Professor Knight (third from right) shares her eclipse exhibition materials with her class.
Professor Leah Knight will be a part of the Eclipse on the Escarpment event on April 8th, hosted by the Faculty of Mathematics and Science (registration on ExperienceBU). Her exhibit, “ ‘Dark shall by thy sun’: Imagining eclipses in early modern England,” will be on display in the Ian Beddis Gymnasium from 12-4pm.
Read all about it in the Brock News!
Professor Neta Gordon brought in a very special guest on March 19 to her graduate class, ENGL 5V56: The Politics and Art of Orientation in the work of Ann-Marie MacDonald.
Back row, L to R: Claire Thyne, Zoe Williams, Faith Lokaisingh, Olivia Hay, Jaime Bastien, Maddie Beaulieau
Front: Ann-Marie MacDonald
Photo: Neta Gordon
Author, actor, and playwright Ann-Marie MacDonald spent the morning in the classroom with the MA English grad students. In the afternoon she met with the research team of Gordon’s SSHRC-funded “Mapping Ann-Marie MacDonald” project. Look for the upcoming feature story in the Brock News!
Join our own Professor Adam Dickinson along with Christine Daigle (Philosophy) and Francine McCarthy (Earth Sciences), on Wednesday, March 27, at the St. Catharines Public Library for a public lecture, “The Anthropocene as Scientific and Cultural Concept (for our Times)”
For more information, see the event posting on ExperienceBU, as well as the recent Brock News article. Hope to see you there!
Want to join the ESA? Come to the meeting on March 25, 3-4 pm, MCD 301!
The details below are from the ExperienceBU listing:
“With the end of the term fast approaching, the English Students’ Association is looking for passionate students in English and all related departments to participate in a meeting to plan for the next school year and what we want it to look like.
Two of our executives will be graduating this spring, so if you’ve ever wanted to shape the future for English students or you’ve ever thought, “I wish there was an event like X,” this is the perfect opportunity for you!
We will be accepting members for several roles, including President, Vice President, Social Media Coordinator, Event Planning, running Essay Workshops and more. These roles are open to any undergraduate student affiliated with the English department (this can include double majors, concurrent education, etc.). If you’re interested in any role and cannot attend, please contact us via email (brocku.esa@gmail.com) or through our Instagram page (brock_esa), and we will ensure your voice is heard. If there are any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out!”
Due to budgetary constraints and funding changes, the English department has decided not to accept MA applications for the 2024-2025 academic year. Over this time, we will be reconceptualizing the MA program to adapt appropriately to the new funding models and we expect to resume accepting students for the 2025-2026 year.
The department is sorry for any difficulties that this decision may cause prospective applicants.
Professor Leah Knight, together with Head Archivist David Sharron, received the 2023 MLA-EBSCO Collaboration for Information Literacy Prize for the course design of MARS/ENGL 4P01: Sources and Methods in Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
From the MLA website: “Thanks to a generous grant from EBSCO, the Modern Language Association confers up to two annual awards of $500 each for coursework developed in collaboration between department faculty members and academic librarians in literature, language, or related disciplines. The award recognizes successful integration of the disciplinary objectives of the course with learning objectives in information literacy, as defined in the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. ”
Congratulations, Leah and David!
Professor Leah Knight (pointing)
David Sharron (r), Head of Archives and Special Collections in the Brock Library, shows students rare documents.
Many thanks to all who helped out with Fall Preview Day 2023! A special shoutout goes to the student volunteers, Francesca Mangiapane, Amanda Andrews, and Grace Paiva, for helping to promote our Department.
Student volunteers (L-R): Francesca Mangiapane, Amanda Andrews, and Grace Paiva
Calling all 4th year English Students!
You are invited to attend an online information session for the Master’s in English at Brock on Friday, November 3, 2023, 10 AM.
RSVP at the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs website or with the QR code provided here.
Hope to see you there!
Friday the 13th was an auspicious day for all the right reasons. Congratulations to all of our ’23 Brock MA English graduates and faculty on all of your hard work!
Photo credits: Brock University
The Department of English Language and Literature continues to attract top-notch scholars. Owen Kane (PhD, Queen’s), working with Professor Elizabeth Sauer, brings his SSHRC-funded research on contact literature and early modern literary cultures of the circumpolar north to Brock.
Welcome, Dr. Kane!
Dr. Owen Kane recently defended his PhD at Queen’s University. His dissertation on poetic decorum and early modern political geography, argued for the influence of poetic thinking by Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and John Milton on early English political concepts. His essays have been published in Spenser Studies, The Spenser Review, Shakespeare and the Sea Conference Proceedings, and TOPIA. Previously, Dr. Kane was a founding committee member of the Chapel Royal of the Mississauga of the Credit First Nation at Massey College and has experience in accessibility issues working in partnerships to develop accessible infrastructure for universities. Supervised by Dr. Elizabeth Sauer, he comes to Brock University in order to complete his SSHRC-funded postdoctoral research project on contact literature and early modern literary cultures of the circumpolar north. While at Brock, Dr. Kane also looks forward to assisting Dr. Sauer in her projects and with the Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies, taking part in departmental and research centre events, and helping out undergraduate, Masters, and PhD students whenever possible in the Humanities departments.
