John J. Han <hanjn@mobap.edu; 314-392-2311> is a professor of English, chair of the Humanities Division, editor of Intégrité: A Faith and Learning Journal, editor of Cantos: A Literary and Arts Magazine, and the MBU representative for the Rhodes Scholarships. Han holds a B.A. in English language and literature and an M.Ed. in English education from South Korea. He came to the United States in 1988 and earned his M.A. in English from Kansas State University, his Ph.D. in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and his Writing Certificate in English from Missouri Baptist University.
His college-level teaching career spans over twenty years. He taught at three universities in South Korea and then at Kansas State University, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Nebraska Wesleyan University before joining the MBU faculty in Fall 1999. He regularly teaches composition, world literature, American literature, and creative writing. Han received the 2001 Parkway Distinguished Teaching Award (MBU), the 2000 Emerson Electric Excellence in Teaching Award (MBU), and the 1995 Certificate of Recognition for Contributions to Students (Nebraska).
Han’s academic interests include twentieth-century American novelists (especially Willa Cather, John Steinbeck, and Flannery O’Connor), Asian/Asian-American literature, and religion and literature. He has published dozens of scholarly essays in various journals and collections of critical essays, including Mark Twain Studies, The Steinbeck Review, Literature and Belief, Journal of Humanities, Intégrité, and Ethics, Literature, & Theory: An Introductory Reader. Han authored approximately sixty reference entries for inclusion in Encyclopedia of Catholic Literature, Writers of the American Renaissance, Asian American Novelists, An Encyclopedia of African American Literature, Irish Women Writers, and other volumes. He also published more than twenty book reviews and numerous newspaper and magazine articles.
Han is an active member of the St. Louis Poetry Center and of the St. Louis Writers Guild. His haiku, senryu, and creative nonfiction have appeared in various venues such as the Mainichi Daily News (Tokyo, Japan), Kansas English, Mid Rivers Review, Cantos, Collegian,and In Other Words. His “In the Yard: Senryu” won an Honorable Mention in the 2008 James H. Nash Members Only Poetry Contest, open to members of the SLPC (judge: Adrian Matejka).
Han has delivered numerous scholarly papers at regional, national, and international conferences, including those held in China, Japan, and South Korea. Han’s current projects include the translation of Mr. Song Su-kwon’s lyric poems from Korean into English; he also serves as editor for the Rodopi Press collection of critical essays on Flannery O’Connor’s novel Wise Blood.
