Michelle Filling-Brown, Ph.D., serves as Coordinator for both the Engagements with the Common Good series and the Women’s Studies concentration in the Department of English.
Upon joining the faculty in 2008, she was impressed by the dynamic spirit of the English department faculty, who are “committed to fostering a contemporary English department with attention to disciplinary diversity and beyond-the-classroom experiences that help to prepare our students for careers in teaching, academia, publishing, journalism, or law," Filling‑Brown says.
Going beyond the traditional literary text to study media and material culture is a way to illuminate the importance and value of English studies, according to Filling‑Brown.
"Studying social justice and cultural issues is fundamental to shaping a modern English department that is not limited to pursuing literary studies within historical time periods or national boundaries," Filling‑Brown says.
The cornerstone of Filling-Brown’s educational approach is making the students her primary focus. She is constantly developing innovative strategies for teaching writing.
Her article “iFeedback: Using Video Feedback for Supporting Student Revision” (co‑authored with Dr. Noreen Moore, Journal of College Literacy and Learning, April 2012) highlights her use of video feedback in ECG100 as a valuable tool for engaging with students throughout the writing process.
In addition to composition studies, Filling‑Brown’s research focuses on beauty culture and 20th-century African American women writers.
In her publication “Images that Sell: The Black Female Body Imag(in)ed in 1960s and 1970s Magazine Advertisements” in Imagining the Black Female Body: Reconciling Image in Print and Visual Culture (Carol Henderson-Belton, ed., Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), Filling‑Brown examines the iconography of black beauty as it became interconnected with social and political aesthetics of the era.
Filling-Brown is also involved with the English department’s theater concentration. As a classically-trained dancer, she choreographs Cabrini student musical productions. Additionally, she hosts the Department of English’s annual One-Act Play Festival, which features staged readings of students’ scripts.
She is committed to the first-year student experience as she serves as director for the Realizing Dreams Living and Learning Community, instructor for the College Success seminar, and faculty advisor for the Alpha Lambda Delta first-year honor society.
Filling-Brown earned doctoral and master’s degrees in English from the University of Delaware, and a bachelor’s in education from West Chester University.
Contact information
Michelle Filling‑Brown, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, English
Grace Hall, Room 210
610-902-8121
michelle.l.filling@cabrini.edu