suny oswego creative writing faculty

SUNY Oswego BA in Creative Writing

How much does a bachelor’s in creative writing from suny oswego cost, suny oswego undergraduate tuition and fees.

Does SUNY Oswego Offer an Online BA in Creative Writing?

Suny oswego bachelor’s student diversity for creative writing, male-to-female ratio.

About 69.7% of the students who received their BA in creative writing in 2019-2020 were women. This is less than the nationwide number of 72.8%.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

Around 21.2% of creative writing bachelor’s degree recipients at SUNY Oswego in 2019-2020 were awarded to racial-ethnic minorities*. This is lower than the nationwide number of 26%.

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People in Action: Aug. 29, 2024

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In addition to her nationally acclaimed novel “Off the Books,” Soma Mei Sheng Frazier of the English and creative writing department published pieces in two prominent publications related to the elements in the book. In People Magazine, Frazier explored the psychological effects of keeping family secrets in “I Want to Talk About Uncle Wallace: Against Chinese American Stoicism.” Frazier also wrote “Our ‘Long-Living Badasses.’ Why So Much Asian American Fiction Focuses on Grandparents” for Literary Hub, which she described as “ a dream of a venue to be published in.”  

Communication studies professor Ulises A. Mejias continued work related to his recent book “Data Grab: The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How to Fight Back” (co-authored with Nick Couldry and simultaneously published in the UK by Penguin Random House , in the U.S. by Chicago University Press , and in Germany by S. Fischer Verlage ). 

Mejias was invited to present his work at the conferences Platforms and the Right to Information (Harvard University), Museo digital: Inteligencias y artificios (National Autonomous University of Mexico),  Digital Inequality and Data Colonialism Symposium (Üsküdar Üniversitesi, Türkiye) and the re:publica festival (Germany). He also delivered a book talk at the London School of Economics . A translation of one of his articles was published by the Center of Digital Culture (Mexico) as “Soberanía de datos, racismo y control migratorio” , and he published op-eds in TruthOut (“AI Companies Want to Colonize Our Data - Here’s How We Stop Them.”) and Al Jazeera (“Colonialism is challenged but also reinforced on university campuses”). He published the book review "Uses and Abuses of the Conquista"  in the journal Alternatutas. In addition, he was featured in the podcasts Por Todos los Medios (Chile), Techtonic (U.S.), Carne Cruda (Spain), and Intelligence Squared (UK). He was interviewed or his work was mentioned in Information (Denmark), LSE Blog ,   SE Book Review (UK), Choice Connect (Association of College and Research Libraries),  Moment (Austria), and in the following German media outlets: Manager Magazin ,  Tagesspiegel,  Bayern ,  Deutschlandfunk ,  Einmischen  and Süddeutsche Zeitung .

Modern languages and literatures chair and faculty member Gonzalo Aguiar Malosetti recently contributed to two significant publications in the field of Latin American cultural studies:

• Aguiar Malosetti co-edited a dossier titled “Current Approaches to Latin American Cultural Modernity” for the peer-reviewed Latin American journal RECIAL. This dossier explores themes related to cultural identity and production in 20th-century Latin America. Within this dossier, Aguiar Malosetti authored an article focusing on historical trends of authoritarianism in Brazil through an examination of Brazilian prison films. His work examines how these films reflect and critique the authoritarian dynamics within the nation, providing a cultural lens on its political and social structures. 
• Aguiar Malosetti also contributed a chapter to the edited volume “Mapping Diversity in Latin America: Race and Ethnicity from Colonial Times to the Present” (Vanderbilt University Press). His chapter delves into the complex issues of race and ethnicity in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay. It specifically addresses the ongoing struggles faced by Afro-descendants and indigenous communities, such as the Mapuche people, toward combating racial discrimination and gaining political footing in the public arena. The chapter highlights the challenges these groups encounter in achieving social recognition and equality across various societal levels.

Biological sciences faculty member Poongodi Geetha-Loganathan co-authored two recent articles:

• “Biochemical Analysis of Browning Activities in Apples Research” with student co-authors Christian DiBiasi  and Nathanial Stahl  and collaborator Vaduod Niri from the chemistry faculty in Biology Bulletin
• “Effects of Nicotine on Chicken Embryo Development: A Review” with student co-authors Ashley Federico and Muhammadzohir Hidoyatov and biological sciences faculty member Suresh Nimmagadda in the American Journal of Zoology

Public relations faculty member Khairul Islam recently published a research paper titled "Compound crisis communication and household preparedness: Examining the effects of evidence type and crisis message fatigue" in the Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management.  

Michelle (Shelly) Sloan , assistant dean of students for student well-being, recently received three awards from the SUNY Council of Senior Student Affairs Officers -- the Mental Health Champion Award and two honors for outstanding programs. The Mental Health Champion Award recognizes faculty and staff who go above and beyond their job responsibilities to demonstrate exceptional dedication and advocacy for mental health awareness and support within the campus community. Sloan also earned an Outstanding Student Affairs Program Award for SUNY Oswego’s 30-day Sleep Challenge as well as the Sexual Health Vending Program.

Do you have an item for People in Action? Have you, for example, recently presented at a conference, published a research paper or earned a regional or national award?  Submit your news via our Oswego Today form .

Introducing new faculty members for the 2024-25 academic year

SUNY New Paltz is pleased to introduce the scholars, educators and creators who are joining our academic community as new, full-time, tenure-line faculty in the fall 2024 semester.

Please join us in welcoming them to New Paltz!

Mengfei Chen, Business

Mengfei Chen joins the School of Business as Assistant Professor of Business Analytics. She earned her Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and her B.S. degree in aerospace engineering from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China. Her research interests include data-driven optimization and physics-informed machine learning, with applications in predictive quality in manufacturing systems and supply chain network design.

Sreya Banerjee, Computer Science (Starting January 2025)

Sreya Banerjee is currently a Research fellow at Harvard Medical School Core of Computational Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts. She received her Ph.D. in computer science and engineering from the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana. Her primary scholarly interest is in creating novel, real-world applications through machine learning and computer vision. Specific areas of research include image enhancement for object detection and recognition, Extreme Value Theory models for visual recognition, biologically inspired learning algorithms, and digital phenotyping for monitoring depression and anxiety through smartphone sensors and applications of large language models in education.

Kathleen Blackburn, English

Kathleen Blackburn joins the English Department as an Assistant Professor. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Blackburn’s research interests include narrative responses to the demands of a rapidly changing climate, environmental justice frameworks, research methods for literary writing, and forms of the literary essay and memoir. Her memoir, “Loose of Earth,” published in April 2024, explores the crossroads of water toxicity, religious fundamentalism, and her family’s quest for a miracle that never came. Other work has recently appeared in The New York Times, Texas Observer and Guernica.

Zachary Brown, Educational Studies & Leadership

After earning his Ph.D. in higher education at the University of Arizona, Zachary R. Brown was the Pathways to the Professoriate Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Black Studies and School of Education at the University of Rochester.  His research prioritizes an interdisciplinary approach to thinking and reading about the cultural politics of higher education. Drawing from Black Critical Theory, gender and sexuality studies, and psychoanalysis to inform his scholarship, Brown writes across various topics such as antiblackness, the politics of student protest, Black feminist critiques of the university, archival methods, and the psychic life of Black education.

Katelyn Clark, Teaching & Learning

Katelyn Clark is the new Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education in the Department of Teaching & Learning in the School of Education. Clark completed her Ph.D. in early childhood education at Rutgers University, where her research focus was teacher reflection and play memory. She is the author of the forthcoming book “Play Stories: Using your play memories and perspectives to inform teaching practice.” She loves to spend time with her husband, two children and many, many pets.

Dan Daly, Theatre Arts

Dan Daly joins the Department of Theatre Arts as an Assistant Professor in scenic design. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in technical theater from Fitchburg State University and a Master of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon in scenic design. Daly is currently a member of the National Queer Theater’s Collective and is a resident artist at Nancy Manocherian’s the cell theatre for the 2024-25 season. His design work has been seen off-broadway with the immersive play “Tammany Hall” at SoHo Playhouse, at the Under the Radar Festival at The Public, at South by Southwest with Third Rail Project’s site-specific work “Yours to Lose,” at RuPaul’s Drag Con, where he designed the booth for Monét X Change, and at the Barn Arts Collective in Southwest Harbor, Maine, where he built an inflatable theater for performance events, among other recent credits.

Meg Davis Roberts, Teaching & Learning

Meg Davis Roberts joins the Department of Teaching & Learning as an Assistant Professor of Adolescence English Education after receiving a Ph.D. from Teachers College Columbia University. Her research focuses on K-12 poetry pedagogy and philosophy of education. She looks forward to working with new colleagues and students and is particularly enthusiastic about the Hudson Valley Writing Project.

Seth Dornisch, Communication Disorders

Seth Dornisch joins the Department of Communication Disorders as an Assistant Professor. He is a certified speech-language pathologist, specializing in acquired neurogenic disorders of speech, language, and swallowing, and has a background in anthropology, psychology and communication disorders. His research has examined biomedical (swallowing) and psychosocial (quality of life) outcomes of neurologic decline in older adulthood.

John Drew, Communication

John Drew s a digital media scholar and practitioner in the Department of Communication whose research interests and creative practice explore intersections between neoliberalism, technology, immigration, border zones and spatial justice. His most recent digital media scholarship is funded by a $150,000 grant from the Mozilla Foundation’s Responsible Computing Challenge. Prior to joining the SUNY New Paltz community, Drew was an Associate Professor at Adelphi University on Long Island.

Sarah Ficucello, Communication Disorders (Started January 2024)

Sarah Ficucello ’04 ’05g (Communication Disorders) is a two-time SUNY New Paltz alumna returning to the Department of Communication Disorders as Director of Clinical Education and instructor of graduate courses related to assessment and treatment of communication disorders. Ficucello brings a wealth of experience in the field of speech-language pathology, specializing in the treatment of adults and adolescents with complex swallowing and communication disorders across various settings. Ficucello plans to use her knowledge to educate and mentor the graduate students as they progress through their clinical experiences.

Kerry Ford, Engineering

After serving as an adjunct faculty member since spring 2021, Kerry Ford ’19 (Computer Engineering) ’21g (Electrical Engineering) returns to his alma mater in a new role as Lecturer for the Division of Engineering Programs. Ford brings contemporary industry experience to his teaching, having served as a Hardware Developer for IBM’s Microprocessor Test Development Lab. He is eager to share his experience with his students and is looking forward to giving back to the SUNY New Paltz community.

Jessie Fredlund, Anthropology  (joining in January 2025)

Jessie Fredlund will join the Department of Anthropology as an assistant professor. She is a cultural anthropologist with research interests including the political history of rain in key water catchment in Tanzania. Lying at the intersection of environmental history, agrarian studies, the anthropology of religion, and gender studies, Fredlund’s work rethinks urgent issues around climate justice through a decolonial and feminist lens while placing contemporary struggles over water in historical perspective. Her research has been awarded grants from the Wenner-Gren Foundation, Fulbright, and the Global Religion Research Initiative.

Eunkyung Hwang, Art Education

Eunkyung Hwang holds a dual-title Ph.D. in art education and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies from Penn State University. She has a background in elementary and museum education in both South Korea and the U.S. Her recent research focuses on anti-ableist art education pedagogy and the experiences of children with disabilities in art education, explored through the lenses of critical disability studies and Asian critical race theory.

Kelly Kearns, Counselor Education

Kelly Kearns joins the Department of Counselor Education as an instructor. She is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in the state of New York and a Nationally Certified Counselor. Her love of the SUNY system began at SUNY Oswego and has only grown since she attended her first Institute for Disaster Mental Health conference at New Paltz. Kearns is completing her doctoral degree in Counseling and Counselor Education at Syracuse University, where she studied mindful eating in preschool students and female undergraduates’ interactions with foodways and wellness, suggesting implications for heightened awareness and discussion of foodways in the counseling field and an exploration of prejudice surrounding body size. Kearns is originally from Lockport, New York and has spent a significant amount of time living and playing across upstate New York and Eastern Canada. She is thrilled to now get to explore this new place called home.

Kasra Khademorezaian, Economics

Kasra Khademorezaian joins the Department of Economics as an assistant professor. He has a diverse background in industrial engineering, management, computer science, and economics. He received his doctorate in economics from the University of Oklahoma. His work focuses on industrial organization and microeconomics, with an emphasis on sectors such as airlines and the NFT market. His research interests include auctions, machine learning, econometrics, networks and applied microeconomics.

Greis Kim, Physics & Astronomy

Greis J. Kim joins the Department of Physics & Astronomy as an Assistant Professor of physics. She received her doctoral degree at SUNY Buffalo. Her work has focused on understanding and predicting the electronic properties of materials using computational techniques. She has paid special attention to studying intermediate band semiconductors for applications in solar cell devices. Kim is originally from Bogotá, Colombia, and in New Paltz, she has found an equally charming mountain view.

Elizabeth Lee, Art History

Elizabeth Lee joins the Department of Art History as an assistant professor and will also teach courses as a member of the Asian Studies Program. Her research specialization is East Asian Buddhist art with a focus on medieval stone sculpture from Korea and China. Her work incorporates digital humanities methodologies and new materialism frameworks. Lee completed her doctorate in art history at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and has worked as a post-doctoral teaching fellow in the school of Liberal Studies at NYU. She is deeply invested in promoting interdisciplinary pedagogies and community engagement in the arts.

Woojin Lee, Design

Woojin Lee has joined the Design Department as an Assistant Professor. She holds an MFA in digital interdisciplinary art practice from the City College of New York and an MS in communications design from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Her work explores the intersection of art and design by creating both physical and virtual representations of workplace environments, investigating the complex interplay between technology, humanity, rituals, behaviors and social relations.

Helen Lu, Business

Jiahui (Helen) Lu joins the School of Business as an Assistant Professor of Accounting. She holds a doctorate in business administration with a concentration in accounting from West Virginia University, an MBA in public accounting from SUNY Oswego, and a BA in economics from Syracuse University. Lu’s research focuses on conducting behavioral research in managerial accounting. Specifically, she integrates insights from psychology, sociology and other social sciences to examine how accounting information (e.g., controls and incentives) impacts managerial decision-making and employee behavior. Her current research covers topics such as performance feedback, whistleblowing and corporate social responsibility. Her goal is to enhance practitioners’ understanding of managerial accounting practices, bridging the gap between academia and practice.

Joseph Schaefer, Business

Joseph R. Schaefer joins the School of Business as an Assistant Professor or Entrepreneurship. He earned his Ph.D. in business administration, with an emphasis in management, from the University of Mississippi, his MBA from the University of Southern Indiana, and spent a year as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship at Louisiana State University. Schaefer’s research focuses primarily on the idiosyncratic ways that entrepreneurs define and evaluate the success of their businesses, as well as the meta-analytic examination of individual-level entrepreneurial characteristics. He lives in Highland, New York, with his wife and son.

Ksenia Sergueeva, Business

Ksenia Sergueeva joins the School of Business as an Assistant Professor of Marketing. She holds a Ph.D. in business administration from Drexel University, a Master of Science in retail management from Toronto Metropolitan University, and a bachelor’s degree in science from the University of Toronto. Sergueeva’s research focuses on the impact of new technology, including AI, in marketing. She aims to understand how consumers’ interactions with technology influence their thoughts, emotions and decision-making in the marketplace. She also explores how technology can be leveraged to create positive social outcomes. Sergueeva taught advertising and integrated marketing communications at Drexel and is excited to teach Marketing Principles and Digital Marketing at New Paltz this fall. Outside of teaching, Ksenia enjoys visiting museums, trying new recipes, and staying active with exercise.

Alex Sistko, Mathematics

Alexander Sistko joins the Department of Mathematics as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics. He holds a doctoral degree in mathematics from the University of Iowa, where he studied subalgebra structures of finite-dimensional algebras and their related symmetry groups. His current research centers around finitary proto-exact categories, particularly those which act as categories of representations defined over a “field with one element.” He is passionate about undergraduate mathematics education, supporting undergraduate research, and the mathematical preparation of teachers.

Karyn Stuart-Röhm, Music

Karyn Stuart-Röhm joins the Faculty of Music as an Assistant Professor Of Music Therapy. She obtained her Bachelor of Occupational Therapy degree at Stellenbosch University, her Master of Music Therapy degree at the University of Pretoria, and completed her doctorate in music therapy at the University of Melbourne. Her research interests include music interventions in the fields of elder care, neurology and dementia, caregiver support, and cultural and community music therapy. Karyn and her family have just moved to New Paltz from Cape Town, South Africa.

Hilary Tackie, Educational Studies & Leadership

Hilary Tackie joins the Department of Educational Studies and Leadership as an Assistant Professor of Social Justice Educational Studies. She received their Ph.D. from the Department of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago. Tackie’s research is focused on teachers’ agency, discretion, and how teachers’ understanding of their own purpose and responsibilities shapes their practice. Overall, their work explores educators’ roles in schools as potentially liberatory spaces. They are especially interested in how educators prepare to engage students in meaningful lessons about race, racial injustice, and sociopolitical concepts.

John Wilson, Music

John Wilson joins the Music Department as an Assistant Professor and the director of choral activities. He holds degrees from Rutgers University and Westminster Choir College. Prior to this appointment, he served as the choral director at Bridgewater-Raritan High School for 17 years. Wilson’s ensembles have been featured at regional choral conferences run by the American Choral Directors Association. He is in demand as a clinician and honor choir conductor. Wilson’s doctoral work examined the music of Caroline Shaw, focusing on the means and artistic ends to which she employed preexistent musical material in her new compositions. His musical interests span the entire choral tradition, but he has a particular affinity for chamber music in all of its many forms. Wilson lives in Princeton, New Jersey, with his wonderful family.

Christine Woodcock, Teaching & Learning

Christine A. Woodcock joins the School of Education, Department of Literacy, as an Associate Professor. She received a Ph.D. in reading from The University at Albany and a Master of Education in elementary and special education from Binghamton University. Woodcock’s research focuses on social justice pedagogies in literacy education, the role of literacy in the lives of adolescents’ negotiations of gender, as well as the growing interest in the science of reading and how best to support students with dyslexia.

• The September 2024 WellNYS Challenge: Learn the art of journaling

‘It was like we were garbage’: Stanford to ‘cycle out’ creative writing lecturers

One creative writing lecturer requested anonymity due to fears of professional retaliation. Pseudonyms and gender neutral pronouns were used to protect sources’ identities and improve readability.

Many of Stanford’s creative writing lecturers will be phased out over the next two years, as the University restores the Jones Lectureship’s term limit as part of the restructuring of the Creative Writing Program.

The restructuring, executed under the recommendation of a working group formed after the lecturers secured pay raises last September, was announced in a Zoom meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 21 by Humanities and Sciences dean Debra Satz, Humanities and Arts senior associate dean Gabriella Safran and Creative Writing Program co-director Nicholas Jenkins. The working group was composed of creative writing faculty members but no Jones Lecturers. 

The Jones Lectureship came with a four-year cap that only began to be enforced on fellows hired after 2019, but over the course of the years, some lecturers have stayed longer than the terms of the program. With the restoration of the original term-limited appointments, however, all current Jones Lecturers — including those hired prior to 2019 — will be let go within the next two years.

Some lecturers have already been affected; for instance, Rose Whitmore was dismissed in 2023 after winning that year’s Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize.

For Casey, a lecturer who requested the use of a pseudonym due to fear of professional retaliation, the Wednesday meeting felt cold and awkward.

“It was like we were garbage,” Casey said. “They didn’t even acknowledge how difficult this news would be, and when they did give us time to ask questions, the way they fielded the questions, particularly [Jenkins], it was just very cold and very dismissive.”

Safran disagreed with Casey’s characterization in a statement on behalf of the Creative Writing Program and the School of Humanities and Sciences. The Daily also reached out to the University for comment but has not obtained a response.

During the Wednesday meeting, the deans told the lecturers that they would be “cycled out.” They clarified that it meant the lecturers’ jobs would be “terminated,” Jones Lecturer Tom Kealey told The Daily. Some lecturers will be teaching for an additional year, while others will be teaching for two more years. Kealey called the situation a “future fire.” 

“We were brought in to discuss the ‘restructuring’ of the overall program, and then we were all fired,” Kealey said. One lecturer even told him the meeting felt like the Red Wedding from Game of Thrones. 

Five minutes after the meeting, an email from Christina Ablaza, the administrative director of the Creative Writing Program, informed the lecturers that they could sign up for one-on-one meetings to discuss their individual situations. 

Lecturers to be affected by the decision were frustrated that they had no say in the phase-out. But Satz and Safran do not have voting power in the working group either — only the faculty members do. The faculty members made the decision “to fire all 23 of their junior colleagues” in what Kealey called a “secret meeting.” 

“I got the impression that the deans themselves were confused as to why the professors had voted to fire them,” Kealey said.

Kealey believed that 10 out of all the creative writing faculty members on the working group only taught 13 undergraduate classes last year, while the same number of Jones Lecturers would have taught 50 classes. Lecturers also advise about 90% of students in the Creative Writing Program and 50% of students in Department of English, he estimated.

Many students expressed concerns that they will lose a strong community of creative writing peers and classes. They are also confused as to what the program will look like in the future. 

Students are receiving information from each other, lecturers, a recently created Instagram page called “ripstanfordcw” (which stands for rest in peace, Stanford creative writing) and even from Fizz, an anonymous social media platform. The confusion comes a week before course enrollment is set to begin on Sept. 5.

Students have tried to voice their displeasure with the current decision. A petition , started by Kyle Wang ’22 M.A. ‘23, has received over 600 signatures from students and alumni. He began the petition after talking to some of his friends about the positive impact many of the Jones Lecturers have had on their lives. Other community membes tried to write emails to University administrators.

In an online announcement published on Wednesday, Aug. 28, the Creative Writing Program states that Stanford will increase “the number of creative writing classes to better meet high student demand as well as ensuring competitive compensation for both the lecturers and fellows.” According to the statement, more details will be released in the fall. 

“I know they said that they were having meetings and they’re reworking [the program], but it’s not very transparent,” said English major Skya Theobald ’25.

Mia Grace Davis ’27, a prospective English major, wanted to take “English 190E: Novel Writing Intensive,” a class known for its popularity and limited enrollment, in the fall. Now she is not even sure if it will be offered in the future. 

For Davis, the main appeal of Stanford had always been its Creative Writing Program, but “it’s kind of falling apart as we’re watching it,” she said.

To students who have taken numerous creative writing classes like Theobald, it doesn’t make sense why lecturers are being cycled out when the program wants to meet the growing demand for creative writing. 

Prospective English major Annabelle Wang ’27 said what’s happening has even made her reconsider her course of study.

“It definitely makes the English major less desirable,” she said of the phase-out. “I think for students and the student experience, it’s going to be a really big loss. A lot of community is going to be lost.”

Theobald also expressed concerns the variety of creative writing classes will be reduced. A lot of them such as “English 190G: The Graphic Novel” and “English 190E: Novel Writing Intensive” are rarely offered at other universities, but incoming freshmen now may not have the same opportunities to explore those classes. For instance, specialized classes like “The Graphic Novel” may not be offered again if the lecturers who teach them are let go, Kealey said.

Students felt that the Jones Lecturers have shaped the way they view their own writing. Lydia Wang ’27 had often struggled to understand the value of her writing, but her lecturers were the ones to help her realize there is a place in the world for what she creates. 

“That’s the type of impact that really changes people, and when people change, they can change the world as well,” she said. “So I really hope that Stanford learns to value the humanities, and especially creative writing, because we’re creating change, and we’re creating something for ourselves.” 

Some lecturers remain hopeful that the restructuring, which is ongoing, will be reconsidered.

“I may be naive, but I still believe in Stanford. I think Stanford is much better than this,” Kealey said. “I think as light is shed on this, enough people are going to say, ‘This doesn’t make our university better. It makes our university much worse.’”

Judy N. Liu '26 is the Academics desk editor for News and staff writer at The Daily.

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