Curriculum Vitae

• Education
• Awards
• Overview of Professional Employment
• Online Course Design
• Post-secondary Courses Taught
• Recent Department Service
• Conference Presentations
• Publications
• References

 

EDUCATION

2003   PhD, English Literature, Simon Fraser University
Areas of specialization:  19c Canadian literature, rhetoric and travel writing, 20c Canadian literature, South African writing in English, 19 and 20c women’s writing
Thesis:  “Gathering up the Threads: Generic and Discursive Patterns in Catharine Parr Traill’s The Backwoods of Canada”
Supervisor: Carole Gerson

1987   Master of Arts, English Literature, First Class, UBC

1981   Professional Year, English and ESL, Faculty of Education, UBC

1980   Bachelor of Arts in English Honours, First Class, UBC

 

AWARDS

2011  Ian Fairclough Prize for Excellence in Teaching, Dept of English, UBC

1998  Aphra Behn Graduate Scholarship in English, SFU

 

OVERVIEW OF PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYMENT

2013                            Instructor, English Literature, Alexander College, Vancouver

2006-present             Sessional Lecturer, English and African Studies, UBC

2003-present             Examiner and Team Leader, International Baccalaureate Organization

2005                            Teacher, American International School of Bucharest, Romania

1998-2005                  Teacher, International School of Tanganyika, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

1994-1998                   Teacher, John Oliver Secondary School, Vancouver

1995-1996                   Guest Lecturer, Continuing Studies, UBC

1991-1994                   Teacher, International School of Tanganyika, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

1986-1991                   Teacher, Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School, Vancouver

1982-1985                   Teacher, Moleli Secondary School, Selous, Zimbabwe

 

ON-LINE COURSE DESIGN

Eng 112: Strategies for University Writing, UBC (2008-2010)
Eng 468: Children’s Literature, UBC (2008-2010)
Theory of Knowledge, Int. Baccalaureate Org. (2008)

 

POST-SECONDARY COURSES TAUGHT

Writing:

Eng 112: Strategies for University Writing, 2006-present (14)
Eng 112: Strategies for University Writing (online), 2010-2012 (4)

 

First-Year English:

Eng 100: Reading and Writing about Literature,  2009, 2011, 2012
Eng 110: Approaches to Literature, 2009
Eng 111: Approaches to Non-Fictional Prose, 2006

 

Junior Undergraduate:

Eng 221: Survey of Literature in English (18th Century to the present), 2006 (2)

Eng 222: Literature in Canada

• “Contemporary Canadian Writing”, 2008, 2009
• “Contemporary Canadian Fiction on the Margins”, 2012

Eng 224: World Literature

• “An Introduction to African Writing in English”,  2007-2013 (7)

Eng 227: Prose Fiction

• “Contemporary Women’s Writing”, 2006
• “An Introduction to African Fiction”, 2008

AFST 250: Introduction to African Studies,  2009, 2010, 2012, 2013

 

Senior Undergraduate:

Eng 362: Studies in a 19-Century Genre

• “‘The horror! The horror!’: Nightmare Fiction of the 19th Century”, 2012

Eng 364: 19th-Century Studies

• “Explorations of Passion and Madness in 19c Texts”,  2006

Eng 464: 20th-Century Studies

• “Post-Apartheid South African Writing”, 2006
• “Contemporary Writing of the South Asian Diaspora”, 2007

Eng 468: Children’s Literature

• “Representations of Gender in Children’s Classics”, 2007, 2010, 2011
• “An Introduction to Children’s Literature” (online), 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

Eng 470: Canadian Studies

• “‘Here is Queer’: Gay and Lesbian Writing in Canada”, 2008

Eng 474: Studies in Contemporary Literature

• “Women Who Refuse to Keep Quiet: Contemporary African Women’s Writing”,  2007, 2010, 2011
• “Post-Apartheid South African Writing”, 2008, 2009, 2010

ASTU 400: Student Directed Seminar

• “Fairy Tales Retold”, 2010

 

RECENT DEPARTMENT SERVICE

First-Year Committee, Dept of English,UBC (2012-present)
Policy and Planning Committee, Dept of English, UBC (2012-present)
Sessional Committee, Dept of English, UBC (2010-present)
African Studies Committee, Faculty of Arts, UBC (2007-present)
African Studies Colloquia,UBC (2007-present)

 

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

“Revisionist History and Historians in the Fiction of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.” Postcolonial Oral Traditions: Boubacar Boris Diop and Chimamanda Adichie. UBC, Vancouver. April 4-5, 2012.

“Embracing the Erotic: Representations of Female Sexuality in the Fiction of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.”  Contemporary Women`s Writing: New Texts, Approaches and Technology. San Diego. July 7-9, 2010.

“'[I]t wasn’t really another country at all—it was just Canada’”: Black American/Canadian Border Crossings in the Work of Addena Sumter-Freitag and Lawrence Hill.” Culture and the Canada/US Border.  University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. June 26-28, 2009.

“The Heteronormative Home?: A Queer Reading of Shani Mootoo’s He Drown She in the Sea.” Unsettling Women: Contemporary Women`s Writing and Diaspora. University of Leicester, UK. July 11-13, 2008.

“The ‘Coloured’ Question: The Politics of Identity in Zoë Wicomb’s Playing in the Light.” CACLALS Conference. UBC. May 31-June 2, 2008.

“Narrating the ‘New’ South Africa: Subjectivity and Identity in Antjie Krog’s A Change of Tongue.” CEA: Passages. St Louis, Missouri. March 27-29, 2008.

“Textuality and Audience in Antjie Krog’s A Change of Tongue.” ACLALS Conference: Literature for Our Times.  UBC, Vancouver. August 17-22, 2007.

“Generic Polyphony in The Backwoods of Canada, A Nineteenth-Century Canadian Travel Narrative.”  Borders and Crossings III: Travel Writing.  Université de Versailles Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines, Paris.  July 10-13, 2002.

“‘Simplicity of Heart and Unclouded Faith’: The Indians of Catharine Parr Traill’s The Backwoods of Canada.”  The Rhetoric of Canadian Writing.  Leiden University, Netherlands. October 19-20, 2000.

“Reading the Faces of Africa: Margaret Laurence’s ‘A Fetish for Love’ and Audrey Thomas’ ‘Zanadu’.”  Margaret Laurence and Her Times.  University of Manitoba, Winnipeg.  November 22-23, 1997.

“Teaching East African Literature.”  Association of International Schools of Africa.  Nairobi. March 4, 1992

 

PUBLICATIONS

Articles

“The ‘Indians’ of Catharine Parr Traill’s The Backwoods of Canada.” The Rhetoric of Canadian Writing.  Ed. Conny Steenman-Marcusse.  Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2002. 107-23.

“Teaching African Literature Within the Language ‘A’ Programme: Some Post-Colonial Alternatives to Things Fall Apart.” Contact, Fall 1992.

“Teaching Loads, the Queen’s English, and European Imperialism: Some Reflections on Teaching at an International School in Tanzania.” Update, Summer 1992.

 

Reviews

“Beyond Domesticity.” Review of She Said/She Saw by Norah McClintock, Out of the Box by Michell Mulder and Stones for my Father by Trilby Kent. Canadian Literature 214 (Autumn 2012): 176-7.

“Taking Control.”  Review of Dear George Clooney: Please Marry My Mom by Susan Nielsen and Living Outside the Lines by Lesley Choyce. Canadian Literature 213 (Summer 2012): 162-3.

“Education, with Ethics.”  Review of Cities by John Lorinc, SlaveryToday by Kevin Bales and Becky Cornell, and Lunch with Lenin and Other Stories by Deborah Ellis. Canadian Literature 204 (Spring 2010): 182-4.

“Into Africa?”  Review of The Uncertain Business of Doing Good: Outsiders in Africa by Larry Krotz and Where Bones Dance: An English Girlhood, An African War by Nina Newington. Canadian Literature 203 (Winter 2009): 167-8.

“No Escape from the Past.”  Review of Unsettling Narratives: Postcolonial Readings of Children’s Literature by Clare Bradford. Canadian Literature 200 (Spring 2009): 130-1.

Review of Inhabiting the “New” South Africa: Ethical Encounters at the Race-Gender Interface in Four Post-Apartheid Novels by Zoë Wicomb, Sindiwe Magona, Nadine Gordimer and Farida Karodia by Sonja Altnöder. Postcolonial Text 4.4 (2008): 1-3.

“Into the Wild, Again.”  Review of The Night Wanderer: A Native Gothic Novel by Drew Hayden Taylor, Borderline by Bonni Rozanski and Gemini Summers by Iain Lawrence. Canadian Literature 198 (Summer 2008): 172-3.

“(Re)presenting Cultures.”  Review of Ancient Thunder by Leo Yerxa, Napi Goes to the Mountain by Elisa Amado and Antonio Ramarez, and Winter Afternoon by Elisa Amado, Jorge Lujan and Mandana Sadat. Canadian Literature 194 (Summer 2007): 188-9.

“Imprints of Other People’s Histories:  A Review of Sandra Birdsell’s The Two-Headed Calf and Ann Ireland’s The Instructor.”  Canadian Literature 164 (Spring 2000): 138-40.

 

REFERENCES