Isom Staff and Faculty

Jaime Harker, Ph.D.

Director and Professor of English

Jaime Harker is professor of English and the director of the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies at the University of Mississippi, where she teaches American literature, LGBTQ literature, and gender studies.  She has published essays on Japanese translation, popular women writers of the interwar period, Oprah’s book club, William Faulkner, Cold War gay literature, and women’s liberation and gay liberation literature.  She is the author of America the Middlebrow: Women’s Novels, Progressivism, and Middlebrow Authorship Between the Wars; Middlebrow Queer: Christopher Isherwood in America; and The Lesbian South: Southern Feminists, the Women in Print Movement, and the Queer Literary Canon. She is the co-editor of The Oprah Affect: Critical Essays on Oprah’s Book Club; 1960s Gay Pulp Fiction: The Misplaced Heritage; This Book Is an Action: Feminist Print Culture and Activist Aesthetics; and Faulkner and Print Culture. 

Theresa Starkey, Ph.D.

Associate Director and Instructional Associate Professor of Gender Studies

Theresa Starkey is the associate director and an instructional associate professor in gender studies for the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies.  Her Ph.D. is in American Studies from Emory University and she was a double major in history and film at Georgia State University. Her writing has appeared in Bright Lights Film Journal, The Oxford American, Mississippi Review, storySouth and elsewhere. She is recently published a collection of essays that she co-edited with Deborah Barker entitled Detecting the South in Fiction, Film and Television.  In addition to teaching the Introduction to Gender Studies course, she teaches Gender and Sexuality in Cinema, Gender Studies Methodology, and other courses.   

Leslie Delassus, Ph.D.

Instructional Assistant Professor of Film and Gender Studies

Leslie DeLassus is an online instructor for the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies and for the Department of Theatre and Film. Her courses include Gender and Sexuality in Cinema, Comedy in Film, and Drama in Film. Leslie has a Ph.D. in Film Studies from the University of Iowa an M.A. in Media Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, and a B.A. in History from Georgia State University. She has published chapters in Australian and American Cinemas: International Perspectives and The Image in Early Cinema: Form and Material, which examine the relationship between the practices of film preservation and film history. Since teaching online courses for Ole Miss, she has become interested in incorporating film-related archival material into her online course curriculum.

Julie Enszer, Ph.D.

Instructional Assistant Professor of Gender Studies

Julie R. Enszer, Ph.D., is a scholar and a poet. Her book manuscript, A Fine Bind, is a history of lesbian-feminist presses from 1969 until 2009. Her scholarly work has appeared or is forthcoming in Southern Cultures, Journal of Lesbian Studies, American Periodicals, WSQ, and Frontiers. She is the author of four poetry collections, Avowed (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2016), Lilith’s Demons (A Midsummer Night’s Press, 2015), Sisterhood (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2013) and Handmade Love (A Midsummer Night’s Press, 2010). She is editor of The Complete Works of Pat Parker (Sinister Wisdom/A Midsummer Night’s Press, 2016), which won the 2017 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry and Milk & Honey: A Celebration of Jewish Lesbian Poetry (A Midsummer Night’s Press, 2011), which was a finalist for the 2012 Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry. She has her MFA and PhD from the University of Maryland. Enszer edits and publishes Sinister Wisdom, a multicultural lesbian literary and art journal, and a regular book reviewer for the The Rumpus and Calyx. You can read more of her work at www.JulieREnszer.com.

Pip Gordon, ph.d.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Gender Studies

Phillip “Pip” Gordon is a visiting assistant professor for the Sarah Isom Center. He received his BA in English from the University of Tennessee-Martin and holds both an MA and PhD in English from the University of Mississippi, where he was the Francis Bell McCool Fellow for Faulkner Studies. He is the author of Gay Faulkner: Uncovering a Homosexual Presence in Yoknapatawpha and Beyond, published by the University Press of Mississippi in 2020, as well as essays published in The Mississippi Quarterly, The Journal of Popular Culture, and South: A Scholarly Journal. His most recent publications include the introduction to the 2023 reissue of The Welcome by Hubert Creekmore and the entry on Trans and Non-Binary Souths for The Routledge Companion to the Literature of the U.S. South. From 2014 to 2023, he was associate professor of English and LGBTQ+ Studies coordinator at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, where he won the P. B. Poorman Award, an annual UW system award for individuals who have made significant contributions to LGBTQ+ visibility and activism on their campus. His current research interests focus on ace and trans identities in Southern literature.

Angela Lagrotteria, Ph.D.

Instructional Assistant Professor of Gender Studies

Angie LaGrotteria is an online instructional assistant professor in gender studies for the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies. She has a Ph.D. in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Emory University, an M.A. in English from Cleveland State University, an M.A. in Women’s Studies from San Diego State University, and a B.A. in English and Spanish from Ohio University. Her dissertation research analyzed how women protagonists, in contemporary Appalachian and US Southwest literature, embody and defy norms of region and gender. She teaches a variety of classes in gender, sexuality, and feminist studies, including classes on contemporary US literature, feminist and queer theory, and regional writing and literature of place. Introduction to Gender Studies is one of her favorite classes to teach! She is also a certified mediator and yoga instructor.

OBIANUJU NJOKU, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology and Gender Studies

Obianuju Akunna Njoku is an Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology and Gender Studies jointly affiliated with the Department of Music and the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies. She recently completed her PhD in Music (Ethnomusicology) from Rhodes University. Njoku’s research draws on multi-disciplinary frameworks to examine music and marginality, and the intersection of music, resistance, gender politics and cross-cultural encounters. Her PhD dissertation, ‘Traversing Sonic Spaces: Expressions of Identity, Gender and Power in the Musical Traditions of the Nupe in Northern Nigeria,” examines the prevalent majority-minority binary in Nigeria and how ethnic identity, gender and power are articulated and contested among the Nupe, a minority group, through musical and extra-musical mappings.

Before joining the University of Mississippi, Njoku was a Mellon Postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Music and Musicology/ International Library of African Music (ILAM), Rhodes University. Dr Njoku was recently awarded the African Humanities Program (AHP) Fellowship of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).

Jennifer A. Venable, Ph.D.

Instructional Assistant Professor of Gender Studies

Jennifer Venable is an Instructional Assistant Professor of Gender Studies for the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies. She earned a Ph.D. in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Oregon State University, an M.A. in Multicultural Women's and Gender Studies from Texas Woman's University, and a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Jennifer’s work has appeared in The Southern Quarterly, and she has a forthcoming chapter in the second edition of Rethinking Women's and Gender Studies (Routledge). Using interview data conducted for her research, her scholarship integrates the stories of Cajun women—as counter-memory—within Cajun narratives and argues that their inclusion has the potential to re-imagine the history and boundaries of Cajun cultural identity. Utilizing Cajun history, politics, and foodways as the context from which Cajun women build feminist dwellings, Jennifer articulates a place-based and culturally specific "Cajun feminism" as the impetus for transforming Cajun culture into a more socially just space. 

Elizabeth Venell, Ph.D.

Instructional Assistant Professor of Gender Studies

Elizabeth Venell has a PhD in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Emory University, and a BA in Gender Studies and Psychology from Northwestern University. During both degrees, she completed concentrations in Film and Media Studies, bringing together my interests in gender and sexuality, feminism, and film in as many configurations as I could manage. Her dissertation research was on queer cinema, particularly experimental film and video work, so she spent several years pursuing an interest in obscure and unconventional films. As that project was coming to a close, it gave way to a long-simmering interest in horror. Like queer cinema, horror often explores issues relating to gender, sexuality, and the body, performs incisive cultural criticism, and comes with the added bonus of featuring more women protagonists.  Before joining the faculty at University of Mississippi, she taught Film Studies, Gender Studies, and Writing courses at universities around Atlanta. Most recently, she taught classes in sexuality studies for the Interdisciplinary Department at Kennesaw State University. 

Alysia Burton Steele

Faculty in Residence

As a teenager, Steele’s mom encouraged her to pursue her dream of becoming a photojournalist, allowing her to roam the downtown streets in Philly, PA, and providing enough physical space so that she felt independent and creative. From that love and support, she evolved into a photojournalist, photo editor, and deputy director of photography. Now, she is an associate professor, where she cares deeply about her students' successes, wanting them to explore the world and get out of their comfort zone. In 2014, she challenged herself with a personal project that later became a book - "Delta Jewels: In Search of My Grandmother's Wisdom." It was released nationwide in April 2015. She drove 6,000 miles in the Mississippi Delta and interviewed 54 African American church women elders about life in Mississippi during the Jim Crow era, including Civil Rights icon Mrs. Myrlie Evers-Williams. When not teaching or working on her next two books, she is earning her Ph.D. in U.S. History Since the Civil War, focusing on the Civil Rights Movement and minoring in Gender Studies and African American Studies. Her work focuses on women's labor, and she is expecting to defend in 2023.

Paul Mora

Graduate Instructor of Gender Studies

Paul Mora is a California native and army veteran pursuing a Ph.D. in history at the University of Mississippi. He holds a B.A. and M.A. in American Studies from the University of Alabama. Paul studies twentieth-century U.S. history with an emphasis on gender and a minor in public history. Paul has had the opportunity to construct and collaborate on public-facing exhibits in Florida and Mississippi. Paul has explored topics of gender in public history ranging from the ethics of “outing” historical figures to mapping the queer geography of Mississippi. He has also showcased gender found in Cuban folklore and Afro-Cuban religion as seen through the work of Cuban-American artist Humberto Castro. His current project, Cracking the Closet Door: Same-sex Relationships in Greek Letter Societies will showcase the unspoken queer history and experiences within the University of Mississippi fraternity and sorority system.

Before arriving at the University of Mississippi, Paul worked as a public school teacher in Denver, Colorado. This year Paul will be working as a graduate instructor while also serving as Director of DEI for the Graduate Student Council, President of OUTGrads, and the History Graduate Association. During his spare time, he enjoys watching college sports and relaxing with his dog and two cats.

Kevin Cozart, M.A.

Operations Coordinator and Coordinator of Community Engaged Learning and Research

Kevin Cozart joined our staff in July 2007 as a staff assistant. A native Mississippian, he has been a member of the University’s staff since 2004 and has served on the the University’s Staff Council, advisor for the UM Pride Network,  president of the Graduate Student Council, and co-director of the ALLIES program. A UM gradate, Kevin holds Master’s degrees in Journalism with an Integrated Marketing Communications emphasis and Higher Education and Student Personnel with a minor in Gender Studies.  He has also taught a section of the First Year Experience Class (EDHE 105), Academic Skills for College (EDHE 101 & 303), and Gender Studies classes. He is the winner of the 2019 UM Lift Every Voice Award. His research interests focus on gender and sexuality with regards to mass media and journalism as a gendered organization.

Julia Kraus

Graduate Assistant

Julia Kraus is a master's student from Tulsa, Oklahoma, pursuing a degree in Southern Studies who lends her audio expertise to the podcast "Swerve South." Julia's passion lies in exploring the intricate tapestry of oral histories shaping the South's identity. With a strong background in podcast production, including her role as a podcast intern at the Oxford American magazine, she excels in processing transcripts, audio mixing, and marketing. Julia's multimedia proficiency was honed through producing content for AV Arkansas at Hendrix College, and her contributions at KUAR public radio showcased her prowess in news production and visual storytelling. She is excited to get to know queerness in Mississippi through her work at the Isom Center.

Madelyn Medlin

Graduate Assistant

Madelyn A. Medlin is a graduate student here at the University of Mississippi studying Social Work. Being born and raised here in Oxford, Mississippi she was given the opportunity to move to Colorado to learn about the world around her. Always wanting to make a difference and help those in need. Social work has always been her calling her true passion. Her goal is to one day work as a forensic social worker to help give inmates a better chance to succeed in life. Her study is on mental health and helping individuals who feel unaccepted. She strives to be a leader and to always learn from the community around her.

Georgia Bright

Graduate Assistant

Georgia Bright is a graduate student from Destin, Florida who is seeking a master's degree in Integrated Marketing Communications. She graduated from Ole Miss in 2022 with a bachelor's degree in Integrated Marketing Communications and a minor in business. Along with school, Georgia runs an event decorating business in Oxford called Wilder Balloon Design and loves utilizing her creativity to make visions become reality. When not working or in school, Georgia enjoys traveling, spending time with friends and family, hiking, and being outdoors.

Adjunct Faculty

Jaime Hovey, Ph.D.

Adjunct Instructor of Gender Studies

Jaime Hovey lives in Chicago and teaches online for OleMiss. She is also a musician and a parent. She currently works on trans masculinity and codes of virtue (chivalry, gallantry) in 20th and 21st literary, film, television, and video game texts.