Dr. Gene Young

  • Director, The Elliott T. Bowers Honors Program
  • Professor of English, Sam Houston State University

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Since January 2006 I have been the Director of the Elliott T. Bowers Honors Program, a program with a rich history here at Sam Houston State University. I have been a professor of English at Sam since 1992. I teach at all levels, but my specialties are 20th-century American literature; the literature and culture of Texas; and Southwestern American literature. My chief scholarly research interest is Southwestern Literature, and particularly the fiction of Cormac McCarthy. I am a graduate of Borger Senior High School (located in Borger, Texas, in the Texas Panhandle). I took my undergraduate degree from West Texas State University (now West Texas A & M) in 1968. After five years as an Air Force officer and B-52 navigator, I returned to WTSU for my master's in English, which I completed in 1974. I took my Ph.D. in English from the University of Tennessee in 1979. Before coming to Sam, I taught at Texas A & M and Morehead (Kentucky) State University, where I directed the technical writing program and then served as head of the Department of English, Foreign Languages, and Philosophy. I was chair of the SHSU Department of English and Foreign Languages from 1992 to 1999. I live in Huntsville, Texas with my wife, Marynell, who has recently returned from a year of teaching English in Torreon, Mexico. She currently teaches Spanish at Centerville High School. Our three children--Jenny, Rachel, and Owen--all live and work in Austin. My main interest outside of my teaching is traditional American music. I play fiddle variously in three different traditional bands, one of which--the Young Family String Band--includes my wife and daughters. We also perform at historical re-enactments and other occasions with "Dr. E.T. Bushrod's" traditional nineteenth-century medicine show, as well as locally with the "No Foolin" String Band, which has been an outgrowth of the Sam Houston Friends of Traditional Music I hope when I die my tombstone will read, "Here lies a damned good fiddler."

 

 

Fall 2007 Courses

English 361
American Literature, Civil War to the Present
English 364 Folklore

Spring 2008 Courses

English 376 Teaching Literature in High School
English 488 Texas Crossroads
Honors 475 American Cultures (team-taught, interdisciplinary)

 

 

 

Note: Online access to these courses is available to my students through Sam Houston State University "Blackboard" course management software. You must be registered in one of my courses to have access, but if you have any questions or would like to have any of my course materials, feel free to contact me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Updated: October 2007