ONE OF MANY TEACHING PHILOSOPHIES…

As a writer and scholar of cultural production in Canada, my work often demands an understanding of the various roles universities play in facilitating or legitimizing culture. Because making dynamic connections between my research and my teaching is, for me, an important pedagogical objective, I try to bring the role of the university—as part of a larger institutional network—to the forefront of discussion in the courses I teach. For example, I’ve often emphasized the way student politics facilitated the emergence of modernist literature in 1920s Montreal.

This approach provides a forum for students to understand some of the important issues underpinning their own education. In other words, I think the academy itself can be used as a constructive, cross-disciplinary course text. This approach sets the stage for the next pedagogical objective: to encourage students to move towards increasingly complex understandings of their own role in the production of culture and society. Approaching education as a text which can be analyzed allows us to move towards understanding the importance of critically and productively engaging with our broader society on an everyday basis. My pedagogical hope is that this approach enables us—as classroom communities—to generate an intellectual generosity and excitement we can bring to our social, political, and cultural lives.*

COURSES I’VE TAUGHT:

Writing for University (ENGL 1100), Department of English, Dalhousie.
Contemporary Critical Theory (ENGL 3002), Department of English, Dalhousie.
Canadian Poetry of the 20th & 21st Century (ENGL 4471), Department of English, Dalhousie.
Writing the Spanish Civil War (ENGL 5952), Department of English, Dalhousie.
Contemporary Canadian Literature (ENGL 3270), Department of English, Dalhousie.
Canada’s Revolutionary 1930s (ENGL 4414), Department of English, Dalhousie.
Canadian Literature (ENGL 2004), Department of English, Dalhousie.
The Idea of Canada (CANA 2000), Department of English, Dalhousie.
Modern Canadian Literature (ENGL 3231), Department of English, Dalhousie.
Intro to Prose and Fiction (ENGL 1010), Department of English, Dalhousie.
Intro to the Principles of Lit. Analysis (ENGL 1201), Department of English, Mt. Allison.
Intro to Canadian Literature (ENGL 2801), Department of English, Mt. Allison.
The Art of Social Justice in Canada (CANA 3991), Canadian Studies, Mt. Allison.
Intro to Canadian Culture (CANA 2011), Canadian Studies, Mt. Allison.
Intro to Literature (ENGL 1000), Department of English, Dalhousie.

*Many thanks go to Dr. Ann Martin for her pedagogical mentorship — for providing an early example and letting me learn how to teach.