Josh Doty

Name:

Josh Doty

MSU Degree:

BA in English, 2008

Any other degrees:

MA in English, Auburn University, 2010

PhD in English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2016

Favorite memories of being an undergraduate English major:

I cherish the classes I took with Dr. Noel Polk, a peerless textual editor and one of the most penetrating readers of William Faulkner. He saw potential in me and pushed me hard to reach it. My first publication evolved out of a reading of As I Lay Dying that I began workshopping in his seminar on Faulkner. I also fondly remember courses in Latin with Dr. Bob Wolverton, who patiently and joyfully steered generations of MSU students through Wheelock’s Latin. And I will never forget the easygoing demeanor and interactive pedagogy of Dr. Rich Raymond, with whom I took an Honors literature class my first semester at State.

Current Position:

Associate Professor and Department Chair

Organization:

St. Mary’s University

When you graduated with a degree in English from MSU, what were your plans for your future?  Has your career path mostly realized those early plans, or have you discovered new plans and goals along the way?

My plan was always to become an English professor, and luckily I achieved that. I still had to navigate some twists and turns. When I graduated from State, I enrolled at Auburn University to earn an MA in English. Auburn was terrific, but I knew that I had to go to a very strong doctoral program to be competitive for a tenure-track position in the future. This is the same advice I give to students who want to become professors.

That’s where my path took a twist. It turns out that strong doctoral programs are highly competitive, so I wasn’t accepted to any of the schools to which I applied. So I worked for a year as a technical writer for Auburn University, polished my application materials, and was accepted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After graduating from UNC, I was hired by Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, where I worked for three years, and then by St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, where I am today.

What is your current occupation, and what does your work mostly consist of?

At St. Mary’s, I have two roles, both in the Department of English Literature and Language: I’m an Associate Professor, and I’m the department chair. In my role as a professor, I teach courses on American literature and critical theory. I also write and publish research, which focuses on depictions of medicine in American literature before 1900. In 2020, the University of North Carolina Press published my book, The Perfecting of Nature: Reforming Bodies in Antebellum Literature. In it, I examine how nineteenth-century American literature responded to and shaped emerging ideas about health, illness, and healthcare.

As department chair, I’m responsible for strategic planning, budget management, personnel matters, and building consensus with my colleagues to pursue the department’s goals. Being department chair keeps me busy, but I’m happy to be in a position where I can help others and advocate for the humanities on campus.  

Which skills that you learned as an English major do you use most in your job?

I read, analyze, and synthesize large amounts of text daily, which I first learned to do at State. For example, department chairs receive tons of email, from students, faculty, and administrators alike, and each person has a different set of needs, wants, and motivations. The first step toward helping these folks is to be a good reader, one attentive not just to what they’re saying but to how they’re saying it.

I also write and write: academic essays, administrative reports, curriculum proposals, research abstracts, letters of recommendation, reader reports, departmental policy, and lots of emails. Doing that well means understanding the audience and genre for each piece of writing I undertake, and I learned how to do that in Starkville.

What additional skills did you need to learn in order to do your job, and how did you learn them?

At its core, most of my work is relational, whether I’m wearing my professor hat or my administrator hat. Building those relationships takes time and care, and they can’t be merely transactional once they’re built. I learned that by watching mentors like Dr. Rich Raymond, who was department head when I was at State, in action.

I also had to learn how to conduct strategic planning, which involves a lot of writing, a lot of analysis, and an ability to interpret a given situation in different ways. My education in English gave me a good foundation for that, but I only got a strong handle on it after researching how humanities departments at other universities create their strategic plans. 

Are there common misconceptions about your career field, which current English majors might share, that you have learned the truth about?

The most common misconception about the English major is that there are few career paths other than in education, publishing, or the law. These are great options, but the truth is that there are many, many more available, from technical writing to public relations to user experience design.

In what ways does your career enrich your life and help you to achieve your personal as well as your professional goals? 

I’m lucky to say that I’ve been able to make an impact on students’ lives in the classroom and through mentorship. My university’s student body includes many Pell Grant recipients and first-generation students, and supporting them has always been goal number one. I can also pursue research questions that matter to me and that I think will contribute to my field.

But my most fulfilling project has been leading a committee tasked with designing a degree in medical humanities, an interdisciplinary field that applies humanities methodologies to healthcare. Once (hopefully) approved by our board of trustees, the degree will train students to be skillful, culturally competent patient advocates and healthcare managers. Everyone has a story about not being treated like a human in a healthcare setting: we’re trying to change that.

What advice do you have for undergraduate English majors right now who might want to follow the career path you did?

If you want to be a professor, work hard! As an undergraduate, because I knew I wanted to be a professor, I spent many nights in Mitchell Memorial Library reading my Norton anthologies cover to cover to build a base of literary knowledge. And learn to meaningfully revise your writing: no matter how good a writer you are, revision will make you better.

Nurture your intellectual life. If a research topic interests you, ask your professors to recommend a few good books or articles on the subject. Read, annotate, and re-read them until you understand their methods and arguments inside-out.

And get ready to move. I often tell students that securing a tenure-track job is a lot like being picked in the NFL draft: it’s a great position to be in, but you don’t really get to choose whether you’re playing for the Dolphins or the Cowboys. 

[Updated August 2024]