Our People

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

As an Appalachian Kentucky native, Caleb Pendygraft has spent his academic career interested in the intersections of reading, writing, mean-making, and identity. Particularly, he is curious about how we embody our literacies in places, and researches LGBTQ Appalachian literacy practices. His scholarly work explores how becoming literate involves a vast diversity of non-human agents. Making use of new materialist philosophies, his pedagogy and writing treats literacy as an active participatory force in our everyday life. His teaching repertoire is interdisciplinary, having taught a number of classes: American Culture; Writing, Rhetoric, and Composition courses both at the undergraduate and graduate levels; Literature; Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies; along with Business Communications and Technical writing. You can find his publications in KillJoy Magazine and Appalachia Journal. Recently, he has a coauthored chapter in Storytelling in Queer Appalachia (2020, WVU Press). He has two chapters in process. One which explores a theoretical concept he coins "embodied technologies" and another that examines new materialism in Appalachian LGBTQ Anthropocene literature. Outside the Academy, Caleb is a proud cat dad and loves to be out in nature.

Education: M.A.,New York University; Ed.D., University of Massachusetts Amherst

Background:

Courses taught:

• Spanish I
• Spanish II
• Western Civilization (Social Science Department)

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