Eastern Illinois University :: English - Summer Camp 2016 Info for Campers

Summer Camp: Info for Accepted Campers

Welcome, English summer campers! We look forward to meeting you (and welcoming back those who are joining us for the second time). An acceptance letter from camp director Dr. Melissa Ames will be sent to all accepted campers by May 15th, referencing important paperwork that must be completed by May 24 and uploaded online. (These forms are located below.) On this page, you can also complete the RSVP forms for the showcase brunch and campus tour/appointments. In addition, you can learn more about the camp faculty and counselors from their biographies featured on this page.

Paperwork (due May 24)

RSVP Forms (due June 7)

English Summer Camp Faculty and Counselors

		Camp Director
		Dr. Melissa Ames is a Professor of English and the Director of English Education at Eastern Illinois University specializing in media studies, television scholarship, Internet studies, popular culture, feminist theory, and pedagogy. Her work has been published in a variety of anthologies and journals, ranging in topic from Television Study, New Media, and Fandom to American Literature and Feminist Art. Her most recent and forthcoming publications include her books,Women and Language: Gendered Communication Across Media (McFarland, 2011),Time in Television Narrative: Exploring Temporality in 21^stCentury Programming (University of Mississippi Press, 2012), How Pop Culture Shapes the Stages of a Woman’s Life: From Toddlers-in-Tiaras to Cougars-on-the-Prowl (Palgrave, 2016), Small Screen, Big Feels: Television & Cultural Anxiety in the 21st Century (University of Kentucky Press, 2020), and Hashtag Activism: Case Studies on Social Justice Movements (U Colorado/Utah State Press, 2022); chapters in Grace Under Pressure: Grey’s Anatomy Uncovered (2008),Writing the Digital Generation (2010), Bitten by Twilight: Youth Culture, Media, and the Twilight Saga (2010), Manufacturing Phobias (2016), Adventures in Shondaland (2018), Young Adult Literature in the Composition Classroom (2018), and The Vampire Diaries Collection (2022); and articles inThe Journal of Dracula Studies (2011),The Women and Popular Culture Encyclopedia (2012), The High School Journal (2013), The Journal of Popular Culture (2014), Pedagogy (2017), First Monday (2021), and Peitho (2023).
		Camp Faculty
		Kristen Patterson is currently a graduate student here at EIU; she also completed her bachelor's degree here. Some fun facts about her: she likes walking the trails at lake Charleston, she frequently walks her dog on the trails, she love ice cream and coffee, and will be looking for a high school English Job after graduation! She will be teaching pre-writing strategies with a focus on journaling.

		Maddy McLaughlin is a recent graduate of EIU, majoring in English Teacher Certification with a minor in Creative Writing. Her hobbies include singing, going to Barnes & Noble, reading (both novels and Manga!), and volunteering at her local animal shelter. Her all-time favorite book series is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, although she has been reading various thriller and mystery books lately with the goal of reading 20 novels over the summer.

		Travis Moody (he/him)works as EIU’s Dual Credit and Outreach Coordinator by day, but he teaches for the English department by night! He’s also a graduate of EIU! In 2020, he got his Bachelor’s in English (Literary and Cultural Studies). In 2022, he completed his Master’s in English (Composition and Rhetoric). His favorite areas of study are postmodern American literature and composition in the first-year writing classroom, and his master’s thesis focused on the use of comics to teach writing! In his free time, Travis loves playing video games (currently working his way through Fallout 4 for the first time), listening to music (currently obsessed with The First Two Pages of Frankenstein by The Nationals), and hanging out with his dog, Bigly (there will absolutely be pictures during class)!

		Marjorie Worthington received her bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College, her master's from the University of Missouri and her PhD from Indiana University. She teaches courses in American literature and focuses her research on subjects related to contemporary, particularly experimental, fiction. Her work has appeared in journals such as LIT: Literature, Interpretation, Theory; Twentieth-Century Literature; Studies in the Novel; and Critique. Her book The Story of "Me": Contemporary American Autofiction was published in November, 2018 by The University of Nebraska Press.

		McClain Homann is a local from Mattoon and senior English major with concentrations in creative writing and literary studies. McClain is also completing a minor in Premodern Global Studies. He has been a part of the English Studies Summer Camp since its first year in 2015 as a camper, until he attended Eastern Illinois University in 2018. He cannot wait to help inspire and motivate young creative minds and establish long lasting friendships, just like the program did for him all those years ago.

		Jagoda Szostakiewicz graduated from EIU with a BA in English Language Arts. After staying away from EIU one semester, she couldn’t be away any longer and is now pursuing an MA in Composition and Rhetoric. As a high school educator, she has taught Credit Recovery and Sophomore English. When she is not teaching Jagoda loves reading Young Adult Literature, traveling, and rewatching The Good Place.

		Makenna Boyd graduated from EIU in Fall of 2022 with her BA in English Language Arts and a minor in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. While at EIU she completed an honors thesis about diversity in Marvel fanfiction (ask her about it!). Favorite books change all the time but a current favorite is The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. She has been a camp counselor the previous two years and is excited to return as a teacher. Her hobbies include reading, swimming, snowmobiling, and keeping up with everything Marvel! She is currently teaching at Unity High School in Tolono. She can't wait to see you all and have a great camp! :)

		Amie Whittemore (she/her) is the author of the poetry collections Glass Harvest (Autumn House Press), Star-tent: A Triptych (Tolsun Books), and Nest of Matches (Autumn House). She was the 2020-2021 Poet Laureate of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. Her poems have won multiple awards, including a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Prize, and her poems and prose have appeared in The Gettysburg Review, Nashville Review, Smartish Pace, Pleiades, and elsewhere.

		Camp Counselors	Counselors
		Ethan Miller is an incoming grad student at EIU who has majors in both Creative and Professional Writing. His dream is to become a published author, particularly in the horror and dark fantasy genres. While his major is in English, he has a deep love for art, engineering, history, astronomy, and pretty much anything else that interests him on a given day. In his free time, he enjoys playing Dungeons and Dragons, planning/writing short stories, and of course reading. Right now, he's rereading the Bartimaeus series by Jonathan Stroud, which he highly recommends to those interested in books with an interesting twist on the fantasy genre.
		Chevvy (Bella) Edwards (he/she/they) is a recent graduate of EIU, majoring in Creative Writin and minoring in Environmentalism. She plans to become a published author. Chevvy likes to write, play guitar, and draw in his free time. He is a big fan of The Umbrella Academy and Marvel, amongst many other things. They are almost always listening to music, their favorite artists being Palaye Royale and YungBlud with a sprinkling of All Time Low and MCR. Her favorite books change all the time, but his all time favorites include (but are most definitely not limited to) Peter Pan and Romeo and Juliet. English Studies Camp was (and remains) a big part of who they are, and they can't wait to experience it with you all!
		Anissa Massey (she/they) is a current student at Eastern majoring in both English Language Arts Education and Instrumental Music Performance on trumpet. They began at Eastern in Fall 2020 as a Music Education major, but their love for literature was quickly reignited after taking classes while merely exploring a minor in English. They are very passionate about cross-curricular applications and would love to answer any questions you might have regarding them or double majoring/minoring in college. In her free time, Anissa loves reading, walking and getting her chaotic brain out through various crafts and DIY projects. Beyond the world of classical and jazz music, Anissa loves artists like Chapelle Roan, Paramore, girl in red, Hozier, Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift, and Renee Rapp.