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Paying Tribute to a Legendary Lindsey Wilson University English Professor

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COLUMBIA, KY. (11/26/2025) When Lindsey Wilson University English professor Kendall Sewell teaches students about one of the great American novels, he channels a bit of one of the great Lindsey Wilson professors.

In Sewell's "American Literature I" survey class, students are introduced to the writings of Herman Melville, including his epic 1851 novel, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale.

One of texts Sewell uses to discuss what many consider to be the great American novel is an edition of Moby-Dick that Sewell used as a Lindsey Wilson undergraduate in an English class taught by the late Mark Dunphy.

"It feels connective back to that moment when I was a student and seeing Dunphy introduce us to Melville in his animated way," said Sewell, who graduated from Lindsey Wilson in 2013. "It feels like a small way of honoring Dunphy's legacy and his legendary commitment to teaching."

For Dunphy, who taught English at Lindsey Wilson from 1992 until his death in 2016, Moby-Dick was no ordinary great novel. In Dunphy's estimation, Moby-Dick was one of the greatest novels. He read it every year, sometimes every season, since he was a high school student in the 1960s in Connecticut.

"Dunphy teaching Melville was an example of what I wanted the college experience to be," said Sewell. "It was sitting with this brilliantly animated guy, and he would take you down the path of this amazing book published in 1851."

Sewell said that reading Moby-Dick with Dunphy was a formidable experience for many reasons.

"It's not just the things he said about the novel, but how he said it," said Sewell. "He got so much out of it. It was the first time I was convinced there is something to this book."

Because of Dunphy's approach to teaching Moby-Dick, Sewell said that several passages from the novel made an impression on him.

"I see lines that I understand because he pointed them out in class," he said.

Sewell involves his former professor in the class. He refers students to a 2008 interview about Moby-Dick that Dunphy recorded for the Lindsey Wilson YouTube channel, and he also has students read one of Dunphy's papers about Melville, "Herman Melville as 'Hip' Icon for the Beat Generation."

While it's important for students to appreciate Melville's literary genius and his exploration of identity in Moby-Dick, Sewell hopes that they will also discover the joy of reading the novel, just like he did when he studied it under Dunphy.

"What do I want students to get out of it? And that's enjoyment," said Sewell. "And that's what Dunphy wanted as well -- for us to enjoy it."