Research and publications

The Department of English at the University of Ottawa has grown in strength over the past two decades to become one of the best English departments in Canada. Part of an historic institution, the oldest bilingual university in Canada, we are also a fresh and vibrant department at the forefront of English studies. Our faculty are internationally renowned, consistently producing innovative, award-winning research in a wide range of fields. We work in historical fields spanning from the medieval period to the 20th century, in geographical contexts that include British, Canadian, and American literatures, and across a broad spectrum of methodologies, from the history of the book to the history of science and technology, material cultures to manuscript cultures, gender and sexuality studies to environmental studies. Our faculty members regularly win prestigious grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, publish books that make real impacts within and beyond our fields, and publish articles in top journals across English literary studies. 

Faculty Research Areas of Interest

We are actively committed to the important intersection of research and teaching, and believe that the most dynamic classroom environments develop out of professors’ advanced, original research. We supervise PhD and MA thesis students across the historical spectrum, and are particularly well equipped to support graduate research in the following areas:

1. History of the Book / Print Culture / Manuscript Studies
   • From the medieval period to the 20th century
2. Literature and Science
   • Including biomedical science, vitalism, environmental studies, the history of science & technology
3. Literature and the Material Environment
   • Including material cultures, architecture, pastoral / georgic, ecocriticism, popular cultures
4. Literatures of the Long 19^th Century
   • Including British, Canadian, and American literatures, from the mid-18^th to the mid-20^th century
   • Spanning such topics as the history of the novel; popular cultures; mediatization and the history of information; political writing; literature and history writing; gender, sexuality and identity; nationalism, religion and secularism
5. Canadian Literature
   • From the late 18^th to the late 20^th century

Faculty in Each Field

The asterisk (*) denotes a member of the Office of the Vice-Provost, Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. For information on faculty publications and current research projects, see the faculty profiles.