Meet 10 Award-Winning Faculty and Staff in the Department of English
“The research and teaching activities of the English faculty are so well integrated that both really benefit,” said Darlene Farabee, Ph.D., chair of the Department of English. “Students are offered the most current content and approaches to literature and writing, and faculty gain from critically engaged, thoughtful students.”
Meet 10 award-winning faculty and staff in the Department of English who are making a difference at South Dakota’s flagship university and who have been recognized for their teaching, research and public service.
1. Prentiss Clark
Awards: Blair & Linda Tremere Professorship in the Humanities (2023) Belbas-Larson Award for Excellence in Teaching (2019), Monsignor James M. Doyle Humanities Teaching Award (2018)
Clark, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of English. She received her Ph.D. in English at the State University of New York at Buffalo and her B.A. in English at Haverford College. Clark is the author of several publications, including her book “Ralph Waldo Emerson: A Literary Companion.” Clark is currently working on a book project on Ralph Waldo Emerson, W. E. B. Du Bois and James Baldwin.
2. Darlene Farabee
Award: Truman and Beverly Schwartz Distinguished Faculty Award (2017-2020)
Farabee, Ph.D., is an associate professor and chair of the Department of English. She received both her M.A. and Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Delaware. Farabee is the author of the book “Shakespeare’s Staged Spaces and Playgoer’s Perceptions” and co-author of and contributor to a collection of essays titled “Early Modern Drama in Performance.”
3. Paul Formisano
Award: Monsignor James M. Doyle Humanities Teaching Award (2022)
Formisano, Ph.D., is professor and director of writing in the Department of English. He earned his M.A. in English from the University of Nevada, Reno, and his Ph.D. in English from the University of New Mexico. Formisano joined the university in 2012 and has taught courses ranging from general education classes through graduate seminars. He recently published his book “Tributary Voices: Literary and Rhetorical Explorations of the Colorado River.”
4. Ken Green
Award: Johnson Family Outstanding Instructor Award (2018)
Green is the coordinator of business writing classes, an instructor in the Department of English and an affiliated faculty member of the Department of Sustainability & Environment. He earned his M.A. in English from USD and his B.A. in theatre and English from Columbia College Chicago. Green has been a part of several grants, most recently including the Larson Family Foundation Grant and the South Dakota Fund Grant.
5. Reyna Hernandez
Award: President’s Award for Research Creativity (2021)
Hernandez has been a senior secretary in the Department of English since May 2019. Her creative work as a visual artist has positively impacted the community, state and region. She earned both her BFA in painting and her B.A. in English from USD. Hernandez has been the lead artist on several community mural projects and was the 2021 Northern Plains Indian Artist in Residence.
6. Jillian Linster
Awards: Johnson Family Outstanding Instructor Award (2022), Monsignor James M. Doyle Humanities Teaching Award (2020)
Linster, Ph.D., joined USD in 2017 and currently serves as a lecturer and as the professional writing coordinator in the Department of English. She received her Ph.D. in English from the University of Iowa and her M.A. in English from USD. Linster recently published an award-winning article “Dangerous Doctors in Early Modern England” in the journal Explorations in Renaissance Culture.
7. Cheyenne Marco
Award: Johnson Family Outstanding Instructor Award (2020)
Marco, Ph.D., is a lecturer in the Department of English and teaches undergraduate English at the USD – Sioux Falls campus. Marco has published fiction, non-fiction and poetry in a wide range of journals. She also serves as the faculty advisor for the Vermillion Literary Project and as the South Dakota region writing coordinator for the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
8. Lisa Ann Robertson
Awards: Monsignor James M. Doyle Humanities Teaching Award (2023), Belbas-Larson Award for Excellence in Teaching (2020)
Robertson, Ph.D., is the coordinator of English graduate studies and an associate professor in the Department of English. She earned her Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Alberta and her M.A. in English literature from Ohio State University. Robertson has several articles on topics such as science, cognition, aesthetics, ethics in British Romanticism and Romantic materialist theories of mind.
9. Lee Ann Roripaugh
Award: President’s Award for Research Creativity (2018)
Roripaugh is a professor in the Department of English and an editor of South Dakota Review. She earned her MFA in poetry from Indiana University and her M.M. in music from Indiana University. Roripaugh is the author of five volumes of poetry and was the South Dakota poet laureate from 2015 to 2019.
10. Melanie Wood
Award: Johnson Family Outstanding Instructor Award (2020)
Wood was an instructor in the Department of English and taught courses from 2005- 2022. Wood holds a master’s in English from USD as well as an MFA. While at the university, she worked with the Writing Program Curriculum Committee to introduce Toni Morrison’s novel “Beloved” as a “common read” book taught in all spring 2019 introduction to literature classes.
About the Awards
The Blair & Linda Tremere Professorship in the Humanities was created in 2016 by USD alumni Blair and Linda Tremere, who generously created named professorships to reward teaching excellence in the College of Arts & Sciences. All recipients of a Blair & Linda Tremere professorship must demonstrate consistently excellence teaching and mentoring – measured through objective criteria such as student course evaluations, the range of courses taught curricular innovation and peer evaluation of teaching.
The Belbas-Larson Award for Excellence in Teaching is the highest honor USD bestows upon its educators. The annual award recognizes one tenured and one non-tenured faculty member at the spring commencement with a $5,000 tribute. The Belbas-Larson Awards were established by a 1956 graduate of USD, Dean Belbas of Edina, Minnesota, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a former vice president of General Mills and former chairman of the board of the USD Foundation, and his close friends, Harold W. and Kathryn Larson of Scottsdale, Arizona.
The Monsignor James M. Doyle Humanities Teaching Award is made possible thanks to a gift from Monsignor James Michael Doyle, former chair of religious studies at USD and a prominent theologian inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame. Monsignor Doyle endowed a prize to reward an outstanding teacher and mentor in the humanities division of the College of Arts & Sciences.
The Truman and Beverly Schwartz Distinguished Faculty Award is presented every third year and exists thanks to the generosity of Truman, “56 B.A., ’91, honorary doctorate and Beverly Schwartz ’56 B.S., Ed. Truman Schwartz became a Rhodes Scholar, earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from M.I.T., worked in industry, and then taught for many years at Macalester College, publishing extensively in the fields of physical chemistry and chemical education. Beverly Swartz was a middle-school teacher in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she taught students with learning disabilities.
The Johnson Family Outstanding Instructor Award is made possible through an annual gift from the Johnson family. Mary Elizabeth Johnson graduated from USD with a degree in mass communications and served at the Mayo Clinic for over three decades, working closely with women experiencing health issues and loss. The Johnson Family Outstanding Instructor Award is given each year to a single faculty member holding the rank of instructor who has demonstrated outstanding classroom teaching and mentoring throughout the previous calendar year.
The President’s Award for Research Creativity is one of four President’s Research Awards presented annually. Candidates are reviewed based on past and current accomplishments, including criteria such as publications, presentations, successful grantsmanship, peer reviewer experience, maintenance of an active graduate or undergraduate program and being conferred other competitive research awards.
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