̨��Swag

Email: hdalley@daemen.edu

Phone Number: +1 (716) 839-8416

Office Location: DS 138-2

Since joining the English faculty at ̨��Swag in 2014, I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to share my love for literature in its many forms. My goal is to spark my students’ interest in language and culture by exploring works from as many different parts of the world and points in history as possible. I believe that critical reading is a powerful way of expanding our minds and developing a deeper understanding of our societies, our planet, and ourselves.

My courses create connections between peoples and places that may seem distant or unrelated. For example, I teach a world literature survey called “Myths and Modern Tales.” We begin with major works from the ancient world like The Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer’s Odyssey, and classical Greek tragedy. After learning about the civilizations that produced these texts, we analyze examples of modern writers who have responded to, adapted, or rewritten the ancient tradition. My goal is to show how we today are connected - by culture, tradition, and our identity as human beings - to ancestors whose lives were unlike our own.

I also teach writing in our first-year writing program, and offer learning communities (for example on literature and ethics) and first-year seminars (asking “What is a Student?”) as part of General Education. I want every student at ̨��Swag to have access to the riches of the humanities. I’m convinced that, regardless of someone’s major or professional ambitions, a rigorous exploration of our shared heritage can inform and illuminate a twenty-first century life.

My research falls within the field of “postcolonial studies,” which explores the cultural impact of imperial expansion in places like Australia, India, and West Africa. I’ve written about how authors use fiction to retell their nation’s history. My current project concerns the novel and the settler frontier. I'm interested in how writers from societies in North America, Australasia and Africa have remade the novel by writing about the colonization of New Worlds.

Email: martman@daemen.edu

Phone Number: +1 (716) 839-7680.

Office Location: DS 138-1

Dr. Meg Artman teaches a wide range of writing courses including composition, journalism, public relations, and professional/technical writing. In addition, she advises the student newspaper, Insight. Her research interests include student media and advising, information literacy, and writing pedagogy. Her work has been published in College Teaching, Composition Studies, and Teaching Information Literacy and Writing Studies: First-Year Composition, vol 1, First-Year Composition Courses. She is a member of the College Media Association and the Associated Collegiate Press. She has served on multiple university committees including Faculty Senate, Educational Policy Committee, Writing Advisory Council, Promotion and Tenure Committee, and Committee on Academic Standards, among others.

Dr. Artman is a graduate of the University of Dayton (B.A. in English with secondary teacher certification, M.A. in English with a concentration in rhetoric and composition) and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Ph.D. in English with a specialization in rhetoric, composition, and professional writing).

Email: nmarck@daemen.edu

Phone Number: +1 (716) 839-8541

Office Location: DS 138-3

British Literature, Shakespeare, Women Writers, the Novel, and Critical Theory

Reading British literature is both fun and exciting when you can also learn what life was like in the past. I approach teaching from a “time machine” or historical perspective so we can imagine the culture that produced the texts we study. For instance, in my Shakespeare class, you’ll receive a weekly news pamphlet containing all the latest events in Shakespeare’s London, so we can talk about the topics that emerge in his plays. I am keenly interested in the intersections between the visual arts, performance, and literary texts, so I regularly employ film and illustrations as they help us enjoy our reading and deepen our textual understanding. In addition to teaching Shakespeare and the survey of early British literature, I offer advanced courses in film, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and drama.

Most of my scholarly work investigates texts produced by nineteenth-century women novelists from England. My recent articles focus on works by Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell, and George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans). I have also contributed book chapters to several collections, including The Palgrave Handbook to the Ghost Story, Jane Austen and Philosophy, The Contemporary Irish Detective Novel, and Guilt Rules All: Irish Mystery, Detective, and Crime Fiction. Right now, I’m working on a monograph on New World women and the gothic in the early 19th century novel.

Some of my favorite experiences as a faculty member have taken place outside the classroom—my Literature of London course involves a Spring Break trip to visit literary sites in London. We attend a play at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, ride the London Underground and a double-decker bus, take a day trip to Stratford-upon-Avon, and visit famous locations like The Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, and the Charles Dickens Museum. During our time in London, you will work on a research project you have designed: recent project topics have included the artist Banksy, London fashions, and the scandalous reputation of Anne Boleyn.

Email: efrisica@daemen.edu

Phone Number: +1 (716) 839-8296

Office Location: DS 138-1

Rhetoric, Composition, and Professional Writing

Dr. Erica Frisicaro-Pawlowski teaches rhetoric, research writing, professional writing, and the history of the English language. She was the Director of Faculty Development for the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) from 2018-2021, and she has served as ̨��Swag’s writing coordinator since 2008.

As a specialist in rhetoric and composition, her work aims to foster the links between literacy and agency and is grounded in a central belief: because writing gives us a voice, engages us in problem solving, and empowers us to think, see, and imagine differently, it remains a powerful tool for learning, for connection, and for change. 

Her research, which has been published in journals including College English, Composition Studies, and Composition Forum, frequently explores relationships between writing and information literacy, as well as the role of rhetorical ethics in writing instruction. She was a recipient of ̨��Swag’s Outstanding Faculty Award in 2020.

Email: rwaterho@daemen.edu

Office: DS138-7 

My scholarly interests lie primarily in theatre. I’ve directed over 50 professional productions in the US and the UK and am a member of the Society of Directors and Choreographers, an independent labor union, The Dramatists Guild, and the Playwrights Center. I also enjoy directing student productions here at ̨��Swag, including shows in which students write their own material.

Given those interests, I teach courses in which plays and performance are the primary focus: From Page to Stage; Theatre, Madness, Power; Theatre of Betrayal; Shakespeare in Performance; American Literature. But because a lot of my graduate work was in theory and philosophy, I also teach courses in which we focus on thinkers: Issues and Methods of Contemporary Art, for example. Philosophy, theory and theatre come up in almost everything I teach.

I am deeply committed to student writing and believe that good writing is supported by good reading habits. In my courses, I emphasize both the pleasure of reading and the importance of drafting work to finesse good writing. Like my colleagues, I teach Composition, and in all my courses I welcome drafts of papers and will offer feedback either by way of written comments or in conferences. Recently, I’ve co-directed Unmute, the annual high school writing competition.

I have two children with my wife, Tina, and spend vacations in London, my home town.  

Email: cwesley@daemen.edu

Phone Number: 716-839-8577

Office Location: DS 138-office #4

My academic interests are not situated within a single national framework or period, as I focus on comparative and transnational approaches to literature. I enjoy teaching courses that place authors from around the world in dialogue with one another, creating the opportunity for the new and sometimes unexpected insights that emerge from these juxtapositions. Currently I am teaching or planning courses in German literature, the politics of food, exile/refugee literature, dystopian literature, and banned/censored books. In the past I’ve taught “Approaches to Literature,” “American Literature II,” “British Literature II,” “African American Literature,” and “Writing Composition.”

Recently I coedited a special edition of The Journal of Commonwealth Literature entitled “New Directions in Rushdie Studies” with Dr. Ana Christina Mendes (University of Lisbon). A recent article that demonstrates my postcolonial bent is entitled “Inscriptions of Resistance in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness” (Journal of Modern Literature). I’ve also published articles in The Geocritical Legacies of Edward W. Said, Modern Language Studies, Universitätsverlag WINTER Heidelberg, Indian Writers: Transnationalisms and Diasporas, and The Chronicle of Higher Education, with work forthcoming in Studies in the Novel. View .

At ̨��Swag I strive to fuel students’ curiosity about and engagement with the larger world. When I’m not enjoying the many cultural delights of the Queen city, I’m usually somewhere in Europe.

Email:

Phone Number: +1 (716) 839-7206

Office Location: DS 138-F

I have been with ̨��Swag for 6 years as a full time instructor in the English department. I teach Critical Reading and Writing, and Composition. I enjoy teaching students about writing, research, and how to approach new challenges in their first year at ̨��Swag.

I started my own college career at ̨��Swag College (University) and graduated with a degree in English Education, with a teaching certification for 6th-12th grades. After teaching in high school for a bit I went back to school at Buffalo State College for a master’s in English Education, and finally, University of Buffalo to complete my PhD in Curriculum, Instruction and the Science of Learning, with a concentration in Developmental Writing and Reading.