Contact
Phone: 713.743.9007
Email: wmonroe@uh.edu

William Monroe is professor of English and O’Connor Abendshein Professor and Dean of the Honors College. He earned a B.A. with Highest Honors, Special Honors in English, at the University of Texas and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. After completing an M.A. in English, also at UT, he worked as managing editor of The Liberty (Texas) Vindicator, taught at Houston Community College, and returned to graduate school to earn a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago. He has published numerous articles on various literary figures as well as Primary Care, a play about Alzheimer’s disease, and Power to Hurt, a book that was selected as an Outstanding Academic Book of the year by Choice magazine.

In conjunction with his administrative responsibilities as dean of the College, he teaches Honors colloquia in contemporary American literature and serves as the director of the Common Ground Teachers Institute, a collaborative endeavor between University of Houston faculty and secondary school teachers that focuses on the experience and social significance of multicultural literature. He is also the founding director of Medicine and Society, a program and minor for UH students who wish to explore issues of health and health care through academic courses, research, fieldwork, internships, conferences, and keynote lectures. Dr. Monroe has been honored with the University of Houston Teaching Excellence Award and is presently working on a manuscript entitled The Vocation of Affliction: Flannery O’Connor and the Myth of Mastery. (Ph.D., University of Chicago)