Our students and faculty engage in meaningful scholarship as an essential part of academic life. Together and separately, faculty and students pursue a variety of interests and seek answers to an expansive range of questions. Learn about some of the achievements and interests of our faculty and students on this page. Explore our ongoing initiatives in scholarship and creative artistry for a sense of where you fit in the Department of English at CSU.
Student and faculty scholarly achievements and works of creative artistry
Launching in Place
The outbreak of COVID-19 in March set the stage for a summer at home for most people, including Andrew Altschul, who had spent the last eight years writing a novel, which he expected to publicize heavily with a tour of in-person reading events.
The Student Experience
CSU English senior Natalia Sperry recounts studying abroad, collaborations with professional writers, department community.
Words for the Earth: English professor and Guggenheim fellow Camille Dungy shares environmental poems
CSU English professor and Guggenheim fellow Camille Dungy reads three poems in acknowledgment of the space we share with our planetary co-habitants.
The world in words
Assistant Professor Ramona Ausubel captures the world and the human condition in books; she teaches students to do the same.
The language of science
Erika Szymanski, assistant professor of rhetoric of science at CSU, uses language to make the invisible visible. That’s a challenge when you study microbes. Read more about microbiomes and about how our perceptions bring them into being.
In Poems: Claiming a culture
In how to Dress a Fish, Abigail Chabitnoy examines effects of forced assimilation of Native American People on descendents like herself. Click for excerpts.
Highlights and Accomplishments
Grants and Awards
- University Distinguished Professor Camille Dungy was awarded the Gwendolyn Brooks Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to contemporary American literature at the National Black Writers Conference in 2026.
- Sarah Cooper, assistant professor of English, was awarded a Blake Center for Engaged Humanities Fellowship for ’26-’27. Cooper was also awarded an archival research fellowship at Smith College and received a CLA Small Grant for Research, Scholarship, and Creative Artistry in support of her book project, Fighting Gender Verification: Behind the Scenes at the Olympics, 1992-1999.
- Professor Matthew Cooperman was named a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow. He plans to use the funding to complete his latest book, Time, & Its Monument.
- Harrison Candelaria Fletcher, associate professor of English, was awarded a prestigious NEA Creative Writing Fellowship in Prose in 2022. Fellowships of $25,000 each enable the recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel and general career development.
- Dan Beachy-Quick, professor of English, alongside former Vice Provost for Undergraduate Affairs Kelly Long, received, a Teagle Foundation/National Endowment for the Humanities planning grant (whose mission includes expanding access to liberal arts education). The $250,000 Teagle Foundation Cornerstone/NEH Planning Grant will fund two years of innovation in the undergraduate core curriculum.
- Zach Hutchins, professor of English, received a 2016 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to complete research in early American newspapers about representations of the slave trade.
- Cindy O’Donnell-Allen, professor of English and director of the CSU Writing Project, completed a two-year grant in 2015 from the National Science Foundation to work with the Fort Collins Discovery Museum on improving the science literacy of underserved elementary students in Fort Collins.
- Professor of English Ricki Ginsberg received a $30,000 Bohemian Fund grant to support the 2027 True Color Effects program, a youth leadership experience designed to support grades 4-8 students’ cultural belonging and support high school students who seek to become teachers. In fall 2026, the TCE program will be adding after-school STEM programming for the youth in addition to the summer programming.
- Professor of English Tobi Jacobi was named a 2026 John N. Stern Distinguished Professor. This award is presented annually by the College of Liberal Arts to honor two tenured faculty members who have demonstrated exemplary accomplishments in all aspects of their professional responsibilities–including research/creative artistry, teaching and advising, and service–over an extended period of time.
- Andrew Altschul, professor of English, was awarded a 2026 Ann Gill Faculty Development Award for his latest book, The Greatest Story Ever Told, a novel about grief, faith, art, techno-capitalism, and conspiracy.
- Associate Professor Nina McConigley was awarded a Blake Center for Engaged Humanities Fellowship for '25-'26.
- Lynn Badia, associate professor of English, was awarded a 2023 Ann Gill Faculty Development Award for her projects, “Imagining Free Energy: Fantasies, Utopias, and Critiques of America,” which focuses on how society would be transformed by “limitless” energy, and “A Century’s Quest for Free Energy,” which is an article that examines an FBI file Badia obtained after making a two-year Freedom of Information Act appeal to the FBI.
- The Center for Literary Publishing and center director Stephanie G'Schwind were awarded a twelfth grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in 2023.
- Sasha Steensen, professor of English, was named the 2023 John N. Stern Distinguished Professor.
Student Research and Creative Writing
Academy of American Poets Prize
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Jake Friedman was awarded the Academy of American Poets Prize in 2023 for "The Colorado River (A to Z)."
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Tashiana Seebeck was awarded the Academy of American Poets Prize in 2024 for "Ars Poetica at the End of Girlhood."
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Conrad Schaefer was awarded the Academy of American Poets Prize in 2025 for "Aboretum."
- Josephine Gawtry was awarded the Academy of American Poets Prize in 2026 for “Apopka."
AWP Intro Journals Project Awards
- In 2026, Selene Hofstetter won in poetry for her poem, “wanúukshi | ocean coast” and Liz Ramirez received honorable mention in prose for her essay, “Aztlán."
- In 2022, John Kneisley won in poetry for his poem “Volunteering at an Alzheimer’s Unit."
- In 2020, Esther Hayes received honorable mention in creative nonfiction for her essay “Lineal Gaps."
- In 2018, Emily Harnden won in creative nonfiction for her essay "9:47" and Catie Young received honorable mention in poetry for her poem "Headwaters."
- In 2017, Dana Chellman won in creative nonfiction for her essay, "How to Get to Heaven from Colorado."
- In 2016, English had two winners and one honorable mention across all three genres in the Intro Journals Project. We were the only school in the nation to manage such a distinction in the history of the award. Cedar Brant won the poetry category with her poem, “Make Blood.” Nathaniel Barron won the fiction category for the first chapter from his novel-in-progress, From the Watchtower. And Emily Ziffer received an honorable mention in the creative nonfiction category for her nonfiction essay, “Moving Forward, In Russian.”
The Graduate Student Showcase
The Distinction in Creativity award is presented collaboratively by the Graduate School and Office of Vice President for Research. This award recognizes the passion and personal contributions of these talented graduate students, and honors their commitment and efforts in their area of work.
- In fall 2022, Jake Friedman won 1st Place, C Culbertson won 2nd Place, and Chase Cate was named Honorable Mention.
The College of Liberal Arts Awards are presented to graduate students in liberal arts disciplines/departments for high achievements in the creative/performing arts and scholarly/research-based poster presentations.
- In fall 2022, Edward Sarasty Salazar was named a Top Scholar and presented a $500 award.
Celebrate Undergraduate Research and Creativity (CURC)
This annual university-wide competition showcases writing, oral presentations, service-learning, art, and research by CSU undergraduate students.
- In 2023, Cayden Clark-Johnson was awarded Best in Show: Written Work at CURC for his poetry collection, Yellow Planet.