Meet our faculty
Dr. Mary Baldridge
Chair of Foreign Languages, Assistant Professor of Spanish
Hometown:
Pippa Passes, KY
Education: PhD
School: The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Phone: (865) 471-3473
Dr. Maria Clark
Associate Professor of Spanish
Hometown: Heidelberg, Germany
Education: PhD
School: The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Phone: (865 ) 471-3289
Professor Zachary Feltner-Reichert
Instructor of Spanish
Hometown: Bourbon, IN
Education: M.A.
School: The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Phone: (865) 471-3288
Dr. Richard Gray
Assistant Professor of French
Hometown: Pittsfield Township, MI
Education: PhD
School: The University of Texas at Austin
Phone: (865) 471-3287
Dr. Michael Putnam
Assistant Professor of German and Linguistics
Hometown: Gnadenhutten, OH
Education: PhD
School: The University of Kansas
Phone: (865) 471-3291
Dr. Baldridge teaches Spanish language, literature and culture courses. She received her PhD from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville with a specialization in Medieval Women’s Literature. Her current research interests include medieval women and religion, as well as minority medieval women. Dr. Baldridge received a fellowship to do research in Spain in the summer of 2008. She is presently completing a manuscript based on that research in which she explores the development of Spiritual Androgyny in the works of several medieval and early modern nuns. Dr. Baldridge is working with Dr. Wheeler in the English Department on the development of a Medieval and Renaissance Studies program, and is organizing a conference on Teaching the Middle Ages and Renaissance, which will be held in October 2009. Dr. Baldridge is also interested in the pedagogical benefits of study abroad and computer assisted language learning. She is the campus representative of the Kentucky Institute for International Studies and actively promotes study abroad.
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Dr. Clark teaches Spanish language and Latin American literature, culture and service/learning courses. She received her PhD from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville with a specialization in the use of the fantastic in short fiction by women writers from the River Plate. Her publications include feminist and psychoanalytic approaches to Latin American literature and her current research interests include genre film and women directors from Argentina. Professor Clark is a native speaker of German and has teaching experience in language, culture and literature courses in German. Dr. Clark is the faculty sponsor os Sigma Delta Pi, the Spanish Honor Society.
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Professor Feltner-Reichert is an Instructor of Beginning and Intermediate Spanish. He received his B.A. in Spanish from Berea College in Berea, Kentucky in 1996. In 2003, he received his Master’s Degree in Spanish Language and Literature from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he is currently a PhD candidate. His interests include Foreign Language Pedagogy, Second Language Acquisition, and 20th Century Latin American literature, particularly Science Fiction and Magic Realism. Zachary lives in Knoxville, TN with his wife, Melanie and his four-year old son, Noel.
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Dr. Gray teaches French language, literature and culture courses. He also teaches in the new linguistics major as well as the college’s new Introduction to Liberal Arts course. He holds the Diplôme de langue et de culture françaises from the Centre International d’Études Françaises at the Université Catholique de l’Ouest, in Angers, France, the B.A. in French Language and Literature from Eastern Michigan University, the M.A. in French Literature from Purdue University, and the Ph.D. in French and Francophone Literature from The University of Texas at Austin with a specialization in 20th Century French Theatre and a sub-specialization in African history. His current research interests center on interdisciplinary approaches to French literary studies. He recently published an article entitled “Performing War: Vichyite Ideology from Across the Sea in Camille Morel’s poetic radio dramatic work ‘France!..Présent!.. Poème épique Radiophonique et Théâtral en un acte et deux tableaux’,” which appears in InterCulture 5:3 (2008): 205-213. He is co-author of the forthcoming book chapter (with Michael Putnam) entitled “Exploring Niggerdom: Racial Inversion in Language Taboos in Chappelle’s Show”, in Meaning, Identity, and the Comedy of Dave Chappelle. Ed. Kevin Wisniewski (Jefferson, McFarland and Co.), 2009. He is also preparing a research monograph entitled The Art and Science of French Radio Drama. He serves as faculty advisor to La Table française, the Carson-Newman College French Club. In Spring 2009, he will serve as Acting Chair of the Department while Mary Baldridge is on sabbatical.
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Dr. Putnam has just completed his first year here at Carson-Newman and is thoroughly enjoying his colleagues and students. Last spring, Dr. Putnam organized and conducted an international conference on theoretical linguistics here at Carson-Newman ('Exploring Crash-Proof Grammars') and played an instrumental role in helping bring about the Interdisciplinary Linguistics Major. He is currently editing two book volumes with John Benjamins Publishing Company containing selected conference proceedings. Aside from the conference here at Carson-Newman, he has presented his research at the Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference (GLAC-14) held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (May 2008) and most recently was involved in a collaborative research project presented at the Varieties of Structure Building conference held in the Basque Country (Spain) (November 2008). This summer Dr. Putnam will spend the summer at the University of Stuttgart funded by a DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst - German Academic Exchange Office) Research Grant where he will begin work on a book focusing on the syntax and semantics of the verb phrase in Pennsylvania German.
