Rhona Justice-Malloy, the new chair of theatre arts, earned her bachelor’s degree in theatre and English from the University of Evansville, and finished both a Master of Fine Arts in acting and a doctorate in theatre from the University of Georgia. Besides holding positions at Central Michigan University, Indiana University and the University of Georgia, she served as director, guest artist and co-producer at Highlands Playhouse in North Carolina.
Justice-Malloy’s research interests include girls’ culture, costume and decor, theatricalization of medicine and disease, Greek theatre and anatomical theatres. She is the editor of Theatre History Studies, for which she recently received a Gerald Kahan Award for editing from the American Society for Theatre Research.
“I’ve been impressed with everyone from students to faculty to administration since I arrived in Oxford,” Justice-Malloy said. “Now it’s my job to make sure the department continues to provide students with quality instruction, state-of-the-art performance halls and a top-notch experience.”
The new chair of the Department of English brings a wide variety of academic experiences to the College of Liberal Arts. Patrick Quinn has spent 27 years teaching English overseas—in Great Britain, Greece, Germany and Iraq. Before coming to UM, he was head of the Humanities and Arts Department at Worcester (Mass.) Polytechnic Institute.
Quinn earned his bachelor’s degree in English and history from the University of Guelph, Canada. He also earned a master’s in English literature from the University of Ottawa, Canada, and a doctorate in English literature from the University of Warwick, Great Britain. His expertise is in early 20th-century British literature, and he is the general editor of The Collected Works of Robert Graves.
Quinn said the UM English department is among the nation’s best for teaching literature. Now he wants to improve the teaching of writing, which he believes has been declining nationally for years. “I felt this was a place where I could make a mark and do things a little differently,” Quinn said. “That appealed to me.”