Samuel Smith at the Joshua Tree, 2006

  
WELCOME

Welcome to my Messiah College faculty homepage!  I teach courses in Shakespeare, Milton, and other Early Modern British Literature, as well as Modern British Lit—primarily James Joyce.  I earned a PhD in English from the University of Delaware, but I’ve also participated in two Folger Shakespeare Institute Seminars (“Milton and Scripture,” with Mary Ann Radzinowicz, and “Petitioners, Preachers, and Prophets in the Age of Charles I,” with Esther Cope) and an NEH Summer Seminar on “Renaissance and Reformation in Tudor-Stuart England” (University of Chicago, with Richard Strier).  I have received the Robert and Marilyn Smith Award for Outstanding Teaching at Messiah and an Excellence in Teaching Award.  My current research interests include Milton’s theological imagination, Shakespeare’s skepticism, and the impact of summer stream currents on tubing long stretches of Stony Creek.
     
     
     
      Biography

      
     

I’m a native central Pennsylvanian, and in this paragraph I used to talk about my favorite leisure activities—hiking the Appalachian Trail, playing electric blues guitar, getting an education in contemporary pop culture from my delightful daughters, and enjoying tea with my best conversation partner, but now I’m the English department chair and I almost forget how to spell the word “leisure.”  Well, consider the bright side: department chairing has nipped my blogging career in the bud—we’ve all been spared!


      
Every now and then I visit my second home, Scotland, where I hike the mountains of Glencoe, admire the stonecarvings of Gardner Molloy, and occasionally hobnob with Glaswegian pedestrians who write entertaining fictions and paint fascinating murals inside churches converted to pubs.  I’ve slowly been working on my magnum opus, “An Evangelical Christian’s Guide to Pubs in Scotland.”  In this volume I use my vast experience quaffing the darkest British ales available to provide the most detailed and exquisite accounts of how each brew tastes, enabling any Evangelical Christian trekking through Scotland to fully experience the texture and flavor of, say, a Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout or an Orkney Island Dark, without actually having to imbibe an alcoholic beverage!  I’ve done all the work for you—you’ll consider me your best friend when your tour of Scotland is over.
 
      I’ve provided links to some of my own work, both critical and creative, as well as some recommended reading.  If you are an old friend or a former student—and some of you are both—I’d love to hear from you.  For current students, I’ve included links to course syllabi.  And you might want to check out the Messiah College English Department webpage where you can read my “word from the chair.”      
     
     
     
Contact Information
     
     
Office:   Boyer 216
Phone:
(717) 766-2511, ext. 7052
     
Address:   Messiah College
Department of English
P.O. Box 3017
Grantham, PA 17027
Fax:
(717) 796-4790
   
Email: ssmith@messiah.edu
   
     
             
     
     
             
     
     
             
     
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Last updated 08/30/11