Rate My Professor John Havard

John Havard serves as Professor of Early American Literature and Chair of the Department of English at Kennesaw State University, where he also holds positions as Special Assistant to the Dean of the Radow College of Humanities and Social Sciences and Interim Chair of the Department of Technical Communication and Interactive Design. His career includes prior service as Interim Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the Radow College from July 2024 to June 2025, Chair and Professor of English at Kennesaw State since 2021, Chair of the Department of English and Philosophy and Associate Professor at Auburn University at Montgomery from 2018 to 2021, and Assistant Professor there from 2012 to 2017. Havard earned a Ph.D. and M.A. in English from the University of Rochester in 2012 and 2010, respectively, an M.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of South Carolina in 2007, and a B.A. in English, Spanish, and Philosophy from the University of South Alabama in 2004, summa cum laude with English Departmental Honors.

Havard's scholarly work focuses on hemispheric American studies and religious studies, particularly within early American literature. He authored the monograph Hispanicisms and Early U.S. Literature: Spain, Mexico, Cuba, and the Origins of U.S. National Identity (University of Alabama Press, 2018) and co-edited Spain, the United States, and Transatlantic Literary Culture throughout the Nineteenth Century (Routledge, 2021). Notable publications include articles such as “William Apess, Religious Liberty, and the Conversion Narrative” in Prose Studies (2022), “Herman Melville’s ‘Benito Cereno’: Anti-Catholicism, Religious Freedom, and Liberalism” in Comparative American Studies (2019), “Mary Peabody Mann’s Juanita and Martin R. Delany’s Blake: Cuba, Urban Slavery, and the Construction of Nation” in College Literature (2016), and a chapter “Slavery and the Emergence of the African-American Novel” in The Cambridge Companion to Slavery in American Literature (2016). Among his honors are the William H. Gilman Memorial Prize for Outstanding Ph.D. Graduate in English from the University of Rochester (2012), Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society induction (2015), and a Professional Improvement Leave from Auburn University at Montgomery (2018). Havard has contributed to university governance as Chair of the University Chairs and Directors Assembly (2023-2024) and through various faculty committees.