Daniel Luttrull, PhD

Assistant Professor of English

School of Arts & Sciences

About Me

I started teaching at the University of Mary in 2020. Before coming to Bismarck, my wife and I lived in Ohio, Indiana, Texas, and Ethiopia where we served for two years with the United States Peace Corps. While in Ethiopia, I taught at the Adwa College of Teacher Education and the Salesian Mission Kidane Meheret. When I’m not working as an academic, I enjoy reading mystery novels with my wife, going to the park with our five children, and playing board games with friends.

Why I’m At Mary

Most universities would consider my Catholic faith to be something completely separate from my work as a professor. At Mary, though, faith and reason are drawn together in such a way that they become mutually reinforcing. Teaching students in the classroom, working with them on research, chatting with them at Chesterton’s — these are all integrated with our worship at mass.

Expertise

My research and teaching interests include American literature, poetry, aesthetic education, and the relation between literature and political philosophy. I’m particularly interested in exploring two questions: How does literature help us understand what it means to be a person? And how does literature draw us into experiences of wonder?

Luttrull, Daniel. (2017). “Mammon and God: Mapping Flannery O’Connor’s Atlanta,” Christianity and Literature. 66(4): 675–690.

Luttrull, Daniel. (2010). “Prometheus Hits the Road: Revising the Myth,” The Cormac McCarthy Journal. 8(1), 20-33.

Poems

Luttrull, Daniel. (2020). “The View from a Cafe in Ethiopia.” America Magazine. https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2020/01/10/view-cafe-ethiopia

Luttrull, Daniel. (2013). “Listening to Timkat.” First Things. https://www.firstthings.com/article/2013/12/listening-to-timkat

Commentary

Luttrull, Daniel. (Forthcoming). “Contra the Radicals; or, Why Society is Not Slavery.” The Lamp Magazine.

Luttrull, Daniel. (2018). “The Facebookification of Local Politics.” Front Porch Republic. https://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2018/09/the-facebookification-of-local-politics-extending-the-wall-of-the-bathroom-stall/

2020 — “The Self and Solidarity in the American Slave Narrative,” Modern Language Association Convention, Seattle, WA.

2019 — “Liberty and Community in the American Slave Narrative,” Adrian-Salomon Colloquium, Cleveland, OH.

2019 — “Solidarity in Wonder on the Cusp of the Civil War,” Modern Language Association Convention, Chicago, IL.

2016 — “Dorothy Sayers and the Hermeneutics of Detection,” Midwest Conference on Christianity and Literature, Spring Arbor, MI.

Education

BA: Indiana Wesleyan University
MA: Baylor University
PhD: Case Western Reserve University