To complete the thesis option MA in English, students are required to take 30 credits:

• 18 credits attained through coursework: English 501, English 503, and four additional courses normally chosen from the English 520 and 530 series (details below);
• 12 credits achieved by completing the thesis (English 599). The thesis ranges from 15,000 to 20,000 words and requires an oral defence administered by the College of Graduate Studies. On March 1 of the second semester, you will submit a Thesis Proposal of 2,500 words with a four-page bibliography to the Graduate Programs and Planning Committee; it is developed in consultation with your supervisor.

Students are required to take core courses that are taught every year as well as courses chosen from the English 520 and 530 series. See Graduate Courses for details.

The thesis is a 12-credit independent research project that advances current knowledge in the student’s chosen field and within the larger discipline of literary and cultural studies, between 15,000 and 20,000 words, based on independent research conducted by the student. It must be accompanied by a bibliography, use MLA style citation, and be presented properly formatted. The thesis will need to be defended in an oral exam.

For the coursework option, students complete an Independent Research Paper (IRP), a 9-credit academic paper of publishable length, between 7,500-10,000 words, based on independent research conducted by the student.

To complete the coursework option MA in English, students are required to take 30 credits:

• 21 credits attained through coursework: English 501, English 503, and five additional courses normally chosen from the English 520 and 530 series (details below);
• 9 credits achieved by completing English 590, the Independent Research Paper (IRP). The IRP ranges from 7,500 to 10,000 words.
• On March 1 of the second semester, you will submit an IRP Proposal of 1,500 words with a three-page bibliography to the Graduate Programs and Planning Committee  it is developed in consultation with your supervisor.
• Coursework students typically complete the degree in 12 months and might take up to 16 months.

Students are required to take core courses that are taught every year as well as courses chosen from the English 520 and 530 series. See Graduate Courses for details.

English 501 Methodologies: Critical Theory: This course examines critical and cultural theory and how it informs current practices of research.

English 503 Practices in the Profession of Literary Studies and Related Disciplines: Introduction to the profession’s expectations, practices, and responsibilities. Pass/Fail

The following courses will be taught based on faculty research interests and expertise. They will be offered on the basis of faculty rotation. We will offer at least four per year and content will change annually. All courses will align with the following rubric.

ENGL 521: Topics in Historical Periods and Movements

ENGL 522: Topics in Genre Studies

ENGL 523: Topics in National/International Literatures and Culture

ENGL 524: Individual Author Studies

ENGL 525: Studies in Diversity and Identity

ENGL 531: Place and Power

ENGL 532: Culture and Location

ENGL 533: Narrating Place

ENGL 501 Methodologies: Critical Theory | Dr. Maria Alexopoulos

Practices in the Profession of Literary Studies and Related Disciplines | Dr. Emily Murphy

Course Description: The first half of this course is designed to provide learners with core skills in teaching. In coordination with the Centre for Teaching and Learning and FCCS faculty members, sessions will address equity practices, class design, discussion strategies, writing and critiquing exercises, and grading. Students will be given the opportunity to design and deliver short lessons in their field of expertise and will receive constructive feedback on their teaching. The second half of the course will familiarize scholars in Literary Studies with the profession’s expectations, practices, and responsibilities. Topics will include the teaching dossier, conference presentations, research strategies, the proposal and thesis/ research project, publication, and employment. The course will also offer information on and encourage attendance at workshops on applying for funding. Class discussions are intended to provide a forum for reflection on the professional opportunities and challenges that exist within graduate studies.

ENGL 522Q Victorian Gothic | Dr. Jodey Castricano

Course Description: What do the “mad scientist”, the vivisector, the vampire, the ghost, the “foreigner” or “mysterious stranger”, the hysteric, the “new woman” and aliens in 19^th century literature have in common and what do they tell us about 19^th century culture? In 19^th century Victorian these figures can be seen to represent various social and cultural anxieties following in the wake of evolutionary controversies regarding the dissolution of distinctions between masculine and feminine, primitive and civilized, human and animal, natural and unnatural and self and other—especially where these resulted in the blurring of those categories upon which the security of the middle-class world depended. Considered to be an age of scientific and technological progress, the late 19^th century was also an era in which the discourse of “degeneration” permeated the cultural imaginary prompting fears of atavistic debasement, criminal degeneracy, “moral insanity”, racial contamination, effeminacy and anxieties about the quasi-masculinity of the “new woman”. In the art and literature of the late 19^th century such anxieties often took the form of the dread of invasion, fear of the contamination by the foreign “other”, or the apprehension that science itself had its dark side in the absence of moral guidance. Similarly, the social, cultural, and psychological interest in telepathy, hypnosis, and survival after death found voice in 19^th century literature exploring the seeming contradictions between science and superstition, matter and mind. In this course we will consider the ways that the socio-cultural debates of the time—revolving around questions of gender and sexuality, degeneration and regeneration, urbanism and empire, spiritualism, and the new science of the mind, psychoanalysis— inform the literature of the period and provide us with insight into the social and historical workings of the 19^th century.

ENGL 522R Literature and Memory | Dr. Sakiru Adebayo 

Course Description: This seminar will introduce new students to the spectrum of concepts, themes, and theories that constitute the emergent field of memory studies. Students will also be introduced to foundational and contemporary scholars(hip) in the field. Because memory studies is an inter- and transdisciplinary field, students will necessarily bring to bear different disciplinary perspectives, as well as a range of topical, temporal, and geographical concerns. Students will be able to apply all the theories and analytical techniques of memory in their analysis of fiction, creative non-fiction, memoir, film, and contemporary ‘memory debates’. Most importantly, the course will provide students with research methods and analytical techniques for conducting graduate research and studies.

ENGL 523U Post Colonialism and British Fiction | Dr. Jennifer Gustar

Course Description: Locating literature in terms of ethnicities or nation states has been a long-term practice, but this practice has recently come under question, given the wide-spread migration of peoples.  In light of this, locating a transcultural literature in a nation state, such as England, offers a more comprehensive understanding of ‘British’ contemporary fiction in a postcolonial context. In the context of the UK, which has undergone a profound social transformation since 1945, transculturalism increasingly questions the notion of a singular national or ethnic identity of belonging and posits, instead, the necessity of a rethinking of ‘Britishness’ in light of global migrations and contemporary discourses which question the hegemony of the nation state as founded in modernity.  In this course, we will study three literary lineages, that of the Caribbean, Nigeria, and India, in order to examine the effects of Britain’s imperialist past and to explore contemporary discourses on ‘Britishness’ in the literature of diaspora.

ENGL 525J Black Intellectual Traditions | Dr. Sakiru Adebayo 

Course Description: One of the paradoxes of the Enlightenment is that it associated the notions of ‘modernity’ and ‘progress’ only with Europeans. Its erasure of non-European subjectivities, for example, produced a false logic that assumed that “Blacks have no traditions, (and) are bearers of inferior culture”. On the contrary, Blacks have (and have always had) advanced systems of thought and rich intellectual traditions. This course takes a transdisciplinary and transcontinental approach to examining the heterogenous histories, cultures, literatures and epistemologies of the people of African descent.

ENGL 531A Place and Power | Dr. Allison Hargreaves

Course Description: This course explores the primacy of place in contemporary Indigenous literatures and theory. Beginning with the premise that “Stories take place,” (Womack, Art as Performance 44), the course approaches place not from a thematic or setting-based perspective, but as a methodological precept and philosophical underpinning of Indigenous literary arts. Vanessa Watts (Mohawk/Anishinaabe) employs the concept of “Place-Thought” as a way to describe this “theoretical understanding of the world”—one in which “land is alive and thinking and [where] humans and non-humans derive agency through the extensions of these thoughts” (“Indigenous Place-thought” 21). Our task is to be curious about how literature represents and practices this aliveness—this agency—as a core mediating presence in relations between humans, land, and other non-human people. To that end, we will ask: how might literature help us to hear the thoughts that place is thinking? By what methods—literary and otherwise—might we best train our listening skills? What are the implications of this approach for our relationships with the non-human world? And what does place ask of us as readers, writers, storytellers, students, and dreamers?

ENGL 501 Methodologies: Critical Theory | Dr. Melissa Jacques

Course Description: In keeping with the theme of the English MA, this iteration of ENGL 501 will focus on critical theories of place and space. The course will be divided into three sections. In Section One, we will read canonical twentieth-century texts on space and place by such writers as Walter Benjamin, Gaston Bachelard, Henri Lefebvre, Jacques Derrida, and Michel Foucault. In Section Two, we will focus on largely feminist contributions to this canon by Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva, and Jacqueline Rose. In Section Three, we will focus on space and place through the lenses of post-humanism, new-materialism, Indigenous Studies, and Black Studies. Readings will include work by such writers as Donna Haraway, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Tracey Lindberg, Saidiya Hartman, and Christina Sharpe. Throughout the term, we will supplement the theories under discussion with a range of cultural texts and contexts including, but not limited to, graffiti, memorials, public parks, public assemblies, and tent cities. In other words, we will work to bridge the alleged distance between theory and praxis by bringing these into dynamic relation.

English 503 Practices in the Profession of Literary Studies and Related Disciplines | Dr. Aisha Ravindran

Course Description: The first half of this course is designed to provide learners with core skills in teaching. In coordination with the Centre for Teaching and Learning and FCCS faculty members, sessions will address equity practices, class design, discussion strategies, writing and critiquing exercises, and grading. Students will be given the opportunity to design and deliver short lessons in their field of expertise and will receive constructive feedback on their teaching. The second half of the course will familiarize scholars in Literary Studies with the profession’s expectations, practices, and responsibilities. Topics will include the teaching dossier, conference presentations, research strategies, the proposal and thesis/ research project, publication, and employment. The course will also offer information on and encourage attendance at workshops on applying for funding. Class discussions are intended to provide a forum for reflection on the professional opportunities and challenges that exist within graduate studies. Textbook: Kathy M. Nomme and Carol Pollock. (2022). The Successful TA: A Practical Approach to Effective Teaching. UBC Press.

ENGL 521B Feminist Forerunners: Early Modern Women’s Literature and Contemporary Theory | Dr. Margaret Reeves

Course Description: This course will examine the relationship between modern feminist thought and what could be called the “proto-feminist” thought of early modern women. The approach is both comparative and historical, in that we will read a selection of texts by seventeenth-century women writers and compare their ideas about gender, female subjectivity, race, and class to those found in modern feminist theory. Can early modern women writers, despite their very different social and historical circumstances and perspectives, be counted as feminist forerunners? Is feminism itself primarily a modern movement, or does it have a longer history than is often acknowledged? In what ways do the social and historical contexts in which a woman writes shape her ability to understand, challenge, and navigate social injustice and systemic oppression? Reading texts written during the seventeenth century (1600-1700) alongside selections by modern feminist thinkers such as Judith Butler, Donna Haraway Bell Hooks, Genevieve Lloyd, and Trinh T. Minh-ha will enable this comparison between early modern proto-feminism and modern feminist thought. We will investigate both the commonalities as well as important differences in women’s writing during these distinct historical periods. Possible areas of inquiry include the politics of literary and theoretical canons; representations of female subjectivity, sexuality, same-sex desire; and strategies used by feminist and proto-feminist thinkers to actively contest restrictive cultural and social codes.

ENGL 521T Fiction and Science: Animal Alterity |  Dr. Jodey Castricano

Course Description: Everywhere in popular culture today, one finds deep‐rooted anxieties about science, technology, and the fate of the human. Thus, in recent films such as The Fly, Jurassic Park, Splice, Species, Godzilla, and Deep Blue Sea, the focus has been on biological mutations, experiments gone awry, and the creation of monstrosities in regards animals often as chimeric beings. Already, science has genetically engineered mice, cows, and pigs to use in research involving xenotransplantation, raising animals to transfer organs from one species to another, while de-extinction research is involved in the aim to clone a wooly mammoth. Yet the use of animals in contemporary society and biomedical and technological research is increasingly invisible: they are hidden away in laboratories and factory farms, weaponized in military applications and instrumentalized in other context all the while their mediated and idealized forms appear on Animal Planet or National Geographic television, but purged from city geographies. This course aims to bring constructive criticism to the use of animals in scientific contexts and will engage with this issue by considering the role of literature (and, possibly film) in determining an alternative truth of animal existence in relation to the official discourse of science which recounts their experiences primarily as objects in an anthropocentric world. In contrast to this world view, a differently-centered story can be told in literature, which enables us imaginatively to engage with the question of the animal’s place in philosophical systems and, therefore, calling into question what it means to be human. We will explore these issues in novels such as Wilkie Collins’ Heart and Science, H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr Moreau, Richard Adams’ The Plague Dogs and Don LePan’s Lucy and Bonbon, all of which raise extremely important ethical and philosophical issues regarding other animals and science.

ENGL 522C 18th Century Novel |  Dr. Oliver Lovesey

Course Description: This course examines the beginnings of the realistic novel and its development from Haywood, Behn, and Defoe to Austen, emphasizing changes in formal narrative features and the novel’s engagement with social, historical, and cultural matters.

ENGL 523T Canadian Poetry & the Digital Archive | Dr. Karis Shearer

Course Description: TBA

ENGL 524E Individual Author Studies – CHAUCER | Dr. Martin Blum

Course Description: This course examines the diverse themes, genres, and voices of Chaucer’s unfinished Canterbury Tales. Chaucer’s Tales allow its readers a unique glimpse into the society and culture of late medieval England and the negotiation of its values, issues, and anxieties. A brief introduction to Middle English – the language of Chaucer – allows us to read the original medieval text with the help of a detailed glossary. Particular emphasis will be on Chaucer’s development of the narrative voice of both, himself, and that of his individual narrator-characters in order to discover the diverse themes, genres, and perspectives in his Tales.The format of this course will be based on lectures and discussions. Individual background topics that will be explored in seminar presentations. Tentative Reading List: Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales Complete. 2nd Ed. Robert Boering and Andrew Taylor. Peterborough, On.: Broadview, 2012. Please note: The complete Broadview edition of the Canterbury Tales has been selected as it covers also the minor tales discussed in class.

ENGL 525N Drag and Pop Culture | Dr. Cameron Crookston

Course Description: This course examines the evolution of drag as a queer cultural practice and form of popular entertainment over the last century. Drawing on examples from live performance, film, and television, classes will examine the relationship between drag and queer subcultures, mainstream representation of queerness, and trans visibility in the media. In particular we will consider the relationship between contemporary interest in drag and earlier historic instances of mainstream interest in drag. We will also consider how drag intersects with queer politics, the evolution of LGBTQ2+ communities, identity politics, and various sociopolitical influences. Readings draw on media studies, theatre history, queer theory, culturally and trans studies scholarship.  Tentative Reading List:  Selections from: Marlon Bailey. Butch queens up in Pumps: Gender, Performance, and Ballroom Culture in Detroit. University of Michigan Press, 2013. Mark Edward and Stephen Farrier. Contemporary Drag Practices and Performers. Methuen, 2020.   Jack Halberstam. Female Masculinity. Duke University Press, 1998. Susan Stryker. Transgender History. Seal Publishing, 2008.

ENGL 531A  Place and Power | Dr. Allison Hargreaves

Course Description: This course explores the primacy of place in contemporary Indigenous literatures and theory. Beginning with the premise that “Stories take place,” (Womack, Art as Performance 44), the course approaches place not from a thematic or setting-based perspective, but as a methodological precept and philosophical underpinning of Indigenous literary arts. Vanessa Watts (Mohawk/Anishinaabe) employs the concept of “Place-Thought” as a way to describe this “theoretical understanding of the world”—one in which “land is alive and thinking and [where] humans and non-humans derive agency through the extensions of these thoughts” (“Indigenous Place-thought” 21). Our task is to be curious about how literature represents and practices this aliveness—this agency—as a core mediating presence in relations between humans, land, and other non-human people. To that end, we will ask: how might literature help us to hear the thoughts that place is thinking? By what methods—literary and otherwise—might we best train our listening skills? What are the implications of this approach for our relationships with the non-human world? And what does place ask of us as readers, writers, storytellers, students, and dreamers?

English 501 Methodologies: Critical Theory | Dr. Astrida Neimanis

This course examines critical and cultural theory and how it informs current practices of research. (Required Course)

English 503 Practices in the Profession of Literary Studies and Related Disciplines | Dr. Aisha Ravindran

The first half of this course is designed to provide learners with core skills in teaching. In coordination with the Centre for Teaching and Learning and FCCS faculty members, sessions will address equity practices, class design, discussion strategies, writing and critiquing exercises, and grading. Students will be given the opportunity to design and deliver short lessons in their field of expertise and will receive constructive feedback on their teaching. At the end of the first five weeks, students who have attended and participated in the sessions will receive the Foundations Certificate for Graduate Teaching Assistants. The second half of the course will familiarize scholars in Literary Studies with the profession’s expectations, practices, and responsibilities. Topics will include the teaching dossier, conference presentations, research strategies, the proposal and thesis/ research project, publication, and employment. The course will also offer information on and encourage attendance at workshops on applying for funding. Class discussions are intended to provide a forum for reflection on the professional opportunities and challenges that exist within graduate studies. (Required Course)

ENGL 521A- Posthumanism and Critical Animal Studies | Dr. Jodey Castricano

This course begins from the philosophical position that animals are worthy of serious intellectual and ethical consideration and, thus, a further aim is to attend to how animality and the question of the animal(s) similarly intersect with questions of gender, race, class and ethnicity by introducing students to the necessary intersection of posthumanism and critical animal studies. To this end, we will begin by developing an understanding of the field of posthumanism in relation to critical animal studies, postcolonial and cultural studies and eco-feminist theory. We will then move into the question of the animal and discuss how the relations of hierarchy, domination, and exploitation between humans and animals are systematically reproduced in relations of class, race and ethnicity among humans themselves while keeping before us the plight of actual animals as they are subject to systems of biopower. In addition to materials dealing with posthumanism and critical animal studies, we may be reading literary works which frame the question of the animal in its representational complexity.

ENGL 521C Studies in 16th- and 17th-Century Literature: Special Topics: Same-Sex Relationships in Early Modern England, 1550-1735 | Dr. Marie Loughlin

This course will examine the representation of same-sex erotic desire in early modern England, between approximately 1550 and 1735. This expansive coverage in terms of period allows students to examine groupings of texts in terms of specific social, cultural, and political contexts, ranging from the Reformation to the humanist revival to the ‘birth’ of pornography. Among other issues, we will explore the relationship between same-sex desire, relationships, and erotic acts; the changing nature of early modern sexual identity; the influence of Biblical precedent and the classical tradition in translation; and the shaping effect of genre on representations of the love between men, and the love between women. In terms of the critical work of the last 30 years or so, which has seen signal developments in the study of early modern sexuality and literature, we will consider a variety of debates related broadly to the ‘essentialist’ and ‘social constructivist’ positions in the context of larger theoretical discussion of identity, sexuality, and subjectivity; the nascent discourse of early modern lesbianism; the complex exchange between early modern homophilic and homophobic social discourses and institutions; the profound twinned influence of the humanist revival of the classical past, and the Bible. In these and other contexts, we will consider the critical analyses produced by major figures in the field, such as Valerie Traub, Alan Bray, Jonathan Goldberg, Harriette Andreadis, Rictor Norton, and Kenneth Borris.

ENGL 525B | Gender, Race, Medicine: The Construction of the Hysteric Dr. Maria Alexopoulos

In this course students will think critically about the entanglement of medicine, science, culture, and power, with a focus on ‘hysteria’. Together, we will engage with a diverse range of material including theory, medicine, literature, and film. From witch hunts in Early Modern Europe and colonial North America to contemporary cases of ‘contagious’ mass-hysteria, students will consider the shifting diagnoses, treatments, and representations of hysteria over time, paying special attention to their relationship with constructions of race, gender and sexuality.

ENGL 525A Studies in Diversity and Identity: Reimagining Our Relations | Dr. Allison Hargreaves

This course explores the concept, structure, and practice of settler colonialism, and the role of representation in maintaining, resisting, or transforming settler colonial relations of power in the place we know as Canada. Together, we will explore a variety of cultural texts by differently positioned non-Indigenous and settler writers whose work can help us to re-story dominant myths and reimagine our social relations. In addition to these creative works, we will be reading essays and other forms of critical engagement by key Indigenous thinkers.

ENGL 531A Place and Power | Dr. Allison Hargreaves

This course explores the primacy of place in contemporary Indigenous literatures and theory. Beginning with the premise that “Stories take place,” (Womack 44), the course approaches place not from a thematic or setting-based perspective, but as a methodological precept and philosophical underpinning of Indigenous literary arts.

ENGL 532B Climate Change and Literature | Dr. Greg Garrard

This course reflects on the reasons why science-focused communication about climate change may have had limited impact on public attitudes and behaviors. Students will consider the problems and prospects for fictional exploration of climate change scenarios as a way of mitigating the limitations of the politico-scientific IPCC process. This course will conclude by considering the tension between the global scope of climate change and the affective and cognitive benefits attributed to place-based knowledge of the environment.

ENGL 532C Culture and Location: Contemporary Women’s Writing from South Asia and its Diaspora | Dr. Jennifer Gustar

This course will explore contemporary women’s fiction in English from South Asia and the South Asian Diaspora. The fiction will range from historicized narratives of Partition and the imposition of a colonial solution to Indian Independence, the Radcliffe Line, which remapped the Subcontinent with a
specific impact on women and children and cultural diversity.

ENGL 501 Methodologies: Critical Theory | Dr. Melissa Jacques

This course is a survey of critical theory. In the first week, students will get a crash course on the field we call critical theory. The goal is to understand the origins of the field before we enter into the debates that attend particular themes, movements, and applications of theory from the early twentieth century to the present. The syllabus covers what have become “canonical” theoretical paradigms, such as structuralism, Marxism, feminism, deconstruction and postcolonial theory. What we will find, as we move through the course, is that theorists rarely contain their thinking to discrete themes, positions, movements, and influences.

ENGL 503 Practices in the Profession and Teaching of Literary Studies and Related Disciplines | Dr. Aisha Ravindran

The first half of this course is designed to provide learners with core skills in teaching. In coordination with the Centre for Teaching and Learning and FCCS faculty members, sessions will address equity practices, class design, discussion strategies, writing and critiquing exercises, and grading. Students will be given the opportunity to design and deliver short lessons in their field of expertise and will receive constructive feedback on their teaching. At the end of the first five weeks, students who have attended and participated in the sessions will receive the Foundations Certificate for Graduate Teaching Assistants. The second half of the course will familiarize scholars in Literary Studies with the profession’s expectations, practices, and responsibilities. Topics will include the teaching dossier, conference presentations, research strategies, the proposal and thesis/ research project, publication, and employment. The course will also offer information on and encourage attendance at workshops on applying for funding. Class discussions are intended to provide a forum for reflection on the professional opportunities and challenges that exist within graduate studies.

ENGL 521A Posthumanism and Critical Animal Studies | Dr. Jodey Castricano

This course begins from the philosophical position that animals are worthy of serious intellectual and ethical consideration and, thus, a further aim is to attend to how animality and the question of the animal(s) similarly intersect with questions of gender, race, class and ethnicity by introducing students to the necessary intersection of posthumanism and critical animal studies. To this end, we will begin by developing an understanding of the field of posthumanism in relation to critical animal studies, postcolonial and cultural studies and eco-feminist theory. We will then move into the question of the animal and discuss how the relations of hierarchy, domination, and exploitation between humans and animals are systematically reproduced in relations of class, race and ethnicity among humans themselves while keeping before us the plight of actual animals as they are subject to systems of biopower. In addition to materials dealing with posthumanism and critical animal studies, we may be reading literary works which frame the question of the animal in its representational complexity.

ENGL 521B Feminist Forerunners: Early Modern Women’s Literature and Contemporary Theory | Dr. Alison Conway

This course examines foundational feminist writing from two historical periods, taking a comparative approach to writing during the early modern period (from the mid-sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century) in relation to a selection of work of late twentieth and early twenty-first century theory.

ENGL 521E Topics in Historical Periods and Movements| Dr. Margaret Reeves

This course examines advanced topics in seventeenth-century literature and culture. In this section of “Approaches to 17th-Century Literature: Special Topics” we will examine the gendering of political thought in fictional, historical, and philosophical narratives of the early modern period (1500-1700) with a focus on the seventeenth century (1600-1700). We will study how gender inflects some of the core concepts in political thought of this period, such as patriarchalism and royalism, analogies between the family and the commonwealth, republicanism and masculinity, the sexual contract embedded within  social contract theory, and the gendering of early modern utopias (including those by Thomas More and Margaret Cavendish). By invoking conventional tools of literary analysis as well as the critical historiographical methods of Hayden White, we will consider the relationship between various forms of political narratives–fictional, poetic, historical, and philosophical–as modes of representation.

ENGL 525K Postcolonial Studies – Humanitarian Life Narratives | Dr. David Jefferess

This course examines the construction of the humanitarian in life narratives, understood broadly to include memoir, documentary biographical film, NGO marketing appeals, fiction, etc. Drawing upon scholarship in life writing, celebrity culture, media discourse, moral philosophy, postcolonial theory, critical race studies, and gender studies, the course focuses on the ongoing legacy of the “white saviour complex”. As a 400 level/graduate course, the course will be participatory, focusing on student-driven analysis, and will provide opportunities to develop skills in collaboration, oral presentation, and discussion facilitation, with options for both scholarly and creative research and communication.

ENGL 532A Culture & Location: Shakespeare and Place | Dr. Sean Lawrence

This seminar will examine the role of place and location in the works of William Shakespeare and the stage and society in which they were presented. The discussion will be framed by a dialogue between the respectively ethical and ontological phenomenologies of Emmanuel Levinas and Martin Heidegger. The course will be divided into three sub-themes, each examining three plays in three weeks: the English popular stage; representations of the world beyond Europe; the erotic landscape. The course has a philosophical focus, but seeks to find points of integration with other critical concerns.

• Samuel Fraser| A Black Writing on the Hills: The Interplay of Knowledge, Discourse, and Power in Susan Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, 2023 (Margaret Reeves)
• Alison Kloosterman| Shattered Temporalities: An Investigation into Trauma, Time, and the Monstrous in Maria Dahvana Headley’s The Mere Wife (2018), 2022 (Michael Treschow)
• Olivia Abram| Settler-as-secondary: Ethics and Politics of a Settler Engagement with Islands of Decolonial Love, 2022 (Allison Hargreaves)
• Leah Wafler| I would prefer not to”: Non-Human Animal Resistance and the Language of Speciesism, 2022 (Jodey Castricano)
• Kyla Morris| Step into My Coffin or (M)other Space:Theorizing Motherhood as Heterotopic Space in Angela Carter’s “Ashputtle or The Mother’s Ghost: Three Versions of One Story”, 2022 (Melissa Jacques, George Grinnell)
• Dana Penney| The Woman Warrior and Her Bodymind in Action: An Analysis of Bodies, Minds, Gender, and Movement in Wonder Woman, 1941 – 2017, 2022 (Marie Loughlin)
• Dserae Gogel | The Past is Present: Gendered Colonial Violence in Contemporary Canadian Theatre, 2021 (Lisa Grekul)
• Kholbey Ozipko| No eclipse lasts forever: Confronting Gendered Violence in Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game and Dolores Claiborne, 2021 (Jodey Castricano)
• Shohel Rana | Modern Surveillance and the Loss of the Great Potential in Dave Egger’s ‘The circle’, 2021 (George Grinnell)
• Steven Defer| “Let’s Have the Conversation”: Climate Change, Religion, and Belief Formation in Barbara Kingsolver’s’ Flight Behavior’, 2021 (Bryce Traister)
• Murat Yaman| Independent Research Paper, 2020 (George Grinnell)
• Rachel Stubbs| Dear Mr. Dumbledore: Handwritten and Printed Intraliterary Texts in Lewis Carroll’s Alice Series and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series, 2020 (Margaret Reeves)
• Caitlin Voth | Independent Research Paper, 2019 (Karis Shearer)
• Rebecca Jane Francis | Instruction Within Entertainment: Explicit and Implicit Religious Teachings in Children’s Literature in the Nineteenth Century, 2018 (Margaret Reeves)
• Francesca Gimson | Independent Research Paper, 2017 (Jennifer Gustar)
• Brittany Rhodes | Independent Research Paper, 2017 (Janet MacArthur)
• John Harrison | Independent Research Paper, 2017 (Jodey Castricano)
• Mark Buchanan | How Alcohol Use in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Perpetuates Late-Victorian Traditions of Racism, Sexism and Classism, 2016 (Constance Crompton)
• David Laird | “Saying God with a Straight Face”: Towards an Understanding of Christian Soteriology in David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, 2016 (Daniel Keyes)
• Patricia Mitton | Independent Research Paper, 2016 (Allison Hargreaves, Marie Loughlin)
• Angela Froese | Independent Research Paper, 2015 (Oliver Lovesey)
• Alexa Manuel | Independent Research Paper, 2015 (Allison Hargreaves)
• Zane Phillips | Independent Research Paper, 2014 (Sean Lawrence)
• Max Dickeson | Feminist Science Fiction’s Prophetic Metaphors: The Destabilization of Gender and Race in Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber and Susan Palwick’s Shelter, 2014 (Margaret Reeves)
• Spekla Grasic | Identity, Home and Loss in Goran Vojnovic’s Cefur Raus!, 2014 (Janet MacArthur)
• Gracie Cleveland| Independent Research Paper, 2014 (Karis Shearer, Allison Hargreaves)
• Ashley Cail| Independent Research Paper, 2014 (Marie Loughlin)
• Daniel Tracy | Independent Research Paper, 2014 (George Grinnell)

Olivia Abram

M.A. English Literature and Place Theme

Olivia Abram is a high school English teacher and sports enthusiast from Edmonton, Alberta. After teaching for three years, a new strand of Indigenous-based foundational requirements were added for teachers through Alberta Education. This sprouted her MA project focus, to explore a framework for settler-situated reading of Indigenous texts, specifically the works of Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, a Mississauga Nishnaabeg writer. The title of her presentation at the USask Honours Colloquium was “Instead of Dismantling the Settler’s House, Building a New One”. She completed her Bachelor of Education at the University of Alberta and her Bachelor of Arts equivalency at University of Saskatchewan. Olivia was a nominee for the Edwin Parr Teaching Award, was named a three-time CCAA Academic All-Canadian, and is the recipient of the UBCO Graduate Dean’s Entrance Scholarship.

Jessica Beaudin

M.A. English Literature and Place Theme

Jess completed her undergraduate degree in English Literature in her hometown at the University of Lethbridge, with a focus on Modernist and Contemporary literature. Post-graduation, she spent three years delaying the inevitability of graduate school, living in Edmonton, and working a bank job where people complimented her emails. In her spare time, she enjoys making bad kitschy pottery, being in the same room as her mutt, and sometimes small runs. Also reading. In summation of ever-growing research interests, Jess has a big crush on the world of posthuman and critical animal studies, as well as interests in transhumanism and biomedical ethics. The conversation with animal studies often necessarily extends to environmental ethics so, that too. She is a lover of dystopian, sci-fi, mostly contemporary, some Modernist, some PoMo. Offside, she digs feminist legal theory and Holocaust theory.

Brianne Christensen

M.A. English Literature and Place Theme

Brianne completed her BA in English (Hons) at UBCO before joining the MA in English graduate program in 2021. Her SSHRC-funded thesis project––“Hospitality in Crisis: New Sincerity and Receiving the Stranger in Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet”––explores, with specific consideration of post-Brexit immigration discourse and literary mood, how thinking migration, hospitality, and sincerity in very concrete ways structures Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet as a literary project. Brianne received the Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement, allowing her to complete site research abroad hosted by the University of Exeter. She presented work at the FCCS Research Series in 2022 and 2023, and at an event organized by the Routes Network at the University of Exeter. She presented papers at the ACCUTE Annual Conference 2022 and the Critical Relations Symposium 2023. Brianne’s research interests include hospitality studies, law and literature, migration, New Sincerity, narratology, and women’s writing.

Zach DeWitt

M.A. English Literature and Place Theme

Zach DeWitt was raised in Washington State before moving to Canada to complete his undergraduate degree. He received a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences from Quest University Canada, focusing on the intersection of philosophy, history, and literature. In his undergraduate thesis, Zach explored how metaphors of haunting offer students a new way to critically approach texts, particularly by rooting novels in their real-world histories and geographies. Both his thesis project and degree informed his lasting passion for interdisciplinary learning and teaching. At UBCO, Zach plans to write more about haunted theory, critical and decolonial pedagogy, and Indigenous Canadian literatures. In his free time, Zach likes writing about films, reading, going for lengthy walks, and listening to music.

Karis Dimas Lehndorf

M.A. English Literature and Place Theme

Karis (she/her/hers) graduated from MacEwan University in 2021 with a B.A. in English, with minors in Gender Studies and Philosophy. During her undergrad, Karis has enjoyed studying authors like Nella Larsen, Virginia Woolf, and John Milton. This past year she has been particularly drawn to children’s literature like Lewis’s The Magicians Nephew and Alcott’s Little Women. She is fascinated by looking at the ways women and girls are represented in these texts. Karis is eager to refine her understanding of critical literary theories such as Feminism, Queer theory, Postcolonialism, and Marxism to experience texts in new ways and contribute to a more diverse understanding of them. Karis has spent the majority of her life in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton) on Treaty Six Territory and is excited to be in a slightly warmer climate here in the Syilx Okanagan Nation Territory (Kelowna).

Dravida Anjuman Huda

M.A. English Coursework Option

As part of the MA program at UBC Okanagan, I aim to undertake my independent research mainly on the topic of trauma and memory studies in context of the contemporary postcolonial literature in English. A significant part of my research interest is to put literary texts that embody the issue of displacement in the tapestry of trauma and memory, and critically analyze how the study of the latter has gradually turned to become one of the most significant motifs of the former. Coming from the South-East Asian region of the world that has long been pinned with issues related to different variants of displacement (partition of India and Pakistan or formation of diaspora in American and European countries, for example), I intend to focus on South Asian literature in English that addresses the issue to a large extent.

Master of Arts Applicants (MA)

Applicants to the MA in English program are expected to have a BA degree in English.

Applicants are expected to have a standing of a B+ (76%) average or better in their third- and fourth-year classes or at least 12 credits in third- and fourth-year English classes with an A- (80%) or better average.

In exceptional circumstances, a student who has a strong undergraduate record but does not meet the minimal requirements may be allowed to take a qualifying term in the MA English program on recommendation of the FCCS Graduate Program Committee. Further, a student cannot be admitted into the program if a suitable supervisor is not available.

MORE INFORMATION

Visit the UBC Okanagan Academic Calendar* for full admission and program requirements information; the calendar is a comprehensive guide to all programs, courses, services and academic policies at the University of British Columbia.

* In case of a discrepancy between this webpage and the UBC Calendar, the UBC Calendar entry will be held to be correct.

Master of Arts Applicants (MA)

Applicants to the MA in English program are expected to have a BA degree in English.

Applicants are expected to have a standing of a B+ (76%) average or better in their third- and fourth-year classes or at least 12 credits in third- and fourth-year English classes with an A- (80%) or better average. A student cannot be admitted into the program if a suitable supervisor is not available.

Applicants from a university outside Canada in which English is not the primary language of instruction must present evidence of English language proficiency tests. Test scores must have been taken within the last 24 months.

The requirements for the MA in English program are specific as outlined below and differ from the minimums outlined on the College of Graduate studies web site.

• IELTS average score accepted: 7.5
• TOEFL average score accepted: 104

MORE INFORMATION

Visit the UBC Okanagan Academic Calendar* for full admission and program requirements information; the calendar is a comprehensive guide to all programs, courses, services and academic policies at the University of British Columbia.

* In case of a discrepancy between this webpage and the UBC Calendar, the UBC Calendar entry will be held to be correct.

Required Grades and Credential Guide

Grades and degree credentials required by UBC vary by country. Search the Required Grades and Credential Guide — a guide to assist international students in estimating their eligibility.

International Advisors

An international student advisor can answer questions about immigration, medical insurance and the transition to UBC’s Okanagan campus in Kelowna, BC. Visit the International Programs and Services website to meet the team.

DYNAMIC CITY

UBC’s Okanagan campus borders the dynamic city of Kelowna, a hub of economic development with a population of about 150,000 people—the fourth fastest growing population in Canada. In fact, the Okanagan Valley is rated one of the best communities in Canada to grow your business.

More than 160 buses travel daily from campus to key locations such as Kelowna’s cultural district and thriving downtown waterfront. The campus is two minutes from the Kelowna International Airport, one of the top 10 busiest airports in Canada.

UBC Okanagan is situated within the First Nations territory of the Okanagan Nation, whose spirit of stewardship for the land is reflected in the university’s respect for sustainability.

NATURAL BEAUTY

A diverse natural region with sandy beaches, beautiful farms, vineyards and orchards, and snow-capped mountains, the Okanagan Valley features sweeping stretches of lakeside and endless mountain trails for biking and hiking.

Check out this 360-degree video: Kelowna From Above.*

* Best viewed using desktop Chrome or Firefox (desktop) or YouTube app (mobile).

CAMPUS HOUSING

Full-time UBC Okanagan students can live in residence, which offers modern living with easy access to academic and personal support. Residences are surrounded by hiking and biking trails, plus panoramic views of the campus and valley.

• Student Residence
• Important Housing Dates

OFF-CAMPUS HOUSING

• Living Off Campus Resources
• Kelowna Off Campus Student Housing Facebook group*

* UBC does not verify or endorse information shared on this third-party website, which is offered here as a public resource only.

Events: See what’s happening with FCCS News & Events, including readings by visiting authors and artist talks, performances, the AlterKnowledge Discussion Series, Film Series, Okanagan Short Story Contest, the popular annual Art on the Line fundraiser, and much more.

Stay Connected: and keep in touch with us, too—by following the FCCS community on Facebook and Twitter. Follow the UBCO Grad community on Twitter and keep up to date with what is happening in the English program.

Stay active: Take advantage of the many opportunities to get involved and play—from workout space in the new Hangar Fitness and Wellness Centre and our 1,561 square-metre gymnasium, to athletic courts, intramurals, fitness classes and nationally ranked varsity athletics. Have a ball in Sports and Recreation.

Relax: The Graduate Collegium is a gathering place where grad students can hang out, eat lunch, spend time with their fellow students, and attend or host special events. The lounge-style room is open seven days and week and is outfitted with comfortable furniture, kitchen facilities, and individual and group-work spaces.

Community: The Aboriginal Centre  is a home away from home for all Aboriginal students by providing a sense of belonging and community, a place to catch up, wind down, make lunch, share opportunities and celebrate success.

College of Graduate Studies: Your hub for administrative support and such things as graduate workshops for professional development and for assisting you from the admissions process through to your graduation

Centre for Scholarly Communication (CSC): Supports graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, staff and faculty in disseminating their research. The CSC provides one-on-one consultations and workshops, including writing support for theses, dissertations, journal articles and grant proposals.

Centre for Teaching and Learning: Provides support related to teaching, TA training and use of technology in educational programming.

Learn more about graduate student resources and support in FCCS.

Career Development

Graduates of the MA English program will be prepared for a variety of professions that value strong communication skills and a facility in writing and textual analysis—such as education, journalism, professional writing, publishing, law, consulting and marketing—or for PhD research.

Career Services

Map out your future and prepare to hit the ground running with resources and services provided by the Advising & Involvement Centre.

Tell your story with resumé and cover-letter strategies, and search Work Study jobs for experience relevant to your degree and career goals. You can also book an appointment to meet one-on-one with our career advisor.

alumni UBC

alumni UBC is a member-driven association that offers a variety of lifetime programming and communications to enrich the lives of UBC graduates.

The ‘Your Next Step’ program offers webinars, speaker series and professional development sessions. It is designed to provide advice, tips and resources in areas of career development to graduates for life after university.

Realize the promise of a global community with shared ambition for a better world and an exceptional UBC.