WVU English faculty welcomes three new professors

Morgantown, WV, September 27, 2006: Students taking English this Fall semester may have noticed three new faces in the classroom. Dr. Michael Germana, Dr. Jay Dolmage and Dr. Scott Wible have joined the Department of English in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University.

Dr. Michael Germana earned his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. He has published essays on Herman Melville’s, “Bartleby, the Scrivener” and George Washington Cable’s, The Grandissimes in American Periodicals and Arizona Quarterly, respectively. He is presently at work on a book that examines how changes in United States monetary policy from 1834 to 1934 enabled American novelists to renegotiate the value of racial difference. He is also teaching courses in American Literature and American Studies while exploring the intersections of critical race theory, popular cultural studies and the rhetoric of political economy in his research.

Dr. Jay Dolmage earned his Ph.D. from the University of Miami in Ohio after studying at the University of British Columbia and University of Windsor in Canada and the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom. He has published essays in Disability Studies Quarterly, Rhetoric Review, Prose Studies, and Culture and the State with essays to be published in the Journal of Advanced Composition, College Composition and Communication, and Rhetoric Society Quarterly. He also plans to work with Disability Services to create modifications to the English 101 curriculum, making it more accessible to everyone.

“I am passionate about the right of all students to an education,” Dr. Dolmage explained, “and I believe in the potential of true diversity in the classroom; the possibility harnessed when all students shape what a university does.”

Dr. Scott Wible earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in English from Pennsylvania State University in 2006 where he specialized in rhetoric and composition, and literacy studies. While attending Penn State, he volunteered with the local government and became particularly attuned to how limited literacy and linguistic differences can affect an individual’s access to public services and participation in the mainstream of political life. Currently, his research explores the interventions of language arts educators in civic and educational debates about linguistic diversity and language policy.

He also will be teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in the Professional Writing and Editing Program (PWE) in the Department of English. “I hope to contribute my expertise in public policy writing to help the PWE program continue to develop civic-minded students who can use writing to strengthen bonds between professional organizations and the communities they serve,” Dr. Wible stated.

“The Department of English is very happy that these three new professors are joining us,” said Dr. Timothy Dow Adams, Chair of the Department of English. “Michael Germana, Jay Dolmage and Scott Wible come with strong academic credentials, outstanding recommendations and high promise. The Department is very fortunate that they are now teaching at WVU.”

For more information, please contact Dr. Michael Germana at Michael.Germana@mail.wvu.edu, Dr. Jay Dolmage at Jay.Dolmage@mail.wvu.edu and Dr. Scott Wible at Scott.Wible@mail.wvu.edu .

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