Remembering Dr. Darcy Mullen

Posted October 29, 2020

The campus and College community suffered a difficult loss the weekend of October 24 with the death of Dr. Darcy Mullen, a Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow.

Dr. Mullen was a member of the faculty in the Writing and Communication Program in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication. She was a kind and passionate instructor who cared deeply for her students. Her interests and expertise focused on aesthetics and poetics, contemporary literature, ecocriticism, and especially, the rhetoric of food. A proponent of food justice, her doctoral dissertation was titled “There’s No Place Like Home: Locavore Writing and Rhetorics of Space.” Many of her classes at Georgia Tech engaged with issues of food in Atlanta, and she often connected her students to food and agriculture-oriented community partners via service learning, and particularly those related to the presentation and delivery of food. 

In a message to the College about Dr. Mullen’s passing, Dean Kaye Husbands Fealing said, “The loss of a colleague is inherently challenging and can be especially difficult in times of heightened isolation. Our thoughts are with Darcy’s family, friends, students, and colleagues.”

Dean Husbands Fealing noted that staff and faculty may find support through the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) at hwb.gatech.edu/eap. The Georgia Crisis and Access Line (1-800-715-4225) is also staffed with professional social workers and counselors 24 hours per day, every day, to assist those with urgent and emergency needs. 

Dr. Mullen’s obituary may be found here: https://www.davisstruempf.com/obituaries/Darcy-Mullen/#!/Obituary.  Her family has indicated that gifts in her memory may be donated to the Atlanta Community Food Bank.