6 new faculty members join ASU’s English department

The Department of English at Arizona State University is enriching its teaching, administrative and research ranks this fall with new full-time faculty.

The incoming cohort includes not only writers and literary scholars, but also media industry practitioners, internationally renowned curators and arts administrators.

While the department extends a very sunny welcome to the desert newcomers, it’s also delighted to note that some of these new faculty are coming “home” after leaving ASU to complete their doctoral work or establish themselves in their careers.

Film faculty member Eric Forthun received his undergraduate degree in film and media studies at ASU, while poet Katie Berta completed her MFA in creative writing, and literary scholar Victoria Baugh completed her first master’s degree here.

“New — and especially early-career — faculty are the secret to ensuring that a great, innovative department stays that way,” said Professor Manushag “Nush” Powell, chair of the Department of English. “I’m exceptionally pleased with the talents this cohort brings to their students and colleagues, whether they’re coming home or making a new one. Our community is now that much stronger.”

Meet the newest members of the ASU humanities community, who join the faculty as the Department of English celebrates its quasquicentennial, or 125th anniversary, this fall.

Professor (writing, rhetorics and literacies) and director of ASU Writing Programs

Thompson joins ASU from Stony Brook University, where he held leadership roles as a college associate dean and director of the program in writing and rhetoric. Trained in both literary critique and rhetorical strategy, Thompson now focuses both strands of inquiry on artificial intelligence research. He is co-director of the RhetAI Coalition, a research working group made up of academics and industry representatives that investigates “the persuasive power of AI.”

Formerly a professor at the Virginia Military Institute, Thompson is the co-author of the book, “Writing Programs, Veterans Studies, and the Post-9/11 University: A Field Guide” (NCTE, 2020) and also co-author of an Iraq War memoir, the award-winning bestseller “Beyond Duty: Life on the Frontline in Iraq” (Polity, 2009). His other books are nonfiction studies of Italian grizzlies and Ralph Waldo Emerson, among other works.

Thompson holds a PhD in rhetoric/composition and American literature from Texas Christian University and an MA in English from Baylor University.

Presidential postdoctoral fellow (film and media studies)

Rivera-Figueroa’s research focuses on the transnational flows of Latin music in the United States, Latin America and the Hispanic Caribbean. His monograph project, “Reggaetón on the Global Stage: Race, Place, and Mainstream Latinidad,” studies how the star images of música urbana artists — such as Luis Fonsi, Karol G and Bad Bunny — become mainstream representations of Latinidad in the U.S. Accordingly, he has published articles about Bad Bunny’s star image and gender performativity in the Journal of Latin American Communication Research and about Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart as a music industry tool that constructs ideas of the mainstream in Flow.

Rivera-Figueroa holds a PhD in media studies from the University of Texas at Austin and an MA in communication theory and research from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras.

Assistant teaching professor (film and media studies)

Forthun’s academic research focuses on the industrial and representational history of the late-night talk show, and he has authored research articles and reviews in Communication, Culture and Critique, Feminist Media Studies and Critical Studies in Television, among other places. He has also worked in the industry helping produce science and technology film content.

Forthun earned a PhD in media studies from the University of Texas at Austin and an MFA in film and television studies from Boston University.

Professor of practice (Center for Imagination in the Borderlands)

Edwards is an art curator, scholar and writer who is the Engell Speyer Family Senior Curator and associate director of curatorial programs at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Most recently, Edwards curated the blockbuster exhibition “Edges of Ailey,” which was on display from September 2024 to February 2025, and she was the co-curator of the 2022 Whitney Biennial. Edwards has taught art history, performance and visual studies at the CUNY Graduate Center, New York University and the New School, and she has contributed essays to academic journals, artist monographs, group exhibition catalogues and art magazines as well as other publications. For the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands at ASU, Edwards will collaborate on research projects related to water and migration.

She holds a PhD and master’s degree in performance studies from New York University and a master’s degree in art history and museum studies from Seton Hall University.

Assistant teaching professor (creative writing)

An award-winning poet and editor, Berta is author of the poetry collection, “Retribution Forthcoming.” Berta was previously visiting faculty at Oberlin College and, before that, served as managing editor at the Iowa Review, a major literary journal.

At ASU, Berta’s responsibilities — in addition to teaching courses like ENG 251: Reading as a Writer and ENG 351: Developing as Writers: Vision and Strategy — include helping build the online creative writing curriculum for undergraduates.

She holds a PhD in creative writing and English from Ohio University and MFA in creative writing from Arizona State University.

Assistant professor (literature)

Formerly a postdoctoral researcher with the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Baugh specializes in 19th-century British literature, with a focus on Victorian literature, narrative theory and visual culture. She is currently working on her manuscript, “Racial Epistemologies: Narrating Race in Nineteenth-Century Literature,” which explores codification of racial categories in the 19th century. Baugh’s work has appeared in Rhizomes and the European Romantic Review.

She holds both a PhD and MA in English language and literature from Cornell University and an MA in English from Arizona State University.