I host and produce a weekly pedagogy podcast called You Got This! the goal of the show is to talk candidly about teaching and learning concerns while also sharing the stars of the TRU community with the larger world of higher education.
I am a co-investigator on the SSHRC-funded Amplify Podcast Network project, with my series, Community of Praxis, on track for peer review in the fall. The show pairs a feature-length interview with a luminary in the field of teaching and learning with an episode exploring classroom application of those ideas.
I am under contract with Routledge to write The Routledge Introduction to Canadian Comics, with the manuscript due in January 2024. This is part of the Routledge Introductions to Canadian Literature series.
My next major project in the offing is systematic and critical review of educational technology literature of the last two decades with a focus on assessing the ethical ramifications, particularly in the contexts of equity and harm, of these tools and their use in the post-secondary sector. Using a methodology that fuses systems-level thinking with ethic of care philosophy, the goal of this research will be to centre power, equity and harm-reduction in processes that lead to ethically informed procurement of, and practice with, educational technologies.
“EdTech, Ethics, and the Rise of Contract Cheating.” Academic Integrity in Canada. Sarah Eaton and Julia Christiansen Hughes, eds. Springer, 2022.
“The University Cannot Love You: Gendered Labour, Burnout, and the Covid-19 Pivot to Digital.” Feminist Digital Pedagogy by Suzan Koseoglu and George Veletsianos, eds. EdTech Books, 2021.
With Peter Wilkins. “How Do You Build a Problem Like Riverdale: Constructing the Imagined Community of the Archie Universe.” Untitled CW Book Project. Ashley Carlson and Lisa Perdigao, eds. McFarland, 2021.
“2020: The End is the Beginning, and Yet You Go On.” English Studies in Canada 44.4 (2018*): 51-54. [*Note that this journal is behind in publication; this issue was published in 2021.]
“Public-Facing Feminisms: Subverting the LetterCol in Bitch Planet.” The Routledge Companion to Gender and Sexuality in Comic Book Studies by Frederick Luis Aldama, ed. Routledge, 2020.
“We the North: Indigenous Appropriation as Canadian Identity in Mainstream American Comics.” Graphic Indigeneity: Comics in the Americas and Australasia. Frederick Luis Aldama, ed. UP of Mississippi: Jackson, MS, 2020.
With Joe Lipsett. “The White Christmas Problem: Analyzing Representations of Race in Hallmark Holiday Films.” The Hallmark Channel: Essays on Faith, Race, and Feminism. Emily L. Newman and Emily Witsell, eds. McFarland, 2020.
“CanLit Guide: Comics and Canadian Literature.” CanLit Guides Project, Canadian Literature, 2018.
“Teach First, Research Questions Later: Understanding the Role of the College Teacher-Scholar.” English Studies in Canada 43.1 (2017): 13-16.
With David N. Wright. “Decentering the Sexual Aggressor: Sexual Violence and Bitch Planet.” Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 8.3 (2017): 264-276.
“Border Studies in the Gutter: Canadian Comics and Structural Borders.” Canadian Literature 228 (2016): 170-187.
“The Unbearable Blind Spots of Comics Scholarship.” The Comics Grid 6 (2016): 11.
With Peter Wilkins. “The Case of the Missing Author: Toward an Anatomy of Collaboration in Comics.” Cultures of Comics Work. Casey Brienza and Paddy Johnston, eds. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. 115-129.
“Canadian Comics: A Brief History.” The Routledge Companion to Comics. Frank Bramlett, Roy T. Cook, Aaron Meskin, eds. Routledge, 2015. 62-69.
“Whither Alpha Flight?: The Nationalistic Response to Canada During the War on Terror.” Marvel’s Civil War: How Comics Defined the Post 9/11 Era. Kevin Scott, ed. McFarland, 2015. 58-68.
With Peter Wilkins. “An Innocent at Home: Scott Pilgrim’s Canadian Multicultural Contexts.” Representing Multiculturalism in Comics and Graphic Novels. Ian Hague and Carolene Ayaka, eds. Routledge, 2015. 197- 211.
“Little Mosque on the Prairie: Religious Education on the Airwaves.” Muslims in American Popular Culture. Anne Richards and Iraj Omidvar, eds. Praeger, 2014. 93-104.
With Damon Herd, Hattie Kennedy, Ernesto Priego, Peter Wilkins, and David N. Wright. “Beyond the Page: The Multimodality of Comics in Everyday Life.” The New Everyday: A Media Commons Project. December 2013.
“Do Something Real Until You’re 30: A Conversation with Douglas Coupland.” Event Magazine 41.1 (2012): 7-15.
“Coupland, Douglas.” Twentieth-Century World Fiction. Vol. ed. John Clement Ball. Vol. 3 of The Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century World Fiction. Gen. ed. Brian W. Shaffer. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. 1027-29.
“A Conversation with Douglas Coupland: The Hideous, the Cynical, and the Beautiful.” Studies in Canadian Literature 36.2 (2011): 255-78.
“Things Unsaid: Exploring the Margins and Limits of Open.” O/TESSA Journal.
“Without a Net: Pursuing Tenure in the Open.” O/TESSA Journal.
With Anne-Marie Scott. “Who Cares About Procurement.” Higher Education for Good: Teaching and Learning Futures by Laura Czerniewicz and Catherine Cronin, eds. Open Book Publishers, 2023.
“Things Unsaid: Exploring the Margins and Limits of Open.” O/TESSA. Congress 2022. 19 May 2022.
“Disrupted Connections: Care and Access As We Move Forward Together.” BC Human Services Articulation. Selkirk College. 19 May 2022.
“True Stories of Real and Imagined Care: The Question of Institutional Relationships.” Selkirk Discovery Days. Selkirk College. 23 February 2022.
“Pandemic Pedagogies: Reclaiming the Lost Year.” CETABC. 29 September 2021.
“Manifesto for the Future: My Hopes for the Post-Pandemic University.” Teaching Matters. UPEI. 7 September 2021.
“Manifesto for the Future: My Hopes for the Post-Pandemic University.” Cascadia21. 27 April 2021.
“Care in Crisis: A Crisis of Care.” Educational Technology Users Group, Invited Talk. 4 December 2020.
“(Re-)Inventing Your Place in the Academy: Alt-Academia, Online Community, and You.” University of Phoenix Brown Bag Colloquium Series. 13 December 2016.
“So Relevant I Can’t Even: Shakespeare and Millennial Culture.” New Westminster Public Library. 23 April 2016.
With Peter Wilkins. “Online Spaces and the Alt-Academic.” #citylis International Seminar, City University London. 10 November 2015.
“Doing the Work: Diversifying the Reader’s Experience, Come Hell or High Water.” British Columbia Library Association Reader Advisory Group Keynote Address. 18 September 2015.
“Look at What Now Can Do: The World of Douglas Coupland.” Language, Literature and Performing Arts Speaker Series, Douglas College. 24 October 2014.
“The National Notions of a Notional Nation: Canadian Identity and the Role of Ephemera.” Founders’ Library Lecture. University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Lampeter Campus. 2012.
“Feminist Critical Digital Pedagogy: A Bricolage.” Panel Presentation. #MYFest22. 10 June 2022.
Project Showcase Roundtable. H5P Symposium. University of British Columbia. 22 February 2022.
“A Glimpse Behind the Microphone.” Panel Presentation on Podcasting. Ontario Library Association. 18 January 2022.
“Saying No to Surveillance: A Gentler Approach.” OpenEd. 21 October 2021.
“Developing Writers: Using H5P to Support Composition Practice.” OEGlobal. 27 September 2021.
“EdTech, Ethics, and the Rise of Contract Cheating.” Canadian Symposium on Academic Integrity. Thompson Rivers University. 22 June 2021.
“The Digital Detox: One Strategy for Establishing a More Ethical Relationship to Educational Technologies on Campus.” Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Annual Conference (online). 6 June 2021.
With Carolyn Ives, et al. “Transformative Curriculum Design through OER Creation.” Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Annual Conference (online). 6 June 2021.
“Without a Net: Pursuing Tenure in the Open.” Congress 2021. Open/Technology in Education, Society, and Scholarship Association. University of Alberta (online). 3 June 2021.
“How Can We Help?: The Educational Technologist as Accessibility Activist.” Congress 2021. Canadian Society for Studies in Higher Education. University of Alberta (online). 1 June 2021.
With Colin Madland. “Resisting Surveillance Technology.” Congress 2021. Open/Technology in Education, Society, and Scholarship Association. University of Alberta (online). 1 June 2021.
“EdTech, Ethics, and the Rise of Contract Cheating.” Congress 2021. Canadian Society for Studies in Higher Education. University of Alberta (online). 30 May 2021.
EdTech and the English Classroom (panel). Congress 2021. Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. University of Alberta (online). 30 May 2021.
“Being Shamed, Feeling Shame: Critique, Call-in Culture, and the Affect(s) of Shame.” Congress 2021. Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. University of Alberta (online). 29 May 2021.
“F*ck It, We’ll Do It Live: Blogging Failure (and Success) as Knowledge Mobilization Praxis.” Congress 2021. Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. University of Alberta (online). 29 May 2021.
“Post-Pandemic Pedagogies: Reclaiming the Lost Year.” Educational Technology Users Group, Spring Conference (online). 27 May 2021.
“Let It Break or Be Broken: Care, Moral Stress, and the University.” OERxDomains21. 22 April 2021.
With Brian Lamb. “Establishing a Community of Care: Lessons Learned from the Covid-19 Pivot to Digital.” OERxDomains21. 21 April 2021.
“Distanced, Not Isolated.” Educational Technology Users Group, Fall Conference (online). 6 November 2020.
Ferments and Futures: The Next Decade of Comics Scholarship (panel). Congress 2019. Canadian Society for Studies in Comics. University of British Columbia. 5 June 2019.
“Public-Facing Feminisms: Subverting the LetterCol in Bitch Planet.” Congress 2019. Canadian Society for Studies in Comics. University of British Columbia. 5 June 2019.
“From Reluctant Nationalist Superteam to Movie of the Week to Captain Marvel’s Back-Up Band: The (De)volution of Alpha Flight.” Congress 2019. Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. University of British Columbia. 3 June 2019.
“ ‘Infused with Spiritual Magic’: Marvel Champions, Snowguard, and Appropriating Arctic Indigeneity.” Congress 2019. Canadian Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. University of British Columbia. 1 June 2019.
“Content and Trigger Warnings.” Congress 2018. Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. University of Regina. 26 May 2018.
“The Public Intellectual in the Age of Social Media.” Congress 2018. Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. University of Regina. 26 May 2018.
“The Labour of Teaching CanLit.” Congress 2018. Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. University of Regina. 26 May 2018.
“In Gord We Trust: Narratives of Mourning for Gord Downie in Canadian Popular and Social Media.” Congress 2018. Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. University of Regina. 27 May 2018.
“Celebrity Dying and the (De-)Colonial Project: Reading the Last Words and Works of Gord Downie and Johnny Clegg.” Congress 2018. Canadian Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. University of Regina. 27 May 2018.
“From Twitter SJW to English Professor: Idle No More, Black Lives Matter, and the Literature Classroom.” Congress 2017. Association of College and University Teachers of English. Ryerson University. 30 May 2017.
With David N. Wright. “Plastic Pedagogies: Design Thinking and Prototyping as Classroom Practice.” BCCampus Festival of Learning. Delta Hotel, Burnaby, BC. 7 June 2016.
“Teach First, Research Questions Later: Understanding the Role of the College Teacher-Scholar.” Congress 2016. Association of College and University Teachers of English. University of Calgary. 31 May 2016.
“Footnotes, Endnotes, and HTML5: Blogging and the Future of Literary Criticism.” Congress 2016. Association of College and University Teachers of English. University of Calgary. 30 May 2016.
“Troubling Canadian Community in Brian K. Vaughn’s We Stand on Guard.” Congress 2016. Canadian Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. University of Calgary. 29 May 2016.
With Peter Wilkins. “The Politics of Transformation in Superhero Comics.” Politics: A Conference on Comics. Comics Forum 2015. Leeds, UK. 12 November 2015.
With David N. Wright. “Open Scholarly Community” and “Hacking the College.” Educational Technology Users Group Fall Unconference. Vancouver Community College. 6 November 2015.
“Off the Sides of Our Desks: Research in a Community College Context.” Congress 2015. Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. University of Ottawa. 30 May 2015.
“We the North: Interrogating Indigenous Appropriation as Canadian Identity in Mainstream American Comics.” Congress 2015. Canadian Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. University of Ottawa. 31 May 2015.
“Would You Take The Pill?: Douglas Coupland and September 11 as Cultural Turning Point.” Congress 2014. Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. Brock University, St. Catharines. 24 May 2014.
“Borders and Gutters: Transgressing National Borders and Their Visual Representations in Contemporary Canadian Comics.” Congress 2014. Canadian Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. Brock University, St. Catharines. 24 May 2014.
With Damon Herd, Hattie Kennedy, Ernesto Priego, Peter Wilkins, and David N. Wright. “Small is the New Big: The Comics Criticism Blog as the New Small Press.” Small Press and Undergrounds: A Conference on Comics. Comics Forum 2013. Leeds, UK. 22 November 2013.
With Cat Adler, Peter Wilkins, and David N. Wright. “Comics, Art, and Training.” Comics and the Multimodal World: An International Conference. Graphixia 2013. Douglas College. 16 June 2013.
With Peter Wilkins. “An Innocent at Home: Scott Pilgrim’s Canadian Multicultural Contexts.” Multiculturalism and Representation: A Conference on Comics. Comics Forum 2012. Leeds, UK. 16 November 2012.
“North American Literature: The Case for Douglas Coupland.” Congress 2011. Canadian Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. University of New Brunswick, Fredericton. 28 May 2011.
“Learning (and making mistakes) in Public: The Pedagogy of Using Wikipedia in the Classroom.” Congress 2011. Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. University of New Brunswick, Fredericton. 28 May 2011.
SSHRC-PDG Co-Investigator, 2020-2023
Amplify Podcasting Network
Value: $175,315
H5P OER Development Grant, 2020
BCcampus
Value: $9,507
Research and Scholarly Activity Travel Funding Awards (multiple), 2010-2016
Douglas College
Value: $11,000
Research Incentive Grant, 2015
Douglas College
Value: $3,000
Canada Graduate Scholarship – Doctoral, 2007-2010
Social Science and Humanities Research Council
Value: $105,000
William S. Lewis Doctoral Fellowship, 2006-2010
University of New Brunswick
Value: $100,000
Canadian Literature 50th Anniversary Travel Award, 2009
Canadian Literature / University of British Columbia
Value: $5,000
Canada Graduate Scholarship – Master’s, 2005-2006
Social Science and Humanities Research Council
Value: $17,500
Typical Girls: The Rhetoric of Womanhood in Comic Strips by Susan E. Kirtley. Canadian Literature, 2022.
25 Years of EdTech by Martin Weller. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, 2021.
Even That Wildest Hope and Bawaajigan: Stories of Power. Event, 2020.
An Urgency of Teachers: The Critical Work of Digital Pedagogy by Jesse Stommel and Sean Michael Morris. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 2020.
The Canadian Alternative: Cartoonists, Comics, and Graphic Novels and Sketches from an Unquiet Country: Canadian Graphic Satire, 1840-1940. The American Review of Canadian Studies, 2019.
Canadian Graphic: Picturing Life Narratives edited by Candida Rifkind and Linda Warley. Canadian Literature, 2018.
Celebrity Cultures in Canada by Katja Lee and Lorraine York. Hamilton Arts and Letters, 2018.
Captain America, Masculinity, and Violence: The Evolution of a National Icon by J. Richard Stevens. The Comics Grid, 2017.
Bit Rot by Douglas Coupland and Ten Canadian Writers in Context edited by Marie Carrière, Curtis Gillespie, and Jason Purcell. Event, 2017
Bearskin Diary: A Novel by Carol Daniels and A Gentle Habit by Cherie Dimaline. Event, 2016.
Twelve-Cent Archie by Bart Beaty. The Comics Grid, 2015.
Hasiuk, Brenda. Boy Lost in Wild: Stories by Brenda Hasiuk and Boundless: Tracing Land and Dream in a New Northwest Passage by Kathleen Winter. Event, 2015.
Cataract City by Craig Davidson and Minister Without Portfolio by Michael Winter. Event, 2014.
People Park by Pasha Malla and Five Little Bitches by Teresa McWitter. Event, 2013.
Glass Boys by Nicole Lundrigan and A Good Man by Guy Vanderhaeghe. Event, 2012.
Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan and The Little Shadows by Marina Endicott. Canadian Literature, 2012.
Player One by Douglas Coupland and Tangles by Sarah Leavitt. Event, 2011.
Re: Reading the Postmodern: Canadian Literature and Criticism after Modernism edited by Robert David Stacey. English Studies in Canada, 2011.
Niceman Cometh by David Carpenter, That Tune Clutches My Heart by Paul Headrick, and Smuggling Donkeys by David Helwig. Canadian Literature, 2010.
BCStudies, “An Introduction to Scholarly Podcasts.” (I was interviewed for this project, and several clips made it into the finished series.)
Carson, Tim. Praxis Pedagogy Podcast. 24 February 2021.
Sonnemaker, Tyler, “Tech companies promised schools an easy way to detect cheaters during the pandemic. Students responded by demanding schools stop policing them like criminals in the first place.” Business Insider 1 November 2020.
Chin, Monica, “An ed-tech specialist spoke out about remote testing software – and now he’s being sued.” The Verge. 22 October 2020.
BCcampus, “The Need for a Culture of Compassion and Care,” 21 September 2020.
Carson, Tim. Praxis Pedagogy Podcast. 11 June 2020.
Greene, Terry. Gettin’ Air Podcast. 23 April 2020.
McGregor, Hannah. “Baby Noises and Decoding Toxic Masculinity with Brenna Clarke Gray.” Secret Feminist Agenda (podcast). 15 September 2017.
Samson, Natalie. “Personal Newsletters Can Be a Boon to Academic-Life Writing: A Q&A with Professor Brenna Clarke Gray.” University Affairs. 6 July 2016.
Priego, Ernesto. “Online Spaces and the Alt-Academic: An Interview with Brenna Clarke Gray and Peter Wilkins.” The Winnower. 5 November 2017.
Miller, Kerry. “Canada’s Literacy Rates Are Troubling – and America’s Are Worse.” Minnesota Public Radio. 10 November 2017.
World Have Your Say. BBC World Service. 11 February 2015.
Daly, Jimmy. “Wikipedia: When College Students Have an Audience, Does Their Writing Improve?” EdTech Magazine. 23 October 2013.
Thompson, Clive. Smarter than You Think. Penguin, 2013. (Also excerpted in the October 2013 edition of Wired Magazine.)
The Mike Smyth Show. CKNW, AM 980. Vancouver. 3 June 2011.
Afternoon News with Tom Young. Syndicated in Atlantic Canada. 31 May 2011.
The Rob Breakenridge Show. CQHR, AM 770. Calgary. May 31, 2011.
Boesveld, Sarah. “Can Wikipedia Improve Students’ Work?” National Post. A2. 31 May 2011.
Dehaas, Josh. “English Prof Says Wikipedia is a Good Teaching Tool.” Macleans.ca On Campus Blog. 30 May 2011.
Fleming, Andrew. “New Westminster Teacher Tackles Wikipedia’s Image Problem.” New Westminster Record and Vancouver Province. Digital editions. 30 May 2011.
Ross, Jamie. “When to Use Wikipedia in the Classroom?” Daily Gleaner (Fredericton, New Brunswick). A4. 30 May 2011.
Steffenhagen, Janet. “Accuracy Improves When Students Write for Wikipedia: Study.” Vancouver Sun. Digital edition. 30 May 2011.
