Alumni

    Alumni M.A.

    Alumni Ph.D.

    The LSU Program in Comparative Literature has awarded the Ph.D. degree to the following people:

    • Jonathan Alexander
    • William Allegrezza
    • Paul Anderson
    • Geoffrey Bain
    • Michael Blandino
    • Alexandru Boldor
    • Melody Boyd
    • Wendy Braun
    • Lilian Contreras-Silva
    • Rosary Crain
    • Michael Dennyson
    • Richmond Eustis, Jr.
    • Sylviane Finck
    • Benjamin Forkner
    • Matthew Guy
    • Jason Juneau
    • Jean-Baptiste Meunier
    • Delia Poey
    • Juliana Reineman
    • Alexandra Reuber
    • Jesse Russell 
    • Clany Soileau 
    • Rachel Spear
    • Kirstin Squint
    • Joachim Vogeler

    Alumni Information

    We are proud of the fact that all of those students whom we have granted the Ph.D. (since the inception of the program) are employed in their fields at a college or university.

    The majority of our Ph.D. recipients secured academic positions; on the whole they are thriving.  Here is an enumeration (in chronological order) of all nine students whom we have granted the Ph.D. since the program’s inception in 1989, along with their dissertation titles, current academic affiliations and some of their notable accomplishments. These include great success stories as well as a few more “average” stories of gainful academic employment.


    Jonathan Alexander

    Dissertation: “The Poetry In-Between: Presence and Absence in Whitman, Rimbaud, and Hopkins,” 1993.

    Current employment: Professor of English and Chancellor's Fellow at the
    University of California, Irvine.  The author or editor of six books and
    the recipient of numerous awards, Professor Alexander specializes in
    writing studies, sexuality studies, and multimedia. (For an idea of his innovative courses on writing and digital technology, please visit his website, which may be accessed by clicking on his name.


    Bruce R. Magee

    Dissertation: “The Amazon Myth in Western Literature,” 1996.

    Current Employment:  Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature, Louisiana Tech University.


    Delia Poey

    Dissertation: “Border Crossers and Coyotes: A Reception Study of Latina/o Literatures,” 1996.

    Current Employment:  Assistant Professor of Modern Languages at Florida State University.

    Publications:  Author of Latino American Literature in the Classroom: The Politics of Transformation [a revised version of her LSU dissertation] (University Press of Florida, 2002).

    Editor of two well-known anthologies of Hispanic-American literature: Iguana Dreams: New Latino Fiction and Little Havana Blues: A Cuban-American Literature Anthology. (Information and reviews–highly positive– of both books may be found at www.amazon.com).


    Michael Dennison

    Dissertation: “Delights of the Night, Pleasure of the Void: Vampirism and Entropy in Nineteenth-Century Literature,” 1996.

    Current Employment: Instructor of English at Carlow College (Pennsylvania) and the University of Pittsburgh.

    Publications:  He has recently published his LSU dissertation as a book, entitled Vampirism: Literary Tropes of Decadence and Entropy (New York: Peter Lang, 2001).  The book is available on www.amazon.com.


    Joachim C. Vogeler

    Dissertation: “The Myth of Narcissus and the Narcissistic Structure,” 1997.

    Current Employment:  Instructor of Classics, Louisiana State University.


    Rosary J. Crain

    Dissertation: “A Critical Edition of the Passion and Advent Chapters of the Pre-Caxtonian Gilte Legende,” 1999.

    Current Employment:  Instructor of English, University of New Orleans.


    Paul Anderson

    Dissertation: “Gods, Men, and Their Gifts: A Comparison of The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, and Paradise Lost,” 2000.

    Current Employment:  Instructor of Classics, Louisiana State University, He teaches New Testament Greek and is also a Lutheran Minister.


    Lynn Walford

    Dissertation: “A Matter of Life and Death: José María Arguedas, Mario Vargas Llosa, and the Postmodern Condition,” 2000.

    Current Employment:  Assistant Professor of Foreign Languages at LSU-Shreveport, where she serves as  the university’s Director of General Studies.


    Lillian Contreras-Silva

    Dissertation: “Tradition, Rhetoric, and Propriety in Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz,” 2000.

    Current Employment:  Assistant Professor of Spanish at Hendrix College in Arkansas.  (Since Hendrix is less known than it deserves, the following information may be helpful: The Princeton Review calls Hendrix “a cozy liberal arts school with an exceptionally strong reputation… a bastion of academic excellence… a place where people of widely differing religions and political views live together in a climate of mutual respect… a sleeper that has been making the lists, and it is solid.”)

    We are currently working on gathering information on our MA recipients.  One, Nirmala Singh, received a fellowship from the University of Michigan, where she is finishing her PhD in Comp Lit.