Tena Helton
Assistant Professor of English
Director of Graduate Studies
Director of First-Year Writing
Ph.D. English (American Literature), Louisiana State University
Email: thelt2@uis.edu
Phone: (217) 206-7441
Office: UHB 3070
Teaching Concentration: American literature and ilm, writing, critical theory, genre theory.
Courses: American Gothic, Early American Literature, Introduction to Poetry, Introduction to Film, American Souhts, Poe, Graduate Colloquium, American Frontier Literature, Rhetoric and College Writing.
Biography:
Dr. Helton earned her Ph.D. in English, specializing in American literature and Women's and Gender Studies, from Louisiana State University. She is a certified public school teacher who also holds a B.A. and M.A. from North Carolina State University in English with a concentration in secondary education. She has also been a trade journalist writing for agricultural publications. She joined the UIS faculty in 2005. Her primary areas of expertise are: American literature and culture, genre theory, film, American regional literatures and cultures, and American women’s literature.
Her current project, The Customs and Manners of America: Structuring Early Auto/biographical Writing , is about the cultural importance of the pre-Civil War genre to American culture.
Research Interests: American literature, including African-American, American Indian, Southern, Appalachian and Women’s literatures; theories of region, identity, gender, and narrative; teacher training; and composition.
