Curriculum Vita

7317 Flagstone Drive

Ooltewah, Tennessee 37363

Phone: 423-614-8211

Fax: 423-614-8209

E-mail: dsummerlin@leeuniversity.edu

 

Donna J. Summerlin

 

Education

1992 – 1995              University of Tennessee                         

Ph.D. in English      Knoxville, TN

Dissertation:  A Portrait of the Woman as Artist:  Women’s Struggle for Artistic Expression in the Fiction of Six Appalachian Women Writers

An overview of the contributions women have made to the Appalachian literary canon, along with an examination of the major works of six of the region’s most acclaimed women writers:  Elizabeth Madox Roberts, Olive Tilford Dargan, Harriette Arnow, Mary Lee Settle, Lee Smith, and Denise Giardina.

 

1991-1992                        University of Tennessee          M.A. in English                Chattanooga, TN

Thesis: The Comic Grotesque in Southern Literature

An examination of the use of the technique of the comic grotesque in the fiction of William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor.

 

1976-1978                         University of Tennessee               

M.Ed.                                Chattanooga, TN

 

1970-1974                         Lee College                                         

B.A. in English                 Cleveland, TN

Professional experience

1988-Present                                                        Lee University

Professor of English                                               Cleveland, TN

 

1970-1988                  Hamilton County  Department of Education

English teacher                                                 Chattanooga, TN

 

Additional Professional Activities

 

Director, American Ethnic Studies: New England cross cultural trip

Director, American Ethnic Studies: The South cross cultural trip

Division Coordinator, Department of Language and Literature

Professional Memberships National Council of Teachers of English

Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the National Council of Teachers of English

Conference on Christianity & Literature

Society for the Study of Southern Literature

Appalachian Studies Association

 

Representative

Courses Taught             

ENGL110: Rhetoric & Research

ENGL307: Modern Literary Criticism

ENGL314: United States Literature: 1865 to the Present

ENGL315/EDUC510: Young Adult Literature

ENGL320: Women Writers

ENGL326: Multi-Ethnic United States Literature

ENGL431: American Novel

SCED413/EDUC517 Teaching English, Grades 7-12

 

Honors          2004 – Excellence in Advising Award, Lee University

2002 – Selected as a participant for NEH Institute: An  Appalachian Exemplar at Ferrum College

1993 – Awarded Mellon Felllowship to pursue doctoral studies

1992 – Awarded Mellon Fellowship to pursue doctoral studies

1990 – Elected Teacher of the Year by Student Education Association at Lee University

 

Conferences

& Workshops

ALAN Workshop, NCTE Conference, Boston, MA, November 25-26, 2013

 

Southeast Core to College Curriculum Council, Common Core Implementation meeting, October 7, Chattanooga, TN

 

Appalachian Studies Conference, Boone, NC, 22 March 2013

 

INVEST Workshop: Building a College and Career Ready Tennessee By Preparing New Teachers for Common Core, Ayers Institute, Cleveland, TN, March 25-26, 2013

 

Festival of Faith and Writing, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI, April 19-21, 2012

 

Christianity and Literature Conference, New Orleans, LA, April 16-17, 2010

Tennessee Philological Society, Lee University, Cleveland, TN, February 25-27

“Young Adult Literature: What Is It Good For?”  presentation for teacher in-service meeting at Cleveland High School, Cleveland, TN, February 15, 2008

Conference on Appalachian Literature and Culture, Somerset Community College, Somerset, KY, April 3, 2009

Appalachian Studies Association Conference, Marshall University, Huntington, WV, March 28-30, 2008

ALAN Workshop, NCTE Conference, Nashville, TN, November 21-22, 2007

 

Appalachian College Association Conference, Abingdon, VA, October 20, 2007

 

Southern Women Writers Conference, Berry College, Rome George, September 27-29, 2007

 

Emory & Henry Appalachian Literary Festival, Abingdon, VA, September 21-23, 2006

 

Appalachian Studies Association Conference, Sinclair Community College, Dayton, OH, March 17, 2006.

 

Thomas Wolfe Conference,  Asheville, NC, November 18, 2005

 

Festival of Faith & Writing, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI, 22-24 April 2004

 

MLA Convention, Baltimore, MD,  November 15, 2002

 

Society for the Study of Southern Literature, Lafayette Louisiana, March 14-16, 2002

 

Fellowship of Southern Writers, Chattanooga Conference on Southern Literature, Chattanooga, TN, April 19-21, 2001

 

Art & Soul: Religious Faith and Literary Art, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, February 22-25, 2001

 

Berry College, Southern Women Writer’s Conference, Rome, GA, April 13-15, 2000

 

ACA Technology Summit, Knoxville, TN, October 12-14, 2000

 

Ohio University Womens’ Studies Program, The Women of Appalachia: Their Heritage and Accomplishments, Zanesville, Ohio, October 27-29, 1999

 

Southern Voices ’99, Birmingham, AL, February 26-28, 1999

 

Conference on Southern Literature, Chattanooga, TN, April 15-17, 1999

 

Virginia Humanities Conference, Ferrum College, Ferrum, VA, April 3-4, 1998

 

Fellowship of Southern Writers Conference, Chattanooga, TN, April 3-5, 1997

 

South Atlantic Modern Language Association Conference, Atlanta, GA, November 7-9, 1996

 

Southern Festival of Books, October 11-12, 1996

 

Tennessee College English Association, Walters State Community College, Greeneville, TN, September 25-26, 1997

 

Fellowship of Southern Writers, Chattanooga, TN, April 6-8, 1995

 

Northeast Modern Language Association, Boston, MA, March 31-April 1, 1995

 

Tennessee College English Association, Belmont University, Nashville, TN, September 16, 1994

 

Christianity and Literature Conference, Shreveport, LA, February 6-8, 1992

 

Tennessee Collaborative for Teaching Excellence, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN, February 1, 1992

 

Tennessee Council of Teachers of English, Nashville, TN, October 4-5, 1991

 

Tennessee College English Association meeting, Jackson, TN, September 27, 1991

 

Approaches to Modern Fiction workshop, Tennessee Collaborative for Educational Excellence, University of

 

Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN, March 2, 1991

 

South Atlantic Modern Language Association, Atlanta, GA, November 9-11, 1990

 

Tennessee Council of Teachers of English, Gatlinburg, TN, October 5-6, 1990

 

Conference on Christianity and Literature, Southern College, Chattanooga, TN, April 5-7, 1990

 

“Shakespeare Up On His Feet,” Tennessee Collaborative for Educational Excellence and Tennessee Humanities Council, Chattanooga, TN, February 3, 1990

 

“Gateways: Education into the 21st Century,” Association of Teacher Educators, St. Louis, MO, February 18-20

 

Publications “Gender, Race, and Religion in Silas House’s Appalachian Trilogy.” Appalachian Journal 37.1/2 (Fall 2009/Winter 2010): 76-99.

 

“Flying Below the Radar: Activist, Paternalist, and Obstructionist Responses to The Civil Rights Movement in Three East Tennessee Communities.” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 66.3 (November 2007): 270-93. [co-authored with Dr. Mary Waalkes, Assistant Professor of History]

 

Murder And Mayhem In North Carolina:  The Gothic And The Grotesque In Four New Southern Mysteries.” North Carolina Literary Review 11 (September 2002): 169-72.

 

 Papers Presented The Gothic Convention and the Contemporary Imagination: Re-Imaginings of Emily Bronte and Wuthering Heights in Appalachian Contemporary Writer Denise Giardina’s Emily’s Ghost, Appalachian Studies Conference, Boone, NC, 22 March 2013

Festival Circle facilitator, “Composition Teachers in Christian Colleges.”  Festival of Faith and Writing, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI, April 19-21, 2012

“To Everything a Season: Redemption Imagery in the Fiction of Silas House.” Christianity and Literature Conference, New Orleans, LA, April 16-17, 2010

“Making Their  Peace with God: The Changing Face of Appalachian Religion,” Harriette Arnow Conference on Appalachian Literature and Culture, Somerset Community College, Somerset, KY, April 3, 2009

“Who We Are, Who We Have Always Been: Appalachian Identity in Silas House’s Appalachian Trilogy,” Appalachian Studies Association Conference, Marshall University, Huntington, WV, March 28-30, 2008

“Crossing Cultural Boundaries at Home: Planning a Domestic Trip with Cross Cultural Emphasis.” Appalachian College Association Conference, Abingdon, VA, October 20, 2007

 

“Flying Below the Radar: Activist, Paternalist, and Obstructionist Responses to the Civil Rights Movement in Three East Tennessee Communities.”  Appalachian Studies Association Conference, Sinclair Community College, Dayton, OH, March 17, 2006.

 

The South’s Angry Young Men:  The Shadow of the Father in Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel and Pat Conroy’s The Great Santini, Thomas Wolfe Conference,  Asheville, NC, November 18, 2005

 

“Murder for God’s Sake: Sallie Bissell’s A Darker Justice.”  MLA Convention, Baltimore, MD,  November 15, 2002

 

“Probing the White Conscience: The Rhetoric of Lillian Smith’s Killers of the Dream.” Society for the Study of Southern Literature conference, Lafayette, LA, March 13-16, 2002

 

“‘The Firey Hand of God’: Belief and Doubt in the Fiction of Lee Smith” at the Art & Soul: Religious Faith and Literary Art Conference, Baylor University, Waco, TX, February 22-25, 2001

 

, “‘Women’s Ways of Knowing’: The Female Mystic as Triumph of Feminine Intuition in Sharyn McCrumb’s The Ballad of Frankie Silver” at the first annual conference of  The Women of Appalachia: Their Heritage and Accomplishments on October 27-29, 1999, at Ohio University in Zanesville, Ohio

 

 

“Bringing Appalachian Literature into the Classroom,” TCEA Conference, Walters State Community College, September 25-26, 1997

 

“Music as Metaphor in Appalachian Fiction: Lee Smith’s The Devil’s Dream,” Northeast Modern Language Association convention, Boston, MA, March 31, 1995

 

“‘Batter My Heart, Three-Personed God’: A Close Reading of Donne’s Sonnet,” Christianity and Literature Conference, Shreveport, LA, February 6-8, 1992

 

“Methods of Evaluating Composition: Relative Merits,” Tennessee College English Association, Jackson, TN, September 27, 1991

 

OTHER

PRESENTATIONS

Lecture, “Appalachia: Deconstructing the Myth,” presented for ENCORE Southern History class, Instructors Randy Wood and John Coats, 9 October 2013

 

Panel participant for ENGL300 to talk about the education major, the teacher education program, and my experience teaching in secondary schools (each semester)

 

Guest speaker for ENGL495 to talk about the integration of faith with the discipline of English/literature/teaching (each semester)

 

“Diversity and Social Change,” Building Community from Diversity Forum, Cleveland State Community College, January 22, 2010

 

Appalachian Seminar, Director and Speaker, Lee University, Cleveland, TN, March 24-30, 2010

 

“Women in Appalachian Literature, presentation at Homecoming alumni session, Lee University, Cleveland, TN, November 12, 1995

 

Inservice presentation for Blue Springs Elementary, Teaching Composition in the Content Area, Cleveland, TN, January 3, 1990

 

 

 

 

REFERENCES

 

 

Dr. Carolyn Dirksen

Vice President for Academics

Lee University

Cleveland, Tennessee   37320-3450

cdirksen@leeuniversity.edu

 

 

Dr. Jean Eledge

Chair, Department of English and Modern Foreign Languages

Lee University

Cleveland, Tennessee   37320-3450

jeledge@leeuniversity.edu

 

 

Dr. Allison Ensor

Professor of  English

Department of English

University of Tennessee,
Knoxville, TN 37996-0430

ensor@utkux.utcc.utk.edu