Join us in congratulating the December 2023, May 2024, and August 2024 graduates of the Masters and Doctoral Programs in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts at Murray State University. A robing ceremony will take place this Friday to celebrate all their hard work.
Program Directors
Dr. Kevin Binfield, MA in English & DA in English Pedagogy
Dr. David Pizzo, MA in History
Dr. Laura Liljequist, MA and MS in Clinical Psychology
Dr. Patrick Cushen, MA and MS General Experimental Psychology
Dr. Jeremy Phillips, Masters in Public Administration (MPA)
Dr. Latricia Trites, MA in TESOL
Masters of Arts in English
The graduate program in English Education is designed primarily for teachers in high schools and middle schools, prospective postsecondary instructors, students who want to pursue doctoral work and persons who simply love literature. Learn more at this link.
Dèna Morgan (May 2024)
After graduation, Dèna plans to pursue a doctoral degree.
Doctor of Arts in English Pedagogy Graduates
The Doctor of Arts in English Pedagogy seeks to improve students professional practice. The 48-hour degree program embeds advanced coursework in the content areas of English and Literacy within a framework of pedagogical theory and reflection with a special focus on the school to college transition. Learn more about the program here.
Eleanor Bartel (May 2024)
Cara Bertelmann (May 2024)
After graduation, Cara plans to “continue my research in educational technology and work in secondary English education while pursuing my goal of teaching at a college level.”
Her thesis is titled Perceptions and Influences: A Study on U.S. High School English Teachers’ Attitudes towards ChatGPT Integration in Instructional Practices.
Leanna Brunner (May 2024)
Leanna’s thesis is titled “Atlas: Targeting Student Writing Deficiencies through Assessment & Mentoring.”
After graduation, Leanna plans to teach at a university.
Ottrisha Olivia Shenelle Carter (May 2024)
Ottrisha Olivia Shenelle says that “After graduation, I plan to use my doctoral degree to continue my writing journey. As an author, writing is my passion. Therefore, I’m looking forward to writing about some of the interesting topics such as: culturally responsive pedagogy, electronic journaling, curriculum development, the learner-centered teaching approach among other important topics. In the future, I would like to become a writing instructor.”
Ottrisha’s capstone project is E-Journaling: A Virtual First-Year Writing College Course. She write that “My capstone project highlights the ways in which incorporating e-journaling assignments and activities within a virtual first-year writing college course can promote culturally responsive pedagogy.”
Yvonne Crawford (May 2024)
Manh Hieu Do (May 2024)
Amber Dumbuya (May 2024)
Julie Eng (May 2024)
Julie Eng completed a collaborative research project with Susie Fries. Her thesis is titled Faculty Perceptions of Multimodality: a study of Tennessee and Virginia English community college instructors’ attitudes and practices of multimodality. They write that “our research project addressed faculty perceptions of multimodality and multimodal assignments across the majority of community colleges in Tennessee and Virginia, adding to the conversation of English faculty curriculum and beliefs regarding multimodal practices in Composition I and Composition II classrooms.”
After graduation, Julie writes that “I have moved out of the high school English world and am teaching full-time at the community college level. This degree allows me to confidently apply the theories and practices that I learned throughout my years at Murray State University.”
Laurel Eudy (May 2024)
Laurel says that “after graduation, I plan to continue my work as an adjunct professor for the University of Tennessee at Martin while also teaching English at my high school alma mater. I desire to continue my research and eventually publish articles examining the effects of educational company monopolies and state testing standards.”
The title of her thesis is The Effects of Teaching the Pearson MyPerspectives Textbook with Fidelity on English II Students’ Benchmark Scores. Laurel writes that “After going through the textbook adoption process, my English department chose the Pearson suite of materials. It was not until the adoption was complete that we were told that we would have to teach these materials with fidelity. There was some pushback from our department wondering if this was truly the best course of action for our students. Therefore, I decided to research how teaching the Pearson text with fidelity effects student benchmark scores. Theoretically, since Pearson authors the test for our state, then teaching the text with fidelity would yield the best results. However, when no variation from the text is allowed, how does that ultimately affect student testing results as well as teacher morale?”
Aniko (Nyusti) Fields (May 2024)
Aniko’s thesis is titled AI-Assisted College Composition for Non-native Speakers of English. In it she “found the appearance of generative AI and its use as a new tool a fascinating opportunity for education. As an English language learner, I find it essential to accommodate students who struggle with writing in English as their additional language. My capstone project combines the two in hopes of creating a course design that serves students in their present and into their future endeavors.”
Susie Fries (May 2024)
Susie Fries completed a collaborative research project with Julie Eng. Her thesis is titled Faculty Perceptions of Multimodality: a study of Tennessee and Virginia English community college instructors’ attitudes and practices of multimodality. They write that “our research project addressed faculty perceptions of multimodality and multimodal assignments across the majority of community colleges in Tennessee and Virginia, adding to the conversation of English faculty curriculum and beliefs regarding multimodal practices in Composition I and Composition II classrooms.”
After graduation, Susie writes that “I am looking for a full time position at a university or at a larger community college than the one I am currently employed with.”
Lauren Gliot (May 2024)
Lauren says that after graduation she plans to “continue to teach in a South Carolina public school.”
Her thesis is titled Teacher Burnout in a Suburban Georgia Charter School as a Snapshot of Teacher Shortages and Burnout Across America. This study looks at the “determining the factors of teacher burnout in a suburban Georgia charter school as a representation of teacher burnout across the United States.”
Sean Hackney (May 2024)
Sean’s thesis is titled Preparing Students for Success in First-year Writing: Community College Instructors’ Perceptions, Expectations, and Interventions. This capstone project gives voice to community college instructors who are tasked with implementing mandated first-year writing interventions that rightfully give underprepared students access to credit bearing coursework.
Scott Higginbotham (August 2024)
Scott’s thesis is titled Preparing Students for Success in First-year Writing: Community College Perceptions, Expectations and Interventions. About it, he writes “Our capstone project provides background information about how interventions like those that are currently being planned and implemented in Illinois and Louisiana, are supporting underprepared students to be successful in first-year writing. Our research captures what a group of community college instructors from both states perceive as the best approaches for supporting students in first-year writing courses and their view of what constitutes college writing so that their expertise can be leveraged to ensure interventions are as successful as possible.”
Erin Ives (May 2024)
Erin’s thesis is titled, Reading & Writing the World: Student Agency as a Means to Value Voice & Identity. She write that “working collaboratively with a doctoral colleague, we researched dismantling traditional hierarchies of print supremacy and of the traditional literary canon in the high school ELA classroom.”
Janet Jarrell (May 2024)
Janet’s thesis is titled It’s a Post, Post, Post World: California Community College Professors’ Perceptions of Teaching First-Year Composition after AB-705, COVID-19, and ChatGPT. This study analyzes data collected from a focus group, follow-up interviews, and course documents to understand how veteran community college English professors see the purpose of first-year composition in a dramatically altered community college landscape. They reflect on how they promote equity and social justice in their classrooms as they support students’ growth as readers, writers, and actors in this world.
Leslie Kaczmarczyk (May 2024)
Lucas Launius (May 2024)
Marjorie Lewis (May 2024)
Her thesis is titled Integrating Foundational Legal Principles of Evidence with Supporting Details in Composition to Teach and Enhance English Essay Instruction While Fostering Critical Thinking Skills in Middle School Students. This capstone project links scholarship in foundational legal principles of evidence with scholarship in supporting details in English composition to demonstrate how both disciplines influence each other. With that having been linked, the ensuing course was developed with the purpose of creating a new pedagogical strategy for teaching composition with law as its foundation.
Amber Mabus (May 2024)
The title of her thesis is Teaching Community College Composition Students How to Use AI Technology Ethically Through the Research Process.
Janae McBride (May 2024)
Melissa McCabe (May 2024)
After graduation, Melissa will “continue to teach online English and Reading at Cochise College in Sierra Vista, Arizona and continue to teach English Language Arts to incarcerated male youth in upstate New York.”
Her thesis is titled The Integration of Social-Emotional Learning with Active Military and Student Veterans in Online College Courses. She writes that “my project examines how Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is being implemented in online college classrooms that have a high enrollment of active duty military and student veterans. SEL directly targets common social and emotional needs of this student population.”
Cheryl Metcalf (May 2024)
After graduation, Cheryl plans to continue teaching at her current job.
Her thesis was titled How can dual credit teachers effectively teach deeper analysis of Shakespeare’s plays?.
Eric Morris (May 2024)
His thesis is titled Grammar through Glossopoeia: A Study into the Use of Constructed Language Creation as a Means to Decrease Syntax Errors, Increase Reflective Writing, and Increase Language Knowledge. High school dual-credit students took part in an introductory linguistics unit in the second half of their First-Year Composition class in which they created their own constructed language. This study ascertained whether students might think more reflectively about language, language use, and writing as they completed a writing task after being armed with a more scientific understanding of how languages function.
Cheryl Rhodes (May 2024)
Mitchell Sexton (May 2024)
Mitchell’s thesis is titled Multilingual Learners Speak Out: The Perspectives of High School ESOL Students on Computer-Assisted Instruction and Digital Literacy Platforms.
Brandy Simmons (May 2024)
Brandy’s thesis is titled Perceptions and Influences: A Study on U.S. High School English Teachers’ Attitudes towards ChatGPT Integration in Instructional Practices.
Yixing Sun (May 2024)
Brenda Tolian (May 2024)
Alissa Vogelgesang (December 2023)
Her thesis is titled English Curriculum Redesign: An Investigation of Jefferson County Public School’s Standards Alignment in High School English Courses. With the goal of creation clear, standards-based language, I researched best practice for curriculum design at the high school level and applied that to my district’s current design. In the process, I realized major changes needed to occur, and thus I realigned each of the courses to prioritize the standards every two years and put reading and writing goals at the forefront, while also simplifying language for teacher so that they would be able to more successfully navigate the plan.
Jessica Winters Morgan (May 2024)
Her thesis is titled Quantifying Style, Creativity, and Voice: An Evaluation of the Rubric in Writing Assessment in Secondary English/Language Arts. This capstone project is an exploration of rubrics and their ability to maximize creativity in student work for the 7-12 ELA classroom.
Masters of Arts in TESOL
Murray State offers the only MA in TESOL in the state of Kentucky that focuses solely on TESOL content. We’ve been a leader in TESOL degrees for over 20 years and our faculty have a wide range of expertise and years of both domestic and international teaching. Learn more about this program here.
James Crossem (December 2023)
Masters of Arts in History
The master of arts program in history offers advanced study in American, European, and African/Asian/Latin American history. The course of study emphasizes the development of a coherent view of the past, the effective communication of ideas, and the familiarity with a variety of historical schools of interpretation. Learn more about the degree here.
Morgan Brian (December 2023)
Juan Carlos Castellanos (December 2023)
Juan Carlos’ research is “based on the internment of Japanese and Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. How the American military and government justified their means to round up over 127,000 Japanese and put them into camps around the west.”
After graduation, Juan Carlos has accepted a teaching position at Christian County High School.
Andrew DuBois (May 2024)
Brandon Hamilton (May 2024)
Brandon writes that his research “examines the Tennessee Valley Authority and its presence in Southwest Kentucky with the creation of the Kentucky Dam along with the establishment of the Land Between the Lakes Recreation Park. In addition, I analyze family removal within the region and TVA’s methods of land acquisition, claiming the organization used methods of coercion in order to acquire private land from local inhabitants. This research is still being edited for the Kentucky Historical Society.”
After graduation, Brandon plans to teach this coming fall.
Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology
The clinical program is based on the philosophy that the master’s degree is first and foremost a degree in psychology and that students should achieve a broad base of knowledge in the field. Learn more about the program here.
Cynthia Blair-Winding (August 2024)
Cynthia’s thesis aims to explore how perfectionism can lead to burn-out in academic and occupational settings.
Xavier Brown (August 2024)
Morgan Macke (August 2024)
Lauren Marshall (August 2024)
Wyatt Taft Randall (August 2024)
The title of Wyatt’s thesis is “THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG TRAUMA, NIGHTMARES, AND SUICIDE IN A CLINICAL SAMPLE”
Adrienne White (May 2024)
Adrienne’s thesis was on the “barriers to mental healthcare among men, the purpose of this research is to bring more awareness to barriers that act as obstacles for men to receive mental healthcare services.”
Masters of Arts in General Experimental Psychology
The General Experimental graduate program is based on the philosophy that the master’s degree is first and foremost a degree in psychology, and students should achieve a broad base of knowledge in the field, including strong quantitative and research skills. Thus, you will take four psychological foundations courses and three research foundations courses. Learn more about the program here.
Tyler Robinson (May 2024)
After graduation, Tyler plans to pursue his PhD in Social Psychology at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. He writes that “For my career, I am looking to either enter academia as a psychology professor or to enter industry as a data analyst/researcher.”
Tyler’s thesis is titled “Social Bonds and Perception: Investigating Individual and Contextual Differences in Empathic Processing,” He writes that “my project examined how two basic factors (i.e., differences in the degree of interpersonal closeness to a target and differences perspective-taking) affect the extent to which an individual shares in the positive emotions of another individual. My findings indicated that the closer one is interpersonally to a target, the easier it is for positive emotions to permeate. Curiously, perspective-taking differences largely failed to account for the sharing of positive emotions between respondents and a target. Implications of my work suggest that, at least according to self-report measures of affect, positive emotions are remarkably difficult to earn from a stranger.”
Masters of Public Administration
Murray State’s MPA program offers students a chance to develop their areas of specialization with various concentration options. Currently, we offer five concentrations in the areas of Public Management, Health Administration, Public and Community Health, Economic Development and Non-Profit Leadership Studies. You can learn more about the program here.
Margaret Chidinma Anyamele (May 2024)
Bridget Byrnes (May 2024)
Casey Cash (May 2024)
Toni Chaney (August 2024)
Amanda Clappes (August 2024)
James Cockerham (May 2024)
Jordan Crosno (December 2023)
Jordan’s thesis “aimed to evaluate the official “.gov” webpages for the city of Murray, Kentucky, against, first, a compiled list of criteria developed to establish a modern standard of excellence for official municipal pages geared towards e-governance; secondly, against results from similar studies; and third, a few development ‘placement’ models gathered from the e-government literature.”
Christopher Culberson (August 2024)
Ahmad Dannaoui (December 2023)
Tena Fields (May 2024)
Lindsey Hawkins (May 2024)
Anne Hess (December 2023)
Angelica Hightower (December 2023)
Courtney Liddell (May 2024)
Ikechukwu Christian Oguamanam (May 2024)
Ikechukwu Christian’s thesis is titled “The Application of Telemedicine services to Improve the Quality of Emergency services in Nigeria.” He writes that “A nation’s people have long been considered its most valuable resource. Therefore, even though there may be some obstacles to achieving these goals due to economic, geographic, and demographic factors, the government must take some sort of accountability to its constituents for medical issues since health should be prioritized. It will be recalled that on October 20, 2020, the Nigerian military opened fire on demonstrators participating in the Endsars(a police force operating in a manner inconsistent with its original purpose) demonstrations. As a result of the lack of emergency assistance, multiple lives were lost. This raised concerns about things like whether or not telemedicine was used properly. Would they be open to using telemedicine? Is the network infrastructure adequate?”
After graduation, he plans to “I intend to look into more ways to provide telemedicine access for the rural community, particularly in nations with extremely low rates of awareness.”
(Curtis) Sampson Opoku
Curtis’ thesis looks at the “moderating role of customer loyalty on corporate social responsibility.”
Rafael Orozco (December 2023)
Courtney Parker (May 2024)
Jason Parsons (May 2024)
Shay Quisenberry (May 2024)
Emily Rohr (May 2024)
Emily’s thesis is titled “Assessing the Need for A Consumer Food Date Labeling Education Campaign in Lexington, Kentucky.” She writes that “Amidst the escalating concerns over global warming, methane reduction has become a major goal for many countries. Confusion over the meaning of food date labels contributes to waste among consumers and as the global population continues to climb many countries have shifted resources to address these misinterpretations. My capstone project focused on a consumer education campaign in Lexington, Kentucky centered around food date labeling to determine if it would significantly reduce food waste among adult consumers in the city.”
Raymond Shields (May 2024)
Raymond’s thesis is titled “Hidden Dangers on the Job: A Review of Vicarious Trauma and Secondary Traumatic Stress Among Kentucky Professionals Whom Work with Survivors of Assault, Sexual Assault, Human Trafficking, Robbery, Burglary, and Homicide.”
Raymond writes that “As the Executive Staff Advisor for the Kentucky Office of Claims and Appeals, I help administer the Kentucky crime victims compensation program, which helps pay for expenses that survivors of violent crime incur as a direct result of their victimizations. Being intimately familiar with the dynamics of violent victimization, I chose to conduct my capstone project around this topic. I sought to learn whether any statistically significant differences existed among Kentucky professionals whom work with survivors of violent crime in terms of the levels of vicarious trauma and secondary traumatic stress they exhibit based on the category of survivor they predominantly worked with. My research produced what I found to be some interesting and unexpected findings that should be of benefit to Kentucky professionals whom work in the victims services field.”
After graduation, he plans “on parlaying my MPA into high-level leadership positions within the Executive Branch or perhaps even pursuing a legislative career. The sky’s the limit!”
Amanda Surmeier (August 2024)
Tiffany Tubbs (August 2024)
Phoebe Wheeler-Crum (May 2024)
Phoebe’s thesis looked at “the implementation of Harm Reduction programs and the reduction of drug overdose deaths and drug-related health issues.”
After graduation, Phoebe plans to work as a Kentucky Department for Public Health Training Coordinator.
Nicole York (May 2024)
Nicole’s thesis project studied “how the dual credit CTE Academy is affecting enrollment of CTE programs at SIC.”
Congratulations Graduates!
An advanced degree is an investment in your educational and professional development that can aid in the achievement of your career goals. Whether you are hoping to make a career change or advance further within your current industry, Murray State University will help you grow. In addition to supporting your employment aspirations, our graduate programs will contribute to your ongoing personal development with various available enrichment opportunities within our community. If you want to learn about any of the graduate programs offered at Murray State University, check out The Graduate School website linked here.
College of humanities and fine arts 