PhD Graduate Instructors
Meet our PhD Graduate Instructors
Our graduate students come to us from four continents: Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. Representing almost 15 countries (such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, China, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan, Sudan, Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Germany and Italy), our students create a diverse community of emerging scholars, committed to learning, collegiality, cultural exchange, world citizenship, civility, and social outreach.
We currently have 37 graduate students enrolled in our programs, 22 for the MA in English and 15 for the PhD in Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture. While the majority of our students are financially supported through departmental teaching assistantships, two carry research assistantships outside of the department and one is funded through a dissertation fellowship. Five of our PhD students are self-funded and hold teaching, academic, or administrative appointments outside of the department or the university.
Ahmed Aljaberi
Ahmed Aljaberi, PhD Student
MA in English Language/Linguistics (University of Al-Qadisiy, 2004)
MA in English (University of Amsterdam, 2011)
Office: Minard 318E14
ahmed.aljaberi@ndsu.edu
Disquisition Project (w/ Dr. Lisa Arnold):
Biographical Sketch
Ahmed Aljaberi is a doctoral candidate of English Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture and a teaching assistant at the department of English/ North Dakota State University (NDSU). He has two MA degrees, one in English language and linguistics from Al-Qadisiya university in Iraq, and the second in English literature and culture from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He is currently teaching Technical and Business Writing for upper division students at NDSU. His scholarly interests include digital rhetoric and writing, postcolonial and transnational studies, critical race theory, cultural studies, affect theory, and social justice pedagogy.
Conferences, Presentations, and Publications
Aljaberi, Ahmed. “Othello’s Ruse in Defiance of Venetian Rules: Marriage, Transgression, and the Discourse of Otherness in Othello.” Red River Graduate Studies Conference (RRGSC), 2018.
Jo C Andreassen
Jo C Andreassen, PhD Student
MFA in English (New Mexico State University, 2019)
Office: Minard 318E18
jo.c.anderson@ndsu.edu
Biographical Sketch
I am Jo C Andreassen, and have joined the NDSU English Department as a Doctoral Student. My early academic and professional career was focused on Theology and Psychology, but most recently I obtained an M.F.A. in Fiction from New Mexico State University with my primary work being in memory, trauma, and (from a craft perspective) multimodality and hypertextuality. Two of my current interests are the body as living memory and collegiate curricular design and transgressive pedagogical approaches.
Jainab Banu
Jainab Banu
Office: Minard 318E16
Email: jainab.banu@ndsu.edu
Jainab Tabassum Banu is a PhD student and graduate teaching assistant in the Department of English at North Dakota State University. Her research specifically lies in the intersection of race, gender and class in Postcolonial South Asian and Afro-American Literature. Besides, she is a columnist in the Daily Sun—a Bangladeshi English daily. Through her work, she focuses on the rhetoric of the experts to impart knowledge to the non-expert community.
Education
2022 (on going) Ph.D. in Rhetoric,Writing and Culture, North Dakota State University
2016 M.A. in English Literature and Cultural Studies, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh CGPA: 3.89/4.00 (Magna cum Laude)
2015 B.A. in English, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh CGPA: 3.97/4.00 (Summa cum Laude)
Publications:
Published Papers (single-authored)
“Now Celie Speaks: Reclaiming Selfhood in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple”. Researcher: A Multidisciplinary Journal, vol XVIII, no 2. University of Jammu, India. March 2023.
“Let It All Out: Kamala Das’s Confessional Poetry”. CIU Journal, vol 4. Chittagong Independent University, Bangladesh. 2022.
“Postcolonial Analysis of Wole Soyinka’s Poems”. Stamford Journal of English. Vol. 10. January 2022.
“Voicing the Subaltern: An Analysis of Nazrul’s Egalitarian Protest Poetry”. Green University Review of Social Sciences, vol 6. Green University. April 2022.
“Narzul’s Egalitarian Protest Poetry,” Nazrul Journal, Vol 1, no. 1. Nazrul Institute. August 2021.
“Kate’s Domestic Conquest: A Feminist Reading of William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew”. Dialogics: A Research Journal of English Studies, Vol. 1. Department of English. Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University. May 2021.
“Power Shifts of the English Language in Postcolonial African Poetry”. Crossings: A Journal of English Studies, Vol. 10. September 2019
Surrealism in Selected Poems of Jibanananda Das’s Banalata Sen”. Green University Review of Social Sciences, Vol. 05. January 2020.
Book Review
“Community is the Way: Engaged Writing and Designing for Transformative Change by Aimée Knight”. Composition Studies, vol 50, no 3 (Fall 2022). Pp. 178-181. https://compositionstudiesjournal.files.wordpress.com/2023/03/banu.pdf
Dissertation
“Jibanananda Das: A Bengali Surrealist Poet” under the supervision of Professor Dr. Kaiser Haq, Professor, Department of English and Humanities, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh and Director, Dhaka Translation Center. Department of English and Humanities, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh. 2015
“The Concept of Being in the Process of Becoming a Believer in Momener Jobanbondi” under the supervision of Professor Golam Sarwar Chowdhury, Professor, Department of English and Humanities, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh. 2016.
Conferences and Seminars/ Webinars
Amelia is not the Second Sex: McCullers’s Rejection of Femininity in The Ballad of the Sad Café. Literary Analysis Across Place and Time. Graduate Student Mini-Conference in Graduate Scholarship. North Dakota State University, November 2022.
“Internalized Racism as Depicted in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye”. Monthly Literary Seminar. Department of English Language and Literature, Premier University, 2022.
“Feminism in Shakespeare’s Play”. Webinar on Universal Shakespeare. Department of English Language and Literature, Premier University, Chattogram, Bangladesh, 2021.
“Book Review of Bangabandhu’s The Unfinished Memoir”. Webinar on Bangabandhu. Prothom Alo Bandhusobha, 2020.
“A Feminist appraisal of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew”. Discursive Shakespeare: An International Conference on William Shakespeare. East Delta University, Chattogram, Bangladesh, 2019.
“Jibanananda Das: A Surrealist Poet”. Monthly Literary Seminar. Department of English Language and Literature, Premier University, Chattogram, Bangladesh, 2019.
“A Paradigm Shift in Power Position of English Language: Postcolonial Analysis of African English Poems” Monthly Literary Seminar. Department of English Language and Literature, Premier University, Chattogram, Bangladesh, 2018.
“The Concept of Being in the Process of Becoming a Believer in Momener Jobanbondi”. Presentation of the MA thesis. Department of English and Humanities. University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, 2016
“Jibanananda Das: A Bengali Surrealist Poet”. 1st Inter-university Students’ Conference. Department of English and Humanities. University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh. 2015.
Luc Chinwongs
Luc Chinwongs, PhD Student
MA in English (North Dakota State University, 2008)
Office: Minard 318E26
Luc.Chinwongs@ndsu.edu
Disquisition Project (w/ Dr. Holly Hassel):
Biographical Sketch
Hello, I’m Luc Chinwongs. I finished my MA coursework at NDSU in 2008 and then taught English in Japan. I then spent several years working in tech support and as a technical writer, before realizing that I missed academia. I entered the English PhD program in 2015 and am currently preparing for my comprehensive exams. My research interests include the representation of nationalistic propaganda in both Japanese and US pop culture.
Conferences, Presentations, and Publications
Chinwongs, Luc. "Beautiful Boy Soldiers: Karou Shintani's Area 88 and the Negotiation of Japanese Post War Masculinity." Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), 2017.
Suman Dey
Suman Dey, PhD Student
Office: Minard 318E16
suman.dey@ndsu.edu
Biographical Sketch
Suman’s academic interests include postcolonial literature (South Asian, African), creative writing, comparative Literature, 20th Century modern poetry, literature & philosophy, Shakespeare, rhetoric and composition, gender studies, migration and conflict studies, global feminism, and literary and cultural studies.
Md Mahmudul Haque
Md Mahmudul Haque, PhD Student in Education
BA and MA in English from University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh
Cambridge English Level 5 Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA) (QCF) from The British Council, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Office: Minard 318E26
mdmahmudul.haque@ndsu.edu
Biographical Sketch
During his university life, he was actively engaged in co-curricular activities and received many certificates and awards. He was awarded a gold medal in English debate in the Inter University Cultural Competition for winning the first position, competing with participants from all public universities in Bangladesh.
He started his career as a lecturer in English in Northern University Bangladesh. He also taught English in other private and public universities in Bangladesh including the English department of Institute of Modern Languages in University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He was a Fulbright FLTA (Foreign Language Teaching Assistant) at University of Georgia, USA. Before joining NDSU, he taught English in King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia.
In NDSU, he is pursuing a doctoral degree in Adult and Community Education and has been appointed to teach writing courses in the English department as a GTA (Graduate Teaching Assistant).
He is actively engaged in research, and his main research interests involve learner autonomy, EFL/ESL learning and teaching and psychology of learning. He has presented and published his research work in international conferences and journals. The list of his major research work is given below:
Journal Publications
Haque, M. M., Jaashan, H. M. & Hasan, M. J. (submitted the revised draft, responding to the reviewers’ comments). Revisiting the Trichotomy Aspects of Saudi EFL Learners’ Autonomy: A Quantitative Study. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching (indexed in SSCI, Web of Science and SCOPUS). https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rill20
Masood, M.M. & Haque, M.M. (2021). From critical pedagogy to critical digital pedagogy: a prospective model for the EFL classrooms. Saudi Journal of Language Studies, 1 (1), 67-80. https://doi.org/10.1108/SJLS-03-2021-0005
Haque, M. M. (2019). From Cognition, Metacognition to Learner Autonomy: Understanding Language Learning Dynamics. Arab World English Journal, Special Issue: The Dynamics of EFL in Saudi Arabia, 207-222. https://awej.org/category/dynamics-of-efl-in-saudi-arabia-2019/
Haque, M. (2018). Metacognition: a Catalyst in Fostering Learner Autonomy for ESL/EFL Learners. Korea TESOL Journal, 14 (1), 191-202. koreatesol.org/content/korea-tesol-journal-14-1 Begum, T.
Fahad Hossain
Fahad Hossain, PhD Student
BA Hon’s in English Language and Literature (University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh, 2009)
MA in English Literature (University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh, 2010)
MA in English - Rhetoric and Composition (Eastern Illinois University, USA, 2020)
Office: Minard 318E18
mdfahad.hossain@ndsu.edu
Biographical Sketch
Fahad Hossain is a PhD student in the Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture program. He currently teaches first-year writing classes at NDSU. Prior to starting his PhD journey, he taught first-year writing at Eastern Illinois University and tutored students at EIU Writing Center. He also taught several literature courses including Modern British Poetry, Victorian Fictions, Modern English Drama, and Postcolonial Fictions at Northern University Bangladesh. His research interest includes Translingualism, Language Politics, Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Racial Literacy, Samuel Beckett, Deconstruction theory, Postmodernism, Postcolonialism, and Narrative theory. He loves to travel and take photographs.
Journal Article(s)
Hossain, Md. Fahad. "Time and Narrative in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot and Endgame." Crossings: ULAB Journal of English Studies 6.1 (2015): 62-66. Print.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
"From an Adventure Novel to Colonialist Propaganda: Defoe and His Colonialist Propaganda Tool Robinson Crusoe Reconsidered." 2 Apr. 2019, EIU English Studies Conference. Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois.
"Race, Literacy and Cultural Identity: Toward an Enabling Writing Center and Creating Space for ‘the Other’." 17 Apr. 2019, 55th Allerton English Articulation Conference. Allerton Park, Monticello, Illinois.
"Transcending the Multimodal Pedagogies in Online Writing Instructions." Beyond Tradition: Multimodality in English Scholarship, April 22, 2021, North Dakota State University, 2021.
Stephanie Lemmer
Stephanie Lemmer, PhD Student
MA in Rhetoric and Writing (St. Cloud State University, 2016)
MA in English Studies (St. Cloud State University, 2018)
Office: Minard 318E14
stephanie.lemmer@ndsu.edu
Disquisition Project:
Biographical Sketch
Stephanie Lemmer is a first-year PhD student in the Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture program. Conducting her prior studies at St. Cloud State University, Stephanie earned an MA in English Studies, an MA in Rhetoric and Writing, and a BA in English. While she has taught one more than a handful of first-year composition classes, Stephanie has also immersed herself in writing center work and holds a Writing Center Administration certificate.
Stephanie’s research is focused primarily in queer theory and critical ethnic studies, reflected in her masters’ theses, Spectacular Violence: The Affective Registers of Black Bodies’ Matter and On Twisted Sovereignty: White Queer as Master and Slave and Other Poststructural Perversions. She is additionally quite interested in infusing queer methodologies in the classroom.
Presently, Stephanie, her partner, and aged cat are holding it down in the Midwest’s other windy city.
Conferences, Presentations, and Publications
Lemmer, Stephanie. “Excellence is Welcome Here: On Meritocratic Tropes." Red River Graduate Student Conference, 2017.
Lemmer, Stephanie. “What Does It Mean to Teach Writing?" Minnesota Writing and English Conference, St. Paul, MN, 2016.
Lemmer, Stephanie. “How are Our Bodies (Pre)Marked for Capacity or Debility Toward Life or Death?” Panel facilitator, Survive and Thrive Conference, St. Cloud, MN, 2015.
Yu Meng
Yu (Vicki) Meng, PhD Student
MA in Intercultural Communication and Translation Theory and Practices (Hefei University of Technology, China, 2009)
Office: Minard 318E18
yu.meng@ndsu.edu
Disquisition Project (w/ Dr. Bruce Maylath):
Alexandra Rowe
Alexandra Rowe, PhD Student
BA in English Language and Literature (University of California, Riverside, 2015)
MA in English Literature (California State University, Long Beach, 2018)
Office: Minard 318E6
Email: Alexandra.rowe.1@ndsu.edu
Biographical Sketch
Alexandra Rowe is a graduate teaching assistant and a first year PhD student in English Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture at North Dakota State University. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature from the University of California, Riverside and a Master of Arts in English Literature from California State University, Long Beach. During her time at CSULB, she ran the Writing, Communication, and Resource Center (WCRC) for the department of engineering. She is currently teaching two sections of ENGL 120 for first year undergraduate college students. Her scholarly interests include the 19th Century British Romanticism, Critical Theory, Ecocriticism, Supernatural Studies, and Rhetoric and Composition.
Conferences and Publications
Rowe, Alexandra. “Ecocriticism is Absurd and Absurdism is Ecocritical: The Joy of Eternal Damnation.” Journal of Camus Studies, 2017.
Rowe, Alexandra. “Lord Byron’s Darkness: The Beginnings of the Science Fiction Poetical Canon.” Annual Acacia Conference, 2018.
Amanda Swenson
Amanda Swenson, PhD Student
Office: Minard 318E18
amanda.swenson.2@ndsu.edu
Biographical Sketch
"My name is Amanda Swenson, and I am a doctoral student and graduate teaching assistant at NDSU. I study rhetoric, neuroscience, and consciousness and the rhetoric of agency in patients with Persistent Vegetative State. I previously did doctoral research at LSU where I studied medical writing in postcolonial literature. In whatever spare time I have, I enjoy riding and training horses."
Peer-reviewed publications:
Angela Carter, Tina Catania, Sam Schmitt, and Amanda Swenson. “Bodyminds like Ours: An Autoethnographic Analysis of Graduate School, Disability, and the Politics of Disclosure.” Negotiating Disability Awareness: Disclosure and Higher Education. Stephanie L. Kerschbaum, Laura T. Eisenman, and James M. Jones (eds.). University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor, MI. 2017.
S.J. Williamson
BA in English Literature (California State University, San Bernardino, 2016)
MA in English (Bemidji State University, 2021)
Office: Minard 318E6
Email: SJ.Williamson@ndsu.edu
Biographical Sketch: S.J. Williamson is a PhD student in the Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture program. She received her BA in English literature (2016) and a single-subject teaching credential (2017) from California State University, San Bernardino. She tutored for the AVID program for 7 years and then taught high school English before moving from California to Minnesota for her MA in English. She taught first-year composition for 3 years at Bemidji State University and is currently teaching as a graduate assistant at NDSU. Her scholarly interests include disability studies, religious studies, rhetoric & composition, pedagogy, and psychology. Her favorite play is William Shakespeare's Othello and her favorite book is Maria Semple's This One Is Mine.