Dr. Kristine Swenson has been named chair of the English and technical communication department at Missouri University of Science and Technology, effective Sept. 1, 2010.

Swenson joined Missouri S&T in 1997 as an assistant professor of English and was named associate professor in 2003. Swenson was named interim chair of the department in 2009.

She took over as chair of the English and technical communication department from Gene Doty, who had served as chair since 2006. He retired in 2009.

Swenson’s research area is 19th- and 20th-century British literature and culture, with a special emphasis on women and medicine. She published her first monograph, Medical Woman and Victorian Fiction, with University of Missouri Press in 2005 and has recently finished a second monograph, this one on Arabella and Annesley Kenealy, writers and medical women at the turn of the 20th century in Britain. She also has published journal articles on 19th century neurology, biography, and colonial literature.

During her career, Swenson has received several teaching awards. She was named S&T’s 2006 Woman of the Year for her leadership in improving the campus climate for women.

Swenson received a bachelor of arts degree in English from Luther College in 1987 and a master of arts degree in English from the University of Virginia in 1989. She earned a Ph.D. in English language and literature from the University of Iowa in 1995.