Faculty O-Z

Mark O'Connor

Dr. Mark O’Connor received his PhD and MA in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston. His BA in English is from Georgetown University. His areas of expertise and interests are fiction, creative nonfiction, book arts, apocalyptic texts, magical realism, graphic novels, film, and visual art. He advises the literary magazine SLAB, directs the Writers in the Schools program, and takes students to Italy each summer for a Food and Travel writing course. Recent publications include book chapters about Lynda Barry and Avian Imagery in Early American Newspaper Comics.

Contact Information:

mark.oconnor@sru.edu

317L Spotts World Culture Building

724.738.2548

Tim Oldakowski (Department Chair)

Dr. Tim Oldakowski (T.O.) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures, Cultures, and Writing and is a resident of Pittsburgh, PA. Tim taught English and Communications courses to high school students in Florida before earning his Ed.D. in English Education from the University of Pittsburgh in 2011. He also has a BA in Communications and English from Duquesne University. He teaches courses such as Critical Writing and Critical Reading for all students and teaches Young Adult Literature, Writing for Nonprint Media, and Practicum Teaching Writing for English Education majors. Tim also teaches ENGL 389 Stratford Shakespeare in the summer session which culminates with a trip to the Stratford Festival in Canada. He also teaches in the online graduate program.

Tim’s research lies in multimodal pedagogy and assessment and in the study of young adult literature. His book chapters include Lights! Camera! English Class!: The Twenty-Shot Short Story Assesses Comprehension and Analysis of Literature, and Developing a student-centered, discussion-based online course. His articles “She knows me…she knows my struggle”: Preservice teachers relate to young adult literature as a means for improving teaching writing and The ABC’s of Romeo and Juliet: A Multimodal Approach to Analyzing Shakespeare have been published in The Ohio Journal of English Language Arts. Both articles were co-authored with former students. His article A Multimodal Assessment that Enriches Literacy Learning was published in the journal In Sight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching.

Tim also attends and presents at the National Council of Teachers of English Language Arts Annual Conference, as well as The Pennsylvania Council of Teachers of English Language Arts fall conference. Some of his conference sessions include Multimodal Assessment Across the Curriculum, Brave new world: The use of popular social media for multimodal literary analysis, and Interpreting ‘Othello’ through multimodal instruction.

When he is not working, T.O. is often reading young adult literature.

Contact Information:

timothy.oldakowski@sru.edu

317I Spotts World Culture Building

724.738.4574

Marnie Jo Petray

Dr. Marnie Jo Petray, Associate Professor of TESOL, teaches graduate applied and theoretical linguistics. She coordinates the Graduate TESOL Program, which she developed and founded in 2014-2015. Dr. Petray holds a BA in English (honors) from Arkansas Tech University and an MA and PhD in English linguistics and a Graduate Certificate in ESL from Purdue University, West Lafayette. She is certified by TESOL International Association in English Language Teaching Leadership Management and has earned numerous micro-credentials from the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE).

Dr. Petray previously served as Director of the TESL Program at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, CA from 2005-2013 and taught undergraduate linguistics, contemporary American literature, and various writing courses for both Cal Poly and the former SRU English Department.

Her research focuses on linguistic discrimination and linguistic pedagogy, especially the status of linguistics in second language (L2) studies. She is also interested in humor studies and West African languages. She has authored numerous book chapters, and her own books include:

Linguistic Discrimination in US Higher Education: Power, Prejudice, Impacts, and Remedies (Routledge, 2021) a highly influential collection of studies that identify and redress linguicism in US universities, with an expanded and updated 2nd edition forthcoming in 2026;
Linguistic Foundations for Second Language Teaching and Learning: Bridging the Disciplinary Divide (Cambridge University Press, 2025), a comprehensive co-edited collection of 16 chapters by 23 international authors on applications of both linguistics to L2 instruction and L2 learner data to theoretical linguistics, and
Linguistic Discrimination in International Higher Education (Routledge, 2026), a forthcoming expansive co-edited collection of over 20 chapters that investigate language discrimination in diverse higher education contexts across 6 global regions.

Her peer-reviewed journal articles have appeared in the International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction, the International Journal of Applied Linguistics, and HUMOR: The International Journal of Humor Research. She co-authored an op-ed for Times Higher Education and has been a featured expert in several national and international podcasts such as Because language, The Vocal Fries, and THE Campus. Dr. Petray has presented regionally, nationally, and internationally at academic venues including Three Rivers TESOL, INTESOL, the TESOL International Convention, the Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA), the Modern Language Association Convention (MLA), the International Society for Humor Studies, the International Association for World Englishes, and the World Congress of Applied Linguists.

Besides teaching and all things language, she enjoys traveling and watching films with her husband Dr. William Covey, cooking, listening to Afro-Cuban, alt-country, and blues music, antiquing, and spoiling their torbie Siberian Forest Cat, Fia Mae.

Contact Information:

marnie.petray@sru.edu

317H Spotts World Culture Building

724.738.4577 (voicemail forwards to email)

Derrick Pitard

Dr. Derrick Pitard earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. in English from the University in Rochester. Dr. Pitard also earned an M.Phil in Medieval English Studies from the University of Oxford and a BA in English from Washington and Lee University. At SRU he teaches courses in early British Literature, Chaucer and Medieval Culture, Shakespeare, the History of the English Language, Arthurian Literature, Apocalyptic Literature, and Literature and the Bible. He regularly teaches Introduction to Literary & Cultural Studies, Critical Reading, and Critical Writing. He also very much enjoys teaching Latin and Old English to curious students.

Dr. Pitard’s research interests lie in later medieval and early modern studies, especially Chaucer, language conflict, and later medieval English religious culture. He has presented papers at many conferences in the U.S. and Europe, most often for the International Congress on Medieval Studies and the New Chaucer Society. He has published articles on Chaucer, later medieval and early modern religious culture and heresy, and later medieval language conflict.

Outside of work for the Department, Dr. Pitard’s current primary involvement at SRU is in the faculty union, APSCUF, because in a world where people are too often treated like parts in a machine, we need organizations whose purpose is to support us, because support inspires dedication.

Contact Information:

derrick.pitard@sru.edu | Homepage

316C Spotts World Culture Building

724.738.2369

Tim Ruppert

Dr. Timothy Ruppert is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Literatures, Languages, Cultures, and Writing at Slippery Rock University. He arrived at SRU as an instructor in 2009, a year after receiving his PhD in British Literature from Duquesne University. He teaches classes in literature, creative writing, cinema studies, and composition, including British Literature I and II, Nobel and Pulitzer Prize Literature, Creative Writing: Poetry, Playwriting, The Cinematic Review, Introduction to Film Analysis, and Introduction to Creative Writing.

With Dr. Danette DiMarco, Ruppert recently published Avian Aesthetics in Literature and Culture: Birds and Humans in the Popular Imagination, an edited collection featuring his essay on Anatole France's Penguin Island. Ruppert has also published work on Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, Louisa Stuart Costello, Anne Bannerman, and Agatha Christie. Pittsburgh theatre-goers have known Ruppert's dramatic work since 2000, when a one-act version of Vivienne netted Ruppert a Best Playwright Award nomination at the tenth Pittsburgh New Works Festival. Recent two-act plays include The Consorts (2016), Vivienne (2018), Vicious Lands (2020), and Serenade (forthcoming, March 2023).

Contact Information:

timothy.ruppert@sru.edu

316D Spotts World Culture Building

724.738.2366

Brian Sateriale

Contact Information:

brian.sateriale@sru.edu

317E Spotts World Culture Building

Lauren Shoemaker

Dr. Lauren Shoemaker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures, Culture, and Writing. A proud alumna of SRU (2007, BS in English Education), she taught middle school language arts while completing her MA in English Literature at Gannon University in Erie, PA (2012). Starting as an Instructor in 2016 at SRU, she completed her PhD from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2017. Her areas of research include women's and postcolonial literatures and theories of race, gender, and sexuality. She teaches composition, an introduction to gender studies, literary theory and cultural studies, women's literature, and queer literature and film.

Interested in both popular culture and traditional literature, she has published articles on Caribbean, diasporic writer, Marlon James' novels, Jamaica Kincaid's cross-genre essays in A Small Place, and recently on the popular conspiracy theory, Birds Aren't Real. Her research and courses center questions about literature, representation, and social justice. She advises the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance student organization and serves as a departmental and campus-wide advocate for inclusive pedagogies, teaching practices that identify and address inequalities in and out of the classroom.

Contact Information:

lauren.shoemaker@sru.edu

316E Spotts World Culture Building

724.738.4684

John Silvestro

Dr. John J. Silvestro received his PhD in Composition and Rhetoric from Miami University (OH) in 2017 while specializing in Interactive Media Studies. Dr. Silvestro has an M.A. in English from Northern Kentucky University and a Bachelor of Science in Communications with a focus on print journalism from Ohio University.

Dr. Silvestro grew up in Allegheny County. He researches the processes through which people write; he has a particular focus on how professional writers, particularly writers working either in local communities or on video games, write for their complex audiences and contexts. His teaching centers on having students participate in complex writing situations that mirror those of the writers he studies. He aims for his students to leave his classes with valuable writing experiences, skills, and knowledge that they can apply to future professional, communal, and personal situations.

Contact Information:

john.silvestro@sru.edu

316F Spotts World Culture Building

724.738.4031

Ryan Stryffeler

Dr. Ryan Stryffeler earned his Ph.D in English in 2010 from Ball State University in Indiana. Dr. Stryffeler also has an M.A. in English from Northern Arizona University and B.A. degrees in both Political Science and English from Hillsdale College in Michigan.

Born and raised south of Youngstown, Ohio, Dr. Stryffeler is an avid outdoorsman and hiker. His professional expertise and research interests are in Veteran's Studies, Masculinity Studies, American Literature before WWII, and all sorts of Speculative Fiction. His "real-talk" style of teaching employs active learning techniques to foster an engaged classroom experience and he strives to connect all learners to the benefits of effective written and verbal communication skills in life and the workplace.

Contact Information:

ryan.stryffeler@sru.edu

317F Spotts World Culture Building

724.738.4885

Jason Stuart

Dr. Jason Stuart received a PhD in English, with a concentration in Writing, History, and Theory, from Case Western Reserve University in 2010. A graduate of Slippery Rock University's Master's in English program, Dr. Stuart now works as graduate coordinator for the Master's in English offered by Languages, Literatures, Cultures, and Writing. Dr. Stuart received a B.A. in English from Immaculata University.

Born in California, Dr. Stuart specializes in the history and use of computers in writing, educational technologies, and publications design. Dr. Stuart's courses use project-based learning to help students understand how writing helps people solve problems. Dr. Stuart teaches in the Professional Writing concentration.

Contact Information:

jason.stuart@sru.edu

316B Spotts World Culture Building

724.738.4360

Salwa Vandegrift

Professor Salwa Vandegrift

Mrs. Salwa Vandegrift has been the Arabic language and culture Instructor at SRU from 2015 to the present. She received her master’s degree in Arabic Language and Linguistics in 2022 from Penn West University.

Arabic is the native language of Mrs. Vandegrift; she was born and raised in Iraq. She graduated from Mosul University in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, and in 2004 she obtained her master’s degree in Thermal Power. She found her passion in teaching after immigrating to the US in 2006. Since then, she has been busy growing scholarly and getting certificates in Voice Thread, Distance Learning, and many other courses to bring new techniques to her classroom and make learning fun and easy for her students.

Contact Information:

salwa.vandegrift@sru.edu

218L Spotts World Culture Building

724.738.2398

Frederick White

Dr. Frederick White is Associate professor of English and earned his Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from University of California, Los Angeles. His course load includes critical writing, critical reading, American English grammar, Native American literature and linguistics at both undergraduate and graduate levels. His research explores and examines historical, linguistic, and literary topics regarding Indigenations education, identity, language revitalization, oral literature, and contact narratives, all with a keen interest in his Haida culture. He also enjoys creative writing as well.

His first book, Ancestral Language Acquisition Among Native Americans: A Study of a Haida Language Class, addresses Native American and First Nations students learning and participation styles in the classroom setting. His second book, Emerging from out of the Margins: Essays on Haida language, Culture, and History explores Haida history and culture, with an emphasis on marginalized identity. He has published a poetry chapbook entitled White Feathers through the Sequoyah Research Center at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock and other poems have appeared in Pembroke Magazine, Westwind, Prince Rupert Daily News, Haida Laas: Journal of the Haida Nation, Taj Mahal Review, and Moveable Type. He has also published short stories in Lake Magazine, Studies in Humanities, Literature Today: An International Journal of Contemporary Literature and Black Magnolias. His faith journey began in 1981 and has kept following the straight and narrow path. Greatest accomplishment to date: being husband of Teresa Lee for 35 years, and father of four children.

Contact Information:

frederick.white@sru.edu

317J Spotts World Culture Building

724.738.2363

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Faculty O-Z

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