Welcome to ETBU -

ETBU English Faculty, left to right, first row: Dr. Jeanna White, Dr. Annemarie
Whaley, Dr. Cassandra Falke, Dr. Eileen Baland. Second row: Dr. Sarah
Watson, Dr. Stan Coppinger.

Department Chair
Dr. Sarah Watson

Ed.D. in the College Teaching of English - Texas A & M - Commerce, 1999; M.A. in Linguistics - Texas A & M - Commerce, 1995; B.S. - Texas A & M Commerce 1979: A.S. - Amarillo College, 1968.

My teaching career began with English as a second language while I was living in Canada. Through the encouragement of colleagues, I went to graduate school to study linguistics and become more proficient in the teaching of ESL. But my academic interests turned to literature, specifically the writing of Willa Cather, and my doctoral studies moved in that direction.

Over the years, I have taught co`urses at various area colleges and universities in East Texas, and I have been at ETBU since fall of 2000.The courses I teach regularly include adolescent literature, American literature, and linguistics. Occasionally, I teach upper level literature courses; my most recent ones were “The Holy Grail” and “The American Renaissance.”

My research interest is the work of Willa Cather, and I have presented a number of conference papers on her writing. I am currently editing a book of essays called Willa Cather and the Aesthetic Movement. On a personal level, I attend St. Michael and All Angels' Episcopal Church, Longview, where my husband is rector (pastor). In addition to my husband, my family includes four grown children and two dogs, Beckett and Reba.

English Faculty:

Dr. Stan Coppinger

B.A. in Biblical Studies– Biola University, M.A. in English – Tarleton State University, Ph.D. in English, with a specialization in American Literature – Baylor University

I moved to ETBU in 2010 after teaching for 22 years on the university level. I teach Rhetoric and Composition courses, as well as British and World Literature. I have a deep love for the poetry of George Herbert. I also enjoy the works of William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, and Cormac McCarthy. When I’m reading to relax, I grab a novel by Frank Peretti or John Grisham. When I’m looking for Christian non-fiction, I reach for Philip Yancey, Donald Miller, and Max Lucado. Favorite book? Huckleberry Finn. Favorite movie? Forrest Gump or Chariots of Fire or Gran Torino or Monsters, Inc. (depends on what day you ask me!)

My wife and I met on a blind date and married in 1998. We worship at Alpine Church of Christ in Longview. We have two cats, and when we aren’t tending to their needs, we love to travel. We also like a little adventure in our lives, so, in our free time, we’ve been known to jump out of a perfectly good airplane at 10,000 feet, dog sled on a glacier in Alaska, soar high in the sky in a hot air balloon, raft down the Snake River in Wyoming, or even catch a subway in Manhattan!

The most adventurous thing I do on a daily basis, however, is to walk into a classroom full of students and try to instill in them an excitement for reading and writing. I want to make a difference in the lives of my students. And when teaching becomes as Arthur Holmes says, “an act of love, of worship, of stewardship, a wholehearted response to God,” then teaching can indeed make an eternal difference. And that’s, bottom line, why I teach – to glorify God and to impact the lives of my students for eternity.

Dr. Cassie Falke

B.A. - University of Georgia (English) Additional Study at Oxford University, UK and Southern Oregon University: M.L.A. - St. John's College (Liberal Arts): Ph.D. - University of York, UK (English)

College trains students in what John Henry Newman calls "a philosophical habit of mind" - a habit of being curious to encounter new things but intellectually rigorous in our evaluation of them. I'm delighted to teach at an institution that still embraces this as the primary goal of education.

I moved to ETBU in 2006 after teaching for four years in state university systems. (Before that I guided whitewater rafting for two years and worked as a waitress for ten.)

Teaching Freshman Composition, World Literature, and Critical Theory, I get to work with students at every stage of their college careers. My current research interests include working-class autobiography, nineteenth century English literature, and the rhetoric of critical theory. I am excited to have two books coming out this year: “A Mote in the Eye of Literature”: English Working-Class Autobiography 1820-1848 and an essay collection that I am editing, Intersections in Christianity and Critical Theory.

My husband, two sons, and I attend Trinity Episcopal Church. My father still lives in the Southern Appalachian mountains, where I spent the last of my childhood, and I remain very attached to Appalachian landscape and culture.

Dr. Annemarie Whaley

B.A. - East Texas Baptist University, M.A. - Louisiana State University in Shreveport, Ph.D. - Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge

I grew up in Calgary, Canada, and moved to Texas in 1984 to attend East Texas Baptist University. It was in a classroom not far from my office that I met my husband, George. We graduated in 1986 and married in 1987. ETBU has been a part of my life ever since. I finished my MA in 1991 and began teaching at ETBU the same year. I continued my graduate study and received my Ph.D. from Louisiana State University in 2000. My areas of interest are Medieval and Renaissance literature, American Realism and Naturalism, and Textual Editing.

I teach freshman writing classes, sophomore British Literature, and upper-level classes in Western Literature, Medieval Literature, William Shakespeare, William Faulkner, and Realism and Naturalism. I am also the general editor of the Beacon, a School of Humanities Journal that publishes excellence in writing and photography from all disciplines and classes. I am very active in my discipline and have presented over twenty papers at local and national conference. I have also published numerous articles in scholarly publications, literary encyclopedias, and essay collections. In November 2009 my book The Trouble with Dreiser: Harper and the Editing of Jennie Gerhardt was published by Cambria Press. In my spare time I enjoy reading, traveling, shopping, and being out on Caddo Lake with my husband, George.

Dr. Jeanna White

B.A. and M.A. in History - Baylor University, Ph.D. - University of Texas at Arlington

I began my academic career with the study of history, specializing in Twentieth Century America. However, in graduate school, my intellectual interests shifted to the study of American literature, focusing primarily on Twentieth Century American literature, African American literature, and American war narratives. I also became interested in Composition studies and the history of rhetoric.

I joined the ETBU faculty in 2005. My teaching responsibilities include Rhetoric and Composition courses, American literature, and special topics courses such as African American literature and Studies in Writing.

My academic interests include the Rhetoric and Composition studies, the slave narrative tradition, and postmodern literature. I have published in African American Review, South Central Review, and The Griot. My most recent publication examines Barbara Kingsolver’s use of disability in The Poisonwood Bible, and I am currently working on an article that explores the value of writing about belief in the freshman composition classroom.