Shirley McDonald, PhD

(She, Her, Hers)

Lecturer

English, English and Cultural Studies

Other Titles: English
Office: CCS 339
Phone: contact by email to set up appointment by phone
Email: shirley.mcdonald@ubc.ca

Research Summary

Canadian literature; colonial history; prairie settler narratives; racial stereotypes and postcolonial studies; embodied and phenomenological approaches to life writing; composition theory and practice; scholarship on teaching and learning.

Courses & Teaching

ENGL 112: Studies in Composition

Biography

Shirley McDonald bases her teaching on her interests in composition theory and practice, Canadian literature and history, life writing, social justice, postcolonial studies, environmental sustainability and experiences with Indigenous political issues in British Columbia.

Degrees

BA Okanagan University College (1999); MA University of Calgary (2001); PhD University of Alberta (2013)

Research Interests & Projects

My current research is in the realm of the Scholarship on Teaching and Learning, specifically on the efficacy of a practice-based method using a contextualized (course text-based models) to deliver instruction on grammar, documentation, and writing. The method, which engages students in authentic, learner-centered, active practices writing and research, is especially effective in online delivery of instruction.

Selected Publications & Presentations

Books:

McDonald, Shirley A. and Bob Barnetson, editors. Farm Workers in Western Canada: Injustices and Activism. University of Alberta Press, 2016.

Book Reviews:

Review of Dancing in Gumboots: Adventure, Love & Resilience: Women of the Comox Valley.” (edited by Lou Allison with Jane Wilde. Caitlin P, 2018) BC Studies: The British Columbia Quarterly Journal, No. 202 Summer 2019, pp. 185-87, 2019

Review of: Cathy Converse’s Following the Curve of Time: The Untold Story of Capi Blanchet. BC Studies: The British Columbia Quarterly Journal, No. 203 Autumn 2019, pp. 153-54, 2019

Review of: Cole Harris’s Ranch in the Slocan. BC Studies: The British Columbia Quarterly Journal, No. 198, Summer 2018.

Seeking Enchantment: Donna Kane’s Summer of the Horse. BC Studies: The British Columbia Quarterly Journal, No. 198, Summer 2018, pp. 187-88.

Articles and Chapters:

Embodied Foundations of Canadian Prairie Settler Life Writing. A/B Auto/biography Studies, Vol. 33, Issue 1, 2018, pp. 135-56. doi.org/10.1080/08989575.2016.1180035

Georgic Themes and Myths of Entitlement in the History and the Life Writing of Prairie Settlers. In Farm Workers in Western Canada: Injustices and Activism, edited by Shirley A. McDonald and Bob Barnetson, University of Alberta Press, 2016.

Dunlop, Darlene, and Shirley A. McDonald. The Personal Experiences of an Alberta Farm Worker and Activist. In Farm Workers in Western Canada: Injustices and Activism, edited by Shirley A. McDonald and Bob Barnetson, University of Alberta Press, 2016.

Musekamp, Shirley. The Sheppard Journals: Gender Division of Labour on a Southern Alberta Ranch. Women’s History, edited by Gregory P. Marchildon and Wendee Kubik, History of the Prairie West series, Vol. 5, University of Regina Press, 2015, pp. 217-244, 2015

Imagining the Canadian Agrarian Landscape: Prairie Settler Life Writing as Colonial Discourse. ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature, Vol. 46, Issue 4, 2015, pp. 155–183.

Finding Common Ground: Disarticulation in the Poetry of Erin Mouré. English Studies in Canada, Vol. 41, Issue 2-3, 2015, pp. 109-31.

Settler Life Writing, Georgic Traditions, and Models of Environmental Sustainability. Special issue on the Nature of Canadian Studies in the American Review of Canadian Studies Vol. 45, Issue 3, 2015, pp. 283-298. DOI: 10.1080/02722011.2015.1064458.

Canadian Prairie Settler Life Writing and Equestrianship as Acts of Governance on the Canadian Prairies. Australasian Canadian Studies, Vol. 30, Issue 1-2, 2012 pp. 145-74.

Sandra Lee Scheuer’: Silenced Voices. In Gary Geddes: Essays on His Work, edited by Robert May, Guernica Editions, 2009, pp. 69-104.

The Sheppard Journals: Imaginary Cowboys and Indians on the Canadian Prairie. Prairie Forum Vol. 32, Issue 2, 2008, pp. 275-96.

The Sheppard Journals: Gender Division of Labour on a Southern Alberta Ranch. Prairie Forum, Vol. 26, Issue 1, 2001, pp. 47-66.

Pears and The Turning. (poems) The New Quarterly: New Directions in Canadian Writing, Vol. 18, Issue 2, 2001, pp. 167-69.

Imperfect Ice/Turbulent Mirror: Chaos Theory and bpNichol’s Inchoate Road. Allegheny Review: A National Journal of Undergraduate Literature, Vol. 14, 1996, pp. 14-20.

Out of Time. (short story) In Chasing Halley’s Comet: Winners of the Federation of BC Writers’ Festival Competition, edited by Martha Royea and Joni Miller, Laughing Willow Books, 1995, pp. 155-62.

Selected Grants & Awards

2014-2016 Centre for Teaching and Learning – University of British Columbia Okanagan Innovations in Teaching and Learning Research Grant; Co-investigator; Stopping Plagiarism Before It Starts: Minimizing Inadvertent Plagiarism By First and Second Year Students Through Enculturation. Funding Amount: $4,957

2005-2006 Roger Soderstrom Award of Distinction, Alberta Historical Resources Foundation; Principal Investigator; The Sheppard Journals, Transcription and Textual Editing. Funding Amount: $3,000

2000-2001 Roger Soderstrom Award of Distinction, Alberta Historical Resources Foundation; Principal Investigator; The Sheppard Journals, Transcription and Textual Editing. Funding Amount: $3,000

Awards & Distinctions

2018 FCCS Teaching Excellence Award
2016 FCCS Innovative Teaching Award