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Taylor University English Department:
Answers to three questions from your faculty
1. What are 3-5 books that you would recommend incoming English majors to read?
Dr. Baker
- Poetry of Anne Bradstreet
- Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter or short stories
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth or on to The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet or A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Charles Dickens, Great Expectations or A Tale of Two Cities
- Short stories of Flannery O'Connor
Dr. Bird:
- Rhetoric by Aristotle
- Forming, Thinking, Writing by Ann Berthoff
- "Novice as Expert: Writing the Freshman Year" by Nancy Sommers & Laura Saltz found in College Composition & Communication 56.1: 124-149
- "Inventing the University" by David Bartholomae found in Cross Talk (which is accessed full text on ERIC database)
- "Music as Form: Rethinking Organization in Writing" by Peter Elbow, found in College Composition & Communication 57.4: 620-626.
Dr. Dayton
- The Scarlet Letter
- Pride and Prejudice
- Frankenstein
Professor Housholder
- The Odyssey
- Shakespeare: at least one tragedy, one comedy, and one history play
- Great Expectations (or another Dickens novel)
- The Sun Also Rises or The Great Gatzby
- Slaughterhouse-Five
Dr. Mook
- Homer, The Odyssey
- Geoffrey Chaucer, selections from The Canterbury Tales
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet
- Emily Dickinson, selected poems
- Robert Frost, selected poems
Dr. Muchiri
- At least one book by Shakespeare,(like Hamlet)
- One book by a non Western writer (Like Things fall Apart)
- A Greek Myth.
Dr. Ricke
- Iliad
- Odyssey
- Aeneid
- Divine Comedy
- Shakespeare
Professor Satterlee
- The Odyssey,
- The Divine Comedy
- King Lear
- Leaves of Grass
- Walden
Dr. Warren
- The Bible
- Bullfinch's Mythology (or some other book on mythology, for background)
- The Scarlet Letter
- Something by Shakespeare, hopefully beyond Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth!
2. What are 3-5 important books that you have read? And what is the best book you've read this school year?
Dr. Baker
- Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Adichie
- Exclusion and Embrace, by Mirosolv Volf
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot
- The plays of Henrik Ibsen and Tom Stoppard
Dr. Bird
- Rhetorical Tradition ed. Bizzell & Herzberg
- Forming, Thinking, Writing Ann Berthoff
- The Peaceable Classroom Mary Rose O'Reilley
- Return to Reason Stephen Toulmin
- Freedom of Simplicity Richard Foster
Favorite this year: Doing Emotion: Rhetoric, Writing, Teaching by Laura Micciche
Dr. Dayton
- Crime and Punishment
- The Scarlet Letter
- The Crying of Lot 49- and White Noise- are tied for 3rd place
Most important this year: The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris
and I re-read -A Wrinkle in Time with my kids
Professor Housholder
- The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
- The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
- Dracula, Bram Stoker
- The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler
- Mr. Standfast, John Buchan
Dr. Mook
- Marcel Proust, Swann's Way
- James Joyce, Ulysses
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet
- William Wordsworth, The Prelude
- Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
o My favorite book this year: Wallace Stegner, The Spectator Bird
Dr. Muchiri
- Dickens A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist
- Recent The Kite Runner, The Infidel, Dreams of My Father.
Dr. Ricke
- Iliad
- Odyssey
- Aeneid
- Divine Comedy
- Shakespeare
Favorite this year: Van Gough and Gauguin: The Search for Sacred Art
Professor Satterlee
- The Confessions of St. Augustine
- My Secret Book (Petrarch)
- The Imitation of Christ (John à Kempis)
- Fear and Trembling (Kierkegaard)
Favorite this year: Out Stealing Horses (Per Petterson)
Dr. Warren
- Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
- Golden Apples by Eudora Welty
- Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
- Poems of Emily Dickinson
3. What are 3 interesting things about you (only two can be related to academics)?
Dr. Baker
- I love traveling (often combined with teaching) and have been in about 50 countries
- I like participating in sports-cycling, tennis, basketball
- Summers -- I spend lots of time in my backyard: gardening, reading, eating nutritious food
Dr. Bird
- I love camping in our travel trailer
- I was on a TV show episode when I was a kid
- I'm a Colts fan!
Dr. Dayton
- I sing in my church choir
- My husband's family traces their genealogy to 10 Mayflower ancestors
- I set a record in the English Department at Miami University for completing my dissertation in the shortest amount of time.
Professor Housholder
- My wife and I lived in the Cayman Islands for five years. I began my college teaching career there.
- I am currently writing a doctoral dissertation that examines the cultural dynamics of mobility and liminal (secretive, transformative) travel in Late Victorian Gothic fiction. I am analyzing these dynamics in novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, H. Rider Haggard, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, and Oscar Wilde.
- After completing the dissertation, I hope to write more about how late 19th and early 20th century British fiction writers helped shape cultural perceptions of London (especially if such work requires that I visit that city frequently!).
Dr. Mook
- I am a Taylor alumnus.
- My brothers and I are the first generation in my family to attend college.
- I have a variety of interests and have published literary criticism, book reviews, my own poems, and translations of German poems.
Dr. Muchiri
- I am a Kenyan woman with an accent.
Dr. Ricke
- I act in Medieval Drama (in Middle English)
- I'm a singer/songwriter.
- I'm a vegetarian.
- I played college basketball.
Professor Satterlee
- I speak Danish
- I heat my house with wood
- I'm an avid follower of world soccer
Dr. Warren
- I run the Indy Mini regularly
- I have a writing cabin in the woods on our property
- I had never heard of Taylor before I came to work here.
- I bench press 2/3 my weight J
Courses that the English faculty teach
Dr. Baker
- World literature
- American literature
- Expository writing
- Literature of cultural diversity
- Senior English capstone
- Critical approaches to literature
- Drama
Dr. Bird
- Fundamentals of writing
- Writing Theory & Grammar
- Expository Writing
- Writing & Rhetoric
- Directs the Writing Center
Dr. Dayton
- World literature
- Expository writing
- The Novel
- English capstone
- Contemporary literature
Professor Housholder
- Expository writing
- Introduction to creative writing
- World literature
- Restoration & 18th century literature
- Fiction writing
- Advanced writing workshop
Dr. Mook
- World literature
- Expository writing
- British literature
- Victorian literature
- Romantic literature
Dr. Muchiri
- Expository writing
- World literature
- Creative nonfiction
- Business and technical writing
Dr. Ricke
- Shakespeare
- Expository writing
- Renaissance literature
- Early English literature
- British literature
Professor Satterlee
- World literature
- Expository writing
- Literary magazine
- Poetry writing
- Advanced creative writing
Dr. Warren
- American literature
- Expository writing
- Critical approaches to literature
- Early American literature
- American romanticism and realism
- Modern American literature
