Nancy Cervetti
Professor of English
B.A., Ph.D. University of Iowa
M.A. Drake University
cervettin@Avila.edu

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Stanley E. Banks
Artist in Residence
Assistant Professor of English
B.A., M.A., University of Missouri-Kansas City

Stanley E. Banks is Artist-in-Residence at Avila and teaches creative writing (poetry, fiction, and playwriting) and African-American literature. In 2003 BookMark Press published his fourth book of poetry, Blue Beat Syncopation, and he has won a number of awards including The Langston Hughes Prize for Poetry, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and The Writers Place Award in Kansas City. In addition to his books, he has published poems in a number of journals including “Huey Newton Sang His Song” in The Berkeley Poetry Review and “Dysfunctioning” in Emerson of Harvard. Professor Banks has appeared on TV and radio shows including the talk show Writers on Writing , and for one year the Black Archives of Mid-America presented “The Special Exhibit of Stanley E. Banks’ Life and Literature.” Professor Banks is the faculty advisor for Avila’s literary magazine, the Scop, and for the Black Student Union.

Tony Michel
Assistant Professor
Chair of the English Department

Dr. Michel received his Ph.D. in American Studies with a specialization in rhetoric and composition from Michigan State University. He returned to Kansas City after teaching for four years at California State University, Fresno. In addition to his work as Chair of the English Department, Dr. Michel teaches courses in American literature and composition and rhetoric.

Dr. Michel's research interests are in alternative rhetorics, social activism and the new media, and writing theory.  He has written on a variety of subjects including Julie Dash's film, Daughters of the Dust, teaching rap lyrics in literature and writing classes, and ways social movements are using the new media to foster social change.  His articles have appeared in The Journal of Advanced Composition, Enculturation, and in anthologies in the fields of composition and rhetoric and the new media.

Dr. Michel has two children, a son Leo who is both energetic and contemplative, and a daughter Kate who is the family social butterfly.