Marshall University

Marshall University Faculty Senate

Marshall University 
Marshall Digital Scholar 
Recommendations Faculty Senate 
4-28-2023 
SR 22-23-46 SCWC 
Marshall University Faculty Senate 
Follow this and additional works at: https://mds.marshall.edu/fs_recommendations 
 Part of the Higher Education Commons, and the Higher Education Administration Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Marshall University Faculty Senate, "SR 22-23-46 SCWC" (2023). Recommendations. 2066. 
https://mds.marshall.edu/fs_recommendations/2066 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Senate at Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been 
accepted for inclusion in Recommendations by an authorized administrator of Marshall Digital Scholar. For more 
information, please contact beachgr@marshall.edu. 
SR 22-23-46 SCWC 
STUDENT CONDUCT AND WELFARE 
RECOMMENDATION 
Recommends that the Faculty Senate support the trauma-informed resilience-infused campus initiative 
by encouraging faculty education through the various available mental health trainings. We also 
recommend that we increase the availability of these trainings and that the university provide financial 
support to increase the number of certified trainers. 
RATIONALE: 
Based on research that shows a surge in demand for mental health care on other college campuses 
including our own, these trainings would enable faculty to fulfill our responsibilities to students by 
improving our ability to competently assist students with their mental wellness challenges. 
FACULTY SENATE CHAIR: 
APPROVED BY THE O ,,/ (J ~ ,d 
FACULTY SENATE: .~ DATE: vf/;). C> / a Ocl, 7 
( I 
DISAPPROVED BY THE 
FACULTY SENATE: ______________ DATE: ______ _ 
UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT: 
APPROVED: _~;~;?.~~-~--------DATE: 4/2.JJ/23 
DISAPPROVED: ________________ DATE: ______ _ 
COMMENTS: ___________________ _ 


English

SR 22-23-46 SCWC

Marshall University 
Marshall Digital Scholar 
Recommendations Faculty Senate 
4-28-2023 
SR 22-23-49 CC 
Marshall University Faculty Senate 
Follow this and additional works at: https://mds.marshall.edu/fs_recommendations 
 Part of the Higher Education Commons, and the Higher Education Administration Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Marshall University Faculty Senate, "SR 22-23-49 CC" (2023). Recommendations. 2073. 
https://mds.marshall.edu/fs_recommendations/2073 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Senate at Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been 
accepted for inclusion in Recommendations by an authorized administrator of Marshall Digital Scholar. For more 
information, please contact beachgr@marshall.edu. 
SR 22-23-49 CC 
University Curriculum Committee 
RECOMMENDATION 
Recommends approval of the listed UNDERGRADUATE COURSES ADDITIONS in the following 
college and/or schools/programs: 
School of Aviation 
AVSC 280-283 Special Topics 
• Rationale: Addition of special topics options 
• Curriculum: Course Addition AVSC 280 (1)1.pdf 
AVSC 311 Aircraft Systems and Powerplants 
• Rationale: Learn FAA rules and safety procedures; prepare for Remote Pilot licensing exam; 
operate drones to collect remote sensing data; process imagery for analysis; integrate sUAS 
imagery with existing GIS data. 
• Curriculum: Course Addition AVSC 311. pdf 
AVSC 420 International Aviation 
• Rationale: Review of international flights including planning, documentation, navigation, 
• international regulations, safety, and respect for local cultures. 
• Curriculum: Course Addition AVSC 420 l.pdf 
AVSC 454 Drones: Remote Sensing & GIS 
• Rationale: Learn FAA rules and safety procedures; prepare for Remote Pilot licensing exam; 
• operate drones to collect remote sensing data; process imagery for analysis; integrate 
sUAS imagery with existing GIS data. 
• Curriculum: Course Addition AVSC 454 1.pdf 
AVSC 480-483 Special Topics 
• Rationale: Addition of special topics options 
• Curriculum: Course Addition AVSC 480 (1) 1.pdf 
College of Engineering and Computer Sciences 
BME 410 Biomedical Imaging 
• Rationale: Introduces medical imaging and physical principles, instrumentation methods, and 
imaging-related algorithms of X-ray, CT, MRI, PET 
• Curriculum: Course Addition (BME 410, Biomedical lmaging').pdf 
SR 22-23-49 CC 
BME 420 Nanomedicine 
University Curriculum Committee 
RECOMMENDATION 
• Rationale: This course focuses on the fundamental properties, synthesis and characterization 
of nanomaterials, coupled with their applications in nanomedicine. 
• Curriculum: Course Addition (BME 420, Nanomediclne).pdf 
College of Liberal Arts 
GEO 223 Digital Earth 
• Rationale: Students employ GIS, GPS, Remote Sensing, and Drones for spatial data collection 
and analysis and investigate how the tools function for studying human and physical Earth 
systems. 
• Curriculum: Undergrad Course Addition GE0223 signed.pdf 
College of Business 
ENT 200H Smith Startup Incubator Honors 
• Rationale: An interdisciplinary experiential course that guides student entrepreneurs on 
discovering a problem they are passionate about. 
• Curriculum: ENT 20DH.pdf 
School of Pharmacy 
BSPS 444 - Prine of Disease Drug Act 
• Rationale: Topics covered include the concepts and mechanism of the basic processes 
underlying disease and pathophysiology, the general principles underlying drug action and 
therapeutics, including receptor pharmacology, enzyme inhibition and pharmacology, and the 
relationship between drug concentration at the target tissue and drug effect. 
• Curriculum: BSPS444 course addition and syl labus.pdf 
BSPS 447 - Pharmaceutical Chemistry 
• Rationale: Topics covered include functional groups found in drug structures and their 
chemical properties drug solubility, absorption, metabolic pathways of drug molecules, 
biomolecules, enzymes and enzyme kinetics. 
• Curriculum: BSPS 447 course addition and syllabus.pdf 
SR 22-23-49 CC 
University Curriculum Committee 
RECOMMENDATION 
FACULTY SENATE CHAIR: 
APPROVEDBYTHE ~ ~ 
FACULTYSENATE: v 
DISAPPROVED BY THE 
FACULTY SENATE: DATE: ------------- - - - - - --
UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT: 
APPROVED: --~;]"""---'-~.,.__~~------ DATE: LJ /2$ /23 • 
DISAPPROVED: ______________ DATE: _____ _ 
COMMENTS: _________________ _ _ _ 


SR 22-23-49 CC

Marshall University 
Marshall Digital Scholar 
Recommendations Faculty Senate 
4-28-2023 
SR 22-23-47 CC 
Marshall University Faculty Senate 
Follow this and additional works at: https://mds.marshall.edu/fs_recommendations 
 Part of the Higher Education Commons, and the Higher Education Administration Commons 
University Curriculum Committee 
RECOMMENDATION 
SR 22-23-47 CC 
Recommends approval of the listed UNDERGRADUATE AREA OF EMPHASIS ADDITION, 
DELETION, CHANGE in the following college and/or schools/programs: 
College of Liberal Arts 
Area of Emphasis Addition: Applied Sociology 
• Rationale: In proposing an applied track in Sociology we are thinking of something 
that would be more "relevant" (i.e., marketable) than the general track that currently 
exists. This would seem to be in line with the thinking of the new administration. I have 
tried to fit as many of our current course offerings into one or more of these categories. 
The list of options in each would be greatly expanded if we add new courses or accept 
a certain number of courses from other departments. 
• Form with signature: Undergrad Area of ·mphasi 
Sociology signed.pdf 
Area of Emphasis Change: Meteorology (BS Geography LG-20) 
• Rationale: The meteorology area of emphasis is designed for students who wish to 
pursue a career in forecasting and work with companies and agencies such as the 
National Weather Service. The changes in the curriculum reflect standards set forth by 
the National Weather Service. 
• Form with signature: Undergrad Area of Ernphasi Chang GEO - Meteoro logy signed.pdf" 
Area of Emphasis Change: Weather Broadcasting (BS Geography LG-20) 
• Rationale: Changes are proposed to include more broadcasting experience for 
students, either through internships or Radio/TV course experience. 
• Form with signature: ndergrad Area ofEmphasi 
Broadca ting igned.pdf 
College of Science 
Supporting letter for following: StatementToPresidentSmith.pdf 
GEO - Weather 
Area of Emphasis Addition: Forensic Chemistry (SC61; SC60 Biochemistry) 
• Rationale: Currently, the Department of Chemistry does not allow a double major in 
boiochemistry and forensic chemistry . The addition of an area of emphasis in forensic 
chemistry, will allow biochemistry majors to obtain sufficient coursework to be 
competitive for a master's degree in forensic science should they decide to pursue a 
different career later in their education . 
• Form with signature: ForensicChem Bio hem AoEAdd it ion.pdf 
SR 22-23-47 CC 
University Curriculum Committee 
RECOMMENDATION 
Area of Emphasis Addition: Forensic Chemistry (SC81; SC80 Chemical Sciences) 
• Rationale: Currently, the Department of Chemistry does not allow a double major in 
boiochemistry and forensic chemistry. The addition of an area of emphasis in forensic 
chemistry, will allow biochemistry majors to obtain sufficient coursework to be 
competitive for a master's degree in forensic science should they decide to pursue a 
different career later in their education . 
• Form with signature: ForensicChem ChemSci AoEAddition.pdf 
Area of Emphasis Deletion: Computer Forensics (Sl21) 
• Rationale: The entire program will be moved from the College of Science to the 
College of Engineering and Computer Sciences, the department of Computer and 
Information Technology will be merged with the department of Computer Sciences and 
Electrical Engineering. For these reasons all the courses, the major, the minors, and 
the areas of emphasis need to be moved accordingly. 
• Form with signature: UCCAreaoffimphasisAdditionChangeDeletionFormS21.pdf 
Area of Emphasis Change: Computer Appl Development (Sl22) 
• Rationale: The entire program will be moved from the College of Science to the 
College of Engineering and Computer Sciences, the department of Computer and 
Information Technology will be merged with the department of Computer Sciences and 
Electrical Engineering. For these reasons all the courses, the major, the minors, and 
the areas of emphasis need to be moved accordingly. 
• Form with signature: U AreaofEmpha isAdditi nChangeDeletionForm 22.pcl f 
Area of Emphasis Change: Web Application Development (Sl23) 
• Rationale: The entire program will be moved from the College of Science to the 
College of Engineering and Computer Sciences, the department of Computer and 
Information Technology will be merged with the department of Computer Sciences and 
Electrical Engineering. For these reasons all the courses, the major, the minors, and 
the areas of emphasis need to be moved accordingly. 
• Form with signature: UCCA reao f· ➔ mphas i sAdditionChangeDe l etionForm 23.pclf 
Area of Emphasis Deletion: Game Development (SI24) 
• Rationale: The entire program will be moved from the College of Science to the 
College of Engineering and Computer Sciences, the department of Computer and 
Information Technology will be merged with the department of Computer Sciences and 
Electrical Engineering. For these reasons all the courses, the major, the minors, and 
the areas of emphasis need to be moved accordingly. 
• Form with signature: UC AreaofEmphasisAdditionChan geDeletionForm 24.pclf 
Area of Emphasis Change: Game/Simulation Development (Sl25) 
• Rationale: The entire program will be moved from the College of Science to the 
College of Engineering and Computer Sciences, the department of Computer and 
University Curriculum Committee 
RECOMMENDATION 
SR 22-23-47 CC 
Information Technology will be merged with the department of Computer Sciences and 
Electrical Engineering. For these reasons all the courses, the major, the minors, and 
the areas of emphasis need to be moved accordingly. 
• Form with signature: UC AreaoIEmphasisAdditionChangeDeletionFormS25.pdf 
Area of Emphasis Change: Web/Mobile App Development (S126) 
• Rationale: The entire program will be moved from the College of Science to the 
College of Engineering and Computer Sciences, the department of Computer and 
Information Technology will be merged with the department of Computer Sciences and 
Electrical Engineering. For these reasons all the courses, the major, the minors, and 
the areas of emphasis need to be moved accordingly. 
• Form with signature: UCCAreaoffirnphasisAdditi.o.n hangeDeletionFormS26.pdf 
Area of Emphasis Change: Computer/Web App Development (S127) 
• Rationale: The entire program will be moved from the College of Science to the 
College of Engineering and Computer Sciences, the department of Computer and 
Information Technology will be merged with the department of Computer Sciences and 
Electrical Engineering. For these reasons all the courses, the major, the minors, and 
the areas of emphasis need to be moved accordingly. 
• Form with signature: U Ar a , mghasi Add iti n hang Del ti 
FACULTY SENATE CHAIR: 
APPROVED BY THE O ,,,,p _ ~ _/ ___,__-
FACULTY SENATE: ~ ;_,,.,,"~ 
DISAPPROVED BY THE 
DA TE: c//4 o/ ~ O ~7 
FACULTY SENA TE: DA TE: --------------- --------
UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT: 
APPROVED: ___ 73_tS-s--_ ~ _______ DATE: 4 /Z, /1.3 
DISAPPROVED: _______________ _ DATE: ______ _ 
COMMENTS: --------------------------


SR 22-23-47 CC

This is a pre-recorded version of an invited talk given at the First United Methodist Church of Huntington, WV. Approximately half of the presentation is devoted to a digital-humanities project entitled The Library of Appalachian Preaching; I also summarize my education and career path, discuss what the field of “sermon studies” is all about, and mention my other sermon-related teaching and research projects

Ellison, Robert

Robert Ellison, Associate Professor of English
First United Methodist Church, May 20, 2023
An English Professor Who Studies Sermons?!
My Work at Marshall University
Well, hello, everyone! I appreciate the invitation to be with you this 
morning. In addition to being a professor at Marshall, I am father-in-law to 
Hillary Herold, your office manager; I’m grateful to her mentioning my 
name when you were in need of a speaker for today.
As might be appropriate for a talk about sermons, I want to touch on 3 
things:
1. What this thing called “sermon studies” is all about
2. How I’m doing sermon studies at Marshall
3. How Methodist preaching factors into my work
1
Background:
My Education & Career Path
But before I get into all that, let me set the stage by quickly tracing my 
education and career path.
2
Education
I got my BA from UT Austin, which I attended from 1984 to 1988. I started 
as a computer-science major, intending to go to law school and practice 
intellectual property/high-tech law.
Somewhere along the way, probably in my sophomore year, my plans 
changed. I began sensing a call to ministry, so I changed my major to 
English. I’d always been good at it, and I thought  it would be a better pre-
seminary degree than  computer science.
So after I graduated I moved from Austin to Ft. Worth to attend SWBTS, 
where I met my wife Lori, who was in the counseling program there. I 
never finished my degree, though. The short version of the story is that I 
woke up one morning in the spring of 1989 and said to myself “they’re 
training me to be a preacher, and I don’t wanna be a preacher!
 
3
Education
I realized that the classroom was my calling, so I left Southwestern and 
enrolled at the University of North Texas, which is where I discovered the 
sermon. 
I’d done religion-and-literature-type work as an undergrad, and I wanted to 
continue that focus at UNT, where I was specializing in Victorian 
literature. The sermon would not only check that box, but also help me 
work in a largely unexplored area; at that time, there was very little 
scholarly work on sermons published after about 1800.
So I jumped right in, looking at the history and theory of Victorian 
preaching in general, and specifically at the work of George MacDonald, 
John Henry Newman, and C.H. Spurgeon.  
I received my degree in 1995; three years later, a revised version of my 
dissertation was published as a book, and I was off and running!
4
Career Path: “From Marshall to Marshall”
All through graduate school, I knew that I wanted to teach at a small 
Christian college, and I found one in ETBU, located in the deep-east-Texas 
town of Marshall. I was there for 14 years, from 1995-2009.
But my career path changed, just as my choice of schools did. While we 
were there, my wife taught some psych courses and fell in love with the 
classroom too. So she did a long-distance commute to Texas A&M-
Commerce, where she completed her PhD in counselor education in 2007.
We knew we’d have to move for her to find a teaching job, as there were 
no other schools in the area with counseling programs. The search took 3 
years, and we made 2 major decisions along the way:
1. We decided that we were called to be “salt and light” at a secular 
school, so we stopped applying to Christian colleges. Lori actually 
withdrew from a search or two, which was a big leap of faith in a tight 
job market.
2. We also decided that I would stop looking altogether, on the grounds 
that every university has an English department, but not every one has 
a counseling program. So we took another leap of faith, trusting that 
God would provide for me wherever Lori landed.
5
Career Path: “From Marshall to Marshall”
And He came through, as He always does!
1. Lori’s job at Marshall started in the fall of 2009. That year, I taught 
part-time at Marshall and the University of Charleston.
2. In the fall of 2010, I moved to full-time at Marshall on a 1-year 
contract
3. From there, I was “upgraded” to a 3-year contract, which I held from 
the fall of 2011 to the spring of 2014.
4. In the fall of 2014, I was “upgraded” again, to the tenure track, and I 
was awarded tenure in the spring of 2020.
Retirement gets closer and closer all the time, so we’ll almost certainly 
finish our careers here. Both our children (28-year-old boy/girl twins) live 
here too, so we very well may stick around after that as well.
6
What is “Sermon Studies”?
And that’s a bit about me and my testimony. Now on to the first of the 3 
points I mentioned a moment ago!
A question I sometimes get is “isn’t ‘sermon studies’ just another name for 
‘homiletics’?”
I would say No. They are related, but not synonymous. Let me draw an 
analogy from English depts. Among other things, you’ll find
• “creative writing,” which focuses on how to craft poetry, fiction, creative 
nonfiction, and so on
• “literary studies,” which focuses on studying and analyzing works 
created by other people
That difference also applies here:
• “homiletics” deals with the art of preparing and delivering sermons
• “sermon studies” involves studying and analyzing those sermons
This means that the field is by no means limited to professors of preaching 
at seminaries or Bible colleges. Rather, it includes historians, rhetoricians, 
literature professors, and so on who deploy the “tools of their trade” in the 
7
study of the sermon.
7
The Sermon and Other Disciplines
 I actually have an essay in the works that will survey the various 
methodologies that fall under the umbrella of “sermon studies.” A list of 
some of the disciplinary perspectives is up there on the screen. Since I’m 
an English professor, you’d guess that I’d be most invested in #3, 
“Sermons as Literature” (and you’d be quite correct!).
I’m also interested in #1, “Sermons as Big Data.” I do a lot of work in 
what’s known as “digital humanities,” which involves using computers to 
help us discover new ways of doing what we do as historians or literature 
professors or whatever. Large groups of sermons—such as the complete 
works of John Wesley--can be the “input” we feed into the computers to 
see what kind of “output” we will get.
8
Sermon Studies @ Marshall
So how am I doing sermon studies in an English department at a public 
university? 
9
Research Projects
Conference Presentations Edited Collections Peer-Reviewed
Articles and
Book Chapters
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been working on sermons since my graduate-
school days in the 1990s. During my time at Marshall, I have given 
conference presentations on preaching, worked on 2 collections of essays 
(with a 3rd in progress), and published several peer-reviewed articles and 
book chapters.
10
Teaching
I’ve also had the opportunity to bring my research into the classroom by 
teaching Honors seminars on the sermon. In 2015 and 2017, I cast a pretty 
wide net, looking at sermons preached in a variety of times and places.
I’ll teach a 3rd seminar this fall, this time with a focus on preaching in 
Appalachia. Among other things, I’ll get to talk about snake handling, 
which I’m really looking forward to! 
It’s rather ironic that I never taught a sermons course at ETBU, but I’ve 
done several here at Marshall. As they say, God does work in mysterious 
ways!
11
The Center for Sermon Studies
Now I’d like to talk about some endeavors that go beyond a single 
conference presentation or journal article.
When I started on the tenure track in the fall of 2014, my chair and dean 
gave me the go-ahead to start the Center for Sermon Studies. That sounds 
grander than it is; as I like to say, “it has a staff of 1 and a budget of 
nothing.” But the fact that there is such a Center, and that it’s housed at a 
public research  university, helps to give the field some “street cred” that it 
might not otherwise have. 
12
The Sermon Studies Journal
The Center is the official sponsor of two big projects. The first is an 
academic journal that publishes peer-reviewed research. It is online and 
open access, which means that anyone can read the articles without having 
to pay a subscription fee.  
13
The Library of Appalachian Preaching
The other is a digital-humanities project called The Library of Appalachian 
Preaching, which is also freely available online. 
You might say, “Wait a minute. Didn’t you say your PhD is in Victorian 
literature?” Yes, it is, and my publications in that field span some 20 years, 
from the time my dissertation-turned-book came out in 1998 to an article 
published in Studies in Jewish-Christian Relations in 2018.
Around that same time, I made yet another change in my professional 
trajectory, moving from the Victorian sermon to Appalachian preaching. I 
did that mainly so I could work with the materials in Marshall’s Special 
Collections; make connections with ministers, churches, and other scholars 
researching Appalachia; and so on. My presence here today is one example 
of how that change has borne fruit.
14
The Library of Appalachian Preaching
So what is this Library all about? It has 3 parts:
1. Biographical sketches of the preachers
2. Links to their sermons. Most of these are printed texts, but I’m slowly 
branching out into audio and video recordings too.
3. User Guides with information about each sermon. For a variety of 
technical and budgetary reasons, there is not a search interface like 
you find in other online catalogs. As a Plan B, I’ve made all of the 
data that would be retrieved in a search available as a very big Google 
spreadsheet, with a tab for each preacher and 2 “master” tabs, one for 
all the preachers and another for all the sermons. These tabs have the 
information you’d find in any library catalog—author. title, subject, 
etc—along with specialized fields such as the scripture text on which 
the sermon was based and the date and place it was preached (if 
known).  The spreadsheet is locked , so users cannot make changes—
either accidental or intentional—but they can  download it and  
browse or sort to find the kinds of sermons they’re looking for
15
Methodist Sermons in
The Library of Appalachian Preaching
I’d like to start my final section on another personal note. I’ve been a 
Baptist since my high-school days; my wife and I attend Crosspoint 
Community Church in the Westmoreland area of Huntington, just east of 
Camden Park.
16
My Methodist Roots
But I have deep Methodist roots:
My mother’s father was the Rev. Winslow Wilson (1912-1997). Among his many 
legacies is the Pine Lake United Methodist Camp in Wisconsin, which he helped found 
and which has a bench with his memorial plaque on it. That caricature seen here hangs 
in my office in Corbly Hall.
Somewhere in my father’s family tree, on his mother’s side, is Robert Roberts (1778-
1843). He was ordained by Francis Asbury and was the 1st Methodist bishop to live 
west of the Allegheny mountains.
Roberts actually spent some time in Appalachia:
• For a time, his family lived in Westmoreland County, PA
• He was licensed to preach in Harrison County, OH
• He was a trustee of Allegheny College in Crawford County, PA
The picture on the right is his memorial in Lawrenceport, IN, not too far from where 
my parents live.
17
The “Big Data”
Here’s what the Library has in terms of our common ground:
All told, there are currently more than 2400 sermons by some 170 
preachers.
As you can see from these charts, Methodist/Methodist Episcopal is the 
single largest category, in terms of both the # of preachers and the # of 
sermons.
The Methodist materials cover large spans of time and space. The 
preachers were born between 1794 and 1935. Most worked in WV; other 
states represented range from New York and Pennsylvania in the northeast 
part of Appalachia to Alabama and Mississippi in the southwest.
18
Top Ten Texts and Topics
And here’s some other information we can glean from the User Guides I 
mentioned earlier. You can slice-and-dice the data in any number of ways; 
I’ve limited these charts to the “Top Ten” so you won’t get information 
overload (and because I like the alliteration of “Top Ten Texts and 
Topics”!).
So on the left you can see the books of the Bible from which these 64 
ministers preached most often. It’s probably not very surprising that the 
gospels and psalms are right at the top of the favorite texts.
And on the right you can see the topics on which they preached most often. 
No surprises there either, I suspect.  
19
Top Ten Texts and Topics
Let me say one more thing about the topics. In some online catalogs, it 
looks like the creators used their own subject terms, which affects the 
usefulness of their work. Let’s say I’m looking for sermons on the Lord’s 
Supper. If I search for “communion” but the sermons are categorized under 
“eucharist,” I might miss something that would be exactly what I’m 
looking for. If I’m searching several catalogs, I also would like to be sure I 
can use the same terms across the board.
To help avoid these issues, I use the subject terms authorized by the 
Library of Congress. This is in line with the “best practices” in the field, 
but it can have its own set of challenges. Sometimes it’s hard to find a 
good fit: I might think a sermon is about X, but I can’t find X—or any 
close synonyms of X—at the LC site.
In other cases, the LC formats can seem a bit inconsistent; here, for 
example, we have “God—love” but “Providence and government of God.” 
It might make more sense to have either “Love of God” or “God—
providence.” So it’s not perfect, but it is the industry standard, so I try to 
find the best fits I can. 
20
Melville Homer Cummings
Sermons    148
Newspaper Columns 64
Poems    384
Songs    295
The Methodist preacher for whom we have the most materials is M. Homer 
Cummings, who pastored churches in WV for over 50 years. His papers 
were donated to Marshall several years ago, and contain not only 
sermons/radio addresses, but also newspaper columns, poems, and songs. 
We even have the printing press he used to publish his songs and hymns!
I spent my sabbatical in the spring of 2021 organizing his physical papers 
and building the online collection. I learned a lot about what it means to 
think like a librarian, and was able to complete a project the librarians 
themselves did not have the time to do.
21
Next Steps…
Credit: stjoeshuntington.org
Credit: facebook.com
This is a project that will probably never be completely finished, especially 
as long as the Center for Sermon Studies continues to have a staff of one 
and a budget of nothing. On top of that, the essay collection I mentioned a 
while back will keep me busy through the end of Summer 2024.
But I am getting some help, via internships English majors can do for 
upper-level credit. In Spring 2022, I had an outstanding student who 
cataloged nearly 80 video sermons delivered at Temple Israel in 
Charleston. This past spring, I had a student who was going to work on 
videos from St. Joseph’s here in Huntington, but that never really got off 
the ground. A colleague in the department recently discovered some 50-
year-old cassette tapes of an uncle’s lay sermons. Our Special Collections 
staff is working on digitizing them, and I’d love to have an intern have a go 
at those as well.
22
Next Steps…
Credit: stjoeshuntington.org
Credit: facebook.com
Projects like that would go a long way toward bringing some much-needed 
diversity to the Library. It is underrepresented in living preachers and 
those from faith traditions other than white Protestantism; getting these 
sermons—and others like them--cataloged would be a big step toward 
filling those gaps.
So that’s a priority, but I’m open to pretty much anything and everything. If 
you know of sermons—manuscript, published texts, audio, video, 
whatever—that you’d like see included in the Library, please let me know!
23
For More Information…
mds.marshall.edu/sermons ellisonr@marshall.edu
And that’s a very quick overview of who I am and what I do. There’s only 
so much ground I can cover in a Saturday morning program. If you’d like 
to explore the Library for yourself or get in touch with me to talk more, 
please feel free to do so!
24
Thank You!
?
25


Marshall University

Not a member yet

SR 22-23-46 SCWC

SR 22-23-49 CC

SR 22-23-47 CC

An English Professor Who Studies Sermons?! My Work at Marshall University

The Minutes of the Marshall University Staff Council Meeting, October 2023

The Minutes of the Marshall University Staff Council Meeting, May 2023

The Parthenon, September 13, 2023

The Parthenon, June 21, 2023

The Parthenon, February 1, 2023

The Parthenon, April 5, 2023

22,430

37,903