Dr. Sharmain van Blommestein is an Associate Professor of Medieval & Early Modern Studies,
Women’s and Gender Studies, Race Relations, Literary Theory and Criticism, and Composition
and Writing. She is actively involved in Collaborative Online International Learning projects
(COIL). Besides teaching courses in Medieval Literature, she also teaches general courses in
British and American Literature and English Composition and Writing. She has also taught
and tutored English Composition and developmental/remedial writing and reading for about
twenty-seven years at different universities, and she was an examiner for the Board of Regents English
Composition Exam in the University System of Georgia. She is currently the Convener/Facilitator of
the English and Communication Department, the COIL coordinator for SUNY Potsdam, and
held these former positions: Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of English and
Communication, Director of Women and Gender Studies, and Director of the former Office of
Student Research at SUNY Potsdam. She received her PhD from the University of Florida.