Visiting Assistant Professor
Academic Credentials
Ph.D., Literature, Duquesne University
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies, Duquesne University
M.A., Literature, Duquesne University
B.A., English, Duquesne University
B.S., Secondary Education, Duquesne University
Biography
Michelle B. Gaffey began her professional career as a high school and middle school English teacher, though she has been teaching composition and literature at the college level for two decades. Since 2017, she has enjoyed working with Marymount students in introductory and advanced writing classes.
Before joining Marymount’s faculty, she received several grants to support her development of service-learning projects (most notably, her “Community Listening Project”); an undergraduate critical reading course (Afrofuturist Coming-of-Age Stories); and an interdisciplinary action-learning course (Women Versus Sweatshops). She previously worked as a reading and writing specialist at an all-women’s college in Northeast D.C., and she also served as the assistant director of Duquesne University’s Writing Center in Pittsburgh, PA.
Michelle was a first-generation college student, originally from northern PA. Her working-class roots are at the heart of her scholarship, pedagogy, and activism. She currently lives in northern Virginia with her husband, two daughters, and two cats.
Teaching Area
Composition
Research Interests
Working Class Studies
Twentieth Century American Literature
Documentary Poetry and Poetics
Science Fiction
Composition
Publications
Author. “Sweatshops and Resistance in the 20th and 21st Centuries.” Fragments from the Fire: The Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire of March 25, 1911. 30th Anniversary ed., Skye’s the Limit P, 2016, pp. 73-82.
Editor. Fragments from the Fire: The Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire of March 25, 1911, by Chris Llewellyn. 30th Anniversary ed., Skye’s the Limit P, 2016.
Author. Rev. of When the Water Came: Evacuees of Hurricane Katrina, by Cynthia Hogue and Rebecca Ross. The Collagist: Online Literature from Dzanc Books, no. 20, March 2011, http://thecollagist.com/the-collagist/2011/3/14/when-the-water-came-by-cynthia-hogue-and.html.
Author. “‘a storm is blowing from Paradise’: Historical Change and Salvation in Lola Ridge’s ‘The Ghetto.’” Florida English, vol. 7, 2009, pp. 51-67.
Editor. “Iraq Heats Up Again, April 2004,” by Helen Gerhardt. The New People [Pittsburgh, PA], March 2007, n. pag.
Spotlights
Constance Coiner Dissertation Award Recipient. The Working-Class Studies Association: Summer 2021
K. Patricia Cross Future Leader in Higher Education Award Recipient. Association of American Colleges and Universities: Spring 2011
Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Teaching Recipient. Center for Teaching Excellence, Duquesne University: Spring 2010
