William Gonch, Ph.D.

Dr. William Gonch is Assistant Professor of Literature and Director of the Literature program at Ave Maria University. He is also Editor-in-Chief of Magnify, the journal for student creative arts at Ave Maria. Dr. Gonch received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. Before that, he completed a M.A. in Creative Writing (Fiction) from Temple University and a B.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of Pennsylvania. He has been a visiting scholar at Princeton Theological Seminary and was the inaugural Cornerstone Fellow in English at the Catholic University of America.

Dr. Gonch’s research explores the religious imagination in 20th century American literature. His work has appeared in Christianity and Literature and Authorship, and he has presented at numerous scholarly conferences, including the American Literature Association, the Society for the Study of Southern Literature, the De Nicola Conference on Ethics and Culture, and the South Atlantic Modern Language Association. In 2023, he participated in “Reconsidering Flannery O’Connor,” a scholarly institute supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. His writing for the public has appeared in several publications, including Public Discourse, The Hedgehog Review, and The Claremont Review of Books.