Dr. Matthew Sansbury Appointed as Chair of the Department of English in the College of Arts and Sciences
(September 23, 2026) - This summer, Dr. Matthew Sansbury was appointed Chair of the Department of English in the College of Arts and Sciences at Clayton State University. Dr. Sansbury joined Clayton State University in 2019 and currently holds the rank of tenured Associate Professor of English. A former Advanced Teaching Fellow at Georgia State University and Research Fellow at the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives, he brings a deep commitment to academic excellence, student success, and collaborative leadership.
“A student-centered educator, scholar, and administrator, Dr. Sansbury leads with compassion, rigor, and vision,” said Dr. Dwayne Hooks, Interim Dean, College of Arts & Sciences. He added, “We look forward to his continued contributions and leadership to advance the department’s mission to develop students' creative, imaginative, and problem-solving skills to equip them to thrive in an ever-changing, information-based society.”
As a specialist in Rhetoric and Composition with a Ph.D. in English from Georgia State University, Dr. Sansbury has led key initiatives on campus in writing program administration, curricular development, and academic support services. Since 2022, he has served as Director of First-Year Writing, overseeing all ENGL 1101/1102 instruction and assessment, and in 2023, he was appointed Director of The Writers’ Studio.
Since 2025, he has served as Interim Department Chair of English. Dr. Sansbury has received multiple awards, including the College of Arts and Sciences Gene Hatfield Teacher of the Year Award (2024–25), Alice J. Smith Award for Faculty Member of the Year (2023–24), and Kairos Service Award (2017).
After seven years in the Clayton State English Department, Dr. Sansbury is proud to serve as Chair because of the range of experts he oversees. He shared that “It's a highly collaborative, very collegial department. I've always been touched by the fact that educators from different disciplinary specialties such as lit studies, creative writing, rhetoric and composition can work together in the spirit of collaboration. I've always been proud and excited to be a part of a group that is so willing to work together. Here we have scholars who do a lot of crossovers. So, there's a lot of interdisciplinary knowledge or writing across disciplines.”
In addition to supportive colleagues, Dr. Sansbury is inspired by working with students who share his passion for writing. He says, “I have been enchanted by our English majors. Typically, they'll work in the writer studio. I'm thinking about Jahedy Rojas. She just completed her degree last year. She's a great example. She started off in my English 1101 course many years ago, didn't have a voice, and was very withdrawn, but she came out of her shell, gave herself permission to reinvent herself, changed her major to English, and now has an interest in the profession. She wants to get an MFA in creative writing and then get a PhD in English rhetoric and composition. She wants to be a professor one day.”
One of the things he is most proud of is the student engagement that has improved through the work taking place in the Writer’s Studio. Dr. Sansbury said, “When I started working as the director of the Writer’s Studio, I told the manager that writing centers can get a reputation as a remedial space and that some students don't want to come. I wanted to start reinventing it as a maker space. I want people to think of it more as a writing lab, as a space where you go to plug into the community and see it as a value-added hub. You're here because of a problem, but instead, we're going to help you get to the next level,” He added, saying that he is very pleased with how the Writer’s Studio has grown and earned its positive reputation. He said, “It is very impressive to me how much of the community shows up to the Writer’s Studio. The Creative Writing Club hosts its meetings there, and they do open mic events. So, I think that's one of the jewels in the crown of English: our Writer's Studio.”