Karen Compton – Associate Professor and Co-Chair of the English Department
Dr. Karen Compton, associate professor of English, co-chair of the English Department and director of the Academic Resource Center, has been teaching at Emmanuel since 2000. She completed her B.A. in English and Mass Communication and M.A. in English from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC. and her Ed.D. in Developmental Education Administration from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, TX. Her interests include American literature, developmental education, composition, student support, study skills, noncognitive skills, and peer tutoring. Dr. Compton, her husband, and their two children live in Anderson, SC.
Dr. Sarah Petrovic – Associate Professor and Co-Chair of the English Department
Sarah Petrovic, co-chair of the English department, earned her Ph.D. in English (2011) and M.A. (2005) in Literature and Film from Northern Illinois University and her B.A. in English Education (2003) from Taylor University. She has taught courses in film, contemporary literature, British literature, world literature, YA literature, composition, grammar, media criticism, and science fiction, and takes classes to the U.K. to study culture, literature, and film. Her publications include “Tipping the Odds Ever in Her Favor: An Exploration of Narrative Control and Agency in the Hunger Games Novel and Film” appearing in Space and Place in the Hunger Games: New Readings of the Novels (McFarland & Company, 2014) and “Changing Spaces of ‘Englishness’: Psychogeography and Spatial Practices in This is England and Somers Town” in Shane Meadows (Edinburgh UP, 2013). Other interests include, watching film and television; pop culture in general, K-pop especially; all manner of stationery; and reading, always reading.
Dr. Nathan Gilmour – Professor of English
Dr. Nathan P. Gilmour, Professor of English, joined Emmanuel’s faculty in 2009. His publications deal with C.S. Lewis, William Shakespeare, Friedrich Nietzsche, John Milton, Dante Alighieri, and the HBO series The Wire, among other things; and he teaches classes in writing, philosophy, medieval languages, literature, world religions, rhetorical theory, and theology. (Not all at once, of course.) He has appeared on a range of podcasts and serves as one of the main hosts of The Christian Humanist Podcast and one of the main interviewers on Christian Humanist Profiles, both shows on the Christian Humanist Radio Network, a group of podcasts dedicated to celebrating the life of faithful Christian thinking and to giving access to the best of Christian intellectual life to anyone with an Internet connection. He lives in the Athens area with his wife Mary, his son Micah, and his daughter Miriam.
Dr. Paul Petrovic – Associate Professor of English
Paul Petrovic, Associate Professor, completed his BA and MA at Kent State University and his PhD at Northern Illinois University. His academic interests center on Asian American literature, post-9/11 literature, contemporary American film, and the intersection between social activism and the nation-building inherent to literature. He is working on a book project about Vietnamese American literary texts that trouble both economic and legal precarity in order to uncover works that focus on more than themes of gratitude, indebtedness, and easy alliance. Dr. Petrovic has edited the collection Representing 9/11: Trauma, Ideology, and Nationalism in Literature, Film, and Television, and published on works by John Dos Passos, Don DeLillo, and U.S. war veterans writing about the Forever Wars. His scholarship appears in the critical collections Approaches to Teaching Asian North American Literature, Through the Black Mirror: Deconstructing the Side Effects of the Digital Age, and American Cinema in the Shadow of 9/11. He enjoys traveling and caring too much about music: indie, K-pop, and extreme metal.
Kyle Garrett – Associate Professor of English
Kyle Garrett, Associate Professor, holds a B.A. in English (2007) and an M.F.A. in creative writing (2010) from the University of Georgia. He joined the English department at EC in 2011, and began chairing the Foundations Department in 2022. His academic interests include the freshman experience, creative writing, and comp studies. Kyle loves Romans chapters 5-8, enjoys playing pickle ball, and enjoys white mochas and bubble teas with his wife, Stephanie, and daughter, Bella.
Dr. Jason Huddleston – Associate Professor of English
Jason Huddleston, Associate Professor of English, joined the English faculty in 2018. Dr. Huddleston (known by his students as “Dr. Hud”) earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Arlington. His research interests include masculine studies, Native American literatures, horror and science fiction films, and American Gothicism/horror. He has published articles and has presented at academic conferences on these areas. He also writes and has published short fiction under the pseudonym Eldritch Thrum. His pedagogic areas of interest include film/visual media, gender studies, gothic/horror, and social activism through writing. In his free time, he enjoys composing and performing his music, collecting toys from his childhood, and finding occasions to repose in his hammock.
Dr. Chris Pipkin – Associate Professor of English
Chris Pipkin received his Ph.D. in English from The Catholic University of America in 2016, but he has been teaching in some capacity since 2007. He teaches a wide range of composition and literature classes and gravitates toward works that feature travel or the supernatural. He is currently researching and writing about monsters and relics in medieval literature and is especially interested in how strange objects help us interact with our most important stories. He believes that literature is densely packed with glory, manufactured as it is by broken walking images of God. Recent publications include “Monster Relics: The Giant, the Archangel, and Mont-Saint-Michel in the Alliterative Morte Arthure” (Arthuriana,2017) and “Love Without Mesure: Proverb Problems in the Lais of Marie De France” (Neophilologus,2019). Although he is a medievalist, he also has a weakness for early twentieth century weird fiction and fractured fairy tales, as well as just about anything by the Oxford Inklings (C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and pals). His hobbies include spending time with his loud and attractive family, creative writing, and occasional travel, especially to Eastern and Central Europe. He is an active member of St. Thomas Anglican Church in Athens.
adjunct professors
Alex Genetti – Adjunct Professor of English
Alex Genetti has taught rhetoric and composition for Emmanuel College, Kennesaw State University, Athens Technical College, and North Georgia Technical College over the past five years. A native of Franklin Springs, he graduated from Emmanuel College in 2014 with a B.A. in English and from Kennesaw State University’s M.A.P.W. (Master of Arts in Professional Writing) program in 2016 with a specialization in Creative Writing. When he’s not engaged in teaching, he can often be found tinkering with creative writing projects that he never finishes.
Amy Hancock – Adjunct Professor of English
Amy Hancock holds a B.S. Ed. in Early Childhood Education, and a M.Ed. and Ed.S. in English Education from the University of Georgia. She currently teaches 10th grade Literature and 11th grade American Literature at Madison County High School. She taught full-time at Emmanuel College from 2010 until 2015, where she split her time between the English Department and the School of Education. Mrs. Hancock lives in Colbert with her husband, Jeff, and their children, Emily, Anna, and Eli. She attends Jones Chapel United Methodist Church in Danielsville, where she serves as Children’s Minister.
