Faculty & Staff

BA, Northwestern University; PhD, Princeton University.

Dr. Mohler has a wide range of teaching interests and specialties. She teaches courses on cognitive literary theory, children’s literature, literary adaptation, New Fabulism, as well as Slavic and South Asian literature and film. The courses she teach support the JINS program and the Cognitive Science, Child Studies, and Film Studies minors, including:

ENG 206: Science Fiction/Fantasy/New Fabulism, Fake Literature (focus changes depending on semester)

ENG 211: Perspectives on Literature and Film

ENG 322: Studies in Cinema

ENG 415: Children’s Literature

ENG 430: Cognitive Approaches to Literature and Film

JINS 345: From Page to Stage and Screen (previous topics have featured adaptation of Moby Dick, Robinson Crusoe, Frankenstein, Jane Eyre, Great Expectations, Anna Karenina, and the Sherlock Holmes canon)

She has published articles and presented papers at national conferences for the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and Eastern European Languages (AATSEEL), the South Asian Literature Association (SALA), and the Children’s Literature Association (ChLA). She is also a member of the Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI).

Her recent scholarship focuses on how Russian authors, such as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov, have influenced contemporary South Asian literature.

She is chair of English Advising Support of Excellence Committee and the Child Studies Interdisciplinary Minor Committee, a member of both the Cognitive Science and Film Studies Committees, and helps organize the annual Truman Children’s Literature Festival.

Honors and Awards

Winner of the inaugural SAL Mission Award, 2019-2020

Winner of two Truman Teaching Innovation Awards, Fall 2018, Spring 2021

Finalist for Truman State University’s Educator of The Year,  2018-2019, 2019-2020

Finalist for Truman State University’s Research Advisor of the Year, 2017-2018

National Endowment for the Humanities Grant for Summer Institute, “The Cultural and Historical Development of Modern India,” Summer 2011

National Endowment for the Humanities Grant for Summer Seminar, “Adapting Dickens,” Summer 2007

Favorite authors:
Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Eliot, Jane Austen, Karel ÄŒapek, Olga Grushin, Wislawa Szymborska, Olga Tokarczuk, Vikram Seth, Daniyal Muenuddin, Mohsin Hamid, Elizabeth Strout, Ann Patchett, Allegra Goodman, Mary Oliver, Aimee Bender, Karen Russell, Eowyn Ivey, Kevin Brockmeier, Steven Millhauser, George Saunders, Jose Saramago, Tom Stoppard, C. S. Forrester, Georgette Heyer,

Favorite Directors: Krzysztof Kieślowski, Michel Ocelot, Asghar Farhadi, Jim Jarmusch, Karan Johar

Favorite quotation:
"Love is Life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love." -Leo Tolstoy