Faculty & Courses – English

Stephen Mirarchi (Ph.D., Brandeis University) is Associate Professor of English. He is the author of the annotated Mr. Blue (Cluny Media, 2016) and four other books from Cluny Classics, a line of reprinted Catholic books with updated, scholarly introductions. He has published academic articles on Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen Crane, Louise Glück, Robert Pinsky, François Mauriac, J.R.R. Tolkien, Dean Koontz, and Raymond Carver. He has also written numerous book reviews and popular articles for the St. Austin Review, the National Catholic Register, Crisis, EpicPew, and the Boston Globe. He and his wife live in Atchison with their daughter.

Dr. George Nicholas serves the department with expertise on Shakespeare and medieval literature. He recently offered a course in Old English that was enthusiastically received, and he has often taught courses in the Norse myths, the sagas of the Icelanders, Beowulf and other old Germanic literature, and the romances of King Arthur. He is well known for annual field day activities in which students learn to handle a broadsword, and in which many pumpkins have been massacred by bloodthirsty Benedictine students.

Dr. Julia Bowen she has had a long-standing connection with Benedictine because her father taught in the Biology Department from 1976 until 2013.  She currently serves as Co-Director of the Discovery Program with Dr. Terry Malloy of the Biology Department and has mentored student research projects focusing on: the etiquette, customs, and rituals of Victorian tea parties; how to teach Dante’s Inferno; the use of sound techniques in the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins; the meaning of modern Dystopian literature; and the nature of monotheism under Akhenaten.

Dr. Michael Stigman has been teaching creative writing in the English department since 2007. He also teaches Literary Criticism, Composition, The Short Story, World Literature Two, and others. He has written and published a number of short stories, some of which have appeared in Beloit Fiction Journal, Sycamore Review, South Dakota Review, Zone 3, AGNI-Online, and others.

Dr. Sarah Young specializes in American Literature, Linguistics, and Grammar. She is the sponsor of the English Club and Benedictine’s Pi Sigma Chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honor Society.  She has presented research on Willa Cather for the American Literature Association, Literature into Film Conference, and NEH Seminars focused on the work of Willa Cather. She has published many articles and reviews for arts journals and newspapers and was a contributing writer to The Encyclopedia of Stage Plays on Film. Dr. Young is also a trained opera singer and regularly performs on both the professional and amateur stage.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, CA, Dr. Michelle Zaleski attended Boston College for undergraduate and received her Master’s and Ph.D. in rhetoric and composition from Penn State. Before attending graduate school, she worked at the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh, where she started a writing center and developed an interest in writing program administration and writing across the curriculum. More recently, she taught English at Marymount University in Arlington, VA, where she developed new ways of supporting basic writers through community writing initiatives. At Benedictine College, she teaches composition and directs the writing center. She has published research on comparative rhetoric, multilingual writing, transliteracy, and the Jesuits. She is currently finishing a book project that explores Jesuit education in early modern India to argue for a translingual approach to rhetoric. She lives in Atchison with her husband, Joe, their baby, Theodore, and dog, Diego.

Mrs. Brown has a passion for researching, writing, and facilitating discussions using literature, history, and drama as a catalyst for development. Her graduate work included 19th and 20th century literature and film depicting classic social circumstances. Additionally, her training in the dramatic arts ranged from Theatre of the Absurd to modern theatre. Before devoting her main focus to a growing family, which included homeschooling for several years, she traveled as an education training consultant for the prestigious Institute for Research and Reform in Education (IRRE). She has taught college English Composition and Literature, as well as English as a Second Language in various capacities. Other professional experience includes wordsmithing website content and business marketing correspondence for local and national companies. Publications include numerous articles in Simply KC Magazine, Women’s Edition Magazine, and The Washburn Review. as well as a story in the book Heavenly Healing: Testimonies from Lay Apostles for Christ the Returning King (DFOT).

Mrs. Brown encourages cultivating one’s curiosity, leading to critical thinking and a deeper understanding of how souls experience the world. She has a love of words—their intention and inspiration, their ability to engage, humor, cut, and silence—all containing a history (etymology) connecting then to now. Using these powerful little characters to analyze cultural topics should be preserved and imparted with vigor. Mrs. Brown treasures her time spent with BC students and believes English Composition is essential.