Faculty

Full Time Faculty

Dr. Barbara Fulks (1998), Chairperson, Associate Professor of Spanish
Barbara Fulks has a Ph.D. in Romance Languages from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She is co-author of the textbook, Nuevas voces hispanas (2002) and is a contributing editor for Lacanian Ink. Her primary areas of interest are the literature of the Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay), literary theory, and film theory, and she has published numerous articles on these subjects in scholarly journals. As co-ordinator of study abroad, she has led student groups to Mexico, Spain, and Costa Rica, and she has facilitated many students' independent study abroad plans.
E-mail: fulksb@davisandelkins.edu

Dr. Helen Benigni (1990), Professor of English
Dr. Helen Benigni is an English Professor at Davis and Elkins College; she teaches a range of courses and is involved in research. She teaches the freshman composition courses, introductory literature courses, and upper level courses in American Literature. Her Ph.D. work was in American Literature with an emphasis on Appalachian Literature. Over the years, she has developed several special topics courses, such as Appalachian Literature and Women in Literature, in response to the students' interests and needs. Recently, Dr. Benigni has published several articles and a book entitled The Myth of the Year: Returning to the Origin of the Druid Calendar (Lanham: University Press of America, 2003). Her research is focused on the mythology of ancient cultures, and her most recent addition to the curriculum is a course in World Mythology. After a trip to the British Isles with students from several colleges in Appalachia, she began to write about her experiences at the stone circles and monuments in Britain. Her article on Stonehenge and other mystic sites is easily accessed from the web-links listed below, if you care to explore them. Her own website with a chapter from her book and information about the discovery of an ancient Druid calendar is www.sequani.official.ws/
E-mail: puddy@davisandelkins.edu

Amir Jafri (2003), Assistant Professor of Communication
Amir Hamid Jafri joined the D&E faculty in August 2003 immediately after defending his doctoral dissertation at the University of Oklahoma, Norman. Expanding on his dissertation, he is currently working on a book exploring the custom of "honor killing" in certain societies. Before his doctoral studies, Amir completed his M.A. in Speech Communication at the University of Texas, Pan Am in 1996, and an M.B.A at the University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond in 1981. During the interim, he studied theater at H.B. Studios, New York City, and worked the mean streets as a cab driver. Before immigrating to the U. S., Amir received a B.Sc in mechanical engineering in his native Pakistan. Apart from the basic courses in the Communication discipline, he teaches classes in Rhetoric, Intercultural Communication, Nonverbal Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Mass Communication, Communication Theory, and related subjects.
E-mail: jafri@davisandelkins.edu

Dr. Bill King (1996), Associate Professor of English
Bill King received an A.B.J in Advertising (1987), an M.A. in Creative Writing (1990), and a Ph.D. in Literature (1995) from the University of Georgia. He has published critical essays on the works of two Poet Laureates of the United States, Robert Penn Warren and Robert Hass, and some of his own poetry in Wild Sweet Notes II: More West Virginia Poetry (2005). His favorite courses include Creative Writing, Literary Criticism, and American Nature Writing.
E-mail: bking@davisandelkins.edu




Dr. Bob McCutcheon (1995), Associate Professor of English
B.A., Duke University; M. Phil., Oxford University; Ph.D., Stanford University. Honorary: M.H.L., Davis & Elkins College
E-mail: mccutchr@davisandelkins.edu

Dr. Peter Okun, (1997)
Peter Okun has a Ph.D. in Literature from the West Virginia University. His doctoral dissertation was published by Routledge Press in 2002 as Crime and the Nation, a book length study of crime fiction and prison reform in the 1790's. He also has published on Jack London. Professor Okun has designed a number of courses at D&E, including Literature and the Culture Wars, Crime and Punishment in Literature, Magic and Fantasy in Literature, and Forbidden Knowledge in Literature. Other interests include Kafka, Dostoevsky, and teaching World Literature. He also collaborates with colleagues in the Green Studies program, and enjoys hiking and camping with students each fall during Woods Orientation.
E-mail: okunp@davisandelkins.edu

Adjunct Faculty