Scott Yarbrough
Vice President for Compliance, Academic Accreditation, and Institutional Effectiveness
Department(s)
Senior OfficersCredentials
Ph.D. in English with emphasis on American Literature, University of Alabama.
M.A. in English, writing emphasis, Florida State University
B.A. in English, Florida State University
About Scott Yarbrough
Dr. Scott Yarbrough joined the English faculty in 1997. He has earned the rank of tenured full professor. He chaired the Department of English for fifteen years and also served as the Assistant and then Associate VP of Academic Affairs for Student Success and Academic Compliance. In 2023 he was promoted to the senior officers and currently is Vice President for Compliance, Academic Accreditation, and Institutional Effectiveness.
As an English professor he has published articles on Cormac McCarthy, William Faulkner, and Ernest Hemingway, among many others. . He is the co-author of A Practical Introduction to Literary Study and the co-editor to the two volumes on The Road in the Cormac McCarthy Casebook Series (Carrying the Fire: Cormac McCarthy and the Apocalyptic Tradition). He was the 2008 South Carolina Arts Commission Prose Fellow and is a former president of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association. He is on the editorial board of the Cormac McCarthy Journal and he is on the executive board of the Cormac McCarthy Society. His book of interviews on Cormac McCarthy is forthcoming from McFarland Press. He and his wife have two daughters in college, two bad dogs at home, and are members of Christ Church in Mount Pleasant.
"Many of our students don't know the God-granted talents which linger inside them. Their are so many distractions in the modern world, from social influencers on apps and social media, to streaming shows for bingeing, to video games, to sports, to fashion. But through the arts and humanities and, indeed, even through the sciences, we can help students understand where their true calling is. Like Thoreau, they can learn to confront "only the essential facts of life" so that when it comes time "to die," they don't discover that they "had not lived" (Walden, chapter 2). Or in the words of scripture, realize that at CSU you can come to learn your path, and trust in the Lord to "make straight your path" (Proverbs 3:6). "
Awards
Finalist, Excellence in Teaching Award, Charleston Southern University, Spring 2012.
South Carolina Arts Commission Prose Fellow, Fall 2006-Spring 2008.
Tennessee Williams Scholar, Sewanee Writers' Conference, July 2004.
Winner, Excellence in Teaching Award, Charleston Southern University, 2002.
Finalist, Excellence in Teaching Award, Charleston Southern University, 2001.
South Carolina Academy of Authors Fellow, 2000.
Faculty Merit Award, Charleston Southern University, 1999.
Strickland Scholar, University of Alabama, 1992-96.
Signature Experiences
Member, Presidential Search Committee (April-June, 2023).
Vice-Chair, VPAA Search Committee (January-March, 2023).
Chair, Extra Mile Task Force:
Chair, Academic Council: 2017-2024
Chair, QEP Oversight Committee, Fall 2006-Spring 2011:
Promotion and Tenure Committee, 2013-15; 2011-2012; 2007-2009.
Member, Curriculum Committee, Fall 2005-Spring 2007.
Chair, Faculty Welfare Committee, Fall 2002-Spring 2005
Outside Service:
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), Visiting Committee Chair: 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024.
Executive Board, Cormac McCarthy Society
Manuscript review (blind peer review) for LSU Press, 2023
Manuscript review (blind peer review) for University Press of South Carolina, 2021
South Atlantic Modern Language Society (SAMLA) Executive Committee President, 2017
South Atlantic Modern Language Society (SAMLA) Executive Committee 1st Vice President, 2016, and 2nd Vice President, 2015
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), Visiting Committee member: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019.
Editorial Board, Cormac McCarthy Journal, Spring 2014-present
Reader/Reviewer, Cormac McCarthy Journal, Spring 2009-14.
South Atlantic Modern Language Association, Nominating Committee, 2010-2013.
South Atlantic Modern Language Society (SAMLA) Executive Committee, Spring 2007-Spring 2010.
Associate Fiction Editor, storySouth, Fall 2004-Spring 2007.
Recent Scholarly Work & Publications
Refereed Articles and Chapters:
“'Absolute best hell': 'The Strange Country,' Meta-Narrative, and Authorial Self-Review," forthcoming in Studies in the American Short Story.
“Incest and Intertexualism: Diving Deep into The Passenger and Stella Maris,” chapter, forthcoming in New Perspectives on Cormac McCarthy
“’The World Lies Waiting’: Nature and Internal Latitudes in Cormac McCarthy,” chapter, forthcoming in This Country’s Hard on People: Cormac McCarthy and American Identity
“Elusive Edens in the Fiction of Ron Carlson,” Studies in the American Short Story, vol. 4, iss. 2, 2023, 177-89.
"Appropriations of Hemingway in Film," chapter in Approaches to Teaching Hemingway and Film, eds. Marc Dudley, Cam Cobb, Modern Language Association Press.
"Myths and Legends: Patterns of Go Down, Moses in The Road," Cormac McCarthy Journal, vol. 21 iss. 2, 2023.
"Suburban South: The Novels of Inman Majors," chapter, Twenty-First Century Southern Writers: New Voices, New Perspectives, ed. Jean W. Cash and Richard Gaughran, U. Press of Mississippi, 2021.
"The Road, Consumerism, and Consumption" in Approaches to Teaching Cormac McCarthy, ed. Stacey Peebles, Modern Language Association Press, 2021.
"Cormac McCarthy and the South," chapter, in Cormac McCarthy in Context, ed. Stephen Frye, Cambridge University Press, 2020, pp. 13-23.
"Guilty Pleasures: Faulkner, McCarthy, and Pop Culture," The South Atlantic Review, Fall 2018, pp. 1-16.
“The Education of Henry: Politics and Context in Hemingway's Spanish Civil War Stories," chapter, in Imagining Spain: 21st Century Essays on Hemingway and Spain, ed. Carl Eby and Mark Cirino, Kent State University Press, 2015.
Editor:
Reading McCarthy: The Southern Works. McFarland Press, North Carolina. Forthcoming.
Carrying the Fire: Cormac McCarthy's The Road and the Apocalyptic Tradition Volumes I and II, Ed. Rick Wallach and Scott Yarbrough, Casebook Studies in Cormac McCarthy, Cormac McCarthy Society