Area of Study / Keywords

Literature Critical Theory Feminism Environmental Ethics

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About

I research, write, and teach in the fields of Canadian and Québécois literatures, with a particular interest in contemporary fiction and poetry, feminist and queer studies, Indigenous writing, crisis literature, comparative approaches, and feminist ecologies. I have taught several courses in these areas and at various levels, in the Departments of both English & Film Studies and Modern Languages & Cultural Studies. From 2008 to 2020 I directed the Canadian Literature Centre/Centre de littérature canadienne, a bilingual research centre in the Faculty of Arts. I am a white settler French-Canadian born sometime in the 1970s in Ottawa, Ontario, the traditional and unceded territories of the Algonquin nation. I now live and work on Treaty 6 territory and in Region 4 Métis Nation, where I also enjoy reading, music, cooking, hiking, skiing, travelling, and time with my family and friends. 

 

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Research

My current research looks into present-day expressions and inflections of feminism in Canadian, Indigenous, and Québécois literatures, with a focus on writings of crisis (social, planetary, or personal), intersectionality, affect, and the recent resurgence of the feminist ethics of care in contemporary criticism and philosophy. Currently, I am conducting new research into ecological poetics. I lead a SSHRC-funded project at the cusp of feminist environmental theory and literature, research creation, and digital research methods, with my collaborators Matthew Cormier (University of Toronto) and Amanda Fayant (Norwegian University of Science and Technology). Authors I am reading include Dionne Brand, Nicole Brossard, Karen Connelly, Cherrie Dimaline, Louise Dupré, Naomi Fontaine, Natasha Kanapé-Fontaine, Tracy Lindberg, Ruth Ozeki, Miriam Toews, Katherena Vermette, Rita Wong, and Rachel Zolf. Among critics who currently nourish my research are Sara Ahmed, Stacey Alaimo, Maria Puig Bellacasa, Rosi Braidotti, Judith Butler, Chris Cuomo, Dian Million, Maggie Nelson, Christina Sharpe, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Zoe Todd, and Joan Tronto. My most recent books include the single-authored work, Cautiously Hopeful: Metafeminist Practices in Canada, and a co-edited collection of essays with Ursula Mathis-Moser and Kit Dobson titled All the Feels: Affect and Writing in Canada/Tous les sens: Affect et écriture au Canada.

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Teaching

I teach in the areas of Canadian literature, Québécois and French-Canadian literature, critical theory, and women's writing. My preferred teaching method blends lecture, media, and active, respectful and informed group or class discussion. I am especially fond of the seminar format. I am happy to supervise students working in the following areas: Canadian Literature; Québécois and French-Canadian Literature; Comparative Canadian Literature; women’s writing; contemporary poetry and poetics; feminist theory; ethics and care theory; posthuman studies; crisis, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic writing; post-9/11 literature; transculture and transnationalism; Indigenous writing in Canada; ecocriticism.

The Ethics and Poetics of 'Learning With': Indigenous, Canadian, and Québécois Productions Today Conference

Trondheim, Norway

Dates TBD

For conference information, please go to the Canadian Literature Centre Website.

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