Conference Papers

“The Virtuosity of Canada: Octavia Butler, Climate Change, Slavery & The Archives.” Modern Language Association. San Francisco, California, 6 January 2023. Presented in revised form at the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English, Toronto, May 30, 2023.

“Moving North: Thwarting the Promise of Canadian Liberty in Erdrich’s Future Home of the Living God.” Canadian Association of American Studies 2021. Online conference. 24 October 2021. Presented in a revised form at the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. Montreal, May 14, 2022.

“Becoming Bird(ie): Exposing Canadian Government Complicity with Forced Adoptions in Christina Sunley’s The Tricking of Freya.” Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. University of Alberta, Virtual Congress, 29 May, 2021.

“Rewriting the Myth of the Underground Railroad and Canada as the North Star in the Twenty-First Century: Reading Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad.” Modern Language Association. Seattle, Washington, 12 January 2020. 

“Playing The Odds: Fleeing to Canada.” Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. UBC, Vancouver, BC, 3 June 2019. 

“Writing the Circuitry: ACCUTE’s Role.” Canadian Association of the Study of Discourse and Writing. UBC, Vancouver, BC, 3 June 2019.   

“Surveying Canlit: Making Sense of a Crumbling Edifice: Revised Version for an American Audience.” Modern Language Association. Chicago, Illinois, 6 January 2019.  

“Becoming Bird(ie): Exposing Canadian Government Complicity with Forced Adoptions in Christina Sunley’s The Tricking of Freya.” Nordic Association of Canadian Studies. University of Akureyri, Akureyri, Iceland, 9 August 2018.

“Surveying CanLit: Making Sense of a Crumbling Edifice.” Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English presentation-interview panel on CanLit course syllabi.  University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, 28 May 2018. 

“Refusing to Sustain a Convenient Fiction: Rewriting Canada’s Virtuousness in Ben Winter’s Underground Airlines.”Joint panel with the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English/ Canadian Association of American Studies. University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, 26 May 2018. 

“Going South: Reading E. Annie Proulx’s Barkskins as Lady Liberty Moves South.” Atlantic Canadian Studies Conference 2018. Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, 5 May 2018. 

“The Missionary Position: The American Roots of Frye’s Peaceable Kingdom.” Canadian Association of American Studies 2018. Ontario College of Art and Design, 28 October 2017. 

“Americans Write Canada.” Trans-Canadas 2017. Toronto, Ontario, 27 May, 2017. 

“German Internment Camps in the Maritimes: Another Untold Story in PS Duffy’s The Cartographer of No Man’s Land.” Untold Stories: Canada at 150. University College Dublin.  Dublin, Ireland, 29 April, 2017.

“Discipline & Punish: The Police State in Richard Ford’s Canada.” Joint panel with the Canadian Association of American Studies/American Studies Association. Toronto, Ontario, 8 October, 2015. 

“Escape to Canada: Richard Ford’s Fugitive Novel.” Joint panel with the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English/ Canadian Association of American Studies. Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, 25 May, 2014. Delivered in a revised form at the IAAS/BAAS Conference as part of a three-panel contribution on the Canadian/American border, co-organized with two PhD students (Rachel Bryant, UNB and Rich Cole, U of Alberta) and funded by SSHRC grant money. Queen’s University, Belfast, Ireland, 9 April, 2016. 

“Acadian Identities, Arcadian Dreams: Ted Dykstra’s Evangeline.” Atlantic Canadian Studies Conference. University of New Brunswick/St. Thomas University, Fredericton, New Brunswick, 1 May, 2014.Delivered in a revised form at the Cultural Crossings: Production, Consumption, and Reception across the Canada-U.S. Border Conference. University of Nottingham, Nottingham, England, 22 June, 2014. 

“Revisioning Evangeline for the New Millennium: Configuring English-Canadian, Anglo-American, and Acadian Relations in the Twenty-First Century.” Canada-U.S. Border Conference at Algoma University. Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario, May 22, 2013. Delivered in a revised form at the International Comparative Literature Association Annual Conference. Paris, France, 24 July, 2013. 

“Reading The Bricklin: Rethinking Atlantic Canada in the Disco Era.” MELUS Annual Conference. San Jose, California, April 21, 2012. Delivered in revised form at the 19th Atlantic Studies Conference. Saint John, New Brunswick, 6 May, 2012. 

“Displacing Identity Politics or Americans Revisioning Canada: The Case of Howard Norman.”  British Association of American Studies Conference. Manchester, England, 14 April, 2012.  (Delivered by co-panelist Gillian Roberts in my absence). 

“Transformation and Spirituality: Reading The Crooked Good.” Association for Bibliotherapy, Montreal, Quebec. 2 June, 2010. 

“Fashion Television, National Identity, and the Forty-Ninth Parallel.” Culture and the Canada-US Border Conference. University of Kent, Canterbury, England, June, 2009. Delivered in revised form at Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. Montreal, Quebec, 30 May, 2010. 

“Rewriting Fredericton’s Poetic Heritage: Re-Telling Canada’s Stories.” Archives in Canada Conference. Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick, 11, June, 2009.   

“Re-reading Photographs Through Defamiliarizing The Aboriginal.” Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. Authors Meet Critics Panel, invited critic.  Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, 25 May, 2009. 

“Graduate Supervision: Meeting Student Needs.” Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, 24 May, 2009. 

“Fashion on Television: Sarah Jessica Parker’s Post-Sex in the City Refashioning of Carrie Bradshaw.” Canadian Association of American Studies. St. John’s, Newfoundland, 14 August, 2008. Co-presented with Professor Priscilla Walton, Carleton University. 

“Americans Read Canada: The Case of Howard Norman’s The Bird Artist.” Canadian Association of American Studies. St. John’s, Newfoundland, August 13, 2008.  

“Reading Helen Humphrey’s Afterimage: Visuality and Postcoloniality.” Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. Vancouver, British Columbia, August 18, 2007.  

“Transformation(s): Examining the Work of Joy Harjo.” Indigenous Women and Feminism: Culture, Activism, Politics. Edmonton, Alberta.  26, August, 2005. Paper posted on conference archive website in the fall of 2006. 

“(In)side Out and Upside/Down: The Challenges of Working on Contemporary Native Women’s Poetry.” Aboriginal Roundtable presentation. Canadian Association of Commonwealth Literatures. London, Ontario, 30, May, 2005. 

“Diane Glancy’s Transformative Poetics: Articulating a Native Christianity Through  Humour and Irony.” Canadian Association of Commonwealth Literatures. London, Ontario, 29 May, 2005. 

“Whose Fall?: The Oprah-fication of MacDonald’s Novel.” Modern Language Association.  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December, 2004. (Delivered in my absence by the session chair; I was grounded in Fredericton due to a snowstorm). 

“Revisioning Fredericton: Reading George Elliott Clarke’s Execution Poems.” Surf’s Up: The Rising Tide of Atlantic Canadian Literature Conference. Wolfville, Nova Scotia, October, 2004. 

“Ghost Spaces, Living Histories: Memory and Photography in Contemporary Native North American Women’s Photography.” Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. Hyderabad, India, 6 August, 2004.

“Mobility and Aesthetics: Generic Transformation in the Poetry and Music of Joy Harjo.” Midwestern Modern Languages Association. Chicago, Illinois, 8 November, 2003. 

“Working Toward a Native Centered Criticism: Reading the Poetry of Kimberly Blaeser.” Canadian Association of Commonwealth Literatures. Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1 June, 2003. “Reading Risk in The Navigator of New York.” Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. Dalhousie University. Halifax, Nova Scotia, 30 May, 2003. 

“Thomas King and Canadian Identity.” Modern Language Association. New York City, New York, 29 December, 2002. 

“Word and Image: Imperialism and Photography in Helen Humphrey’s Afterimage.” The Canadian Association of American Studies. Toronto, Ontario, 19 October, 2001. 

“From Text to Song: Generic Transformations in the Work of Joy Harjo and Poetic Justice.” Modern Language Association. Washington, D.C, 27 December, 2000. 

“Displacing and Engendering Diasporic Discourses: Reading Howard Norman’s The Museum Guard.” The Canadian Association of American Studies. Ottawa, Ontario, 4 November, 2000. 

“Humour and Irony, Métis Style: Reading the Poetry of Marilyn Dumont and Gregory Scofield.” Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. Edmonton, Alberta, 25 May, 2000. 

“Humoring the Border: Constructing an English-Canadian Humor Tradition in the Twentieth Century.” Association of Canadian Studies in the United States. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 20 November, 1999. 

“Humor and Irony in Contemporary Native American Women’s Poetry: Reading Joy Harjo.”  Modern Language Association. San Francisco, California, 30 December, 1998.  

“Reading Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water: Cross-Border Humour and Laughter.”  Canadian Comparative Literature Association. Ottawa, Ontario, 28 May, 1998. 

“Re/Imagining Magic Realism in Canadian Literature: Ann-Marie MacDonald’s Fall On Your Knees.” Canadian Comparative Literature Association.  St. John’s, Newfoundland, 2 June, 1997. 

“Humor and Irony in Atwood’s Morning in the Burned House.” Modern Language Association.  Chicago, Illinois, 27 December, 1995.  

“The Potency of Silence: Revisioning Colonial Mimicry in J.M. Coetzee’s Foe.” The Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. Calgary, Alberta, 3 June, 1994. 

“Challenging the Postmodern Paradox: Narrative Perspective and Irony in the Short Stories of Alice Munro and Audrey Thomas.” The Association for Canadian Studies in the United States.  New Orleans, Louisiana, 20 November, 1993.