Elizabeth Taryn Mason, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor Department of English and Modern Languages Phone: (513) 244-4415 E-mail: elizabeth_mason@mail.msj.edu

Degrees:  Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University; M.F.A, Bowling Green State University; B.A., Michigan State University

Biography:  Dr. Mason is an assistant professor in the Department of English and Modern Languages. She earned a Ph.D. in English Literature from Case Western Reserve University, where she won the Graduate Dean's Instructional Excellence Award for Outstanding Instruction as a graduate assistant in English. She also holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing: Poetry from Bowling Green State University and a B.A. in English from Michigan State University.

Professor Mason's research interests include postcolonial literature from India and Africa, modern and postmodern literature, and women's studies. Her poem, "Chain of Command," was published in "Where Handstands Surprise Us: The Best of the Bean Street Reading Series," and she recently won first prize in the Greater Cincinnati Writer's League's Poetry Contest for her poem, "Crowd-Walking at the Art Festival."

Dr. Mason currently serves as the faculty advisor to Lions-On-Line, the Mount's student-operated literary magazine.

Read what Elizabeth Mason has to say:

Being a college professor has literally changed the way I interact with the world.  Everything I read from magazine articles to graphic novels, from poetry to advertisements might just end up as reading assignments for my students.   Furthermore, everything I see on television or in the movies or on the baseball diamond might just end up in the classroom. But, I didn’t go to college knowing that I wanted to become an English professor.  In fact, when I left home for college, I wanted to be a poet.  I imagined myself living in some studio apartment in some very hip, urban city and selling enough beautiful words to barely scrape up enough money to pay the rent.  When I went on to graduate school (also to be a poet), I had a teaching fellowship.  After one day on the other side of the classroom, I was hooked.  I still am.

 

Liz eating an authentic Belgian waffle in Brussels’ Grand Plaza