I am a cis settler living on the Haldimand Tract in Kitchener, Ontario, with my partner, an elderly, opinionated cat, and a young former-feral cat who still isn’t sure we won’t eat her when she lets her guard down. I use she/her pronouns. I aspire to read more science fiction than I currently have.

What I’m doing now

Currently, I am one half of the team behind Solarpunk Presents podcast, where I interview guests working to make a better, more sustainable world, and sometimes air my own opinions about solarpunk-related things.

I’m a research associate and project manager in charge of digital rights management and outreach with the SpokenWeb project at the University of Alberta. I have presented at several conferences, as well as produced a podcast and run a workshop specifically in relation to my work, and I am happy to talk to other project managers of Digital Humanities or other humanities-related research initiatives.

I am part of the Women and Climate speaker database, and I’ve spoken at academic conferences, fan conventions, as a solo speaker and as part of panels and roundtables throughout graduate school and up to the present. I have taught in classrooms, given guest lectures, facilitated workshops, presented my research at conferences, and more. Check out my Speaking page for more information on the types of presentations I’ve given and to book me in for your next event.

I am also a member of the Low Carbon Research Methods Network, a loosely affiliated network of scholars interested in examining how climate change not only stands to alter what we study, but how we do so.

Some history

I graduated with a BA in English and Women & Gender Studies (with distinction) in 2010, a Book and Magazine Publishing Certificate in 2012, an MA in English in 2015, and a PhD in English in 2021. You can see my list of publications at Academia.edu, and view a more detailed description of my work as a writing tutor, primary instructor of English literature, research assistant, and editor in various capacities throughout my post-secondary career at my LinkedIn page. During this time, I also worked to facilitate writing groups, review peers’ work, and served to organize and moderate at several conferences (both academic and non-).

Before entering graduate school, I was employed as an English teacher (of adult students) in Japan, completed a post-graduate certificate in publishing from Centennial College in Toronto, and worked in the Canadian publishing industry. I have a range of experience from explaining English grammar and phrasing to new speakers, to highlighting the difference between spoken and written English sentence structure and grammar, to writing and reviewing online copy for clarity and cohesion.

Interested in my solarpunk background? I have a whole page for that!

Background knowledge

Here are some things I’ve studied extensively / have lived experience of:

  • solarpunk
  • the historical literary imagination of crisis
  • cold-war science fiction post-apocalyptic & apocalyptic imaginaries
  • current attitudes towards the climate crisis, especially among millennials
  • ecology in Canadian literature
  • historical ecofeminist thought
  • science fiction feminisms (especially of the 2nd wave)
  • ecocriticism
  • climate fiction or “cli-fi”
  • hopepunk
  • doomerism
  • affects and emotions surrounding the climate crisis
  • living a feminist life as a gender-nonconforming cis woman