Faculty Listing
| Andrew Bartlett B.A. (N.Br.), M.A. (Dal.), Ph.D. (York) Andrew.Bartlett@kwantlen.ca Andrew Bartlett grew up in Fredericton, studied in Halifax and Toronto, moved to British Columbia in 1994, and joined Kwantlen's English Department in 1998. He trained as a specialist in prose fiction, narrative theory, and eighteenth-century British literature. More recently, he has been working on a book about the Frankenstein myth, Mad Science and Playing God: Fictions of the Artificial Human. He serves on the editorial board of Anthropoetics: The Journal of Generative Anthropology. He teaches English 1100 with a focus on analytical writing and the reader theme "Humans Communicating"; English 1202 with the topic, "Love Stories, Love Songs"; and upper-level courses in British fiction. |
 | |
| Deborah Blenkhorn B.A., B.Ed., M.A. (Qu.) Deborah.Blenkhorn@kwantlen.ca I have been teaching English literature and composition at Kwantlen (mostly on Richmond Campus) since 1997; I've also taught at the University of British Columbia. My undergraduate and graduate degrees (BA Honours/BEd and MA) are from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario (where I'm from), and I did some graduate work at UBC as well. I enjoy writing short stories and have even published a couple of them, but my main focus is helping others to communicate effectively in writing. I live on Bowen Island (near Vancouver) and enjoy telecommuting to work! |
 | |
| Betty Anne Buirs B.A., M.A. (B.C.), Ph.D. (Sask.) BettyAnne.Buirs@kwantlen.ca It's not surprising that I ended up teaching university because my obsession with school started early; there I was, every Friday afternoon, the last kid in the class—begging my kindergarten teacher for a few extra worksheets to tide me over for the weekend. By the time I hit grade eight, I fervently believed that if I could just study English all day long, life would be perfect. When I realized that it was actually possible to do this, I went on to spend thirteen years wallowing in my university education, squeezing every last course out of the curriculum. It's been almost thirty years now since I took my first college course, and not only have I somehow managed to turn my kindergarten obsession into an actual job, but I have the security of knowing that I have access to a lifetime supply of handouts. |
 | |
| Sue Ann Cairns B.A. (Mich.), M.A. (Idaho), Ph.D. (B.C.) SueAnn.Cairns@kwantlen.ca Sue Ann moved from Michigan to British Columbia, where she completed her Ph.D. in English at UBC. She has taught at a number of universities in both the U.S. and Canada, including UBC and SFU, as well as a one-year stint in Shanghai, China. At Kwantlen she has taught English courses ranging from the preparatory writing course to the fourth year capstone course since 1990. Her current interests are focused on English Education, Children's Literature, and Rhetoric. |
 | |
| Gregory Chan B.A., M.A. (B.C.) Greg.Chan@kwantlen.ca I am a fourth-generation Vancouverite. After completing degrees in English literature at UBC, I taught undergraduate courses there for several years. I also have worked as a faculty associate and editor at the the Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth and as an instructor at the Writing Centre. Since coming to Kwantlen in 1995, I have enjoyed teaching composition and literature (particularly Canadian) courses both face-to-face and online. Active in the Asian Canadian arts community, I sit on the board of Company Erasga Dance Society and lead an annual Jade Peony walking tour of Chinatown, in collaboration with historian John Atkin and the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. |
 | |
| Mark Cochrane B.F.A. (B.C.), M.A. (Concordia), LL.B. (B.C.) Mark.Cochrane@kwantlen.ca Mark Cochrane is the author of two collections of poetry, Boy Am I (Wolsak & Wynn, 1995) and Change Room (Talonbooks, 2000). His book reviews, review articles, or interviews with contemporary writers have appeared in Open Letter, Canadian Literature, Essays on Canadian Writing, the Capilano Review, the Vancouver Sun, and the Globe and Mail. His teaching and research interests include Canadian poetry, gender studies, critical theory, popular song, and the law and literature movement. |
 | |
| Bernett Cody B.A., M.A. (Sask.) Bernett.Cody@kwantlen.ca I have been teaching English literature and composition at Kwantlen Polytechnic University since 1989. Currently, most of my teaching is online. |
 | |
|
Gillian Dearle B.A. (B.C.), M.A. (Qu.) |
 | |
| Kegan Doyle B.A. (Vic. BC), M.A., Ph.D. (Tor.) Kegan.Doyle@kwantlen.ca Kegan was born in New Zealand and raised on Vancouver Island. He studied at the University of Victoria and the University of Toronto and has lived in Australia and France. His scholarly interests include the literature of the counter-culture of the sixties and the representation of sports in film and literature. |
 | |
| Elizabeth Gooding B.A., M.A. (Alta.) Elizabeth.Gooding@kwantlen.ca Elizabeth grew up in Edmonton and earned a B.A. (Honours) and an M.A. from the University of Alberta. Before starting at Kwantlen in 1997, she taught in the English Department and the Writing Resource Centre at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax; she has also taught ESL, study skills, and business English. Elizabeth's teaching interests include composition, nature writing, and American literature. She has been a regular faculty member at Kwantlen since 2003. |
 | |
| Duncan Greenlaw B.A. , M.A. (Qu.), Ph.D (Alta.) Duncan.Greenlaw@kwantlen.ca My teaching at Kwantlen since 2009, and previously at other Canadian universities, has focused mainly on 20th -century and contemporary literature and composition. My research has concentrated on Irish writing (Beckett, Joyce, Yeats, and Muldoon), theories of memory and history, discourses of the Northern Irish peace process and cinematic representation of national trauma. Publications include Borders of Mourning: Remembrance, Commitment and the Contexts of Irish Identity and articles in Mosaic, Studies in the Literary Imagination, and the Canadian Journal of Film Studies. |
 | |
| Mary Griffin B.A., M.A. (B.C.) Mary.Griffin@kwantlen.ca With a background in the mediaeal and renaissance periods, Mary is still engaged by Fairy Tales, Dream Visions, Romances, and Moralities in whatever genre they occur and in literature that examines the battle for the souls of both individuals and societies. Her current particular interests include contemporary British fiction and discussions defining beauty and its moral function. She teaches composition and literature. |
 | |
| Sheila Hancock B.A. (B.C.), M.A. (S.Fraser) Sheila.Hancock@kwantlen.ca This fall marks Sheila's sixteenth year at Kwantlen, and she continues to enjoy both teaching and administrative work. Though Sheila began chairing the Creative Writing Department in May, 2007, she continues to teach in the English Department with a particular focus on composition, drama, and Romantic and Victorian Literature. At the moment, Sheila's research interests focus on pedagogy—particularly team-teaching and technology-based learning. |
 | |
| Jacqueline Heslop B.A. (Sask.), Ph.D. (Vic. BC) Jackie.Heslop@kwantlen.ca While earning a Ph.D. in English at the University of Victoria, Jackie published and presented papers on postmodernism, film theory, pedagogy, and academic freedom, as well as on modern literature. She maintains an interest in social and cultural issues, which often come up for discussion in her classes as she believes that critical thinking is the most valuable skill students can learn. |
 | |
| Karen Inglis B.A., M.A., P.D.P, M.Lib.S. (S.Fraser) Karen.Inglis@kwantlen.ca After graduating from Semiahmoo High School, Karen enrolled in Douglas College, part of which later became Kwantlen College. After completing a Master's Degree in English and the PDP Program at Simon Fraser University, she taught at Okanagan College (now UBCO), and Malaspina College (now VIU) before finally finding her way back to what feels like home again at Kwantlen Polytechnic University where she has been teaching 1989. In 1997, she completed a Master's Degree in Liberal Studies at SFU. Karen loves all things Romantic and especially likes to teach new texts so that she can learn from the students. In her spare time, she likes to read, travel, ski, and camp. |
 | |
| Neil Patrick Kennedy B.A. (S.Fraser), M.A. (B.C.) Neil.Kennedy@kwantlen.ca In the fall of 1973, I developed a desperate crush on my English 9 teacher, halfway through the unit on Macbeth that she was teaching. My passions for Renaissance literature and English composition have raged unabated ever since. Indeed, they have only deepened through time: the former through graduate studies in Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne and Milton; the latter through teaching a range of composition courses at UBC, the University of Toronto, a private school and here at our beloved Kwantlen Polytechnic University. |
 | |
| Romy Kozak B.A. (B.C.), M.A. (Sus.), Ph.D. (Stan.) Romy.Kozak@kwantlen.ca I've been teaching at Kwantlen for about 4 years, with my areas of specialty being critical theory, cultural studies, and modern American literature. I'm originally from Vancouver, and attended UBC as an undergrad. I left for a while and ended up with degrees in Critical Theory from the University of Sussex in England and Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University in the U.S. I moved back here in 2004 to be with family. Now I live in Yaletown, and I'm happy to be home. |
 | |
| Moira Langley B.A. (B.C.), M.A. (Tor.) Moira.Langley@kwantlen.ca Moira grew up in Vancouver and did her B.A. at UBC, then moved to Toronto to do her M.A. in English Literature at the University of Toronto. Areas of interest included Shakespeare, the Renaissance, comedy, and Anglo-Irish literature. She began teaching at the former Cariboo College (now Thompson Rivers University), then moved to Nanaimo and taught at the former Malaspina College (now Vancouver Island University). She came to Kwantlen in 1992, where she has been teaching university transfer writing and literature courses ever since. She is currently working part-time on a Graduate Diploma in Shakespeare and Theatre at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. |
 | |
| Kim Larsen B.A. (Alta.), M.A. (McGill) Kim.Larsen@kwantlen.ca Kim holds an MA in English literature from McGill University and is currently working on her PhD through the University of Alberta. For the past 5 years, she has been a contract instructor at both SFU and Kwantlen; prior to that, she worked as a research assistant for Christine Wiesenthal's The Half-Lives of Pat Lowther, which was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction in 2006. She has taught a wide range of first-year and upper-level undergraduate courses, including composition, contemporary Canadian women's fiction, Romantic and Victorian literature, Pre-Raphaelite poetry, North American coming-of-age fiction, and 19th-century American Gothic literature. Her current research interests include Victorian literature and visual art, especially the work of the Pre-Raphaelites; women's literature; the Gothic; and theories of haunting. |
 | |
| Cecilia Martell B.A. (B.C.), M.A. (Calg.) Cecilia.Martell@kwantlen.ca Cecilia Martell has taught English Literature, Composition, and Cultural Studies at universities and colleges in Calgary, Vancouver, and Freiburg, Germany. She enjoys the vibrant student community at Kwantlen, where she has taught undergraduate courses at every level of study, including those for credit towards the BA Minor and now Major in English. Among her teaching and research interests are First Nations Literatures, Canadian Literature, Holocaust Studies, and World Literatures in English, and her work includes advocacy for culturally diverse course content in the Humanities. Cecilia lives in Vancouver with her family. |
 | |
| Ranjini Mendis B.A. (Ceylon), M.Ed. (Mass.), M.A. (Calg.) Ranjini.Mendis@kwantlen.ca Ranjini Mendis has taught in the English Department at Kwantlen University College since 1992 and previously at the University of Calgary and Mount Royal College in Alberta where her students nominated her for a Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award. Originally from Sri Lanka, she has served as the President of the Canadian Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies and as the International Chair of the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (ACLALS). One of her main interests has been to co-found and manage the open-access scholarly journal, Postcolonial Text, of which she is now Associate Editor. She enjoys playing piano for people to gather round and sing. |
 | |
| Paul Ohler B.A. (Calg.), M.A., Ph.D. (B.C.) Paul.Ohler@kwantlen.ca Paul Ohler received his doctorate in English from the University of British Columbia in 2003. He is the author of Edith Wharton's "Evolutionary Conception": Darwinian Allegory in her Major Novels (Routledge, 2006). His current research investigates representations of mass print culture in the fiction and non-fiction of Wharton and Henry James. He teaches first-year university writing, American and British literature, Modernism, Critical Theory, and Popular Writing. |
 | |
| Paul Ostrowski M.A. (B.C.), M.A. (Lodz) Paul.Ostrowski@kwantlen.ca Born and educated in Poland, I fell in love with the English language when listening to the Beatles' tunes when I was 14 years old. Fast forward many years, and I find myself teaching English at Kwantlen in Canada. To get where I am now, I completed two M.A. degrees -- one in English and the other in Comparative Literature. Although I initially specialized in the Modern English Novel, I would describe myself as a generalist now. What fascinates me about literature is its ability to generate ideas, create characters, and produce lasting aesthetic pleasure. When not marking students' essays, I read, swim, or take long walks around Stanley Park. And I still listen to the Beatles. |
 | |
| James Panabaker B.A., M.A. (Car.), Ph.D. (Qu.) James.Panabaker@kwantlen.ca James attended Carleton University for his B.A. and M.A. His Master's thesis was a study of the work of the American poet James Merrill. James was awarded a Doctorate at Queen's University, where he continued his exploration of American Literature -- specifically the Literature of the South. He is the author of Shelby Foote and The the Art of History : Two Gates to the City. Currently, he is working on a book about the Kentucky writer, Wendell Berry. |
 | |
| Bruce Raskob B.A., M.A. (Sask.) Bruce.Raskob@kwantlen.ca Bruce attended the University of Notre Dame and the University of Saskatchewan and has taught in Canada and abroad. He has been a member of the English Department since 1991. |
 | |
| Fred Ribkoff B.A. (W.Ont.), M.A., Ph.D. (S.Fraser) Fred.Ribkoff@kwantlen.ca Fred has a Ph.D. and M.A. in English from Simon Fraser University and a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Western Ontario. His Ph.D. dissertation is an interdisciplinary study of tragic drama from ancient Greece to modern America. Fred is interested in the literary representation of shame, trauma, and mourning, as well as the ways in which "rational," "civilized" paradigms of thought lead to inhumane behaviour. He teaches upper-level courses on Shakespeare, Life-Writing, and Modern and Contemporary Drama. He is currently researching and writing on works by Tennessee Williams, Primo Levi, D. H. Lawrence, and Peter Balakian. |
 | |
| Chris Rideout B.A., M.A. (Alta.) Chris.Rideout@kwantlen.ca There's no secret to teaching well. It is simply the result of loving the material, wanting to share it and taking real pleasure in doing so. It has been my happy lot to have been blessed with almost 40 years of working with enthusiastic young people and encouraging them to love literature as I do. |
 | |
| John Rupert B.A., M.A. (W.Ont.), Ph.D. (Ott.) John.Rupert@kwantlen.ca I began my teaching career at the University of Western Ontario, where I received my B.A. and M.A., and at the University of Ottawa, where I received my Ph.D. I drove across Canada during the hot summer of 1998 to take a position as a sessional instructor at the UBC, where I taught until 2003. To that point, the focus of my teaching was poetry, Canadian Literature, and First Nations writing in Canada. When I began teaching at Kwantlen, I rekindled my teenage interest in the supernational and the occult. Since that time, my passion has been to apply my researc in these areas to my teaching. |
 | |
| Maureen Shaw B.A. (B.C.), M.A. (McM.) Maureen.Shaw@kwantlen.ca Maureen Shaw has been a member of the English Department since 1977, having taught a wide range of courses on all of Kwantlen's campuses, past and present. She is intrigued by the learning process that students undergo and refines her teaching practices to meet their needs. She appreciates all that her students have taught her throughout the years. She has written extensively and made presentations on topics related to labour relations and post-secondary education. |
 | |
| Wendy Smith B.A., M.A. (S. Fraser) Wendy.Smith@kwantlen.ca A former Kwantlen student, Wendy completed her BA (1993) and MA (1997) at Simon Fraser University. Her areas of interest include discourse analysis, Canadian Literature, and literature of social protest. Before joining the English Department at Kwantlen, she taught at various post-secondary institutions, including Douglas College and BCIT. She currently teaches English 1099 and first-year composition and literature courses. |
 | |
| Julie Sutherland B.A. , M.A., Ph.D. (Durham) Julie.Sutherland@kwantlen.ca Julie Sutherland is a contract instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. She has published on several Early Modern plays, as well as contributed in the area of the Renaissance to a number of reference books and encyclopedias. When she is not teaching at Kwantlen she can be found at Pacific Theatre, a professional company in Vancouver, where she works as Director of Public Relations. Current research projects are in Shakespeare and Film, and Performance Theory and Thomas Heywood. |
 | |
| Brian Swail B.A. (Trent), M.A. (Manit.), Ph.D. (Manit.) Brian.Swail@kwantlen.ca When I was a child, I was mesmerized by science fiction, and not the "respectable" kind; I devoured tales of bug-eyed monsters, space ships and perilous adventures voraciously and indiscriminately. My tastes are somewhat different now, but what most appeals to me about language, literature and teaching is experiencing and sharing the powerful adventure of entering an unknown world, and of bringing to life in words the worlds each of us has within us. |
 | |
| Paul Tyndall B.A. (Dal.), M.A. (Tor.), Ph.D. (Dal.) Paul.Tyndall@kwantlen.ca Paul Tyndall was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia and completed his BA at Dalhousie University and his MA at the University of Toronto, before returning to Dalhousie to complete his PhD in Modern American Literature, with a dissertation on the poetry of Yvor Winters. He has lived on the West Coast since 1990 and has taught at the University of British Columbia and Okanagan University College before joining the Department of English at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. His teaching and research interests include 20th century American Literature, film studies, and depictions of mental illness in modern literature and film. He is currently Chair of the Department of English and is in the process of developing a critical casebook on the novel, Housekeeping by the contemporary novelist, Mary Lynn Robinson. |
 | |
| Al Valleau B.Com., M.A. (B.C.) Al.Valleau@kwantlen.ca Al Valleau has taught in the post-secondary system In BC, Alberta, and Quebec, and has been involved in Canadian Studies both as an instructor and a programme chair. He is the co-author of two books on writing, A Canadian Writer's Guide and A Canadian Writer's Pocket Guide, both currently going into their 4th edition, and one of the co-editors of The Nelson Introduction to Literature, now in its second edition. He is presently working on a workbook to accompany A Canadian Writer's Guide and is the Associate Editor of Kwantlen's online journal Transformative Dialogues. |
 | |
| Diane Watson B.A. (Brock), M.A., Ph.D. (McM.) Diane.Watson@kwantlen.ca Areas of specialization: Modern British Literature; Modern and Contemporary Fiction; Transdisciplinary Prose (history, travel, cultural studies and art theory, fiction/non-fiction prose). |
 | |
| Jennifer Williams B.A. (Trent), M.A. (Qu.) Jennifer.Williams@kwantlen.ca I was raised in Montreal and travelled all points of the compass before deciding to settle in Vancouver. What I enjoy most about teaching at Kwantlen is the small class size. Everyone who wants to participate in class discussion has the opportunity. This was what my undergraduate university was like when I was a student and now that I am the one standing at the front of the room, this is how we can keep it lively and fresh. My areas of interest in graduate school were post-colonial literature, Virginia Woolf, the eighteenth century's 'mob of scribbling women' (or so Nathaniel Hawthorne described them in a fit of pique), critical theory, and feminist theory in particular. My current focus is on Canadian and British fiction and on the scholarship of teaching and learning. |
 |
Faculty Emeriti
Marlet Ashley
Robert Attridge
Pam Bookham
Jane Shen
