At this year’s MSVU Academic Awards Social, which took place Tuesday, 9 April, the following students were recognized for their achievements in English:
Ariel MacKinnon was awarded the Sister Marie Agnes Prize, which is awarded by the Mount Saint Vincent Alumni Association to the graduating English major with the highest academic average.
Redford Ingram was awarded the Beryl Rowland Book Prize, awarded annually to the student who achieves the highest average in English.
Elizabeth MacKay and Georgia Wachter were co-recipients of the Literary Prize, established by the Halifax-Dartmouth City Council of Beta Sigma Phi in memory of Mrs. Agnes Macdonald, alumna and past member of the Board of Governors of Mount Saint Vincent University.
Want to hear our Honours students present their fascinating research? Are you an English student wondering whether Honours is right for you and want to see what it’s all about? Or do you just want to hang out with amazing people on a Wednesday afternoon? Join us for the Honours Colloquium!
Congratulations to Fall 2023 English Honours graduate Sophia Godsoe, who was also selected as the Valedictorian and gave an outstanding farewell address that moved everyone in attendance. It was great to see several current students and recent graduates there to cheer Sophia on. All the best to Sophia as she takes the next steps of her journey!
Hello, I’m Diane Piccitto. I am delighted to be serving as the current Chair of the MSVU English Department. I would like to extend my good wishes for the remaining days of summer ahead of you. The English Department is special, and I feel very lucky to be a part of it. Our smaller class sizes and the nature of our course texts and discussions help forge strong connections among students and faculty, making the department a dynamic and engaging place with a thriving student English Society.
The department has undergone some changes recently that I would like to acknowledge. First, I extend heartfelt thanks to Graham Fraser, our recent Chair, who had the gargantuan task of leading our department during a global pandemic. Second, I wish all the very best to Anna Smol on her retirement! She has made such a positive and lasting impact on our department and the Mount. She will be sorely missed. Last, but definitely not least, I offer a warm welcome to our new colleagues Krista Collier-Jarvis and Matthew Roby. We are very happy to be working with you.
Students, you can find our exciting new faculty members teaching, among other courses, ENGL 3211: Special Topic – Climate Fiction (Collier-Jarvis) and ENGL 2260: Poetry and ENGL 3376: Medieval Literature (Roby). Check them out. If you haven’t yet taken any university English in your studies, I invite you to try one of our introductory courses such as ENGL 1170: Literary Genres, ENGL 1171: Literary Transformations, and WRIT 1120: The Writing Process; we still have room for you! I encourage you to register for courses before they fill up and also to check with a senior full-time faculty member if you need advice on what courses you need to take to fulfill your program requirements.
I can’t wait to welcome back students and faculty in person as we continue to challenge each other academically and also have fun together at various department and English Society events. Here, you will find yourself discussing and analyzing the works of Rita Joe, Maya Angelou, Mary Shelley, or William Shakespeare by day and then socializing amidst the imaginative energy of students and faculty by evening at a creative writing symposium, play reading, or Green World banquet. Come join the party – resistance is futile!
I’m looking forward to the coming academic year with all of you, to our intellectual pursuits, and to the memories we’ll make.
Diane Piccitto (she/her)
English Department Chair
About Dr. Diane Piccitto
Diane Piccitto (she/her) is Associate Professor of English at MSVU. Prior to coming to the Mount, she taught at the University of Zurich in Switzerland and then at Plymouth University in England. Her areas of specialization and interest include Romanticism, the poet-painter William Blake, Shakespeare, and queer theory. She is the author of Blake’s Drama: Theatre, Performance, and Identity in the Illuminated Books (2014) and co-editor of The Visual Life of Romantic Theater, 1780-1830 (2023). An active participant in collegial service, she has served on Senate and MSVU’s 2SLGBTQIA+ Committee, and has previously co-organized the Mount’s participation in the Halifax Pride Parade. She has also been the Faculty Association President, Chair of the FA Equity Action Committee, and a member of the FA Bargaining Committee.
The Mount Saint Vincent University Department of English welcomes two new faculty members this Fall semester: Dr. Matthew Roby and Prof. Krista Collier-Jarvis! Please join us in welcoming them!
DR. MATTHEW ROBY
(TaylorStudios)
Matthew Roby completed his B.A. and B.Ed. at Queen’s University, Canada, and his M.St. and D.Phil. at the University of Oxford, UK. His doctorate analysed medieval Icelandic conceptions of adolescent and elderly sexuality, focusing particularly on the characterisation of these liminal sexualities in depictions of paranormal entities, including witches, ghosts, and other trolls. His postdoctoral project at Háskóli Íslands, Iceland, and the University of Toronto, Canada, focused on depictions of sexual consent and assault in the Old Norse-Icelandic romance sagas and their foreign sources. He has published on issues of sex, gender, ageing, and monstrosity in English, Icelandic, and broader European medieval literatures. He is also the host of “Saga Stories,” a YouTube series on the medieval Icelandic family sagas with the Reykjavík Grapevine magazine. In his spare time, he enjoys watching snooker being played brilliantly by professionals and playing pool himself quite badly. He loves Iceland and takes every opportunity he can to immerse himself in its language, landscape, and culture.
Areas of research include, but are not limited to:
Old Norse-Icelandic language and literature
Old English language and literature
Middle English language and literature
The pan-European romance tradition
Medieval conceptions of sex and gender
Medieval conceptions of childhood, adolescence, and old age
Medieval depictions of the paranormal and monstrous
Medievalism, especially William Morris and J.R.R. Tolkien
Modern Icelandic language
Pedagogy
PROF. KRISTA COLLIER-JARVIS
(Dawne Studios)
Krista Collier-Jarvis (Mi’kmaw; nek’m/she/her) is finishing up her PhD in English at Dalhousie University and joining MSVU as an Assistant Professor in English specialising in American Literature. She holds a Masters in English from Dalhousie University as well as a Bachelor of Arts (honours) from MSVU. Her dissertation work draws on Indigenous knowledge as a lens for developing more interconnected frameworks for understanding contagion and climate change.
Areas of research include, but are not limited to:
Indigenous literature
Horror and the Gothic
Pop culture
How difficult histories are represented in museums.
ENGL 3211: Selected Topics In English: “Cli-Fi” (Climate Fiction) will be offered in the Winter 2024 semester, MW from 10:30am to 11:45am by Prof. Krista-Collier Jarvis.
Course Description: Floods, wildfires, fungal epidemics…it is no question that the environment in the twenty-first century is increasingly unpredictable, which is exactly why many writers are taking up Climate Fiction, or “Cli-Fi.” This course will focus on a selection of cli-fi from one of the oldest known literary texts, The Epic of Gilgamesh (2600 B.C.E.), to the Indigenous post-apocalyptic novel, The Marrow Thieves (2017), with particular attention to how humanity’s relationship to the environment is often figured in Gothic terms. Although literature will comprise most of the texts in this course, attention will also be given to art, film, videogames, and even museum exhibits. Some key themes that will be explored include the Anthropocene, eco-anxieties, Petro culture, environmental racism, the New Weird, Indigenous stewardship, and queer ecologies.
Course Description: Floods, wildfires, fungal epidemics…it is no question that the environment in the twenty-first century is increasingly unpredictable, which is exactly why many writers are taking up Climate Fiction, or “Cli-Fi.” This course will focus on a selection of cli-fi from one of the oldest known literary texts, The Epic of Gilgamesh (2600 B.C.E.), to the Indigenous post-apocalyptic novel, The Marrow Thieves (2017), with particular attention to how humanity’s relationship to the environment is often figured in Gothic terms. Although literature will comprise most of the texts in this course, attention will also be given to art, film, videogames, and even museum exhibits. Some key themes that will be explored include the Anthropocene, eco-anxieties, Petro culture, environmental racism, the New Weird, Indigenous stewardship, and queer ecologies.
We welcome Professor Collier-Jarvis to the Department of English and will soon post an official spotlight entry to properly introduce her. In the meanwhile, this Cli-Fi course offering is a timely and exciting addition. Please watch for details to be released in the very near future.
Photo by Dr. Diane PiccittoPhoto by Media Committee
Dr. Anna Smol received Mount Saint Vincent University’s Award for Research Excellence during the Thursday, May 18th 2023 morning convocation. This prestigious achievement is presented to only one faculty each year for outstanding research accomplishments within their field. During this ceremony, Dr. Smol also was awarded Professor Emerita.
MSVU English Department Blog 