Faculty and Staff Directory

Dr. Basil Chisholm is committed to the concept of a Christian liberal arts education (especially since he did not receive one as an undergraduate). Though he did not attend SWU as a student, Chisholm wishes he had graduated from here because he loves the community, the area, the people and the sense of mission. Chisholm has publications in journals such as Mississippi Folklife, The South Carolina Review and Connecticut Review, and he has upcoming publications for the Mississippi Encyclopedia. He is a frequent contributor to Mallorn: The Journal of the J.R.R. Tolkien Society, and he has published two books with Arcadia Publishing's Images of America series. Chisholm has been recognized as an 'exemplary teacher' by the Board of Higher Education of the United Methodist Church. 

He lives near SWU with his wife and two daughters.  

Education

- Ph.D. in Rhetoric, Composition, and Children's Literature
  from the University of Texas at Arlington
    Dissertation: The Possibilities of Children’s Literature:
    A Rhetoric-Oriented Approach to Juvenile Texts
- M.A. in American Literature from Clemson University 
- B.A. in History and Literature from the University of Mississippi 

Interests

- Genre fiction (fantasy, science fiction, detectives, vampires, etc) 
- British literature 
- American literature  
- Children's literature 
- Film criticism 
- Rhetorical theory 
- Shakespeare  
- Wayne Booth  
- C.S. Lewis

View Dr. Chisholm's Vitae