Dr. Doug Mitchell--English

St. Michael has hired Dr. Doug Mitchell to be a full time English teacher for the 2018-2019 school year, replacing Mr. Will Drake, who is moving to north Alabama to be closer to his family.  Dr. Mitchell will teach A.P. Senior English, Senior English and underclassmen courses. 

Dr. Mitchell received his B.A. in English from L.S.U. and his M.A. and Ph.D in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For sixteen years, he served as professor of English at the University of Mobile, where he began a University Honors program and directed the program for 12 years. His published works include a book, A Disturbing and Alien Memory: Southern Novelists Writing History, and numerous articles, reviews and reference works. In both 2009 and 2011, he was awarded the University of Mobile’s highest award for excellence in teaching and service. 

Mitchell is looking forward to the new challenge:  “As a Catholic convert, I am excited to have the chance to teach in a profoundly Catholic institution. I entered the Church largely as a result of my encounter with Catholic writers across the millennia, ranging from St. Augustine to Walker Percy. My aim as a teacher has always been to bring my students into that ancient conversation. They can begin to respond to Dante not in the spirit of a student duly completing an assignment, but in the spirit of Dante responding to Ovid and Virgil. This awareness of responsibility for their own making can create in them that best of combinations: high-seriousness and wonder.”

“We’re thrilled,” says Faustin Weber, principal. “Dr. Mitchell is well known and respected in south Alabama, and his former students speak highly of him. He’s a man of deep faith, combining a passion for teaching with a love for literature. Given the range of his students at the University of Mobile, both in honors and non-honors courses, I believe he’ll connect with kids of all academic abilities here. Students are going to really enjoy the energy and creativity he brings to the classroom.” 

Doug and his wife of twenty six years, Dr. Shawn Mitchell, have five children: Emily Rose (22), Walker (20), Gus (15) , Ambrose (13), and Gabriel (8). They are members of St. Mary’s parish in Mobile.