Tena L. Helton
English Department Chair
Director of First-Year Writing
Ph.D. English, Louisiana State University
Email: thelt2@uis.edu
Phone: (217) 206-7441
Office: UHB 3070
Teaching Interests: American literature and film, writing, critical theory, genre theory.
Courses: American Gothic, Early American Literature, Introduction to Poetry, Introduction to Film, American Souths, Poe, Hitchcock, 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.
Professor Helton has presented papers at the following:
- North Carolina Symposium on Teaching Writing (2011)
- American Association of Colleges and Universities (2010)
- Sloan-C International Conference (2010)
- Curriculum, Politics, and the Student/Teacher of English (2009)
- The Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning (2009)
- Illinois Association of Minorities in Government (2009)
- The Symbolist Movement: Its Origins and Consequences (2009)
- Southern Writers Symposium (2009)
- College English Association (2008)
- American Studies Association (2007)
- Illinois Philological Association (2007)
- South Central Modern Language Association (2003)
- Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (2003)
- Souths: Global and Local. University of Florida (2001)
- Women and Gender Studies. Louisiana State University (2000)
- College of Humanities and Social Sciences. North Carolina State University (1999)
- Blacks in the Diaspora. University of North Carolina (1997)
Her publications include:
- “What the White ‘Squaws’ Want from Black Hawk: Gendering the Fan-Celebrity Relationship” in American Indian Quarterly (2010)
- “Being Virtually Human: Teaching Early American Literature Online” in Teaching American Literature: A Journal of Theory and Practice (2007)
- “Living in Process: Ivy Rowe’s Regional Identification in Fair and Tender Ladies” in South Atlantic Review (2004)
- “Indians,” “Redneck,” “Tobacco,” and “Trail of Tears” in The Companion to Southern Literature: Themes, Genres, Places, People, Movements, and Motifs (2002)
- “’What was said and what was left unsaid’: Black Boy as Survival Guide for Black Man and Artist” in College Language Association Journal (1998)
- over 50 articles in agricultural trade magazines (1993-2004).
Her current project, Autobiography on America’s Frontier, is about the importance of pre-Civil War ethnography and auto/biography 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; film; and composition.
