Christopher Maggio is an Assistant Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. He teaches technical writing, business communication, first-year writing, and writing about literature. He is currently the Writing Proficiency Exam coordinator. His research interests include community writing and creative writing. He recently co-authored an article in the collection 'WPA Advocacy in a Pandemic.' When not teaching or writing, he enjoys exploring New England with his family.
Education: Ph.D., Yale University -- Social Ethics
Ph.D. Miami University, Rhetoric and Composition, 2019 M.A. Miami University, Rhetoric and Composition, 2015 Certificate in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Miami University, 2015 Dual B.A. Northern Kentucky University, English Literature; Philosophy, 2012 Perpetually curious of language, the material world, queerness, and place, Dr. Caleb Pendygraft is a Kentucky Appalachian who received his PhD in Rhetoric and Composition from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. His book, Reading, Writing, and Queer Survival: Affects, Matterings, and Literacies Across Appalachia (UPKY, 2025), has been praised as a “trailblazing book” that “will undoubtedly have a lasting influence in how we think about literacy, queerness, and Appalachia,” and as an “unequivocally a groundbreaking and necessary book for our time.” His other work has appeared in Appalachian Journal, The Routledge Handbook of Queer Rhetoric, Bodies of Knowledge: Embodied Rhetorics in Theory and Practice, Journal of Appalachian Studies, and Storytelling in Queer Appalachia: Imagining and Writing the Unspeakable Other. Currently he is nearing the close of his memoir, titled Callin' Down the Spirit (forthcoming 2026), while starting another adventure co-editing a queer eco-spiritual collection of Appalachian voices. When he isn't teaching or writing, you can usually find him either barefooted, digging through his brambled garden, tending to the PendyCats, or visiting Atlantic sands thinking about the hills.
Education: M.A.,New York University; Ed.D., University of Massachusetts Amherst
Background:
Courses taught:
- Spanish I
- Spanish II
- Western Civilization (Social Science Department)
Captain Elizabeth Simmons, LP.D is the Vice President of External Affairs encompassing both the Enrollment Management and Advancement departments at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. She is responsible for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of short and long range strategies, goals, and objectives for the Office of Enrollment while managing relationships with the Academy’s external stakeholders at the local, state, and federal level.
A 1997 Marine Safety and Environmental Protection (MSEP) graduate of Massachusetts Maritime Academy, she worked in both the environmental and human resources fields before coming back to the academy in 2002. Since returning, she has succeeded in increasing women and minority enrollment while exceeding the strategic goals of growing the overall student population. Elizabeth has earned a masters in facilities engineering, holds a doctorate degree in law and policy from Northeastern University and enjoys volunteering and giving back to multiple community organizations.
Currently she is the Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association (WISTA) USA New England Chapter President, immediate past President and Board Chair for Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts, serves on the Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School Steam Engineering Advisory Board, and is a member of Congressman Keating’s Service Academy Nomination Committee. Elizabeth is proud to serve as a mentor and role model in promoting women in the maritime and associated trades.
A native of Yarmouth, Massachusetts Elizabeth grew up sailing the waters of Lewis Bay in iconic Beetle Cats and Cape Cod Knockabouts. Currently, Elizabeth lives in Onset, MA.
Education: B.A., University of Virginia; M.A., University of California, Los Angeles; Ph.D., University of Southern California
Courses taught: English Composition, Introduction to Literature, Writers of the American South, American Literature II: Civil War to the Present, and Exploring African American Literature through the Blues
Dr. Anton L. Smith is an Associate Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy where he teaches courses in African American, American Literature, and first year writing. His current book project, In the Pursuit of Faith: Profiles in African American Literature, Religion and Spirituality, 1935-1965, examines how religiosity is negotiated, constructed, and contested through various symbolic resources including soul food, the blues, and nature.
Education: B.A., M.A., Zhengzhou University
Background:
Courses taught:
- Chinese I
- Chinese II