Mark was born and raised in South Africa and immigrated to the United States in 1977. He has also lived and worked in Japan (’83-’84), India (’87), Turkey (’92-’93), and Los Angeles (’93-’00) as a missionary and English high school teacher. After graduating with his doctorate from The University of Texas at Dallas, he and his wife Laurel (Director of the Mabee Library), moved to Sterling College in 2006 where they have been working ever since. They have three sons:  Caleb (SC ’14) Micah (SC ’19) and Josiah. In his free time, Mark enjoys playing chess (he is advisor for the college chess club), blogging on Medium.com, and visiting coffee shops and bookstores.  His academic interests include the literary origins of courtly and romantic love, poetic modernism, C.S. Lewis and the Inklings, and Dante Alighieri.

Education

Ph.D. in Humanities (Literary Studies) from University of Texas at Dallas, 2006
           Dissertation: "Perplexed by Joy: Sensucht in C. S. Lewis’s Pagan Works:
           Spirits in Bondage (1919) and Dymer (1926)"
           Dissertation Director: Frederick Turner (D.Phil. Oxford)
M.A. in English Literature from California State University, Pomona, 2000.
B.A. in Social Science from Azusa Pacific University, 1984.

Publications

Literary Journals:

1. "The Strange Gift of Alzheimer’s: Lessons my Dying Father Taught Me.”
   The Other Journal: An Intersection of Theology and Culture
   (Forthcoming, Health/Healing Ed. Fall 2018).
2. “Torturing Jews and Weeping over Schubert: Have the Humanities Failed to
   Humanize Us?” Dappled Things: A Quarterly of Ideas, Art, and
   Faith.” (SS. Peter & Paul 2017).

Poetry Journals:

1. Avatar Literary Review (2017, #19)
2. St. Katherine Review (2017, Vol 5 #4)

Academic Presentations

1. “C. S. Lewis: A Rift between Fairyland, Heaven, and Earth,” Culture, Criticism,
   and the Christian Mind Conference, Dordt College, IA, November 2017.  
2. “Comedy, Tragedy and Cynicism: A Tale of Three Shakespearian Couples,”
   Shakespeare Literary Festival, Newman University, KS, April 2017
3. “C. S. Lewis’ Concepts of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory,”
   C. S. Lewis Seminar: Sterling College, April 2014.
4. “Song Culture of Athenian Drama: Aeschylus’ Libation Bearers, Sophocles’
   Electra, and Euripides’ Hippolytus,” Harvard University’s Center for Hellenic Studies (Washington D.C) July 2013.
5. “The Chronicles of Narnia in Translation,”  C.S. Lewis Seminar: Sterling United       
   Presbyterian Church, Sterling KS, July 2007.
6. “George Steiner and the Gap between Theology and the Humanities,”
   Southwest Conference on Religion and Language, April 2006.
7. “Charles Williams, Dante, and The Sacramentalization of Romantic Love,”
   Southwest Conference on Religion and Language, April 2004.
8.  “The Tribe with the Greatest Story Survives,” Southwest Regional Conference on
   Christianity and Literature, Azusa Pacific University, March 2001

Office

Kelsey (2nd floor)

Contact Information

Phone: 620-204-0177