Eastern Illinois University :: English - Summer Camp 2016 Info for Campers

Summer Camp: Info for Accepted Campers

Welcome, English summer campers! We look forward to meeting you (and welcoming back those who are joining us for the second time). An acceptance letter from camp director Dr. Melissa Ames will be sent to all accepted campers by May 15th, referencing important paperwork that must be completed by May 24 and uploaded online. (These forms are located below.) On this page, you can also complete the RSVP forms for the showcase brunch and campus tour/appointments. In addition, you can learn more about the camp faculty and counselors from their biographies featured on this page.

Paperwork (due May 24)

RSVP Forms (due June 7)

English Summer Camp Faculty and Counselors

		Camp Director
		Dr. Melissa Ames is a Professor of English and the Director of English Education at Eastern Illinois University specializing in media studies, television scholarship, Internet studies, popular culture, feminist theory, and pedagogy. Her work has been published in a variety of anthologies and journals, ranging in topic from Television Study, New Media, and Fandom to American Literature and Feminist Art. Her most recent and forthcoming publications include her books,Women and Language: Gendered Communication Across Media (McFarland, 2011),Time in Television Narrative: Exploring Temporality in 21^stCentury Programming (University of Mississippi Press, 2012), How Pop Culture Shapes the Stages of a Woman’s Life: From Toddlers-in-Tiaras to Cougars-on-the-Prowl (Palgrave, 2016), Small Screen, Big Feels: Television & Cultural Anxiety in the 21st Century (University of Kentucky Press, 2020), and Hashtag Activism: Case Studies on Social Justice Movements (U Colorado/Utah State Press, 2022); chapters in Grace Under Pressure: Grey’s Anatomy Uncovered (2008),Writing the Digital Generation (2010), Bitten by Twilight: Youth Culture, Media, and the Twilight Saga (2010), Manufacturing Phobias (2016), Adventures in Shondaland (2018), Young Adult Literature in the Composition Classroom (2018), The Vampire Diaries Collection (2024) and Writing & Wellbeing (2026); and articles inThe Journal of Dracula Studies (2011),The Women and Popular Culture Encyclopedia (2012), The High School Journal (2013), The Journal of Popular Culture (2014), Pedagogy (2017), First Monday (2021), and Peitho (2023).
		Camp Faculty
		Kristen Patterson is currently a graduate student here at EIU; she also completed her bachelor's degree here. Some fun facts about her: she likes walking the trails at lake Charleston, she frequently walks her dog on the trails, she love ice cream and coffee, and will be looking for a high school English Job after graduation!

		Kiersten Holland (she/her) is in the English master’s program at EIU. She currently works as a GA in the Writing Center on campus. She got her English Bachelor’s degree at Murray State University in Kentucky. Her areas of study include Victorian literature and Gender Studies. Recently, she presented her work on a panel called “The Tortured Poets Department: Taylor Swift and Emily Dickinson.” In her free time, you can usually find her crafting, reading, or cuddling with her mini poodle, Percy (yes, named after Percy Jackson).

		Travis Moody (he/him)works as EIU’s Dual Credit and Outreach Coordinator by day, but he teaches for the English department by night! He’s also a graduate of EIU! In 2020, he got his Bachelor’s in English (Literary and Cultural Studies). In 2022, he completed his Master’s in English (Composition and Rhetoric). His favorite areas of study are postmodern American literature and composition in the first-year writing classroom, and his master’s thesis focused on the use of comics to teach writing! In his free time, Travis loves playing video games (currently working his way through Fallout 4 for the first time), listening to music (currently obsessed with The First Two Pages of Frankenstein by The Nationals), and hanging out with his dog, Bigly (there will absolutely be pictures during class)!

		Lydia Craig (she/her) is an Instructor of English at EIU who teaches writing, research, and literary studies. In her work as a teacher and associate editor of The Dickensian and The Charles Dickens Letters Project, she frequently conducts exciting new research at libraries and in various databases and archives. She has published The Verse of Charles Dickens (EUP, 2025), chapters in Routledge Companion to Global Victorian Literature and Culture (2025), The Theological Dickens (2021), Dickens and Women Reobserved (2020), and Critical Insights: Joseph Conrad (2016), and articles in such journals as Dickens Quarterly, Brontë Studies, Victorian Popular Fictions, The Dickensian, and Victorians: A Journal of Literature and Culture.

		McClain Homann is a graduate from Eastern Illinois University (2022), obtaining his B.A. in English Literary Studies and Creative Writing. Now McClain works in Champaign-Urbana providing therapy services for children. While in Champaign he also attends local poetry workshops and readings. If he isn’t writing he’s outside, camping, hiking or gathering around a round table for some D&D adventure. Once a camper back in 2015-2019, McClain is eager to teach the next generation of this wonderful camp.

		Jagoda Szostakiewicz graduated from EIU with a BA in English Language Arts. After staying away from EIU one semester, she couldn’t be away any longer and is now pursuing an MA in Composition and Rhetoric. As a high school educator, she has taught Credit Recovery and Sophomore English. When she is not teaching Jagoda loves reading Young Adult Literature, traveling, and rewatching The Good Place.

		Makenna Boyd graduated from EIU in Fall of 2022 with her BA in English Language Arts and a minor in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. While at EIU she completed an honors thesis about diversity in Marvel fanfiction (ask her about it!). Favorite books change all the time but a current favorite is The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. She has been a camp counselor the previous two years and is excited to return as a teacher. Her hobbies include reading, swimming, snowmobiling, and keeping up with everything Marvel! She is currently teaching at Unity High School in Tolono. She can't wait to see you all and have a great camp! :)

		Like Sharon Stone and the zipper, Dr. Mike McClelland is originally from Meadville, Pennsylvania. He has lived on five different continents but now resides in Illinois with his husband, two sons, and a menagerie of rescue dogs. He is the author of the short fiction collection Gay Zoo Day and his creative work has appeared or is forthcoming in Rolling Stone, The New York Times, WIRED, Electric Literature, Boston Review, Vox, The Baffler, Fairy Tale Review, and a number of literary magazines and anthologies. His fiction has been recognized as a winner or finalist in competitions given by Salamander, Passages North, Booth, Grist, NYC Midnight, and the Agnes Scott College Writers' Festival, where Pulitzer Prize winner and National Poet Laureate Rita Dove chose his work as the winner of the festival's annual fiction prize. His essay “When Lies Turn to Prophecies” was recently named one of The New York Times’ seven favorite summer love stories, and his collection What Used to Be Caracas was the 2022 runner-up for Hub City Press’s C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize. He is a graduate of Allegheny College, The London School of Economics, the MFA program at Georgia College, and University of Georgia's Creative Writing PhD program, and currently teaches creative writing at Eastern Illinois University.
		Camp Counselors	Counselors
		Jacob Adcock (he/him) is currently a junior at EIU majoring in English Language Arts (Teacher Certification) and minoring in Creative Writing. His favorite novels are Atonement by Ian McEwan and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. If he’s not reading or writing, he is probably rewatching shows or hanging out with his boyfriend. A fun fact about him is that he has a twin brother.

		Carli Keller (she/her) is currently going into her senior year at EIU. She is currently majoring in Digital Media Technology with focuses in mainly Game Development but also Web Development. Her biggest hobby is Dungeons & Dragons, but also likes to crochet, read, and of course play video games (her favorites being Baldur’s Gate 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild). Carli's current favorite series is The Legend of Drizzt by R.A Salvatore because it combines her love of D&D with her love of reading. She is currently planning on building a VR game based on one of her favorite settings from the series! She lives in Charleston with one of her best friends and a comically large number of plants. She is a previous attendee of English Studies Camp and can’t wait to return as a counselor!

		Halie Selsor is a senior at EIU, majoring in Secondary English Education. Her hobbies include coloring, travel, watching movies, and (of course) reading! Her favorite book series of all time is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, although she's been interested in fantasy, romance, and mystery as of recently; her favorite movie is ever changing but is currently Alien Romulus. She currently resides in Charleston with her fiancée and their two cats, Tigress and Skippy. She has never participated in the English Studies Camp at EIU but is looking forward to experiencing it for the first time with you all!