Dr. William Martin

Director of Freshman English

Email:

wmartin@niagara.edu

Phone:

716.286.8626

Office Location:

Dunleavy Hall, Room 360

Bio

Appointed to the faculty in September 1979, Dr. Martin has served as director of freshman English and assistant dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He has won several awards for excellence in teaching in the College of Arts and Sciences (1986, 1992, 2001), and was named Niagara University's Teacher of the Year in 1997.

Dr. Martin's published articles have appeared in various educational and literary journals, including Provocateur, English Journal, Michigan English Teacher, The English Record, and Irish Times, and he has also has presented several papers at regional and national academic conferences and serves as a national adjudicator for the prestigious Fireside Scholarship, sponsored annually by the Fireside Press of Wichita, Kan. He has also served as an editorial consultant for The Collegiate Press of Alta Loma, Calif.

Dr. Martin currently resides with his wife and their two children in Lockport, where he has been active in several public service organizations, including the Lockport Feis Commission and the Zoning Board of Appeals in Lewiston, N.Y.

Dr. Martin teaches surveys and upper-level courses in British literature, including:

• ENG 204 Major British Writers
• ENG 306 Modern British Poetry
• ENG 421 History and Development of the English Novel

Current Research

Like many of his colleagues whose scholarship informs their teaching, Dr. Martin has published articles in refereed journals, chaired sessions and presented papers at scholarly conferences, and participated in academic workshops with colleagues on a broad range of literary and pedagogical topics. Much of his scholarly research reflects his enthusiasm for particular authors or individual works of literature that he has taught in various courses at Niagara University.

Dr. Martin's research interests have evolved over the years, from an early interest in Mary Wollstonecraft's use of gothic fiction as a vehicle for social criticism to include later Victorian novelists such as Charles Dickens, George Eliot and Thomas Hardy. He is also interested in the Romantic poets generally, and has presented papers at conferences on topics as diverse as John Keats's narrative poems and Lord Byron's collection of sacred lyrics, "Hebrew Melodies." Twentieth century English poets who have served as subjects of Dr. Martin's scholarship include W. H. Auden and Philip Larkin, while his penchant for Irish literature is reflected in a series of published articles dealing with the works of William Butler Yeats and a triumvirate of contemporary Irish authors: Frank McCourt, Alice Taylor, and M. K. Walsh. Dr. Martin's published research has appeared in numerous professional, scholarly, and online journals.

Educational Background

• Ph.D., University of Notre Dame (Specialties in 18th Century Literature, Romantic and Victorian Poetry, the English Novel, and Modern British Literature)
• M.A., Niagara University
• B.A., State University of New York at Buffalo

Current Involvement

Since its inception in 1992, Dr. Martin has served as one of three national adjudicators for the prestigious Fireside Scholarship Essay Competition sponsored by Fireside Catholic Publishers of Wichita, Kan. In his local community, Dr. Martin has served as a member of the Lewiston Historic Preservation Committee, chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals, and as a member of the Lockport Irish Feis Commission.