Faculty Listing

Andrew Bartlett B.A. (N.Br.), M.A. (Dal.), Ph.D. (York) Andrew.Bartlett@kwantlen.ca I grew up in Fredericton, studied in Halifax and Toronto, moved to British Columbia in 1994, and joined Kwantlen's English Department in 1998. I trained as a specialist in prose fiction, narrative theory, and eighteenth-century British literature. More recently, I have been working on a book about the Frankenstein myth, Mad Science and Playing God: Fictions of the Artificial Human. I serve on the editorial board of Anthropoetics: The Journal of Generative Anthropology. I teach English 1100 with a focus on analytical writing and the reader theme "Humans Communicating"; English 1202 with the topic, "Love Stories, Love Songs"; and upper-level courses in British fiction.
Deborah Blenkhorn B.A., B.Ed., M.A. (Qu.) Deborah.Blenkhorn@kwantlen.ca I have been teaching English literature and composition at Kwantlen (mostly on Richmond Campus) since 1997; I've also taught at the University of British Columbia. My undergraduate and graduate degrees (BA Honours/BEd and MA) are from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario (where I'm from), and I did some graduate work at UBC as well. I enjoy writing short stories and have even published a couple of them, but my main focus is helping others to communicate effectively in writing. I live on Bowen Island (near Vancouver) and enjoy telecommuting to work!
Shelley Boyd B.A., M.A. (Sask.), Ph.D. (McGill) Shelley.Boyd@kwantlen.ca I came to Kwantlen in 2010 when I was hired as Canadian Literature specialist. My book Garden Plots: Canadian Women Writers and Their Literary Gardens (MQUP, 2013) focuses on representations of domestic landscapes from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In addition to ongoing research on Canada's literary gardens, I am also undertaking a new team project on Margaret Atwood. Prior to moving to B.C. I served as the Max Bell Postdoctoral Fellow at McGill University, where I taught undergraduate and graduate level courses in Canadian literature, Canadian Studies, and Business Communications.
Betty Anne Buirs B.A., M.A. (B.C.), Ph.D. (Sask.) BettyAnne.Buirs@kwantlen.ca Technically, I guess I was one of the first students at Kwantlen because I remember entering the contest to name the new college back in 1981 when Douglas College was divided into two institutions. I then transferred to UBC for my Bachelor's and Master's degrees and went on to do a Ph.D. in Canadian literature at the University of Saskatchewan. Although I can't imagine anything better than talking about texts for a living, I also really enjoy teaching grammar and composition and helping first-year students make the transition to university. What I like best about my job is that even though I've been in the post-secondary system for over thirty years, I continue to learn so much every semester that I still feel like a student myself.
Sue Ann Cairns B.A. (Mich.), M.A. (Idaho), Ph.D. (B.C.) SueAnn.Cairns@kwantlen.ca I moved from Michigan to British Columbia, where I completed my Ph.D. in English at UBC. I taught at a number of universities in both the U.S. and Canada, including UBC and SFU, as well as a one-year stint in Shanghai, China. At Kwantlen, I have taught English courses ranging from the preparatory writing course to the fourth year capstone course since 1990. My current interests are focused on English Education, Children's Literature, and Rhetoric.
Gregory Chan B.A., M.A. (B.C.) Greg.Chan@kwantlen.ca After completing my degrees in English literature at UBC, I taught undergraduate courses there for several years. Since coming to Kwantlen in 1995, I have enjoyed teaching composition and literature courses; my favourites include ENGL 2350: Critical Studies in Film, ENGL 3345: Diasporic Literatures, and ENGL 4401: Topics in Canadian Literature. I lead an annual Jade Peony walking tour of Chinatown, in collaboration with historian John Atkin and the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden.
Mark Cochrane B.F.A. (B.C.), M.A. (Concordia), LL.B. (B.C.) Mark.Cochrane@kwantlen.ca I have taught at Kwantlen since 2000. My publications include books of poetry, review articles, personal essays, conference papers, and interviews with contemporary writers. My teaching and research interests include Canadian poetry, gender studies, and intersections between literature and law.
Bernett Cody B.A., M.A. (Sask.) Bernett.Cody@kwantlen.ca I have been teaching English literature and composition at Kwantlen Polytechnic University since 1989. Currently, most of my teaching is online.
Heather Cyr B.A. (St. Thomas), M.A. (Qu.) Heather.Cyr@kwantlen.ca I have been moving progressively westward since growing up on gorgeous Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia: my undergraduate work took me to New Brunswick where I attended St. Thomas University; graduate school brought me to Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario; and, finally, I am now living in British Columbia and working on my Early Modern Literature dissertation in the shadow of Coquitlam's breath-taking mountains. My research focuses on British Renaissance almanacs and, my secondary field, Children's Literature and Fantasy. I have taught both writing and Shakespeare in the past. I can often be found commuting to Kwantlen with the audiobook of a thrilling young adult fantasy novel ringing in my ears.
Gillian Dearle B.A. (B.C.), M.A. (Qu.) Gillian.Dearle@kwantlen.ca Sharing my scholarly interests with students is one of the most rewarding parts of teaching. These interests include creation mythologies, utopias (and dystopias), and gender issues. I began teaching at Kwantlen in 2003 and have also taught at Douglas College and at the UBC Writing Centre.
Robert Dearle B.A., M.A. (Vic. BC), Ph.D. (Qu.) Robert.Dearle@kwantlen.ca I began teaching at Kwantlen in June, 2010 but my connection to Kwantlen began many years earlier when I enrolled in university transfer courses at Kwantlen to avoid a life of quiet desperation. I have taught at Okanagan College and--for a time--at Berlitz in Japan and Vancouver. My dissertation traces the idea of cynicism and its relationship to modernity and early modernism before exploring the ways in which cynicism registers as both a bête noir and an authorial attitude in the writings of H. G. Wells, Joseph Conrad, and G. B. Shaw. My interests also extend to other subjects and periods, including modern drama, critical theory, philosophy, and medieval literature.
Kegan Doyle B.A. (Vic. BC), M.A., Ph.D. (Tor.) Kegan.Doyle@kwantlen.ca I was born in New Zealand and raised on Vancouver Island. I studied at the University of Victoria and the University of Toronto and have lived in Australia and France. My scholarly interests include the literature of the counter-culture of the sixties and the representation of sports in film and literature.
Elizabeth Gooding B.A., M.A. (Alta.) Elizabeth.Gooding@kwantlen.ca I completed my B.A. (Honours) and M.A. at the University of Alberta, and before coming to Kwantlen, I taught at several institutions in Nova Scotia and British Columbia--mostly writing and literature, but also ESL, study skills, and business English. My teaching interests include nature and environmental writing, American literature, and composition.
Duncan Greenlaw B.A. , M.A. (Qu.), Ph.D (Alta.) Duncan.Greenlaw@kwantlen.ca My teaching at Kwantlen since 2009, and previously at other Canadian universities, has focused mainly on 20th -century and contemporary literature and composition. My research has concentrated on Irish writing (Beckett, Joyce, Yeats, and Muldoon), theories of memory and history, discourses of the Northern Irish peace process and cinematic representation of national trauma. Publications include Borders of Mourning: Remembrance, Commitment and the Contexts of Irish Identity and articles in Mosaic, Studies in the Literary Imagination, and the Canadian Journal of Film Studies.
Sheila Hancock B.A. (B.C.), M.A. (S.Fraser) Sheila.Hancock@kwantlen.ca I have taught in the English Department at Kwantlen since 1993. Over the last seven years, I have focused my research on team-teaching and online learning, with a particular focus on blended methods of delivery. During my 2011/12 education leave, I completed a Master of Educational Technology at UBC and am currently putting my research into practice in a series of fully online and blended, team-taught composition and literature courses.
Jacqueline Heslop B.A. (Sask.), Ph.D. (Vic. BC) Jackie.Heslop@kwantlen.ca While earning a Ph.D. in English at the University of Victoria, I published and presented papers on postmodernism, film theory, pedagogy, and academic freedom, as well as on modern literature. I maintain an interest in social and cultural issues, which often come up for discussion in my classes as I believe that critical thinking is the most valuable skill students can learn.
M.G.R. (Gaye) Hickman-Barr Dip. T.E.F.L., Dip. T.E.B.P., B.A. (Natal), B.A. (Hons.) (Natal, South Africa), Dip. University Ed. (Natal), M.A. (Central Wash., USA), M.Ed. (Central Wash.), Ph.D. (Natal) Gaye.Hickman-Barr@kwantlen.ca I was born and raised in South Africa where I completed my Ph.D. in English following two Masters' degrees in Washington USA. I won the Eden Mills Poetry Award in 2008, have had my poetry published inPrairie Fire and my writing was selected for inclusion in Best Canadian Poetry in English 2010. Some of my writing reflects my love of wildlife and the wilderness as well as my deep political interests stemming from a life lived in the tribal complexities of my native Kwa-Zulu Natal. I am an avid traveller in the world.
Karen Inglis B.A., M.A., P.D.P., M.Lib.S. (S.Fraser) Karen.Inglis@kwantlen.ca After graduating from Semiahmoo High School, I enrolled in Douglas College, part of which later became Kwantlen College. After completing a Master's Degree in English and the PDP Program at Simon Fraser University, I taught at Okanagan College (now UBCO), and Malaspina College (now VIU) before finally finding my way back to what feels like home again at Kwantlen Polytechnic University where I have been teaching since 1989. In 1997, I completed a Master's Degree in Liberal Studies at SFU. I love all things Romantic and especially like to teach new texts so that I can learn from the students. In my spare time, I like to read, travel, ski and camp.
Neil Patrick Kennedy B.A. (S.Fraser), M.A. (B.C.) Neil.Kennedy@kwantlen.ca In the fall of 1973, I developed a desperate crush on my English 9 teacher, halfway through the unit on Macbeth that she was teaching. My passions for Renaissance literature and English composition have raged unabated ever since. Indeed, they have only deepened through time: the former through graduate studies in Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne and Milton; the latter through teaching a range of composition courses at UBC, the University of Toronto, a private school and here at our beloved Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
Moira Langley B.A. (B.C.), M.A. (Tor.) Moira.Langley@kwantlen.ca I grew up in Vancouver and did my B.A. at UBC, then moved to Toronto to do my M.A. in English Literature at the University of Toronto. Areas of interest included Shakespeare, the Renaissance, comedy, and Anglo-Irish literature. I began teaching at the former Cariboo College (now Thompson Rivers University), then moved to Nanaimo and taught at the former Malaspina College (now Vancouver Island University). I came to Kwantlen in 1992, where I have been teaching university transfer writing and literature courses ever since. I am currently working part-time on a Graduate Diploma in Shakespeare and Theatre at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.
Kim Larsen B.A. (Alta.), M.A. (McGill) Kim.Larsen@kwantlen.ca I hold an MA in English literature from McGill University and am currently working on my Ph.D. through the University of Alberta. For the past 5 years, I have been a contract instructor at both SFU and Kwantlen; prior to that, I worked as a research assistant for Christine Wiesenthal's The Half-Lives of Pat Lowther, which was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction in 2006. I have taught a wide range of first-year and upper-level undergraduate courses, including composition, contemporary Canadian women's fiction, Romantic and Victorian literature, Pre-Raphaelite poetry, North American coming-of-age fiction, and 19th-century American Gothic literature. My current research interests include Victorian literature and visual art, especially the work of the Pre-Raphaelites; women's literature; the Gothic; and theories of haunting.
Cecilia Martell B.A. (B.C.), M.A. (Calg.) Cecilia.Martell@kwantlen.ca I have taught English Literature, Composition, and Cultural Studies at universities and colleges in Calgary, Vancouver, and Freiburg, Germany. I enjoy the vibrant student community at Kwantlen, where I have taught undergraduate courses at every level of study, including those for credit towards the BA Minor and now Major in English. Among my teaching and research interests are First Nations Literatures, Canadian Literature, Holocaust Studies, and World Literatures in English, and my work includes advocacy for culturally diverse course content in the Humanities. I live in Vancouver with my family.
Ranjini Mendis B.A. (Ceylon), A.T.C.L (Eng), M.Ed. (Mass.), M.A. (Calg.) Ranjini.Mendis@kwantlen.ca A full-time faculty member of the English Department at Kwantlen since 1991, I have previously taught at Mount Royal University, The University of Calgary, and The University of Ceylon. Postcolonial literary studies being my research interest, I enjoy teaching cross-cultural literature and diasporic writers in a variety of courses. My recent publication is Literature for Our Times: Postcolonial Studies in the Twenty-First Century, co-edited with Bill Ashcroft, Julie McGonegal, and Arun Mukherjee (The Netherlands & NY: Rodopi, 2012). My other contributions to the academic community include serving as President of the Canadian branch and as Chair of the international Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. In that capacity, I organized several conferences, and also served in the board of directors of the CFHSS in 2004. The fully-online, open-access, refereed journal Postcolonial Text (http://postcolonial.org), of which I am Associate Editor, was co-founded by me and John Willinsky of the Public Knowledge Project, in 2003.It is a quarterly, free-to-read journal, for students, scholars, and general readers interested in cross-cultural literature.
Joakim Nilsson B.A., M.A. (S. Fraser), Ph.D. (Alta.) Joakim.Nilsson@kwantlen.ca I was born in Sweden, but have lived most of my life in Canada. In fact, I grew up in Surrey, and was a Kwantlen student for my first year, before I transferred to Simon Fraser University, where I completed my B.A. and M.A. I completed my Ph.D. at the University of Alberta--I enjoyed Edmonton, but the winters were too long--and then moved to Washington State, where I taught for ten years before returning to Canada. My areas of interest are American literature and film, medieval literature, and gender studies, especially masculinities. And when I am not teaching, I enjoy cycling, running, and walking my dog, Bailey.
Paul Ohler B.A. (Calg.), M.A., Ph.D. (B.C.) Paul.Ohler@kwantlen.ca I joined Kwantlen in 2003 after completing my Ph.D. My current research focuses on representations of mass print culture in the fiction and non-fiction of Edith Wharton and Henry James, which is the subject of my current book project. My area of specialization is science and literature, specifically the fictional analysis of social Darwinism and evolutionary models of cultural change in the Progressive Era. My book, Edith Wharton's "Evolutionary Conception": Darwinian Allegory in her Major Novels, was published by Routledge in 2006. I teach first-year writing, American and British literature, Modernism, and Critical Theory.
Paul Ostrowski M.A. (B.C.), M.A. (Lodz) Paul.Ostrowski@kwantlen.ca Born and educated in Poland, I fell in love with the English language when listening to the Beatles' tunes when I was 14 years old. Fast forward many years, and I find myself teaching English at Kwantlen in Canada. To get where I am now, I completed two M.A. degrees -- one in English and the other in Comparative Literature. Although I initially specialized in the Modern English Novel, I would describe myself as a generalist now. What fascinates me about literature is its ability to generate ideas, create characters, and produce lasting aesthetic pleasure. When not marking students' essays, I read, swim, or take long walks around Stanley Park. And I still listen to the Beatles.
James Panabaker B.A., M.A. (Car.), Ph.D. (Qu.) James.Panabaker@kwantlen.ca I attended Carleton University for my B.A. and M.A. My Master's thesis was a study of the work of the American poet James Merrill. I was awarded a Doctorate at Queen's University, where I continued my exploration of American Literature -- specifically the Literature of the South. I am the author of Shelby Foote and The the Art of History : Two Gates to the City. Currently, I am working on a book about the Kentucky writer, Wendell Berry.
Summer Pervez B.A., M.A. (W. Ont.), PhD (Ott.) Summer.Pervez@kwantlen.ca I moved to British Columbia in 2007, upon the completion of my PhD at the University of Ottawa. My primary teaching and research interests are postcolonial/world literature (emphasis on South Asia), cinema studies, and critical theory. I am also an imagist poet and screenwriter, currently working on film projects concerning the 1947 Indian Partition, racism, and bullying.
Bruce Raskob B.A., M.A. (Sask.) Bruce.Raskob@kwantlen.ca I attended the University of Notre Dame and the University of Saskatchewan and have taught in Canada and abroad. I have been a member of the English Department since 1991.
Fred Ribkoff B.A. (W.Ont.), M.A., Ph.D. (S.Fraser) Fred.Ribkoff@kwantlen.ca My research and teaching focus on literary representations of psychological trauma and mourning. My article on shame in Death of a Salesman (in Modern Drama) is reprinted in several books and my essay on the "The Management of Grief" is published in Literature For Our Times. I especially enjoy working collaboratively. I have co-authored two articles on the post-traumatic condition, one on Rime of the Ancient Mariner (in PsyArt) and the other on A Streetcar Named Desire (in Journal of the Medical Humanities). I also co-presented an audio/visual paper on the difficulty of communicating the indescribable in Holocaust testimony.
John Rupert B.A., M.A. (W.Ont.), Ph.D. (Ott.) John.Rupert@kwantlen.ca I began my teaching career at the University of Western Ontario, where I received my B.A. and M.A., and at the University of Ottawa, where I received my Ph.D. I drove across Canada during the hot summer of 1998 to take a position as a sessional instructor at the UBC, where I taught until 2003. To that point, the focus of my teaching was poetry, Canadian Literature, and First Nations writing in Canada. When I began teaching at Kwantlen, I rekindled my teenage interest in the supernational and the occult. Since that time, my passion has been to apply my research in these areas to my teaching.
Wendy Smith B.A., M.A. (S. Fraser) Wendy.Smith@kwantlen.ca A former Kwantlen student, I completed my BA (1993) and MA (1997) at Simon Fraser University. My areas of interest include discourse analysis, Canadian Literature, and literature of social protest. Before joining the English Department at Kwantlen, I taught at various post-secondary institutions, including Douglas College and BCIT. I currently teach English 1099 and first-year composition and literature courses.
Julie Sutherland B.A. , M.A., Ph.D. (Durham) Julie.Sutherland@kwantlen.ca I specialise in Renaissance English Drama. I have published on several Jacobean plays, as well as contributed in the area of the Renaissance to a number of reference books and encyclopedias. I have also worked in theatre production and administration both professionally and in community drama. My theatre affiliations include Thynke Byggly Productions (Oxford, UK), Festival by the Marsh (New Brunswick, Canada), and Pacific Theatre (British Columbia, Canada). I am also the founding producer of Doktor Luke Productions in Vancouver. Along with delighting in teaching, publishing, and play-going, I enjoy traveling to new cities with my family, watching foreign films, and boxing.
Brian Swail B.A. (Trent), M.A. (Manit.), Ph.D. (Manit.) Brian.Swail@kwantlen.ca When I was a child, I was mesmerized by science fiction, and not the "respectable" kind; I devoured tales of bug-eyed monsters, space ships and perilous adventures voraciously and indiscriminately. My tastes are somewhat different now, but what most appeals to me about language, literature and teaching is experiencing and sharing the powerful adventure of entering an unknown world, and of bringing to life in words the worlds each of us has within us.
Paul Tyndall B.A. (Dal.), M.A. (Tor.), Ph.D. (Dal.) Paul.Tyndall@kwantlen.ca I was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia and completed my BA at Dalhousie University and my MA at the University of Toronto, before returning to Dalhousie to complete my PhD in Modern American Literature, with a dissertation on the poetry of Yvor Winters. I have lived on the West Coast since 1990 and taught at the University of British Columbia and Okanagan University College before joining the Department of English at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. My teaching and research interests include 20th century American Literature, film studies, and depictions of mental illness in modern literature and film. I am currently in the process of developing a critical casebook on the novel, Housekeeping by the contemporary novelist, Mary Lynn Robinson.
Diane Watson B.A. (Brock), M.A., Ph.D. (McM.) Diane.Watson@kwantlen.ca My B.A. was in English and Classics, and my M.A. and Ph.D., both from McMaster University, were in English, in Modern British Literature. Originally from Ontario, I moved to BC in 1989 to teach in the English Department at UBC, where I later also taught Women's Studies until 1994, when I came to Kwantlen. My areas of specialization are Modern British Literature, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Transdisciplinary Prose (history, travel, cultural studies, fiction/non-fiction prose).
Jennifer Williams B.A. (Trent), M.A. (Qu.) Jennifer.Williams@kwantlen.ca I was raised in Montreal and travelled all points of the compass before deciding to settle in Vancouver. What I enjoy most about teaching at Kwantlen is the small class size. Everyone who wants to participate in class discussion has the opportunity. This was what my undergraduate university was like when I was a student and now that I am the one standing at the front of the room, this is how we can keep it lively and fresh. My areas of interest in graduate school were post-colonial literature, Virginia Woolf, the eighteenth century's 'mob of scribbling women' (or so Nathaniel Hawthorne described them in a fit of pique), critical theory, and feminist theory in particular. My current focus is on Canadian and British fiction and on the scholarship of teaching and learning.