Eberly News

With World Book Day approaching on April 23, the founding director of the West Virginia University Center for Prison Education and Research says reading can be a lifeline for incarcerated people. 

Katy Ryan, Eberly Family Professor of Outstanding Teaching at the WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, is available to discuss the impact of access to literature on those serving time in correctional facilities.

In her work with the Appalachian Prison Book Project, Ryan has helped ensure that more than 70,000 free books have reached people imprisoned in West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Maryland since 2004.

WVU graduate students are advancing research with WVU Foundation scholarship support. Recipients of the WVUF Distinguished Doctoral Scholarship from Eberly College of Arts and Sciences include: Destinee Harper, Esha Azhar, Ciara Rodriguez, and Jailyn Wilson.

In recognition of her dedication to and exceptional teaching of writing, Catherine Gouge, a professor in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Department of English, is the 2025-26 recipient of the Caperton Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Writing.

Country Roads “remains an anthem across time, space, and context, even after 50 years,” according to Sarah Morris, assistant professor of English and coordinator of undergraduate writing at WVU. Her own experiences with the song, along with its historical and rhetorical legacy, inspired her to use it as a teaching tool and to research and write the book, “Lessons from ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads:’ Identity, (Be)Longing, and Imagined Landscapes.”

Discover how the Eberly Writing Studio and Speakwrite support students in becoming stronger writers and communicators, learn about the Appalachian Scholars Contest and more.

Mark Brazaitis, a professor in the Department of English and the director of the Creative Writing Program, collaborated with imprisoned people in Appalachia to publish a documentary play about life behind bars titled “Dark Shadows.”

Moderated by the Director of the Humanities Center and Professor of Philosophy, Dr. Sharon Ryan, the panel will discuss “Artificial Intelligence: Shaping Futures, Impacting Lives”. Panelists from Eberly College of Arts and Sciences are Jennifer Sano-Franchini from the Department of English and Megan Vendemia from the Department of Communication Studies.

The West Virginia University Higher Education in Prison Initiative (WVU HEPI), operated within Eberly College's Dept. of English, has been awarded a $30,000 subgrant from the Pennsylvania Consortium for Higher Education in Prisons (PA CHEP). 

Three Eberly College graduates will spend an immersive summer abroad studying foreign languages as recipients of the U.S. Department of State’s Critical Language Scholarship. A love for travel and global learning led Ella Dietz to major in international studies and pursue minors in political science and Russian studies. She will travel to Kyrgyzstan. Wyatt Gaines is an international studies major with minors in conservation ecology and geographic information science. Gaines first traveled to Japan as part of the Model United Nations and then again for a 10-month exchange program at Kansai Gaidai University. Christelle Temple graduated with a degree in public relations and minors in leadership and creative writing, she will return to Tanzania to study Swahili.

Every year, students from across Eberly College are selected as  Outstanding Seniors and  Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistants.  Eberly Scholars are also chosen annually for a monetary award to help offset the cost of their education as they work to achieve their academic goals. Read about all three groups below.