Administrative Experience
RECENT SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATIVE HIGHLIGHTS:
Served as Department Chair, July 1, 2013-June 30, 2016.
Served as Secretary-Treasurer and then Vice-President of the Canadian Chairs of English, end of term coincided with end of my term as Chair at UNB, June 2014-June 2016.
Elected member of the Local Campus Committee for the Fredericton Academic Planning Exercise, November 2015-April 2016, elected member to represent the Faculty of Arts, served as elected co-chair of the twenty-two-person committee, co-author and co-editor for our final report to the university (approved by the Senate and the Board of Governors),
Member of the ASPP, Aid to Scholarly Publications Academic Council, November 2014-April 2018.
Appointed Member of the Joint Nominating Committee for the Office of the President, one of six voting members on the Presidential hiring committee, January 2018-January 2019.
Served as elected President of ACCUTE, the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English, comprised of 500 members, June 2018-July 2020.
Elected Faculty Representative on the Board of Governors (one of four on the Fredericton campus and one of six total at the university) and Member of Senate, University of New Brunswick, July 1, 2016-June 30, 2019, re-elected for a second term to June 30, 2022.
https://www.unb.ca/secretariat/governors/membership.html
Co-created and co-chaired the Committee on Environments in the Department of English at UNB Fredericton, June-December, 2019.
Appointed Member of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences Covid-19 Pandemic Planning Committee, March-June, 2020.
Appointed Member of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences Task Force on Congress Contingency Planning, June-November, 2020.
https://congress2021.ca/task-force-congress-contingency-planning
Elected Member of the Board of Directors for the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, June 2020-.
Elected Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee for the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences and member of the Executive Committee, September 2021-.
SERVICE AS DEPARTMENT CHAIR (2013-2016):
Chair of Department of English, UNB, July 1, 2013 to July 22, 2016. Consisted of roughly fifteen full-time faculty (fluctuated with retirements and hires), and approximately four to ten part-time instructors, along with a Writer-in-Residence, two support staff (Office Manager and Graduate Secretary), 20+ teaching and research assistants, and a group of 15+ Honorary Research Associates. Main duties included managing all staffing appointments including sessional, contract instructors, and full-time faculty, all timetabling, served as representative on Chairs & Deans council in Faculty of Arts, chaired monthly meetings of the department, and meetings of the Appointments, Promotion, and Tenure Committee, major contributor to department Facebook page and in the writing of all public communications about the program. Authored yearly staffing exercises, planning documents, and managed budget (with secretarial assistance).
Accomplishments included:
Year 1: led the department during the first ever university strike/lock-out in January 2014; served on the newly created Academic Council comprised of Chairs of units across UNB post-strike, attended weekly meetings to create bridges between faculty and administration (February 2014 to May 2015).
Year 2: lobbied successfully for a tenure-track hire in 18th century literature; co-hosted a joint campus–wide book launch for a Science colleague who completed a book about writing, with extensive consultation by English department colleagues; selected and served on the Vice-President Academic hiring committee for UNB, which concluded with a successful hire; involved in bringing the PhD in Creative Writing to fruition at UNB (one of two universities in Canada with such a program); facilitated the refurbishment and upgrade of our main graduate classroom and managed the changeover of the Chair’s Office to a workroom/meeting space available to all faculty, contract instructors, and graduate students for bookings.
Year 3: completed a successful Quality Assurance Review in September 2016; completed a departmental submission for English for the university-wide Academic Planning Committee in October 2016; hired three full-time faculty appointments in English in under eight months (September 2015 to April 2016), including the first transgender professor at UNB; facilitated the two day Annual Atlantic English Undergraduate Conference, in collaboration with a colleague and small group of motivated English students (March 18 to 20, 2016).
SERVICE AS CEDE CO-CHAIR (2019):
Co-created and Co-chaired a Departmental Committee composed of 3 faculty and 3 graduate students, with substantial advice from Sexual Violence New Brunswick and the UNB Human Rights Officer. Leader in the drafting and passage of key recommendations and documents including: 1) a recommendation of sensitivity training for faculty (including contract staff and the Writer-in-Residence); 2) the inclusion of standard information on course syllabi regarding the existence of the Human Rights Officer and Sexual Assault Support Officer on campus; 3) a handout to help direct faculty, students, and staff to appropriate resources in cases of sexual assault, harassment, and instances of violence on and off campus in a timely manner; 4) the commitment to consistently employ the preferred pronouns of faculty, staff, and students; and 4) the decision to stop funding the serving of alcohol at faculty-student or faculty-only events in the department (whether licensed or unlicensed). These motions were passed in the Department and could be used as models for other departments and/or faculties across UNB’s campuses.
SERVICE AS PRESIDENT OF ACCUTE (2018-2020):
President of ACCUTE (the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English, comprised of 500 members), June 2018-July 2020; negotiated course releases for service. See https://accute.ca/contact-information/directors/. Main duties include overseeing operations of the ACCUTE office through weekly meetings (with the ACCUTE Executive: myself, the Vice-President Professor Elizabeth Effinger from UNB, and the paid Office Co-ordinator, Dr. Vicky Simpson), managing the ACCUTE Board (consisting of 11 members), working with the Federation of Social Sciences and Humanities as the President of ACCUTE, facilitating relationships with other organizations, leading the mandate for ACCUTE, organizing and running an annual conference at Congress, ensuring the timely and professional production of a quarterly newsletter, and taking on projects of concern to members.
Accomplishments included:
Year 1: Worked with the Federation to produce a first ever defamation handout for academics, written by a law professor and funded by the Federation, which will be distributed to all 10,000 Federation members in November 2019; authored the first Bystander Intervention Statement to urge English Departments to support faculty members in positions of vulnerability (https://accute.ca/2018/12/02/accute-statement-on-bystander-intervention/);authored a Presidential Column on micro-aggressions in the academy(https://accute.ca/wpcontent/uploads/2019/09/ACCUTENewsletter_SummerFall2019.pdf); streamlined vetting and planning processes for ACCUTE members and Executive; supported the creation of conference Sponsorship tiers to raise additional funds for ACCUTE and added donation buttons on the membership page to increase donations to the Graduate Student Conference paper prizes and the Underwaged subvention category; led the execution of a four day conference of 300 presenters at UBC in June of 2019, including moderating or leading the Q & A session for two plenary speakers (Jasbir Puar and David Chariandy), presented a paper as part of a multi-association panel at the Canadian Association of the Study of Discourse and Writing about ACCUTE, chaired five meetings including an Annual General Meeting with 50 attendees, and attended and presented a paper at CACE (Canadian Association of Chairs in English): https://www.congress2019.ca/sites/default/files/association/2019/05/19-accute-2019-05-08-final.pdf.
Year 2: Involved in the creation of two webinars delivered through the Federation site for members on defamation law in November and December 2019, that are archived for resource purposes (http://www.ideas-idees.ca/events/webinars); consulted with SSHRC to create more robust drop-down field menu options for their revised grant application forms at the request of members (including the addition of an “Indigenous Literatures” field); created an emergency list of on-line teaching resources for members in March 2020; released three public letters of advocacy for ACCUTE members with respect to Covid-19 (one to the Minister of Finance asking for support, financial and otherwise, of non-profit scholarly associations, a second to Department Chairs and Heads to advocate for the rights of contingent faculty and to adjust tenure and promotion time-lines for faculty approaching these evaluation periods, and the third asking Chairs, Heads, and Directors of Graduate Studies to seek out ways to support graduate students in the pandemic who may be facing financial challenges) (https://accute.ca/2020/04/22/accute-letter-to-canadian-chairs-of-english-regarding-graduate-students/):
Planned for and then led the cancellation of a four day conference of 300 presenters scheduled for June 1-4, 2020; shifted the conference to a two day virtual event consisting of two open plenary sessions (by Anthony Stewart and Emma Donoghue), followed by a closed online Annual General Meeting and Celebration of Research attended by approximately 35 members, hosted in co-ordination with the Federation: https://accute.ca/accute-conference/congress-2020-keynote-speakers/.
SERVICE EXTERNAL TO UNB (ASSOCIATIONS):
Elected delegate to represent the LLC Canadian Forum on the Modern Languages Association Delegate Assembly, January 2020-January 2023.
Elected regional delegate for the Modern Languages Association Assembly, January 2017-January 2020.
Member of the Professional Concerns Committee, ACCUTE, November 2015-June 2018.
Panel presentation at the Canadian Chairs of English Meeting, “Mentoring and Motivating Mid-Career Faculty.” University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, 27 May 2016.
Vice-President of the Canadian Chairs of English, July 2015-July 2016 (end of term coincided with my end of term as Chair at UNB). Organized day of panel discussions for 2016 meeting as part of my role.
Co-organized and co-chaired a panel titled “The Future of English Studies” with Professor Lee
Easton, Mount Royal University, for the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, 30 May, 2015.
Panel presentation at the Canadian Chairs of English Meeting, “Mental Health Issues:
Challenging a Culture of Shame.” University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, 29 May, 2015.
Secretary-Treasurer of the Canadian Chairs of English, July 2014-July 2015. Organized day of panel discussions for 2015 meeting as part of my role; created new database of members; opened new bank account and organized financial records, providing a report at the 2015 meeting; took minutes at 2015 annual meeting.
Panel presentation at the Canadian Chairs of English Meeting, “Where are the Students?: Challenges at UNB.” Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, 23 May 2014.
Member of the Delegate Assembly for the Modern Languages Association of America, January 2003-December 2005.
Member of the Executive Committee for the Discussion Group on Canadian Literature in English, Modern Language Association, January 2001-December 2004.
SERVICE EXTERNAL TO UNB (PUBLIC OUTREACH, SSHRC, AND ASPP):
Invited to deliver a forty-minute public talk on Judith Butler’s work at a community Tertulia hosted at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre as part of their 2019 series, Fredericton, New Brunswick, 10 April 2019.
Invited to join the ExpertWomen database to heighten the role of women as public experts and opinion makers in media, November 2016-.
Member of a national adjudication committee for SSHRC Insight Development Grants, April to May of 2016. Involves reading applications, providing weighted scores for 20+ applicants, and participating in nine hours of teleconference meetings to discuss applications.
Moderator for an “Inclusive Language Panel” hosted by Fredericton High School student, Megan Hill, Fredericton High School, Fredericton, New Brunswick, 2 April, 2015.
Member of the ASPP Academic Council, November 2014-April 2018.
Member of a national adjudication committee for SSHRC Doctoral Vanier Scholarships, January to February of 2013. Involves reading applications, providing weighted scores for 26 applicants, and participating in a two-day meeting in Ottawa to select grant awardees (absent for the meeting in Ottawa due to family illness).
Member of a national adjudication committee for the Aid to Scholarly Publication program, focussing on manuscripts in my areas of expertise, involves vetting reports on 20+ manuscripts per year, August 2010-November 2014 (when invited to join the ASPP Academic Council).
Member of national adjudication committee #19 for SSHRC Standard Research Grants for 2011. Involves reading 120 applications, providing weighted scores for roughly 1/3 of the applicants, and participating in a week-long meeting in Ottawa to select grant awardees.
Member of national adjudication committee for SSHRC Aid to Journals, July to October of 2007. Involves reading applications, providing weighted scores for roughly 1/3 of the applicants, and participating in a three-day meeting in Ottawa to select grant awardees.
Member of national adjudication committee #19 for SSHRC Standard Research Grants for two years, November 2004-March 2006. Involves reading 116 applications, providing weighted scores for roughly 1/3 of the applicants, and participating in a week-long meeting in Ottawa to select grant awardees.
External committee member for the hiring of a faculty member in Canadian Studies at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, September 2001-May 2002.
Member of a National SSHRC Pre-Selection Committee for Doctoral Fellowship Awards, January 2000, and January 2001.
SERVICE WITHIN UNB:
Elected Faculty Representative on the Board of Governors and Member of Senate, University of New Brunswick, July 1, 2016-June 30, 2019, re-elected for a second term to June 30, 2022.
Appointed member of the Joint Nominating Committee for the Office of the President, January 2018-January 2019.
Part of three-person committee from across the university organizing and moderating a public series of interdisciplinary lectures on the theme of time, resulted in three well-attended talks by a mathematician, a historian, and an educator. Sponsored by UNB’s Marketing Office, the Faculty of Arts, and the Faculty of Education, November 2016-March 2017.
Invited Speaker at SSHRC Grant Writing Workshop, UNB, 9 December, 2016.
Elected member of the Local Campus Committee for the Academic Planning Exercise, elected member to represent the Faculty of Arts, served as elected co-chair of the twenty-two-person committee, November 2015-April 2016.
Member of the Vice President Academic Search Committee, one of two faculty representatives, November 2015-May 2016.
Invited member of UNB Committee to create an Indigenous Minor, 2015-2016.
Member of the Atlantic Canadian Studies Centre Executive at UNB, including attending monthly board meetings, contributing to planning of annual symposium, and shape direction of the centre, led by SSHRC CRC Professor Elizabeth Mancke, September 2013-.
Acting Director of Graduate Studies, Department of English, UNB, July 2011-June 2012.
Member of the Dean’s Search Committee for Chair of the Department of English, September- December 2009.
Member of the Assessment, Promotion, and Tenure Committee, Department of English, UNB, September 2000-June 2002, September 2004-June 2005, September 2007-May 2008; September 2010-May 2011, regularly to the present day, including as Chair from 2013-2016.
Member of the Graduate Committee, Department of English, UNB, September 2000-May 2002, September 2004-May 2005, September 2007-May 2008, January 2009-May 2009, September to December 2009, September 2010-May 2011, regularly to the present day.
Elected as a representative for the Faculty of Arts on the University of New Brunswick Student Standings and Promotion Committee, November 2003-July 2005.
Co-director of Majors and Honours Advising, Department of English, UNB, January 2008-June 2011, July 2012-July 2013, July 2017-July 2018.
Co-ordinator and host of the annual W.S. MacNutt Memorial Lecture at UNBF and UNBSJ given by Professor George Elliott Clarke, November 2004.
Presented an Inter-Arts Lecture, “Rethinking Borders: Reading Thomas King and the 49th Parallel,” UNB Faculty of Art, 28 November, 2002.
Member of the Faculty of Arts Venture Campaign committee, June 2001-June 2003.
Member of committee responsible for preparing a successful SSHRC Tier II Application, June 2001-April 2002.
Ran a workshop for the Faculty of Arts on the SSHRC Doctoral Application process at the Dean of Graduate Studies’ request, October 2000, September 2001, and October 2002.
Member of the Executive Committee for the Canadian/American Exchange between UNB and the University of Wisconsin at Osh-Kosh, and invited speaker at a September 2000 symposium at Wisconsin to promoted the exchange program.
Department of English Prize Co-ordinator, September, 2000-September 2002, September, 2003September, 2004.
Member of the Canadian Poetry Database editorial board, a national project run by the Electronic Text Centre at UNB, to create a searchable database of pre-twentieth-century English-Canadian poets and their texts that can be sold to libraries internationally, September 1999-May 2002.
Member of the Creative Writers and Academic Speakers Reading Series Executive Committee, responsible for arranging visiting readers and selecting the Writer in Residence, Department of English, University of New Brunswick. July 1999-2002.
Faculty liaison for the Albert Ross Memorial English Society, the undergraduate English students club at the University of New Brunswick, July 1999 to September 2000.
Member of the University of New Brunswick Renewal Colloquium Planning Committee, responsible for organizing a university-wide lecture series on the significance of the university today, July 1999 to June 2000.
JOURNAL SERVICE:
Member of the Editorial Board of Canadian Literature, February 2020-.
Member of the inaugural selection committee for the winner of the Herb Wyile Prize for Canadian Literature, awarded annually to the best essay published in Studies in Canadian Literature, May 2018.
Member of the Editorial Board of Transmotion. April 2014-.
Co-editor of Studies in Canadian Literature, July 2003-July 2012.
Co-editor of a special issue of Studies in Canadian Literature consisting of plenary speeches, articles, and creative contributions drawn from the “For the Love of Words: Aboriginal Writers in Canada” conference (2004). Published as SCL 31.1 in September, 2006.
Co-editor of a special thirtieth anniversary issue of Studies in Canadian Literature on “Canadian Poetry: Traditions/Counter-Traditions,” Volume 30.1, published in September 2005. Co-editor of a special issue of Studies in Canadian Literature on “Past Matters: History and Canadian Fiction,” Volume 27.1, published in September, 2002.
Acting editor of Studies in Canadian Literature, September 2001-September 2002.
Co-editor of a special issue of Studies in Canadian Literature on “Canadian Literature and the Business of Publishing,” Volume 25.1, published in September 2000.
Member of the Advisory Board for The International Fiction Review, 2004-2010.
Member of the Studies in Canadian Literature editorial advisory board, September 1999-.