Dr. Kirsten Alm

BSc (UofS), MAIH (TWU), PhD (UVic)
Kirsten Alm

I began my post-secondary experience studying geology and geochemistry, keen to learn to read traces of the earth’s story in layers of strata and shifting chemical compositions. After working with a non-profit for a decade, I made the short jump from the sciences to an Interdisciplinary Humanities degree and then a PhD in English literature—both SSHRC-funded—where I examined, respectively, representations of time and memory in the poetry of the great Polish poet Czesław Miłosz and then place-making and identify formation in the poetry of Wallace Stevens and Robert Bringhurst. Now, I’m interested in how the words we use to describe our experiences come from and shape our experiences of place(s). When I’m not teaching or reading, ideally I’d be skiing!

Courses taught

  • English 1100: Introduction to University Writing
  • English 1202: Reading and Writing about Selected Topics
  • English 1204: Reading and Writing about Genre
  • English 2301: Canadian Literature in English

Areas of Interest

My research interests include twentieth-century Canadian literatures, representations of place and identity in West Coast literatures—particularly ecopoetry and ecopoetics—and diasporic literature.

Scholarly Work

  • "The mountain's neck moans": Mourning Places in Robert Bringhurst's "New World Suite No. 3" and Tim Lilburn's Assiniboia: Two Choral Performances and a Masque