Graduates
Western MA and PhD graduates have been successful in developing a range of careers--from alt-academic employment, to work in the publishing industry, as well as contract and tenure-track faculty positions in colleges and universities--across Canada, the United States, and beyond.
Christopher Paul Austin, PhD Student in Western's Department of Theory and Criticism, & Professional Lending Team, TD Bank (November 2023)
I completed my Honours Specialization in English at Western in 2018 and my MA in 2019 with the support of SSHRC’s CGS-M grant. In September 2019, I was hired to teach writing and communications at Fanshawe College out of the MA program. I applied to the Theory and Criticism doctoral program during this first year teaching and subsequently started my PhD in Sept 2020. While completing my doctoral coursework, I continued to teach part-time with Fanshawe until December 2022. This year, I was offered a competitive full-time role with TD Bank in the Professional Lending team, which I accepted and started in October. I worked with TD part-time in my undergrad, so it’s a full-circle moment, and my first semester not teaching since 2018. My career plan going forward is to finish my PhD while working with the bank, and perhaps returning to teaching after I’ve completed the doctorate.
Ayşegül Oğur, PhD Student in Cultural Mediations, Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art, and Culture, Carleton University (November 2023)
Ayşegül Oğur immigrated to Canada for her master’s at Western University in 2017. Her
master’s research focused on the depictions of women’s sexualities, bodily autonomy, and
reproductive rights in 20th-century American literature. After completing her MA in 2018, she got
accepted to Carleton University for her PhD. Her current research explores popular romance
fiction. She aims to understand what role social media plays in cultivating and sustaining
romance readership and how digitalization has transformed the form and content of the genre.
Michelle Banks, Professor of English, Medicine Hat College (July 2014)
Michelle Banks accepted a permanent full-time position as a Professor of English in Medicine Hat College’s University Transfer program in July 2014. After completing her dissertation at Western in 2007, she taught Film Studies and American Studies at Western and English at the University of Windsor. Her research explores the dynamics of connected fictions, and she has published on American fiction, Canadian poetry, and country music.
Sarah Blanchette, Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track), Department of English and Cultural Studies at Huron University College (November 2023)
Sarah Blanchette is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of English and
Cultural Studies at Huron University College, an affiliate institution of Western University. She completed her SSHRC-funded dissertation, titled "Critiquing Psychiatry, Narrating Trauma: Madness in Twentieth-Century North American Literature and Film," (2020) in the Department of English at Western University under the exceptional supervision of Dr. Thy Phu. Her areas of research specialization include Mad studies, women’s and girlhood studies, critical race studies, feminist bioethics, health humanities, and representations of Madness, mental distress, dis/ability, and embodiment in twentieth-century North American literature and film. Her most recent publications include being a contributor to Thickening Fat: Fat Bodies, Intersectionality, and Social Justice (2020), co-editing Narrative Art and the Politics of Health (2021), and "Black Girlhood Persists: Pecola’s Persistence as Non/Child in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye" in Women’s Studies (2023).
Gregory Brophy, Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track), Bishop’s University (July 2014 )
Gregory Brophy is an Assistant Professor of English at Bishop’s University, where he teaches Victorian and Modern British Literature, as well as Film and Visual Culture. He has published articles and book chapters on bodies and machines in Richard Marsh (in Monstrous Media: Imaging Gothic from the Nineteenth Century to the Present) and Havelock Ellis (in Victorian Review), and is currently completing Graphomania! Composing Subjects in Victorian Culture, a monograph on technologies of representation in Victorian Gothic and Sensation fiction.
Ross Bullen, Lecturer in English at OCAD University (September 2014)
Ross Bullen graduated from Western’s PhD program in 2010. He spent two years as a
Limited-Term Assistant Professor at Mount Allison University, and since 2014 has been a
Teaching Stream Assistant Professor at OCAD University in Toronto. His research has been
published in American Literature, the Journal of American Studies, the Public Domain Review,
and elsewhere. He also regularly contributes academic and literary satire to McSweeney’s
Internet Tendency. Ross has served on the Board of Directors for ACCUTE and is a Past
President of the Canadian Association for American Studies.
Chris Bundock, Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track), Department of English at University of Regina (July 2015 )
Chris Bundock completed his PhD in English at Western in 2010, writing a dissertation on Romantic forms of prophecy. Thereafter he held a SSHRC post-doctoral fellowship for two years and then taught at both Western and Huron University College (LTA). His revised dissertation, Romantic Prophecy and the Resistance to Historicism, is under contract with the University of Toronto Press and slated to be published later this year. He is also co-editing a volume with Elizabeth Effinger, Embodiments of Horror: William Blake’s Gothic Sensibility, for Manchester University Press’ Global Gothic series. Chris has recently been appointed to a tenure-track position as an Assistant Professor of Romanticism at the University of Regina.
Christine Campana, Associate Professor, Department of English, University of Northern British Columbia (January, 2024)
After defending her doctoral dissertation in March 2023, Christine Campana began her position as an Assistant Professor of English Literature at the University of Northern British Columbia in July 2023. At UNBC, she expands on her doctoral research concerning relationalities conveyed through Indigenous, diasporic, and settler women’s contemporary creative travel literature in her present research and through teaching undergraduate and MA courses pertaining to Indigenous literatures on Turtle Island.
Michelle Coupal, Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track), Laurentian University (July 2013)
Michelle Coupal is Assistant Professor of English at Laurentian University in Sudbury. Michelle completed her Ph.D. in May of 2013 at Western, where she was supervised by Manina Jones and co-supervised by Joel Faflak. Michelle teaches North American Indigenous literatures and Canadian literature. She has also developed courses on media representations of Indigeneity and the rhetoric of apology in Canada. Michelle is working on a monograph—Literature as Testimony: Indian Residential School Fictions in Canada—which will be published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
Tim DeJong, Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at Baylor University (January, 2024)
Tim DeJong is a Senior Lecturer in the English Department at Baylor University in Waco, TX. His book Hope and Aesthetic Utility in Modernist Literature (Routledge, 2020) argues for the presence and importance of social hope in the works of modernist writers including Henry James, H.D., and Samuel Beckett. His critical essays appear or are forthcoming in venues such as Arizona Quarterly, College Literature, Criticism, and Modernist Cultures, and he has published poems in Image, Rattle, Mudlark, Modern Language Studies, Waxwing, and other journals. He teaches American literature and British literature survey courses and is currently teaching a Creative Writing course focusing on poetry. He has published both poetry and criticism, and serve on Baylor's Beall Poetry Festival Committee.
Elizabeth Effinger, Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track) of 18th-Century & Romantic Literature, University of New Brunswick (Fredericton) (July 2016)
Elizabeth Effinger is currently finishing a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at Penn State University (2014-2016). She defended her PhD in March 2014 and is currently revising a manuscript that explores the collusion between Romanticism and critical posthumanism. To date, she has five published and three forthcoming peer-reviewed articles, and a volume on William Blake and the Gothic (co-edited with Chris Bundock) under review at Manchester UP. Her new book-length project explores how the emergent sciences and technologies of the long Romantic period contributed to the loss of human exceptionality. She is also in the early stages of a book project (with Claire Colebrook) on the Romantic Anthropocene. She is the Newsletter Editor for the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism (NASSR).
Ann Gagné, Program Coordinator, Applied Arts & Health Programs, Faculty of Continuing Education and Training (FCET), Seneca College (September 2013)
Since September 2013, Dr. Ann Gagné has been the Program Coordinator for Applied Arts and Health programs for the Faculty of Continuing Education and Training (FCET) at Seneca College. She is responsible for 11 programs including Acting and the Autism & Behaviour Science Graduate Certificate program. She continues to teach a popular Women’s Literature course at Seneca. Previously (2011-2013) she was the Curriculum Leader for FCET writing the curriculum for Seneca’s Social Media Graduate Certificate and overseeing the Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies.
Aisha Haque, MA, Language and Communication Instructor, The Teaching Support Centre at Western (February 2013)
As Language and Communication Instructor at Western’s Teaching Support Centre, Aisha designs and delivers programs related to Teaching Assistant and International Teaching Assistant development and offers workshops on language instruction, communication skills, and best practices in university teaching and learning. Drawing on her background in postcolonial pedagogy and intercultural training, she is currently co-authoring a Western Purple Guide on teaching international students. Prior to joining the Teaching Support Centre at Western, Aisha taught Writing, Business Communication, and Bollywood Cinema at Fanshawe College for 3 years.
David Hickey, Assistant Professor in Professional Writing and Digital Rhetoric, University of PEI (1 Year CLTA)
David Hickey completed his PhD in Canadian Literature at Western in 2014. A person of modesty and wit, he sent the following bio: “When I’m not writing new poems, I'm busy working on a series of essays about the lyrical lives of insects.”
David Huebert, Fiction Mentor at The University of King's College (November 2023)
Since defending his PhD dissertation in August 2018, David Huebert has taught creative writing and literary studies at several universities, including Western, Dalhousie, and The University of King's College. He has been Associate Professor and Co-Director of Creative Writing at The University of New Brunswick, and has recently relocated to Kjipuktuk/Halifax to focus on his creative writing and teach in the new fiction MFA program at The University of King's College. Since graduating from Western, David has published a poetry collection ( Humanimus ) and a book of fiction ( Chemical Valley ). His debut novel, Oil People, will be published by McClelland & Stewart in 2024.
Erica Kelly, Professor, Lambton College, Sarnia (2012)
Erica Kelly is a Professor of English at Lambton College in Sarnia, Ontario. She is currently serving as the Project Lead for the college's new Centre for Social Justice, a group that advocates for equitable systems and relationships on campus and in the broader community. She completed her PhD in the spring of 2010, and began her position at Lambton in 2012. She has published articles on social justice and Canadian poetry, and she continues to research the role of art in social change.
Michael Kightley, Assistant Professor, University of Louisiana at Lafayette (September 2014)
Michael Kightley is an Assistant Professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he teaches Old English literature and historical linguistics. After completing his dissertation at Western in 2009, he took a position as an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. His research focuses on how Anglo-Saxon racial, ethnic, and familial communities are constructed in medieval poetry and in modern medievalism. He has published in Studies in Medievalism, Neophilologus, Studia Neophilologica, and elsewhere.
Emily Kring, Curriculum Designer for the Ministry of teh Solicitor General, Public Safey Division (January 2024)
Emily Kring completed her PhD in 2017 with a dissertation on Indigenous poetics and language revitalization. While at Western, she was the Copy Editor-in-Chief at Word Hoard and an Editor at International Indigenous Policy Journal. After graduating, she worked as a Curriculum Developer for the K-12 market and then spent five years working in higher education publishing at Oxford University Press and Top Hat. Beginning in manuscript development, she transitioned to Portfolio Management in 2019 and oversaw a range of Canadian- and US-market higher education titles in business and the social sciences. She currently works as a Curriculum Designer for the Ministry of the Solicitor General, Public Safety Division regarding training standards for policing in Ontario.
Rebekah Lamb, Assistant Professor of English Literature and Victorian Studies (tenure-stream) at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy (Barry's Bay, ON) (July 2014)
With the assistance of an Ian J. Boyd fellowship with the Centre for Faith and Culture (in Oxford, UK), two Ontario Graduate Scholarships, and a fellowship with the Kuyper Centre for Emerging Scholars (Western), Rebekah Lamb is finishing her dissertation on the relationship between boredom and poetic aesthetics in Tennyson, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris, and Christina Rossetti--under the supervision of Dr. D.M.R. Bentley and Dr. Christopher Keep (second reader). In addition to her dissertation work, Rebekah is also completing a study of the relationship between guilt, atonement, and political theory in the phenomenology of Edith Stein--she recently presented a draft of her project to the International Edith Stein Symposium at St. Michael's College (at the U of T), this past March. This summer, Rebekah will be a visiting lecturer at the Centre for Faith and Culture in Oxford (affiliated with the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in New Hampshire and hosted at St. Benet's Hall, Oxford), giving lectures on the Pre-Raphaelites, Hopkins, and Tolkien.
Patti Luedecke, Writing and Presentation Skills Support, Teaching Centres, University of Toronto (November 2023)
For the past three years, Patti has been providing writing and presentation skills support at
teaching centres across UofT. Currently she teaches at Victoria College, Rotman Commerce’s Centre for Professional Skills, the Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre, and the Graduate Centre for Academic Communication. Patti enjoys continuing to write about American literary naturalism, and her essays and reviews have appeared in Studies in American Naturalism, the Edith Wharton Review, The James Fenimore Cooper Society Journal as well as in the collections The Nonhuman in American Literary Naturalism (2023) and Haunting Realities (2017).
Pascale Manning, Associate Professor of Enlgish at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh (November 2023)
Pascale Manning completed her doctorate at Western in 2013 and is now Associate Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, where her teaching and research span nineteenth-century British literature and science and Indigenous Studies. She is currently at work on two book projects. The first explores the intersections of nineteenth-century literature and science and the branches of the environmental humanities concerned with the fossil economy and the Anthropocene narrative. The second is focused on her involvement in a public history project in which she partnered with members of the Menominee Nation to coauthor and install five informational plaques around the 1911 monument to Chief Oshkosh (1795-1858) in Menominee Park, Oshkosh.
Daniel Martin, Associate Professor, Department of English, MacEwan University in Edmonton (January, 2024)
I completed my PhD at Western in 2006-07 under the supervision of Christopher Keep (Matthew Rowlinson second reader) on the topic of "Victorian Bodies in Motion." Right out of my PhD, I accepted a one-year limited term appointment in the Cultural Studies program at Trent University. When that one-year appointment was not picked up, I moved to Edmonton briefly before moving to Vancouver to pick up some part-time teaching at Simon Fraser University and then a full-time one-semester appointment in the Arts One program at UBC. I was offered a second appointment in Arts One, but decided to accept a SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Pamela K. Gilbert at the University of Florida. I worked on my postdoc for one year but declined the second year to take up a limited term appointment at Red Deer College. I worked there for two years before accepting a two-year limited term appointment in English at Wilfrid Laurier Brantford. That position was initially a tenure-track position, but was downgraded to a limited term appointment. My wife and I moved from Calgary to Brantford with a six-week old
child. I completed my two-year appointment but turned down a reappointment after accepting a tenure-track appointment at MacEwan University in Edmonton. I've been here since 2014 and I have loved every minute of it.
Erica McKeen, Writer, Teacher, and Librarian (November 2023)
Erica McKeen is a writer, teacher, and librarian. After graduating from Western, she completed a
Bachelor of Education and Master of Library and Information Studies at the University of British
Columbia. She works part time as a librarian and English literature instructor in Vancouver, BC
while also supporting herself as an author. Her first novel, Tear (Invisible Publishing, 2022), was
a Globe and Mail best book, shortlisted for the ReLit Awards, and winner of the Rakuten Kobo
Emerging Writer Prize for literary fiction. Her second novel, Cicada Summer, will be published
by W. W. Norton & Co. in June 2024.
Christine Penhale, Manager of Learning & Development at Giant Tiger (November 2023)
Christine Penhale completed a PhD in English and a Certificate in Teaching in Learning at
Western. She is the Manager of Learning & Development at Giant Tiger as well as a member of the DE&I Council, bringing together her passion for adult learning, business, and inclusion. In this role, Christine leads a team of Learning & Development professionals to train 10,000+ employees. A couple of especially meaningful projects Christine has completed are Management Fundamentals Training for 200+ employees, as well as Dementia Inclusive Communities Training - Winner of the Retail Council of Canada’s 2023 Philanthropic Leadership Award.
Samantha Pennington, Head of Community and Growth at Meet Cute (January, 2024)Samantha Pennington (MA 2014) is currently Head of Community and Growth at Meet Cute
(https://www.meetcute.com), an entertainment company that specializes in producing premium
romantic comedies in audio format. Formerly, Samantha worked in technology: at Streamloots,
a monetization platform for livestreamers, and at Wattpad (https://www.wattpad.com), a
community of 100M readers and writers, where she spent 8 years building programs, initiatives,
and events to help creators launch their careers.
Diane Piccitto, Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track), Mount Saint Vincent University (July 2015 )
Diane Piccitto holds a BA from Trent University and an MA and PhD from Western. Currently, she is Lecturer of English at Plymouth University, UK, but she will be returning home to Canada in July to take up the post of Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax. Prior to moving to England, she spent several years as a lecturer at the University of Zurich. Her publications include Blake’s Drama: Theatre, Performance, and Identity in the Illuminated Books (Palgrave Macmillan 2014), the co-edited essay collection Romanticism, Rousseau, Switzerland: New Prospects (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), as well as articles on Blake, Byron, the French Revolution, and melodrama. She also co-edits Victoriographies: A Journal of Nineteenth-Century Writing, 1790–1914 (Edinburgh UP).
Brooke Pratt, Communications Professor at Conestoga College Institute of Techonology and Advanced Learning (2014) Brooke Pratt (PhD 2010) is a Communications Professor at Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning in Kitchener, Ontario. Prior to joining the School of Language and Communications Studies at Conestoga, she taught English and writing at Western, Wilfrid Laurier University, and Humber College. She completed her PhD in 2010 under the supervision of D.M.R. Bentley. She has published articles on Margaret Atwood, Sara Jeannette Duncan, Hugh Hood, Al Purdy, and Duncan Campbell Scott and is currently completing a manuscript on the ruin image in Canadian literature.
Shazia Sadaf, Instructor, Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies, Carleton University (November 2023)
Shazia Sadaf is Assistant Professor of Human Rights and Social Justice in the Institute of
Interdisciplinary Studies at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. She holds a PhD in English
Language and Literature from the University of London, United Kingdom, and a second doctoral degree in English from Western University, Canada. Her research focuses on the intersectional areas of War on Terror Studies, human rights discourse, and post-9/11 Anglophone literature. Her book, Contemporary Pakistani Speculative Fiction and the Global Imaginary: Democratizing Human Futures was published in 2023 by Routledge. She has authored chapters in Narratives of the War on Terror: Global Perspectives (Routledge, 2020), Violence in South Asia: Contemporary Perspectives (Routledge. 2019), The Routledge Companion to Pakistani Anglophone Writing (2018) and Mapping South Asian Masculinities: Men and Political Crises (Routledge, 2015). She has several articles published in the Journal of Postcolonial Writing, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, South Asian History and Culture, ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature, and the European Journal of English Studies.
She is also associate editor for the Journal of Postcolonial Writing, Taylor & Francis, UK.
Jason Sandhar, Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track) of Eighteenth-Century British and Global Literature, Department of English and Creative Writing, University of Windsor (January 2024)
Jason Sandhar (PhD 2019) is Assistant Professor of Eighteenth-Century British and Global
Literature, Department of English and Creative Writing, at the University of Windsor. His research topics of interest include: postcolonial ecocriticism, Indian literature, critical animal studies, existentialism and philosophical pessimism. Recent peer-reviewed publications have appeared in The Journal of Commonwealth Literature; Postcolonial Animalities (Routledge 2020); and Interventions.
Kevin Shaw, Speechwriter, the Canadian Coast Guard (November 2023)
Kevin Shaw completed his dissertation in Canadian literature under the supervision of Dr.
Manina Jones. Since completing his doctoral studies in 2017, Kevin has held a number of
communication positions in the federal government and is currently a speechwriter at the
Canadian Coast Guard. He has contributed nonfiction to CBC Radio, Literary Review of
Canada, The New Quarterly, The Best Canadian Essays anthology, and other publications, as well as poetry to literary journals across Canada. He lives in Ottawa.
Michael Sider, Assistant Professor, Management Communications, Ivey Business School, Western University (April 1993)
Michael Sider teaches Management Communication at the Ivey Business School. After completing his Ph.D. in English Literature at Western University under the supervision of Professor Tilottama Rajan, and a SSHRC post-doc at the University of Pennsylvania, he published The Dialogic Keats in 1998 while developing Western’s Effective Writing Program. Michael moved to Ivey in 2002, where he’s worked as a professor for the past 17 years. In 2000, Michael opened a communications consulting and executive development business that he continues to run today. The professional achievement he is proudest of is the creation of a course at Ivey that uses literature to complicate leadership. His three favourite novels (at the moment) are A Brief History of Seven Killings, Blood Meridian, and Middlemarch.
Rasmus Simonsen, Project Manager at Novo Nordisk (January, 2024)
From 2015-2023, Rasmus R. Simonsen was senior lecturer of communication design and media
at the Copenhagen School of Design and Technology. Recently, he accepted a position as
training project manager at Novo Nordisk, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies.
In addition to his professional career, he continues to conduct research and publish in the areas
of design theory and literary/cultural studies.
Suvadip Sinha, Assistant Professor of South Asian Literatures and Cultures, Department of Asian Languages and Literatures, University of Minnesota (September 2014)
Suvadip Sinha received his Ph.D. (2011) for his thesis on material culture and modernity in Indian cinema. Apart from his research in the area of Indan cinema, he has also been working on 19th and 20th century South Asian literature. His current research interests include representation of ghosts, animals and machines in Indian literatures, cinema and television. His work has been published and is forthcoming in journals like Topia, Journal of South Asian Popular Culture, South Asian Film and Media and Interventions. Sinha will join the Department of Asian Languages and Literatures, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2014.
Michael Sloane, Professor in the School of Language and Liberal Studies at Fanshawe College (September 2015)
Michael Sloane completed his PhD in English at Western in the fall of 2014 after writing his dissertation on dirty ecological objects in modern American poetry. Prior to joining the full time faculty at Fanshawe, Michael taught English courses at Western. He has published on modern and contemporary representations of waste and he is currently working on several edited book chapters.
Alia Somani, Professor of English in Postcolonial Literature at Sheridan College (September 2015)
Alia Somani completed her PhD at Western’s Department of English and Writing Studies in 2012. Her publications have appeared in such journals as Postcolonial Text, Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, and South Asian Diaspora. In addition, Alia has taught courses at various institutions including Centennial College, the University of Toronto, and Trent University. In the fall of 2015, Alia will begin a permanent full-time position as Professor of English in Postcolonial Literature at Sheridan College.
Amy Appleford (PhD, 2005), Assistant Professor, Boston University
Anderson Araujo (PhD, 2007), Assistant Professor, UBC-Okanagan
Kofi Campbell (PhD, 2005), Associate Professor, Wilfrid Laurier University
Peter Cumming (PhD, 2003) Associate Professor, York University
Alan Galey (PhD, 2006), Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Allison Hargreaves (PhD, 2011), Assistant Professor, UBC-Okanagan
Mark Johnston (PhD, 2004), Associate Professor, University of Windsor
Somaya Sabry (PhD 2009), Assistant Professor, Ain Shams University
Sarah Krotz (PhD, 2008), Assistant Professor, University of Alberta
Nathaniel Leach (PhD, 2005), Associate Professor, Cape Breton University
Christopher Lockett (PhD, 2005), Associate Professor, Memorial University
Kelly McGuire (PhD, 2006), Assistant Professor, Trent University
Karis Shearer (PhD, 2008), Assistant Professor, UBC-Okanagan
Andrew Moore (PhD, 2008), Associate Professor, St. Thomas University
Heather Snell (PhD, 2007), Assistant Professor, University of Winnipeg
Helene Strauss (PhD, 2006), Professor, University of the Free State (South Africa)
Margaret Toye (PhD, 2003), Associate Professor, Wilfrid Laurier University
Conrad Van Dyk (PhD, 2007), Assistant Professor, Concordia University College of Alberta
Kimberley Verwaayen (PhD, 2004) Assistant Professor, University of Western Ontario
Brian Wall (PhD, 2005), Assistant Professor, SUNY Binghamton
