MA Students

Madeleine Gervason
I am a second-year MA student and hold a BA in English and a BSEd in Integrated Language Arts for Adolescent to Young Adults from Ohio University. My academic interests lie in 19th century British literature. Specifically I am interested in the development of the science fiction novel alongside scientific developments of the 19th century.

Francesca Mancino
I am a second-year MA student and hold a BA in English literature from John Carroll University. My academic interests encompass phenomenology and aesthetics in Modernist literature, specifically that of the Lost Generation.

Katherine Manwell
I am a first-year MA student and hold a BA in Creative Writing from Saginaw Valley State University. I am interested in Victorian Realism and the evolution of the novel.

Ryan Pfeiffer
I am a first-year MA student and hold a BS in English from Hillsdale College. My academic interests include the evolution of memory in literature, from Augustine to the current day, as well as the influence of literary aesthetics on canon development

Anthony Raffin
I am a first-year MA Student with a BA in English Literature and Professional Writing from Miami University (2021). My academic interests range from the early Beatniks to contemporary postmodernist writers. Specifically, I am particularly interested in conversations surrounding the construction of masculinity and the role of information in a post-truth society.

Micah Stewart-Wilcox
I am a first-year MA student with a BA from Lindsey Wilson College. I am interested in 20th century American literature and post-structuralist critical theory.

PhD Students

Leah Davydov
I am a fifth-year PhD student focusing on 19th century British literature and its relationship to medical history, particularly with regards to trends in psychiatry, medical hypnosis, and the understanding and treatment of trance-like states. I hold a BA in Classical Civilization from Oberlin College and an MA in English Literature from Cleveland State University.

Charlie Ericson
I am a second-year PhD student with an MA from the University of Chicago. My research focuses on aesthetics and the novel, with a special interest in how traditions of aesthetic autonomy manifest in novelistic practice. My BA is from the University of Evansville.

Amber Kidd
I am a second-year PhD student with a BA in English and Human Rights from Agnes Scott College (2019) and an MA in English from Case Western Reserve University (2020). My research explores the intersections of trauma, identity, and narratology, especially as it is reflected in Modernist literature and culture.

Camila Ring
I am a fourth-year PhD candidate. My research focuses on expressions of theological inquiry and embodied religious experience in the poems of Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and several contemporary poets. I hold a BA in English from Cedarville University (2012) and an MA in English from Case Western Reserve University (2015).

Joseph Spieles
I am a third-year PhD student with a BA in English from the University of Dayton and an MA in Rhetoric and Writing Studies from the University of Findlay. My research is focused on the Rhetoric of Health and Medicine and I am specifically interested in the translation process that takes place in making healthcare information readable and accessible for lay audiences.

Brita Thielen
I am a PhD candidate with an emphasis in Writing History and Theory. My dissertation takes a rhetorical approach to exploring how identity is represented and constructed by authors of food writing texts and how this identity is used to form ethotic relationships with readers. Other scholarly interests include social privilege and diversity in higher ed and the writing classroom, composition pedagogies and practices (especially labor-based/contract grading), and the shifting roles played by writers, readers, and genres in the process of meaning-making. Before coming to CWRU, I earned my MA in English Literature with a Certificate in the Teaching of Writing from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2016) and my BA in English with a minor in Hispanic Studies from the College of Saint Benedict in MN (2011). Prospective grad students with questions about what the program is like should feel free to email me at bmt32@case.edu.

Hayley Verdi
I am a fourth-year PhD candidate. My primary research areas are in literature and medicine and 19th-century British literature, with a specific focus on illness narratives. My other research interests include composition and creative writing pedagogy. I hold a BA in English from Grove City College (2010), an MEd in Secondary Education from the University of Missouri-St. Louis (2012), and an MA in English from Case Western Reserve University (2018).