Graduate Students

  Olivia Abram (PhD Program student)

Olivia (Liv) Abram (PhD Program)

Olivia (Liv) Abram (she/her) is a settler doctoral candidate whose research focuses on practices and pedagogies of ethical reading, viewing, and listening practices in relation to engagement with Indigenous literatures. Through her work, she explores the decolonial potential of slow, humble, and self-reflective settler engagement with Indigenous literature. She examines written and oral narratives, but also multimodal and experiential story, such as those in graphic narrative, song, and place-based teachings. Her dissertation is titled Read, View, Listen: Ethical Settler Engagements with Indigenous Literary Expression in Academic, Educational, and Public Contexts. Recent Publications:

Contact Olivia 

Elyn Achtymichuk-Hardy (PhD Program)

Elyn is interested in culture and gender in both literature and film. Her current research is on the legacy of Cold War anxiety on the James Bond franchise, with respect to the way the "Bond formula" has evolved—or not—in terms of fear, sexuality, and racial representations. Her theoretical apparatus makes use of affect in relation to a kind of catharsis of anxiety which is achieved through the expression and production of societal fears. She has also delivered papers on the economics of Lord of the Rings and gender in Harry Potter. If she had spare time, she might coach high school debaters, collect vinyl records, or perhaps watch Lethal Weapon repeatedly (read: obsessively).

Contact Elyn 

  daniel-bliss

Daniel Bliss (MFA in Writing Program)

Daniel is an MFA writing student who obtained a bachelor's in English, focusing on writing at Temple University in Philadelphia. He primarily focuses on poetry and has been published in magazines around the world, including Berlin and London-based publications. Daniel is a world traveler moving over 30 times, and his writing is heavily influenced by many of the places he's lived. Currently, he is working on a poetry thesis focused on relationship to place. 

 

  Amanda Burrows (PhD Program)

Amanda Burrows (PhD Program)

Amanda is interested in medieval literature with a focus on Middle English romances. She received her B.A. from the University of Toronto and her M.A. from Wilfrid Laurier University.

Mabiana Camargo (PhD Program)

Mabiana Camargo is interested in Canadian Speculative Fiction, Women’s literature, and Feminism. Her research focuses on ideas of space and gender in Margaret Atwood’s speculative writing. She works as a Research Assistant for Professor Dr. Wendy Roy, who is also her supervisor. Mabiana comes from Brazil. 

  Rachael Carline (MFA in Writing Program )

Rachael Carline (MFA in Writing Program)

Rachael (she/her) is an MFA in writing student. She obtained a BA in Sociology with a double minor in English and Political Studies from the University of Saskatchewan. She is interested in writing her thesis in poetry, with a focus on the effects of technology in the home and the post-modern family unit.

 

a-cook.png

Alyson Cook (PhD Program)

Alyson is a PhD student who holds both an MA and a BA (Hons.) in English from the University of Saskatchewan. Her research interests include 20th-century British and Commonwealth Literature written by women in the interwar period, with a special focus on works by Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, and Mary Butts. Supervised under Dr. Ann Martin, Alyson’s current research is exploring the ways in which modernity and materiality intersect in these authors’ short stories and in how these narratives critique interpersonal relationships in interwar British society, namely the interactions between authoritative male figures and women as they often occur within and in relation to domestic space.

Contact Alyson 

  Delaynie Crosbie (MFA in Writing Program)

Delaynie Crosby (MFA in Writing Program)

Delaynie is an MFA in Writing student who received her BA in English from the University of Saskatchewan. While she loves to experiment with different forms and genres, Delaynie mostly writes poetry and short fiction. Her work tends to focus on mental health, which includes mental illness, trauma, identity, and other important issues. Her current projects are an adult fiction novel about loss and mourning, which will act as her thesis project, and a poetry book about the perceptions of mental health in rural Saskatchewan. 

Mark Doerksen (PhD Program)

Mark is an instructor and Ph.D. candidate in the department, having received his M.A. in Medieval Studies from the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto. His area of study includes Anglo-Saxon eschatological texts and the theological implications of philology in Anglo-Saxon religious poetry. He is currently working on his dissertation under Saint Thomas More College's Dr. Michael Cichon on the philological relationship between Anglo-Saxon eschatological poetry and the Germanic mythic tradition.

Contact Mark 

Shane Farris (PhD Program)

Shane is a Ph.D. candidate who studies medieval literature and medievalism past and present. His current research focuses on blending narratology with the digital humanities to study the narratives of the Middle Ages, specifically Middle English outlaw tales. His other research interests include literary theory, codicology and paleography, translation, and semiotics. His dissertation is currently supervised by Dr. Peter Robinson.

Contact Shane  

  Laura Fraser (MA Program)

Laura Fraser (MA Program)

Laura is a Master's student whose research interests lie in Disability Studies and the overall body of a person. Laura completed an undergraduate degree in Liberal studies with a concentration in English and Political Studies at St. Mary’s University, Calgary. Laura’s main literary focus is The Little Mermaid and the retellings of the tale, and hopes to combine such with Disability Studies to explore the body as a medium for humanization in society. 

gerbrandt.jpg

Dara Gerbrandt (MA Program)

Dara focuses on drama and literature from the early modern period. She tends to keep to a historical approach having had a double minor in CMRS and History. She received her BA here at the U of S.

  Carolyn Gibbins (MFA in Writing Program)

Carolyn Gibbins (MFA in Writing Program)

Carolyn is an MFA in Writing student who is working on a fantasy novel. She received her BA in English from the University of Alberta and is currently researching myths, cultural anthropology, portal fantasy, and extinct species. Interests that may appear in her writing include Sherlock Holmes, Victorian sanitation practices, weird biology, and 80s fantasy movies of questionable quality.

  gladman.jpg

Challen Gladman (MA Program)

Challen (they/them) is an MA thesis student, an avid artist of many mediums, and an enthusiastic petter of cats. Having originally graduated with their BA (Honours English, French minor) from Vancouver Island University, BC, they now find themselves transplanted from Douglas to Treaty 6 Territory and the Homeland of the Métis to live and learn at USask -- and, as a settler scholar, they are grateful every day for the opportunity! They have particular interests in fiction, myth, story-telling, various literatures from the margins (notably those that speak to their own experiences as queer, non-binary, and neurodivergent), ethics, accessibility, and the overall pursuit of human happiness. Their present thesis work explores themes of landedness and place-thought as imbued into the alternative American settler-colonial narrative of Battlestar Galactica (2003-2009), beyond which they hope to expand into Ph.D. studies next year and, eventually, become an English professor. They're curious to see what life brings next... but as long as it comes with tea and a good book, they have no doubt it will all be worth it in the end!

Stephen Hardy (PhD Program)

Stephen studies relationships between literature and music, and focuses on modern fiction. In 2017 he presented a talk on American author Richard Powers at the International Word and Music Studies conference in Stockholm, Sweden. He has taught ENG 114.3 Reading Culture: Literature and Music. His supervisors are Drs. Lindsey Banco and Ray Stephanson.

n-jacobson.png

Nicole Jacobson (PhD Program)

Nicole is a PhD student. She completed her BA in English and German (double major) at the University of Regina and her MA in Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies at Carleton University. She is interested in middlebrow modernism, especially detective and suspense fiction, and the linguistic and rhetorical construction of genre fiction more broadly. Her dissertation, which examines the intersection of genre and gender throughout Mary Stewart’s canon, is supervised by Dr. Ann Martin.

Nicole is also a research facilitator with the Department of Academic Family Medicine. She supports the development, revision, and administration of its research curriculum, assists residents in developing their clinical research skills, and contributes to the Department's qualitative and patient-oriented research efforts.

Vijay Kachru (PhD Program)

Vijay is in doctoral studies in English literature at the University of Saskatchewan. Her research area is comparative postcolonial literature from the Commonwealth countries, emphasizing women's writings.

Andrej Kiš (PhD Program)

Andrej studied for his undergraduate degree in English at Andrews University where he also obtained MA degrees in Education and English. 

After teaching abroad and working in educational administration, Andrej started his PhD at the University of Saskatchewan in 2018.  His doctoral thesis analyzes selected works by Flora Thompson and James Herriot to determine how their portrayals of the pastoral landscapes they inhabit reveal their sense of rootedness in the land.  He is supervised by Dr. Ella Ophir. 

Contact Andrej 

  Ethan Klein (MFA in Writing Program)

Ethan Klein (MFA in Writing Program)

Ethan Klein (he/they) is a settler MFA candidate focusing on nonrealistic fiction and creative nonfiction. He is interested in unnamed narrators, nameless characters, and unspecified places as a means of both enhancing the otherworldly qualities of stories and interrogating concepts of identity within them. 

Ethan grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Through the years he's cobbled together full and part-time work in various fields (landscaping, warehouse and restaurant work, social work, and teaching) but writing, having time for family, and long-distance running have remained his priorities throughout. He lives in Saskatoon with his wife, dog, and two cats.

Contact Ethan 

  sara-krahn

Sara Krahn (MFA in Writing Program)

Sara Krahn is a student in the MFA in Writing program at the University of Saskatchewan. She has an undergraduate degree in music and an MA in Arts Leadership from Queen’s University. She is currently working on a novel under the mentorship of Canadian author Lisa Moore. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in the Conrad Grebel Review, Stone Poetry Quarterly,Quagmire Literary Magazine, The Fieldstone Review, and elsewhere.  

  Laurel Madumere (MA program)

Laurel Madumere (MA program)

Laurel is interested in contemporary African-American literature, Diaspora studies, and Postcolonial discourses. 

  kckenzie.jpg

Kai McKenzie (PhD Program)

Kai is working to understand possibilities for healing and resilience among Two-Spirit and transgender children and youth through a Ph.D. dissertation project on representations of hunger and fulfillment in coming-of-age novels in Canada by Joshua Whitehead, Kai Cheng Thom, and Vivek Shraya. Their work explores processes for shifting oppressive transphobic conditions toward conditions of survival. They are also an English teacher at Lester B. Pearson World College of the Pacific near Victoria, British Columbia, teaching students from all over the world and using experiential and art-based education techniques to create learning environments that are holistic and meaningful.

  Ava Mclean (MA Program)

Ava Mclean (MA Program)

Ava is an M.A. thesis student who joined the program after completing her B.A. (Honours) in English at the U of S in 2023. She is particularly interested in 20th-century British literature, and her thesis focuses on the seaside, memory, and narration in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day and Graham Swift’s Last Orders. She received a Canada Graduate Scholarship through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in 2023.

Aside from the historical and cultural studies approaches that she hopes to explore in her thesis, Ava is also interested in mid-century drama, group dynamics in literature, and literary adaptations. As an undergraduate student, she undertook a project interviewing professor emeritus and actor-director Henry Woolf about the life and work of his close friend Harold Pinter. She hopes to use this experience to gain interview skills to explore collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches in the future.

monsour.jpg

Tricia Monsour (PhD Program)

Tricia’s research focuses on British Gothic literature by women writers from the nineteenth century. Supervised by Dr. Lisa Vargo, she is currently creating a scholarly edition of Jane Harvey’s Gothic historical novel The Castle of Tynemouth.  She completed her M.A. at the University of Saskatchewan and her B.A. Honours at King's University College at the University of Western Ontario. 

 

Ian Moy (PhD Program)

Ian is a Ph.D. candidate whose research focuses on families and cultural conflict in Canadian literature. He is supervised by Dr. Wendy Roy

  Wren Mynhardt (MFA in Writing Program)

Wren Mynhardt (MFA in Writing Program)

Wren Mynhardt (they/them) is an MFA thesis student in the Creative Writing program. Their research interest is on positive media representation of diverse gender, sexuality, race, and ability without tokenism in speculative fiction. Their thesis has a particular focus on transgender representation in high fantasy. The goal of their thesis is to create a safe space for transgender people to find themselves represented in a popular genre, as well as create a transgender character to whom a wider audience can relate in an effort to facilitate understanding and acceptance in cisgender readers. They previously completed a B.A Honours with High Honours double majoring in English and History at the University of Saskatchewan. When not working, studying, or writing, they can be found re-reading Kristin Cashore’s Graceling series, or swing dancing with their partner.

Banjo Olaleye (PhD Program)

Banjo's area of study is Ignatius Sancho and 18th-century literature. He is supervised by Dr. Allison Muri. 

Contact Banjo 

  Erin Petrow (MFA in Writing Program)

Erin Petrow (MFA in Writing Program)

Erin joined the MFA in Writing program with an undergraduate honours degree in journalism from Toronto Metro University (formerly Ryerson University) and five years of reporting and editing experience at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix and Regina Leader-Post. Unable to escape her past as a journalist, Erin enjoys writing about politics, and the human experience under capitalism. These themes also centre her thesis project, a speculative fiction novel focusing on bodily autonomy, eugenics, and mental health in a postcapitalist world. 

  

Jasmine Redford (PhD Program)

Jasmine is a Ph.D. student and teacher's assistant at the University of Saskatchewan whose research interests include Canadian literature, comics and visual culture scholarship, and the intersection of the two: Canadian comics scholarship.  Under the supervision of Dr. Wendy Roy, she defended her thesis entitled "Chasing Captain Canada: National Identity Challenged Through Superheroes in Canadian Comic Books."  She has obtained her B.F.A. with a major in visual art from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver and her B.A. (English Honours) and M.A. from USask.  In addition, Jasmine, who signs her work as Minjaz, is an illustrator and has recently finished over one hundred and twenty-nine pages of hand-painted artwork for the graphic novel Siegfried: Dragon Slayer (2022)--a four-year project that was undertaken alongside her academic work at USask.

Contact Jasmine 

d-simonot.jpg

Gwen Rose (PhD Program)

Gwen Rose (she/they) is a PhD candidate at the University of Saskatchewan. Gwen's research interests include modernism and the lived experience of marginalized peoples. Her dissertation combines these interests, examining the representation of transgender characters within literary modernism. Gwen is supervised by Dr. Ella Ophir. 

Joel Salt (PhD Program)

Joel is ABD, specializing in 17th-century Literature. He is supervised by Dr. Brent Nelson. His dissertation will examine liminality in the prose and poetry of John Donne.

Contact Joel 

  Cara Schwartz (PhD Program)

Cara Schwartz (PhD Program)

Cara Schwartz (she/her) is a settler doctoral student whose research is situated at the intersection of Black and Indigenous literary studies. Her dissertation investigates the narrative connections between Black and Indigenous literatures as well as their shared ability to create spaces that move beyond the divisiveness imposed by colonialism to envision futures independent of it. She considers how chaos can produce relationality by navigating the direction of stories within these two diverse literary fields. Cara is supervised by Dr. Jenna Hunnef.

Megan Solberg (PhD Program)

Megan is a Ph.D. student who holds a B.A. (Honours) in English from the University of Saskatchewan and an M.A. in Literature from the University of Westminster (U.K.). Supervised by Dr. Ann Martin, her research examines the intersection of creative practice, marginalization, and suffering in the works of Katherine Mansfield, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Jean Rhys. 

Contact Megan 

  alexander-torvi.jpg

Alexander Torvi (MA Program)

Alexander Torvi is an MA Thesis student who had previously completed a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree in English and a minor in Computer Science at the University of Saskatchewan. His area of interest lies in a synthesis of New Media, the Digital Humanities, and Media Studies. Currently, he is writing his thesis on the potential online role-playing games have for creating connections during the COVID-19 pandemic through the synthesis of gameplay and digital storytelling.

torvi.jpg

Heather Torvi (MA Program)

Heather is a Master’s thesis student who is working on 18th-century literature. She has served as a Research Assistant for the Grub Street Project under her supervisor Dr. Allison Muri. When she is not working she enjoys spending time working on her memory books.

g-umezurike.png

Gideon Umezurike (PhD Program)

Gideon Uzoma Umezurike is an English PhD student and Dean’s scholar at the University of Saskatchewan. He has a BA in English and Literary Studies (2015) and an MA in Comparative Studies in Literature (2019), both from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. His research straddles postcolonial literature, black Atlantic and diaspora studies, transcultural studies, critical disability studies, existential-phenomenological criticism, the phenomenology of the environment, and the works of Martin Heidegger.

Adam A. Vazquez (PhD Program)

Before Adam's Canadian adventure, he received his undergraduate and M.A. degrees at the UNAM in Mexico. He is interested in medieval literature and Digital Humanities.

Rodrigo Pablo Yanez (PhD Program)

Rodrigo’s research interests include Restoration/Eighteenth Century Literature, Spatial Theory and Literary Cartography/Geography, Digital Humanities, and Game Studies. He has published papers on Ivanhoe and its remediations, and on the function of diegetic music in the video game Bioshock. Rodrigo’s PhD dissertation uses digital mapping to examine how a self is constructed in relation to space in James Boswell’s London Journal 1762-63.

  Haonan Yang (PhD Program)

Haonan Yang (PhD Program)

I am a PhD student majoring in English Literature. I did my master's degree in English Literature at the University of Nottingham, UK. I have two research topics: 1. The Influence of Gothic and Romantic Literature upon Modern Serial Killer Media; 2. The Meaning of Machines in Virginia Woolf and D. H. Lawrence's Interwar Fictions. I am also a teaching assistant in the Department of English.

Contact Haonan

   hamid-photo.jpg

Hamid Yari (PhD Program)

Hamid is a Ph.D. student from Iran. Currently, he focuses on Iranian Film Studies in the 21st century, as well as Iranian Diasporic Literature, and he is supervised by Prof. Jerry White. He is a graduate teaching assistant at the U of S. Hamid had his B.A. and M.A. from Iran, where he was a part-time lecturer at the University of Kurdistan. Before joining the Dept. of English, he taught "General English" (Reading and Composition) to undergraduate students for two years. He has published an article, translated a book (unpublished), and submitted two manuscripts to peer-review journals. 

Contact Hamid