities

• Literature

• Ecocriticism

• Computers and learning

• Computation and digital media

Tyler Peterson

Assistant Professor, Department of English
Executive Committee, American Indian Language Development Institute, University of Arizona (Tucson)

t.peterson@asu.edu 
480-727-9127

• Linguistics

• Language and culture

• Endangered and indigenous languages of the world

• Tribal languages in North America, with a focus on communities in the Southwest

Krista Ratcliffe

Professor / Chair, Department of English

Krista.Ratcliffe@asu.edu

• Rhetorics (political and cultural)

• Race / whiteness

• Communication strategies

• Feminism

Kevin S. Sandler

Associate Professor, Film and Media Studies, Department of English

Kevin.Sandler@asu.edu
480-727-3920

• Media censorship

• Animation

• American film and television history

• Media branding

• Media marketing

• Video streaming

Ayanna Thompson

Regents Professor, Department of English
Director, Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Ayanna.Thompson@asu.edu

• Shakespeare

• Race

• Early Modern studies

• Renaissance

• Medieval studies

• History

• Literature

• Performance studies