News

The first of a three-part series by Heather Ringo interviewing UC Davis English PhD
program alumni, this article follows three former students who landed tenure-track
professor roles after completing their degrees. These professors reflect on their
memories of UC Davis and how their time here prepared them for their future career,
share the exciting work they are doing in their new roles, and offer sage advice for those
seeking to follow in their footsteps.

Link to article: https://theaggie.org/2026/5/6/shakespearebirthanddeathanniversary 

Jennifer Harris ‘00 is an alum of UC Davis where she received her bachelor's degree in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing (with a minor in Women Studies).

Professor Maceo Montoya is a California-based writer and visual artist who teaches courses in both Chicana/o Studies and English. His work spans fiction, nonfiction, and collaborative visual-textual projects, and he is the author of multiple books, including The Scoundrel and the Optimist, The Deportation of Wopper Barraza, and You Must Fight Them: A Novella and Stories.

 Craving a horror podcast with brains? Fear of the Dark is the one for you. Hosted by Ph.D. candidate Stacey Baran and Associate Professor Matthew Vernon, it is not your average two guys at a mic, shouting hot takes. Instead, Baran and Vernon use the lens of race to ask big questions about one of the most dynamic and politically relevant genres in pop culture. How does the nation dream itself on screen in the midst of a zombie apocalypse?

Jordan S. Carroll’s most recent book, Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right, received the Hugo Award at the Seattle Worldcon 2025 Convention. This prestigious award recognizes literary and critical work in the genre of science fiction. Jordan received his PhD in English from UC Davis (2016) and has since gone on to publish several books as well as articles in notable publications such as American Literature, Post*45, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.

After years of exceptional teaching, mentorship, and scholarship at UC Davis, Distinguished Professor Frances E. Dolan reflects on the moments and people that shaped her time on campus. From classrooms and archives to home-cooked brunches and poetry-inspired gifts, her journey reveals a deep commitment to student learning, community building, and early-modern British literature.

Professor of English and Comparative Literature Joshua Clover died on April 26, 2025. Here Joshua’s students remember him.

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Joshua Clover (1962-2025). Joshua was a professor, theorist, scholar, editor, and poet, but first and foremost, he was a communist. Indeed, his political commitments were at the core of everything he did: from the streets to the courthouses, the reading groups to the letter-writing nights, he was a partisan of the real movement wherever it could be found.

Saba Keramati’s debut poetry collection, Self-Mythology, was selected by Patricia Smith for publication in the Miller Williams Poetry Series at University of Arkansas Press. A winner of the 2023 92NY Discovery Poetry Prize, Saba holds an MFA from UC Davis, where she was a Dean’s Graduate Fellow for Creative Arts. She is the Poetry Editor at SundogLit.

Saba will be returning to UC Davis for a reading on April 3.

Professor Tiffany Jo Werth’s newest book, The Lithic Imagination from More to Milton, was recently published by Oxford University Press. The work explores the cultural, religious, and literary significance of “stones, rocks, and the broader mineral realm” in shaping human identity in the early-modern period.