Dr. Kris Singh

BA (Waterloo), MA (Waterloo), PhD (Queen’s)
kris singh

I am enthusiastic about teaching in ways that stress heterogeneity and inclusivity. I strive to be attentive to the interests and needs of students so that I can support them in understanding their strengths as thinkers. To this end, I propose that our classrooms are not spaces wherein we prepare for the so-called real world so much as they are consequential and purposeful spaces within the real world. In these resource-rich, creative, hopeful spaces, we encounter the stunning richness of literature, the thrilling ideas of those around us, and the ambiguities and contradictions within ourselves.

Courses taught

  • ENGL 1100 - Introduction to University Writing
  • ENGL 1202 - Reading and Writing about Selected Topics: Borders and Border Crossings
  • ENGL 1204 - Reading and Writing about Genre
  • ENGL 3340 - Cross-Cultural World Literature
  • ENGL 4401 - Topics in Canadian Literature: Diasporic Writing in Canada

Areas of Interest

My research interests include Caribbean and African literature, postcolonial theory, diasporic literature, and transnationalism. I investigate the transnational connections that unite Austin Clarke, Andrew Salkey, and Samuel Selvon. Drawing on their epistolary relationships in my study of their published literature, I explore the limits of Caribbean machismo, the politics of loneliness and the weariness/wariness of immigrants. Selvon’s depiction of East Indians in the Caribbean also launched my study of the legacy of indentureship. I aim to recognize how labour systems defined the coolie identity and how individuals redefine that identity across geographical spaces and in digital media.