Stuart Harris joined the Cumberland University faculty in 1997. Before that, he taught English at Hunters Lane Comprehensive High School in Nashville for 11 years.  In addition to both a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Belmont University, Dr. Harris holds a Master of Arts in Teaching degree from the University of North Carolina and a Doctor of Arts degree from Middle Tennessee State University.

His teaching responsibilities at the university include Composition, World Literature, Studies in Drama, and Advanced Composition and Grammar.  In the past, he has taught American Literature, including a course on the short stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe. He has also taught a course on the fiction of William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor as well as courses on Southern Literature, Writing Fiction, and Secondary Methods of Teaching English. His greatest pleasure as a teacher is helping students discover their own writing voices and being present as they examine their beliefs through the discussion of literature.

Dr. Harris has published poetry in a number of small literary magazines, a story in South Dakota Literary Review, and a story in an anthology of Tennessee writers. He has also published a review of Clyde Edgerton's novel Where Trouble Sleeps and an article on teaching World Literature in an interdisciplinary context in Tennessee English Journal.  He is currently working on a memoir and short story cycle focused on male sexuality.  He has also recently begun a work of detective fiction.

Dr. Harris has served at Cumberland in a number of capacities, including Faculty Senate President for 2000-2001 and chair of the Professional Development Committee from April 2008 until March 2010. He is currently the chair of the University Committee on Courses, Curricula, and Academic Policy.

Dr. Harris considers his highest calling to be “Daddy.”  He watches in awe as his ten-year-old daughter competes in swim meets and triathlons, makes Principal’s List every grading period, and becomes more beautiful by the day.

Publications

Book Review, “Family, Faith, and Myth in Listre, North Carolina: Clyde Edgerton’s Return to Familiar Places and Themes in Where Trouble Sleeps.” North Carolina Literary Review Fall 1998: 181-84.

Short Story, “The Float.” South Dakota Literary Review Autumn 1998: 9-16.

Short Story, “Starter Jacket.” A Tennessee Landscape, People, and Places (Cool Springs Press, 1996), pp. 127-35.

Article (with Judy Gray), “Combined Studies at Hunters Lane Comprehensive High School: An Interdisciplinary Course in World History and World Literature.” Tennessee English Journal, October 1994, pp. 7-10.

Poems, “On the Three-Dimensionality of Shadows” and “The Poetry Lesson.” The Panhandler 23(1992): 50-51.

Poem, “Faith’s Barn.” West Branch 29 (1991): 64-65.

Poem. “Genesis One.” The Archer 30.2 (1985): 17.

Poem. “A Dying Woman’s Plea for a Closed Coffin.” Sucarnochee Review Summer 1985: 63.