Rate My Professor Janella Moy

Dr. Janella Moy is the Associate Professor of English and Coordinator of the English Department at Kentucky Wesleyan College, where she has taught since 2019, initially appointed as Assistant Professor. She also directs the Honors Program and contributes to the Fine Arts and Humanities division. Moy teaches composition, World Literature, and American Literature courses, emphasizing literature's social and historical significance to foster students' critical thinking and love for reading. With 17 years of prior experience teaching college writing and literature, including as an instructor and doctoral candidate at Saint Louis University, she brings substantial expertise to her role. Before entering academia at age 40, Moy had a career as an Emergency Room Nurse and Trauma Nurse Specialist.

Moy earned her Ph.D. in 20th Century American Literature from Saint Louis University in 2017, focusing on feminist writing and spirituality; her dissertation examined changes in American women's utopian writing. Additional degrees include an M.A. in American and British Literature, a Post-secondary Certificate in the Teaching of Writing, and a B.A. in English with a minor in Creative Writing, all from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Her research specializations encompass American Literature, bibliotherapy, scriptotherapy, and the intersection of medicine and literature. Key publications consist of the book chapter “Reading and Writing One’s Way to Wellness: The History of Bibliotherapy and Scriptotherapy” (2017) and “Marilynne Robinson’s Merging of Medicine and Literature: Therapeutic Journaling as Balm in Gilead” (2015), accumulating 13 citations and 554 reads on ResearchGate. Moy has delivered presentations at scholarly conferences, including the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association (2020, 2021), Midwest Modern Language Association (2016), American Comparative Literature Association, and Coalition of Feminist Scholars in Rhetoric and Composition. She leads honors initiatives, such as developing a capstone course with domestic study away opportunities.