New Faculty 2006-07
The most recent addition to the tenure-track faculty in English, Dr. Meriem Pagès, comes from Rabat, Morocco, where she attended the Rabat American School. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and Stanford University, where she obtained an M.A. in History in 2001. She received an M.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where she recently defended her PhD dissertation on the image of the Assassins in medieval Europe. She has presented at international conferences on pilgrimage literature, the representation of the Assassins in medieval French histories and chronicles, the relationship between text and image in the depiction of the murder of Thomas à Becket, and the Saracen princess in medieval English and French romances. Her scholarly interests include medieval literature, history, and iconography—specially those of England, Ireland, Wales, and France—and nineteenth- and twentieth-century medievalism. As a Muslim woman, she is also particularly interested in the topic of the representation(s) of Islam both in the Middle Ages and today.
Fiona Mills, Contract Lecturer in English for the 2006-07 academic year, received her Ph.D. in American literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she served as a Teaching Fellow in the Writing Program. She has taught at the University of North Carolina, Duke University and, most recently, at Curry College in Milton, MA, where she taught composition, Women’s Studies, and African American literature and film. Her areas of scholarship include African American literature, Latino/a literature and theory, Gender Studies, film, and composition. She recently finishing editing After the Pain: Critical Essays on Gayl Jones, which was published by Peter Lang Press in June 2006. She is currently at work on an article on motherhood, class and ethnicity in The Sopranos for a collection of essays on T.V. writer/producer David Chase.
Three new adjunct faculty have joined the department for the 2006-07 academic year. A high school English teacher at Monadnock Regional High School, Heather Gigliello has a Master’s of Science in Teaching English from the University of New Hampshire and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Dartmouth College. Heather’s creative thesis was entitled We’re the Lucky Ones: An Oral History of Parents who Adopted from China. Heather has taught many different kinds of courses at Monadnock Regional, including Non Fiction Writing, Literature of the Vietnam War, and courses in film studies. She has served as supervising teacher for some of our own Keene State students.
Valerie Cole comes to us after teaching English at Thayer High School in Winchester; she is currently a substitute teacher at Keene High School. She received a Master’s in Teaching English from Keene State and has served as a supervising teacher for many of our own Keene State students. Valerie also served as President of the teacher’s union at Thayer and has taught Latin as well as collaborating with science teachers to design and teach classes in science and English. She was a Wal-Mart Teacher of the Year in 1998 and currently serves as Co-Chairman of the Winchester School Board.
Jessamyn Smith received her Master of Fine Arts from Goddard College in 2004, for which she wrote two theses: one creative (Misogyny, a play) and one critical (‘To Descry the Rotten Heart’: Euripides’ Legacy to the Modern Playwright). Jessamyn has taught composition, creative writing, and literature at Greenfield Community College, and she has taught creative writing at the PENN Writer’s Conference and Goddard College. She has also active in preventing violence against women; Jessamyn has served as Director of Community Education at Everywoman’s Center at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has trained community educators on domestic violence prevention. Jessamyn’s “A More Perfect Union” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2005.