Education

M.A., University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2018
B.A., Radford University, 2012

Bio

Donnie Secreast is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of English. She graduated from Radford University with a bachelor’s degree in English, and she earned her master’s from University of North Carolina-Wilmington. Her research focuses on the intersections of ecocriticism and humor in 20th and 21st century literature. Her current dissertation research examines nature writing that uses grotesque and absurdist humor to move beyond preconceived notions about the environmental literature genre. She is a co-editor of the literary journal Artemis.

Research Interests

• 20th and 21st Century Studies
• American Literature and Culture
• Creative Writing
• Gender and Sexuality Studies

Accomplishments

• Journal Article: “Carson’s Can of Worms: Grotesque Satire and Abjection in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 2021, doi: 10.1093/isle/isab021.
• U.S. Senator Phil Gramm Fellowship, Texas A&M University, 2022
• Elizabeth Qualls ’89 Fellowship, Texas A&M University, 2021-2022
• Journal Article: “Stones, Turkey Necks, and Gizzards: Grotesque Humor and Metaphors of Masculinity in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar.” Studies in the Novel, vol. 52, no. 1. 2020.
• Graduate Assistant, English Department, Texas A&M University, 2019
• Lechner Graduate Grant, Texas A&M University, 2019
• Graduate Assistant, English Department, University of North Carolina Wilmington