Home / People / Dr. June Hadden Hobbs Dr. June Hadden Hobbs Director of Undergraduate Research, Professor June Hadden Hobbs is Professor of English and Director of Undergraduate Research at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. An Oklahoma native, she earned her B.A. degree in English at Oklahoma Baptist University, her M.A. degree at the University of Louisville, and her Ph.D. degree in American Studies at the University of Oklahoma, where she won the award for the outstanding women’s studies dissertation. Dr. Hobbs was editor of Markers: Annual Journal of the Association for Gravestone Studies for eight years, and she has published books and articles on popular culture topics such as American hymnody and tombstones as well as on more traditional literary topics such as Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead. She is the co-author with Joe DePriest of Tales and Tombstones of Sunset Cemetery: Tracing Lives and Memorial Customs in a Southern Graveyard, published in 2021 by McFarland Press. She is the winner of the 2017 Harriette Merrifield Forbes Award for outstanding contributions to the field of gravestone studies and of the 2010 Excellence in Teaching Award at Gardner-Webb. She is part of a collaborative inquiry project sponsored by the Louisville Institute with a pastor, a religion professor, and a nurse titled “A Practical Theology of Corpse Care.” Dr. Hobbs teaches classes in American literature, composition, and classical rhetoric. She regularly teaches an honors seminar called Death in American Culture, known affectionately by her students as “the death class.” She is also the advisor for the NC Zeta Chapter of national Alpha Chi, a multi-disciplinary national honors society, and a member of the National Council for Alpha Chi. As Director of Undergraduate Research, she is the founder of the Summer Undergraduate Research Scholars Program. Articles & Books Links to a representative article easily accessible online and to information about her latest book: “The Cowboy Cemetery of Kenton Oklahoma” Tales and Tombstones of Sunset Cemetery:Tracing Lives and Memorial Customs in a Southern Graveyard
