ENGLISH

Dr. Cirilla teaches writing and literature courses at College of the Ozarks. He has published widely on a variety of  topics and serves as associate editor of Carmina Philosophiae, the journal of the International Boethius Society.

Charity Gibson joined the English department at College of the Ozarks in 2011. She teaches composition and literature courses, her specialization being American literature. She sponsors the campus chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honors Society. She enjoys writing, publishing, and presenting on issues related to motherhood, parenting, and contemporary culture. She received her Ph.D. in literature and criticism from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She completed her master’s degree in English literature at Missouri State University and her bachelor’s degree in English Education while also minoring in music at College of the Ozarks. 

Dr. Miller teaches writing subjects, including technical writing, creative nonfiction, and composition, as well as literature courses at College of the Ozarks. He trained in rhetoric and composition at Saint Louis University and also worked for several years in branding, marketing, and technical writing. He writes literary essays as well as scholarship on rhetorical theory, religion and literature, environmental humanities, and the Midwest.

Dr. David Pedersen joined the faculty at College of the Ozarks in 2017, after teaching at Fordham University, Mercy College (Dobbs Ferry, NY), and at two different high schools in the New York City Public Schools. He has published or is in the process of publishing essays on Old and Middle English literature and on the intersection of faith and education. All of his research engages the relationship between faith and imagination, and his current book project Wyrd-wise Christians: Conceiving Heroic Christianity explores uniquely heroic conceptions of Christianity in Old English wisdom literature.

Mrs. Paige Ray joined College of the Ozarks faculty in 2015. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Composition and Applied Linguistics program at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She enjoys writing and publishing in the subdisciplines of sociolinguistics and English pedagogy.

Dr. Smilie joined the English department at College of the Ozarks in 2017. Dr. Smilie has published papers on Homer, Boethius, Dante, Chaucer, Thomas More, Milton, Austen, G.K. Chesterton, and Laura Ingalls Wilder, ranging over a number of topics, including philosophical, theological, and poetic portrayals curiosity and depictions of pedagogical practices in works of fiction.

Dr. Aleshia O’Neal joined the College of the Ozarks' English department in 2022 after teaching in the English departments at Harding University (Searcy, AR) and York University (York, NE). Her teaching experience prior to college instruction spans 20 years in public, private, and homeschool settings. She received her PhD in Heritage Studies from Arkansas State University in 2019. Her specialization is cultural studies through the lens of literature, including an interest in African American Literature and Women in Literature.