Michael O'Driscoll, Phd (Western, 1996), MA (Waterloo, 1991), BAHonours (Waterloo, 1989)

Area of Study / Keywords

Poetry poetics sound listening literature cultural studies critical theory.

---

About

I am a Professor in the Department of English and Film Studies in the Faculty of Arts, and a Governing Board Member of the SSHRC-funded SpokenWeb Project.

I cherish time with family, friends, food, and fine whiskey, and I'm a big fan of literature, film, music, and the visual arts of any kind at any time. I think 1970's Hollywood is the gritty, golden-age of film. My music tastes go to R&B, Soul, Blues, Rock, Alt Country, and Americana. 

My favourite quote: “The closer you get to Canada, the more things'll eat your horse.” (The Missouri Breaks 1976)

---

Research

I teach and publish in the fields of critical and cultural theories and I'm interested in material culture studies with a focus on poetry and poetics, archive theory, book history, petrocultures, and most recently the study of sound, listening, and literary audiotexts. My edition of Jackson Mac Low’s The Complete Light Poems was published in 2015. I served for ten years as Editor of ESC: English Studies in Canada and I'm currently a Governing Board Member of the SpokenWeb Project.

I'm very pleased to conduct graduate supervision in any areas related to the above interests. I consider graduate supervision a great privilege and one of the most rewarding aspects of my professional life.

---

Teaching

A sample of some recently taught courses:

English 694: Listening to Literature

English 483: Literary Sound Studies

English 569: Ethical Listening

English 206: How Poems Work                                    

English 430: The Literary Freud

English 586: In the American Archive

English 694: Archive Pedagogy

English 356: American Technologies

English 208: Reading Histories: Making Books

English 357: Reading American Ideologies

English 679: Derrida Engaged

ENGL 694 - Literary Techniques

---

ENGL 800 - PhD Colloquium

---

ENGL 801 - PhD Colloquium

---

Browse more courses taught by Michael O'Driscoll

Jackson Mac Low, Foreword by Anne Tardos, Edited by Michael O'Driscoll

Cambridge, MA, USA. 2025 August;

---

Michael O'Driscoll and Mark Simpson

ESC: English Studies in Canada. 2017 June; 43 (2-3):245pp

---

Brent Bellamy, Michael O'Driscoll, and Mark Simpson

Postmodern Culture. 2016 June; 26 (2)

---

Petrocultures Research Group

West Virginia UP. 2016 April;

---

Edited by Anne Tardos and Michael O'Driscoll

2015 January;

---

Michael O'Driscoll, Edward Bishop

ESC: English Studies in Canada. 2014 January; 30 (1)

---

Michael O'Driscoll, et al.

2003 January;

---

Michael O'Driscoll, Tilottama Rajan

2002 January;