English

I received my B.A. in English from Bryan College in 1977, my M.A. in literature and moral philosophy from International College in 1982, and my Ph.D. in English from the University of Georgia in 1989. For the M.A., I studied with Russell Kirk, serving as assistant editor of The University Bookman and writing a thesis on “Original Sin in the Short Stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne, with Ralph Waldo Emerson Serving as Hawthorne’s Foil.” For my Ph.D., I worked with Marion Montgomery, who directed my dissertation on “Donald Davidson’s Agrarian ‘Creed of Memory.’” I teach the following courses at Hillsdale: Freshman Rhetoric and the Great Books, the American Literature surveys, Advanced Composition, the Bible as Literature, and upper-level classes on Flannery O’Connor and Walker Percy, and the Dialectal Tradition in Southern Literature. I've also taught the British Literature surveys and senior seminars on Humanism and on The Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization. I have lectured on the work of various Southern authors: the Southern Agrarians, Donald Davidson, Robert Penn Warren, Flannery O’Connor, M. E. Bradford, Richard Weaver, and Walker Percy. I have also written essays and reviews for various journals of scholarship and opinion, including Chronicles, Touchstone, The Southern Partisan, Modern Age, The Intercollegiate Review, The South Carolina Review, The Southern Humanities Review, The Chattahoochee Review, The University Bookman, and The Saint Austin Review. I am married to Lindy nee Ellingwood, a 1980 graduate of the College. We have four children (three boys and one girl, ages 17, 14, 10, and 7) and live just south of the campus on Fayette Street. Keeping track of these children on the home front is my second full-time job! Our family enjoys camping, hiking, swimming, water skiing, fishing, and sitting around the camp fire.

I am interested in 19th century American literature and 20th century Southern literature, especially the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, the Southern Agrarians (particularly Donald Davidson and Robert Penn Warren), Flannery O’Connor and Walker Percy.

English 360 (American Literature from 1820 until 1890) or a 400-level class on Flannery O'Connor and Walker Percy.

When students come to see you years after taking your class, when they thank you for drilling into them the importance of rhetorical concerns such as unity, coherence, and adequate development, or they thank you for emphasizing the moral nature of word choice (to use the wrong word is to bear false witness to reality)--these are the most gratifying student success stories.

Hillsdale College is a serious place for learning, with a social environment conducive to learning. It has a humane scale, with small classes and excellent student-to-teacher ratios. It attracts faculty who love their subjects and who frequently endeavor to integrate their subject with others; and it attracts students who are serious about learning.

Come here prepared to work hard and learn much.

Many of our students believe that the "fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (Proverbs 1:7). And many of them believe that theology is the queen of the sciences--that is, that religious knowledge is the basis for knowledge in other subjects. And many of our students are quite serious about learning. I like these things about our students.

michael.jordan@hillsdale.edu