The University of West Alabama

Alan N. Brown, D. A.
Professor of English
Department of Languages and Literature
College of Liberal Arts
Station # 22
Wallace Hall 301A and 307A
  • (205) 652-3521
ab@uwa.edu
Degrees:
Initial employment at UWA: August 1986

Professional bio: After receiving my B.A. in English from Millikin University in 1972 and my M.A. in American Literature from Southern Illinois University in 1974, I taught English and German at Flora High School in Flora, Illinois, from 1974 to 1976.  Between 1976 and 1986, I taught English at Griffin High School in Springfield, Illinois.  I have been teaching English at the University of West Alabama since 1986.  Since 1990, I have also been a member of the Alabama Humanities Foundation’s Speakers Bureau.
Classes usually taught:
Additional UWA assignments:
  • Director of the Writing Center and the Compensatory Writing Program
Committees:
  • Chairperson, Freshman Studies Committee
  • Chair, Department of Languages and Literature’s Library Committee
Academic/Research Interests:
  • Southern Folklore, especially oral ghost narratives
  • American Literature
Current projects:
  • An Alabama folklore web page
  • A video of Alabama ghost stories
Recent publications:
  • Literary Levees of New Orleans.  Montgomery, AL:  Black Belt Press, 1998.
  • “Using Transcription in the Teaching of Basic Writing.”  ALADE Newsletter Fall 1999:  6-7.
  • “Seeing Is Believing:  Ghostly Images from Alabama.”  Ghosts of the Prairie Magazine Fall 1999:  5-9.
Recent presentations:
  • I led a discussion group on Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain at the 19th annual meeting of the Contemporary Literature and Writing Conference at Kennesaw State University on February 11, 1999. 
  • I read a paper entitled “Alabama’s Outlaws” at the annual meeting of the Alabama Historical Society at Montgomery on April 23, 1999. 
  • I read a paper entitled “The Literary Works of Ruby Pickens Tartt” at the Alabama Writer’s Symposium on May 8, 1999.  
  • I read a paper entitled “Utilizing Holistic Grading at the Secondary Level” at the NCTE Conference “Teaching Writing” in Orlando, Florida, on June 26, 1999.  
  • I read a paper entitled “Dracula Transfigured:  The Redefinition of the Literary Vampire in Anne Rice’s Interview  with a Vampire” at the Alabama Writer’s Symposium on may 8, 1999.  
  • I read a paper entitled “Women without Men:  Maintaining the Social Contract in Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain” at the international Conference on Utopia and Dystopia” at Atlanta, Georgia, on November 7, 1999.  
  • I read a paper entitle ”Using e-mail to Teach Basic Writing” at the annual meeting fo the Alabama Association for Developmental Education in Mobile, Alabama, on November 11, 1999.
Recent grants:
  • In 1999, I was awarded $2,500 by the Alabama State Council of the Arts and $500 by the UWA Research Committee to support the production of a folklore web site.
Other recent notable works:
  • I am nearing completion of a video of Alabama ghost tales entitled “Haunts from the Heart of Dixie.”
Additional information:
  • During the 1999/2000 season, I will be presenting lectures on the topics “Ghosts, Graveyards, and Sitting’ with the Dead:  Alabama Deathlore” and “Mysteries and Legends of Albama” for the Alabama Humanities Foundation’s Speakers Bureau.
  • My book Shadows and Cypress:  Ghostlore from the American South will be published by the University Press of Mississippi in October 2000.
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