Department of English and Communication

Bachelor of Arts in English

Department of English and Communication

Bachelor of Arts in English

English Studies College of Arts and Sciences | Department of English and Communication | Major

The goal of the English Writing Arts and Literary Arts program is to help students develop
the reading, writing, speaking, research, and critical thinking skills necessary for their
professional, civic, and personal success. The English program is a fundamental
component of the University’s core curriculum. All students take two semesters of first
year composition and rhetoric and one semester of sophomore literature. English also
offers courses that meet the core curriculum writing intensive and diversity course
requirements.

English Staff Directory

Dr. Thais Rutledge
Assistant Professor of English
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Thais Rutledge works an Assistant Professor of English at HT. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Texas at Austin. She works primarily with Modern British and Brazilian literatures with a transnational and multilingual focus. Her research focuses on narrative forms, cultural and social history, space and place—all this with an intersectional lens where race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and class meet. Besides comparative work with modern literature, her research interests are narrative theory, postcolonial interrogations, questions of canonicity, and hegemonic inclusion/exclusion.
Ms. April Davis.
Instructor of English
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April Davis graduated from the University of Houston Clear Lake and teaches writing and rhetoric at Huston-Tillotson University and at Austin Community College. She possesses Texas teaching certifications in Secondary English and in Special Education and has taught composition in a variety of settings. Her specialization is in American Cultural Studies with a focus on rhetoric and community problem solving.
Mr. Tommy Mouton
Assistant Professor of English
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Tommy Mouton is a southern writer, playwright, and an award-winning educator. His writing appears in Austin Free Press, Visible, Baptist News Global, The Writer’s Chronicle, Adroit, Reed, Callaloo, and elsewhere. Over the years, he has received fellowships from The OpEd Project, Writers’ League of Texas, AWP, Steinbeck Fellows Program, among others. His creative interests often examine race and racism, abuse and healing, and childhood memory narratives. His scholarship interests currently examine the role of A.I. in first-year composition classrooms.
Dr. Shawanda Stewart
Department Chair of English & Communication; Professor of English
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Dr. Shawanda Stewart teaches writing and rhetoric courses at Huston-Tillotson University, a private liberal arts HBCU, where she is also Chair of the Department of English and Communication. Dr. Stewart has a genuine interest in research and scholarship that examines and promotes asset-based writing, transfer, and identity authenticity through language in the college composition classroom.