Maryville College’s English Department finalizes two new positions
The Maryville College English department is finalizing the hiring process for a new literature professor and writing lecturer, who will bring more support and help further develop the English and Writing Communication degree plans.
According to Dr. Will Phillips, chair of the Division of Languages & Literature, the recent departures of Dr. Sam Overstreet and Jan Taylor have created gaps in the English department which further motivated hiring new faculty. By bringing new people into the department, current languages and literature faculty can avoid being stretched thin to cover all of the classes offered.
This change also offers new and exciting opportunities for students. The department bringing in new hires means that previous subject areas the college lacked may now be filled.
“For the literature position, we needed a candidate whose research and training would help support classes and student projects in British literature before 1800, notably the upper level course in Shakespeare, but with an idea that this person might also help develop new classes and approaches,” Phillips said.
The Shakespeare class will be available for students in the 2026-27 fall semester. In addition to this position for literature, a new writing communication lecturer will help advance the major.
“For the writing position, we looked for people who could potentially support our professional writing courses. That would mean people with some real-world experience in public relations, marketing, business and technical writing or journalism,” Phillips said.
According to Phillips, the writing lecturer will not just aid the technical writing classrooms but also assist the Highland Echo, which is currently faculty advised by Assistant Director of Marketing & Communications and Adjunct Instructor Steve Wildsmith. Wilsmith will continue to teach the journalism class and be the main faculty leader of the Echo.
During the process of a position search, the College invites candidates to campus for interviews. This also includes a chance for faculty and English and Writing Communication students to meet the candidates. Five candidates came to campus: three for literature and two for writing.
Students were able to join the applicants for lunch as well as a classroom lesson. This allowed students to get to know the interviewees in a more informal manner while the mock classroom experiences allowed for students and faculty to see each candidate in a classroom environment.
According to Lecturer in English Dr. Shannon Heath, who has been heavily involved with the hiring of the literature professor, student opinions were important to gauge which candidates were the best fit for the development of the department and major.
“All the candidates were highly qualified,” Heath said. “We focused on how they interacted [with] and worked with the students. Do they fit in with Maryville culture? We were also looking for experience with a smaller school and a Christian college.”
With these priorities guiding the search for strong additions to the MC English department, excitement is now brewing among faculty.
“Personally, I look forward to the energy and creativity that new people will bring to our programs. I want people who will rethink what we do, get students excited about reading and writing and bring new interest and approaches to our programs,” Phillips said, adding that the courses they plan on developing sound interesting and if he were a student, he would want to take them.
Currently, the hiring decisions are not final, and details are subject to change as the process continues.