Brian Attebery
Professor of English (retired 2022)
EDUCATION
PhD, American Civilization (1979), Brown University
MA, American Civilization (1976), Brown University
BA, English (1974), The College of Idaho
My first scholarly publication was on Emily Dickinson, but I soon turned away from canonical topics. Since that first effort, I have written on fantasy, science fiction, Disney films, utopias, children’s literature, gender, and interdisciplinarity–all dodgy topics for one reason or another. My article on Henry Nash Smith, Leo Marx, and the theoretical basis for their pioneering work in American Studies appeared in American Quarterly in 1996. Collaborators Ursula K. Le Guin, Karen Joy Fowler, and I edited the groundbreaking Norton Book of Science Fiction; I also wrote a teacher’s guide to the volume. In 1991 I received the Distinguished Scholarship Award from the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts and won the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies a year later. I was named ISU’s Distinguished Researcher in 1997 and was given an award for Outstanding Achievement in the Humanities by the Idaho Humanities Council in 2004. In the fall of 2006 I took over as editor of the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, with graduate students in the ISU English Department serving as editorial assistants.
My most recent scholarly book, Stories about Stories: Fantasy and the Remaking of Myth again won the Mythopoeic Award for fantasy studies. Since 2016 I have been serving as editor of the Library of America's republication of the works of Ursula K. Le Guin From January through July of 2019 I was in Scotland as Leverhulme Visiting Professor of Fantasy at the University of Glasgow.
Books
Ursula K. Le Guin: Always Coming Home. Author’s expanded edition. Edited by Brian Attebery. New York: The Library of America, 2019.
Stories about Stories: Fantasy and the Remaking of Myth. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Parabolas of Science Fiction. Ed. with Veronica Hollinger. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2013.
Decoding Gender in Science Fiction. New York: Routledge, 2002.
Strategies of Fantasy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992.
The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature: From Irving to Le Guin. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980.
Selected Articles and Book Chapters
"Reinventing Masculinity in Fairy Tales by Men." Marvels & Tales 32.2 (2019).
"The Fantastic." The Oxford Handbook of Science Fiction. Ed. Rob Latham. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. 127-138.
"Structuralism and Fantasy." Cambridge Companion to Fantasy. Ed. Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. 81-90.
"Teaching Gender and Science Fiction." Teaching Science Fiction. Ed. Peter Wright and Andy Sawyer. Teaching the New English Series. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2011. 146-71.
"Elizabeth Enright and the Family Story as Genre." Children's Literature 37 (2009): 114-36.
"Patricia Wrightson and Aboriginal Myth." Extrapolation 46 (2005): 329-39.
"Dust, Lust, and Other Messages from the Quantum Wonderland." Nanoculture: Implications of the New Technoscience. Ed. N. Katherine Hayles. Bristol, UK: Intellect, 2004. 161-69.
"The Magazine Era: 1926-1960." The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction. Ed. Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003. 32-47
Contributions to Reading Narrative Fiction, by Seymour Chatman. New York: Macmillan, 1993.
Awards/Honors
2019 Leverhulme Visiting Professorship in Fantasy Literature. School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow
Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies for Stories about Stories, 2015.
Distinguished Researcher, ISU, 1997
Master Researcher, ISU, 1991, 1995, 1996
Courses Taught
4492/5592: Folklore and Literature
4467/5567: Studies in Late 19th-Century Literature
4441/5541: History and Criticism of Children’s Literature
2277: Survey of American Literature I
2212: Introduction to Folklore
1115: Literature of the Fantastic
AMST 2200: Introduction to American Studies
Seminar in Genre: Utopia
Seminar in Pedagogy: Teaching Science Fiction
Jennifer Eastman Attebery
Professor of English (retired 2022)
EDUCATION
PhD, Folklore and American Studies (1985), Indiana University
MA, Folklore (1974), Indiana University
BA, English (1973), College of Idaho
Having grown up in Idaho, I have always been fascinated with the peoples of the Western region, their many cultures and common history. Those interests led me to studies at Indiana University's Folklore Institute, and they have always guided my research and teaching. I am currently working on a research project exploring the historical and family legends told and written by the Swedish immigrants to the Western United States as narratives used to understand group origins and guide actions.
My previous projects have examined the meanings and functions of Scandinavian-American holidays (Pole Raising and Speech Making), vernacular writing of immigrants (Up in the Rocky Mountains) and horizontal timber construction (Building with Logs).
I served during 2011 as the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in American Studies at Uppsala University and was also a Fulbright Senior Scholar in 1998 at University of Gothenburg. In 2016, I received the ISU Distinguished Researcher Award and in 2014 the ISU Achievement Award.
I joined the ISU Department of English and Philosophy in 1992 after having worked for many years at the Idaho State Historical Society. During my time with the historical society I completed Building Idaho: An Architectural History, which deals with both designed and vernacular architecture. The book won the Idaho Library Association Book Award for 1991 and a commendation from the American Association for State and Local History.
It has been my privilege to chair the Department of English and Philosophy from fall 2012 to spring 2018.
Books
Pole Raising and Speech Making: Modalities of Swedish American Summer Celebration. Volume 3, Ritual, Festival, and Celebration series, ed. Jack Santino. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2015.
Up in the Rocky Mountains: Writing the Swedish Immigrant Experience. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007.
Building with Logs: Western Log Construction in Context. Moscow: University of Idaho Press, 1998.
Building Idaho: An Architectural History. Moscow: University of Idaho Press, 1991.
Selected Articles and Book Chapters
"Scandinavianism in the Rocky Mountain West, Pragmatic and Programmatic." Swedes and Norwegians in the U.S., ed. Dag Blanck and Philip Anderson. Minneapolis: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2011. 295-307.
"Peasant Letters Revisited," Swedish-American Historical Quarterly 56.2-3 (2005):126-40.
"Swedish America in the Rocky Mountain West, 1880-1917: Folkloric Perspectives on the Immigrant Letter," Scandinavian Studies 77 (2005): 53-84.
"Swedish Immigrants and the Myth of the West," Swedish-American Historical Quarterly 60.3 (2004): 179-93.
"Claiming Ethnicity: Implicit and Explicit Expressions of Ethnicity among Swedish Americans." Not English Only, ed. Orm Øverland. European Contributions to American Studies, no. 48. Amsterdam: VU University Press, 2001. 12 28. Also published in American Studies in Scandinavia 32.1 (2000): 6-28.
Awards/Honors
Distinguished Researcher, ISU, 2016
Master Researcher, ISU, 2008, 2009, 2014
Outstanding Service, ISU, 2000
Achievement Award, ISU, 2014
Courses Taught
6000-level: Seminars in Interdisciplinary Studies, Vernacular Texts, and Ethnic Literature
4490/5590: Topics in Folklore (with focus on various genres and themes)
2212: Introduction to Folklore/Oral Tradition
Dante Cantrill
Professor of English (retired 2005)
PhD in English (1974), University of Washington
Terry Engebretsen
Associate Professor of English (retired 2014)
PhD in American Studies (1982), Washington State University
Janne Goldbeck
Professor of English (retired 2006)
PhD in English (1972), University of Oklahoma
John Kijinski
Professor of English (retired 2007)
PhD in English (1985), University of Wisconsin
Kathleen King
Professor of English (retired 2007)
PhD in English (1984), University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Tracy Montgomery
Associate Professor of English (retired 2013)
DA in English (1987), Idaho State University
Anne E. Mullin
Associate Professor of English (retired 2000)
PhD (1991), University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Rosemary N. Myers
Assistant Professor of English (retired 1999)
MA (1953), University of Arkansas
Cathy Peppers
Senior Lecturer in English
Office: TAB 277- Idaho Falls Campus
EDUCATION
Ph.D. in English, University of Oregon
M.A. in English Lit. and M.F.A. in Creative Writing, Bowling Green State University
B.A. in English and Political Science, Macalester College
During my first eight years at ISU, I taught a range of courses in the English department, from developmental composition through creative writing and a variety of literature courses. Drawing on some prior professional experience, I also taught a few courses in public relations for the then-Mass Communication department.
My next ten years were housed in the College of Business, where I created and taught courses that developed into one unique core Management department course in critical analysis and creative problem solving. I won the College of Business Outstanding Teacher award in 2012, and an ISU Outstanding Teacher award in 2015.
Now I'm back in the English department, based in Idaho Falls where for the past few years I've been teaching a range of courses that allows students to complete a Professional Writing minor, along with other coursework, on the Idaho Falls campus.
Courses Taught
4407: Special Topics in Professional Writing
3324: Genre Studies in Nonfiction
3308: Business Communication
3307: Professional and Technical Communication
2211: Literary Analysis
2210: American Cultural Studies: Science in American Culture
1102: Writing and Rhetoric II
Tom Pfister
Senior Lecturer in English (retired 2022)
EDUCATION
PhD, English (1996), University of Wisconsin, Madison
MFA, Printmaking (2007), Idaho State University
MA, English (1987), Northwestern University
MS, Advertising (1980), University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
BA, English(1977), University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
I have been teaching at ISU since 1996. Currently, I teach English 1101, 1101P and 1102. I completed a scholarly (unpublished) manuscript titled “The Age of Delicacy: Sensibility, Imagination, and Taste in Eighteenth-Century Britain.” I now devote my energies to producing works of fiction. I recently completed a four-novel series based on three generations of my Norwegian ancestors: “From Castle to Cottage,” “From Cottage to Castle,” “The Melbys of Minneapolis,” and “A House Afire.” Other unpublished novels include “Not the Marrying Kind,” “A Mistake in Marriage,” and “My Life in Ballet.” I have also written a volume of short stories and a trilogy of novelettes titled “Women with History.” At the moment, I am drafting another trilogy titled “Women Out of Love.” In my spare time, I enjoy printmaking and gardening.
Recent Courses Taught
1102: Writing and Rhetoric II
1101: Writing and Rhetoric I
1101P: Writing and Rhetoric I Plus
H. Wayne Schow
Professor of English (retired 1999)
PhD (1970), University of Iowa
Denzell S. Smith
Professor of English (retired 1991)
PhD (1965), University of Minnesota
Susan Swetnam
Professor of English (retired 2013)
PhD in English (1979), University of Michigan
Paul D. Tate
Professor of English; Dean, Graduate School (retired 2006)
PhD (1976), Yale University
Mary Ellen Walsh
Professor of English (retired 2002)
PhD (1971), University of Arizona