SOTEC Graduate Faculty Research and Areas of Specialization
Current and potential graduate students seeking an advisor or an advisory committee member should reach out to faculty directly by email.
Rebecca Barnstaple
Assistant Professor
Areas of specialization: the investigation of biological dimensions of culture and the impacts of participation in the arts.
Assistant Professor
Areas of specialization: the investigation of biological dimensions of culture and the impacts of participation in the arts.
Paul Barrett
Associate Professor, Graduate Program Coordinator, English and Theatre (2025-26)
Areas of specialization: Canadian literature, critical race studies, digital humanities.
Associate Professor, Graduate Program Coordinator, English and Theatre (2025-26)
Areas of specialization: Canadian literature, critical race studies, digital humanities.
Susan Brown
Professor
Areas of specialization: digital humanities, Victorian writing and women’s writing, feminist theory.
Professor
Areas of specialization: digital humanities, Victorian writing and women’s writing, feminist theory.
Julie Cairnie
Professor
Areas of specialization: Southern African literature (South African and Zimbabwean), land crisis and the crisis of childhood through Zimbabwean literature and other cultural texts, Canadian Indigenous-Settler relationships, postcolonial sport.
Professor
Areas of specialization: Southern African literature (South African and Zimbabwean), land crisis and the crisis of childhood through Zimbabwean literature and other cultural texts, Canadian Indigenous-Settler relationships, postcolonial sport.
Gregor Campbell
Assistant Professor / Graduate Program Coordinator, English and Theatre (2024-25)
Areas of specialization: American Literature, Literary Theory, Media Studies, Harlem Renaissance, Postmodernism.
Assistant Professor / Graduate Program Coordinator, English and Theatre (2024-25)
Areas of specialization: American Literature, Literary Theory, Media Studies, Harlem Renaissance, Postmodernism.
Elaine Chang
Associate Professor
Areas of specialization: Cultural theory; Marxist-materialisms (Frankfurt School, Birmingham School, materialist feminisms); 20th and 21st-century anglophone prose fiction; Asian North American cultural studies; decolonial and postcolonial literature and thought; film and media cultures; screenwriting.
Associate Professor
Areas of specialization: Cultural theory; Marxist-materialisms (Frankfurt School, Birmingham School, materialist feminisms); 20th and 21st-century anglophone prose fiction; Asian North American cultural studies; decolonial and postcolonial literature and thought; film and media cultures; screenwriting.
Michelle Elleray
Associate Professor
Areas of specialization: Victorian literature, particularly in relation to literature of empire, the South Pacific, children's literature, missionary culture, and ecocriticism.
Associate Professor
Areas of specialization: Victorian literature, particularly in relation to literature of empire, the South Pacific, children's literature, missionary culture, and ecocriticism.
Mark Fortier
Professor
Areas of specialization: Shakespeare; Law and Literature; Theatre Theory. Current Project(s): Shakespeare's Law.
Professor
Areas of specialization: Shakespeare; Law and Literature; Theatre Theory. Current Project(s): Shakespeare's Law.
Lawrence Hill
Faculty
Area of specialization: Writing fiction and creative nonfiction. Black history in Canada and around the world, slavery and freedom, human rights, migration, the search for home, mixed-race identity, blood as a marker of individual and collective identity, and the experiences of refugees, Creative Writing.
Faculty
Area of specialization: Writing fiction and creative nonfiction. Black history in Canada and around the world, slavery and freedom, human rights, migration, the search for home, mixed-race identity, blood as a marker of individual and collective identity, and the experiences of refugees, Creative Writing.
Troy Hourie
Associate Professor
Areas of specialization: Scenography/performance design, installation art, mediated performance creation, augmented realities, puppetry, storytelling, art history, architecture and theatre design; current work revolves around the themes of wonder, immersion, spectatorship and intermediality.
Associate Professor
Areas of specialization: Scenography/performance design, installation art, mediated performance creation, augmented realities, puppetry, storytelling, art history, architecture and theatre design; current work revolves around the themes of wonder, immersion, spectatorship and intermediality.
Peter Kuling
Associate Professor
Areas of specialization: Canadian Theatre and Literature, Early Modern Theatre, Performance Studies, Queer Theory, Video Games / Professional Sports, Digital Media.
Associate Professor
Areas of specialization: Canadian Theatre and Literature, Early Modern Theatre, Performance Studies, Queer Theory, Video Games / Professional Sports, Digital Media.
Mark Lipton
Professor
Areas of specialization: Digital knowledge production, Culture, Communication, Media, Technology, Education, Teaching, Learning, Pedagogy, English Education, Writing Across the Curriculum, Literacy, Media Literacy, Activism, Educational Technology, Digital Divides, Social Inclusion, Digital Storytelling, Research-Creation, Social Media, Digital Humanities, Social Justice, Confronting Sexism, Health, Wellness, Digital Policy Literacy, Privacy, Surveillance, Visual Communication, Bio-Hacking, Bio-Art, Perception, Performance, Identity, Queer Theory, LGBTQ+ Youth, Camp.
Professor
Areas of specialization: Digital knowledge production, Culture, Communication, Media, Technology, Education, Teaching, Learning, Pedagogy, English Education, Writing Across the Curriculum, Literacy, Media Literacy, Activism, Educational Technology, Digital Divides, Social Inclusion, Digital Storytelling, Research-Creation, Social Media, Digital Humanities, Social Justice, Confronting Sexism, Health, Wellness, Digital Policy Literacy, Privacy, Surveillance, Visual Communication, Bio-Hacking, Bio-Art, Perception, Performance, Identity, Queer Theory, LGBTQ+ Youth, Camp.
Canisia Lubrin
Assistant Professor / Graduate Program Coordinator, Creative Writing MFA
Areas of specialization: Ideas of social justice and the limits and possibilities of art, form, and language.
Assistant Professor / Graduate Program Coordinator, Creative Writing MFA
Areas of specialization: Ideas of social justice and the limits and possibilities of art, form, and language.
Aylin Malcolm
Assistant Professor
Areas of specialization: Medieval and early modern literature, ecocritcism, animal studies, history of science, queer and trans theory, book history.
Assistant Professor
Areas of specialization: Medieval and early modern literature, ecocritcism, animal studies, history of science, queer and trans theory, book history.
Kimberley McLeod
Assistant Professor
Areas of specialization: Digital performance; gaming; activist performance; satire; practice-based research; political performance and participatory media.
Assistant Professor
Areas of specialization: Digital performance; gaming; activist performance; satire; practice-based research; political performance and participatory media.
Daniel O'Quinn
Professor
Areas of specialization: European relations with the Ottoman Empire, British-India, and on various trans-Atlantic topics are part of the ongoing re-evaluation of British imperial culture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His research focuses on theatre, performance and sociability; on the historical analysis of race, class, sexuality, and gender; and on genealogies of present norms regarding the body and social relations.
Professor
Areas of specialization: European relations with the Ottoman Empire, British-India, and on various trans-Atlantic topics are part of the ongoing re-evaluation of British imperial culture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His research focuses on theatre, performance and sociability; on the historical analysis of race, class, sexuality, and gender; and on genealogies of present norms regarding the body and social relations.
Pablo Ramirez
Associate Professor
Areas of specialization: Nineteenth-Century American Literature, Law and Literature, Latinx Literature and Cultural Production, Memory Studies, Nineteenth-Century Literature of the Supernatural and the Occult, Creative Writing.
Associate Professor
Areas of specialization: Nineteenth-Century American Literature, Law and Literature, Latinx Literature and Cultural Production, Memory Studies, Nineteenth-Century Literature of the Supernatural and the Occult, Creative Writing.
Jennifer Schacker
Professor
Areas of specialization: folk narrative and history of folklore study; fairy tale and theatre; children's literature and culture; material culture, craft, costume.
Professor
Areas of specialization: folk narrative and history of folklore study; fairy tale and theatre; children's literature and culture; material culture, craft, costume.
Judith Thompson
Professor
Areas of specialization: Playwrighting, Devising, Acting, Theatre Creation.
Professor
Areas of specialization: Playwrighting, Devising, Acting, Theatre Creation.
Blain Watters
Assistant Professor
Areas of specialization: Filmaking, screenwriting, TV writing, creative writing.
Assistant Professor
Areas of specialization: Filmaking, screenwriting, TV writing, creative writing.
Creative Writing Faculty and areas of specializations can be found on the Faculty section of Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.