I am a white settler currently living and working on Treaty 6 territory and the homeland of the Métis. These lands and the Indigenous people who are at home in them have been here since time immemorial, long before Treaty 6 was signed in 1876 by the Cree, Saulteaux, Nakota, and Dene Nations. I intend for the work I do to pay respect to the land and its peoples, including the sky, water, plants, animals, and spirit. I strive to be in better relation with all who call this place home.
Research areas
- literatures written / published in the territories called Canada
- decolonizing and anti-colonial theory and literatures
- spatial theory and spatial justice
- community-engaged research and teaching
- urban studies, suburban studies, “non-places”
Book projects
My first academic book manuscript, under contract with Wilfrid Laurier University Press, is about the spatial politics of Douglas Coupland’s written work. It is adapted from my SSHRC-funded doctoral research and entitled Complicated Geographies: Douglas Coupland’s North America.
My next book manuscript, emerging from my SSHRC-funded postdoctoral project, is Nowhere to Here: Non-Places in the Contemporary Canadian Literary Imagination. This manuscript studies the depiction of so-called non-places—airports, chain stores, roads, and other sites of travel and consumerism—in fiction and poetry published in Canada in recent decades. I published an audio essay related to this research, entitled “Feeling My Way through Walmart.”
Articles and edited issues
My previous research includes articles on Canadian authors Nalo Hopkinson, Douglas Coupland, and Michael Crummey (co-written with Kristina Fagan Bidwell), and on American author Don DeLillo. With Nancy Van Styvendale and Sarah Buhler, I also co-edited a special issue of Engaged Scholar Journal called Community Service-Learning in Canada: Emerging Conversations.
Teaching
I teach regularly at the University of Saskatchewan and St. Thomas More College using face-to-face and online delivery methods. Prior classes taught include:
- first-year English literature survey courses in Narrative, Poetry, Drama, and Culture
- second- and third-year English courses in Contemporary Canadian Literature, Colonial and Decolonizing Literatures, Indigenous Storytelling of the Prairies, and Literary/Cultural Theory
- first-year Interdisciplinary Studies courses in Writing for Academic Success
Podcasting and other public work
I create and host a podcast called Teachin’ Books, all about the ways people teach, learn, and work with literature. You can follow the podcast on Twitter or Instagram and can listen to episodes through most podcasting apps.
As part of my ongoing efforts to think through the possibilities of uncertainty in research, teaching, and learning, I wrote a piece for Hook & Eye called “On Feeling Unsure.” I’ve also written on the value of using social media for my own daily writing practice as part of the Network in Canadian History & Environment’s series on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected research and writing in the environmental humanities.
Other professional duties
With Rachel Webb Jekanowski and Rina Garcia Chua, I am co-editor of The Goose: A Journal of Arts, Environment, and Culture in Canada. To submit to the journal, please see the policies and guidelines on the website.
I am also Book Review and Podcast Editor at Engaged Scholar Journal. I welcome expressions of interest from researchers, teachers, students, or practitioners who are interested in writing a review of a recent publication that falls under the journal’s mission. See a list of books we’d like to have reviewed here.
For more detailed information, take a look at my cv.