Faculty/Staff Directory
Crystal O'Leary-Davidson - PhD
Professor
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| Office Hours: | Fall 2025 Office Hours - Jackson Hall 205 and Online Monday and Wednesday 9:00 am – noon Tuesday and Thursday 11:00 am – noon and on mutually agreed upon appointments |
| Biography: | Crystal O'Leary-Davidson is a professor of English. Her interests are Gothic and Horror fiction and film, comics, and Weird fiction. She is a founding member of the Atlanta Chapter of the Horror Writers Association and a board member of Broadleaf Writers Association. She co-edited the book Monsters of Film, Fiction, and Fable (2018), and her fiction has been produced on podcasts, such as Pseudopod Podcast, and appeared in journals and magazines like Vastarien, and various anthologies, such as Dark Ink’s collection Generation X-ed, and Southern Nightmares Volume 1: Georgia Gothic. |
| Courses: | Fall 2025 Schedule Session 1 Class ENGL 5991 Graduate Internship Full Session Classes ENGL 2131 American literature 1 MW 12:30 - 1:45* ENGL 2131 Honors American Literature I TW 9:30-10:45* * Meets in Russell Hall 310 ENGL 1101 English Composition I ONLINE ENGL 1102 English Composition II ONLINE |
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| Education: | Ph.D. in English, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Spring 2000 Dissertation: “A Grave for this Book”: Textual Fetishism in American Gothic from Brockden Brown to John Carpenter Director: Joseph D. Andriano The Gothic premise of the “found manuscript” becomes a powerful fetish or charm in these selected works of American Gothic. Unlike the British Gothic where the “found manuscript” serves as a narrative premise, the American book-fetish exerts a terrible power over the characters while its contents may remain a mystery to the reader or viewer. This dissertation examines a variety of American Gothic texts exploring authorial anxiety and American culture in the fiction of Charles Brockden Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Stephen King and Jeffrey Eugenides, and films directed by David Lynch, Wes Craven, and John Carpenter. M.A. in English, Winthrop University, Summer 1994 Thesis: Transcending Monstrous Flesh: A Revision of the Hero’s Quest M.A. in Speech Communication, University of Alabama, Spring 1991 Master of Arts Project: Voices from the Margin: Women’s Own Words (A Readers’ Theater Based on Interviews on Self-identified Turning Points in Personal Narratives) B.F.A. in Theater Arts, Performance Degree, University of Mississippi, Summer 1989 |
| CV: | TEACHING CV (for additional CV information, see other areas on this page) Middle Georgia State University, Professor of English 2003 - present Primary areas of interest: Horror Fiction and Film, Gothic Literature, Popular Culture Studies, Early American Literature, American and British Literature 1764-present, Composition and Rhetoric, Pedagogy of Online and Hybrid Learning, Artificial Intelligence Promotion to Full Professor, May 2015 Tenure Awarded, February 2009 Humanities Division Chair (MGC), 2007 - 2013 Promotion to Associate Professor, May 2008 Assistant Professor of English, August 2003 COURSES TAUGHT Fully Online 2004 - present ENGL 3700: Studies in the Novel ENGL 3010: Introduction to Literary Studies ENGL 3999: Special Topics (Varied sections: The Gothic; The Gothic and the Weird; Slasher Films and Feminism; Horror and Race and Gender) ENGL 2131 Honors American Literature I ENGL 2131 American Literature 1 ENGL 2132: American Literature from 1864 to present ENGL 1101: Composition I ENGL 1102: Composition II Hybrid and Face-to-Face 1994 - present ENGL 3010: Introduction to Literary Studies ENGL 3999 Special Topics: The American Gothic HUMN 1001 Perspectives in Narrative ENGL 2131: American Literature through 1900* ENGL 2132: American Literature from 1864 to present* ENGL 2228: World Literature, Film Adaptation of Literature ENGL 1101/1102: Composition I and II* ENGL 429: The American Renaissance ENGL 375/475: Introduction to Film ENGL 360: Advanced Composition ENGL 320: The Modern Novel ENGL 206: Modern American Literature ENGL 115: Freshman English Honors Seminar COM 101: Introduction to Public Speaking COM 200: Interpersonal Communication SPCH 101: Introduction to Speech Communication ADDITIONAL TEACHING POSITIONS St. Thomas Moore; Lafayette, LA American Literature and Freshman Composition Teacher 2002 - 2003 The Episcopal School of Acadiana; Broussard, LA American Literature, Composition and Speech Teacher Director of Speech and Debate Team 2001 - 2002 University of Louisiana at Lafayette Adjunct Instructor of English 2000 – 2001 1994 - 1995 Carson-Newman University; Jefferson City, TN Visiting Instructor of Communication Arts Director of Nationally-Ranked Speech and Debate Team 1991 - 1992 |
| Professional Affiliations: | The Horror Writers Association (HWA) - International Horror Writers Association Atlanta Chapter (Founding Member) Broadleaf Writers Association (Board Member) Member of The South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA) Popular Culture / American Culture Association in the South (PCAS/ACAS) |
| Organizations: | South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA) Broadleaf Writers Association Horror Writers Association (HWA - ATL Chapter) Popular Culture/American Culture of the South Association (PCAS/ACAS) Reacting to the Past, Faculty |
| Awards and Honors: | Cemetery Gates Media July 2021 Short Fiction Winner for the story, |
| Publications: | Selected Recent Academic Writing Monsters of Film, Fiction, and Fable, edited volume, 2018 Cambridge Press Recent Fiction and Poetry “Cynthia’s Mixtape Invocation.” Short Story. Effigies and Incantations. Frightful Fables Publishing. July 2025. “Rush.” Short Story. Fraidy Cat Quarterly, Vol 7 (Rage). Forthcoming Fall of 2025. “A Parliament in the Woods.” Short Story. Darkness Most Fowl. Anthology. 34 Godmother of Horror Press. Forthcoming Oct. 31, 2025. "The God of the Eighteenth Hole," Short Story. Eternal Haunted Summer, Winter Solstice Edition, Dec. 2024 "Last Dance with Mary Jane," Short Story. Hard to Find: An Anthology of New Southern Gothic, Stephen F Austin UP 2023 "The Mark", Short Story. Vastarien, Vol. 5, Issue 2, November 2022 “The Record,” Short Story. Black Poppy Review, April 22, 2022. "The Shade," Short Story. Generation X-ed, 2022, Dark Ink Press "Dream House," Short Story. Georgia Gothic, 2021, Southern Nightmares Press “The World Is Hard for Little Things.” Short Story. Cemetery Gates Media. July 16, 2021. July Fiction Cemetery Gates First Place Winner. “The Visitor.” Short Story. EXTRACTS. 2009. “The Dead.” Poem. Southwestern Review 24 (1999): 26 |
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