If you’re curious or knowledgeable about ecopoetics or ecocriticism, Canadian poetry, and related subjects such as nature poetry, Romanticism, or transcendentalism, I’d be especially interested in working with you, because these topics relate to my current work.

If your topics relate to genre, especially the Western, I’d be happy to return to the subject matter of my second book, The American Western in Canadian Literature (U. Calgary, 2022).

I came to genre studies from film studies related to my first book, The Metaphor of Celebrity: Canadian Poetry and the Public, 1955-80 (U. Toronto, 2013). I return occasionally to these subjects, so don’t hesitate to reach out.

Here are some ideas for research that I would be happy to discuss with prospective applicants and develop with students (among many ideas from you that I would be equally happy to discuss):

• contemporary Canadian poetry and ecopoetics
• distant reading and stylometrics for poetry
• e.g., stylistic analysis of a period or career
• industrial technologies in Canadian Westerns
• e.g., the gold rush, mining, oil drilling
• Canadian literature "on the waves," e.g., radio, TV, music
• e.g., writers with careers as both poets and singers
• public intellectuals in, of, and toward Canada
• e.g., political orientation of PIs in literature

Although education at the Master’s and doctoral levels is a challenge without guaranteed outcomes, it is often personally and intellectually formational, and not coincidentally enjoyable. Prospective students might begin by raising questions about the pros and cons with me, and, through correspondence or conversation about what fascinates us, start to imagine or refine a beneficial project. I am also open to discussions about funding.