English and Cultural Studies at McMaster

04/24/2026

Congratulations to faculty member Dr. Chandrima Chakraborty on the publication of the co-edited book ANTI-ASIAN RACISM AND THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN CANADA, now out with UBC Press!

Anti-Asian Racism and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada; Anti-Asian Racism and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada analyzes the major factors in the resurgent racism, documents the response of communities, and offers potential policy and grassroots solutions.

11/25/2025

Congratulations to the students of our Creative Writing and Narrative Arts program on holding their first open mic! The Silhouette interviewed Dr. Ki'en Debicki, director of the program, and Pierce Dumanski, a student in the program who shared their work, about the program and the community it fosters.

On Nov. 11, 2025 from 7-9 p.m. the concurrent certificate in creative writing and narrative arts program held its first-ever open mic night on the Hub’s fir ...

11/19/2025

THIRSDAY, NOV 20! Melissa Tanti, (PhD McMaster 2017) and Lorraine York will be talking about Melissa’s brilliant new book this Thursday at Another Story bookstore on Roncesvalles. Here’s a sample!: “The translating subject is also a model for q***r feminist subjectivity; in this sense the translating subject is a subject formed at the interstice at which various languages encounter each other.” WOW! Come out and hear more on Thursday!

11/16/2025

Melissa Tanti, (PhD McMaster 2017) and Lorraine York will be talking about Melissa’s brilliant new book this Thursday at Another Story bookstore on Roncesvalles. Here’s a sample!: “The translating subject is also a model for q***r feminist subjectivity; in this sense the translating subject is a subject formed at the interstice at which various languages encounter each other.” WOW! Come out and hear more on Thursday!

09/17/2025

The Centre for Community-Engaged Narrative Arts (CCENA) is now accepting applications for our inauguralstudent residency program for 2025-26.

CCENA fosters social transformation by creating opportunities for arts-based community listening, remembering, and story-making. By working with artists, scholars, community members, and local groups and organizations, CCENA amplifies marginalized voices, preserves local stories, and promotes public engagement. We aim to strengthen and build community connections and bridge gaps between the university and local communities. We support initiatives that use narrative arts to drive social change, advocate for underrepresented groups, and generate broader conversations on justice, belonging, and collective memory.

The CCENA student residency program is open to undergraduate and graduate students and will run from October to April. The program will support students from all faculties who are planning, creating, facilitating, or supporting community-engaged narrative arts projects (through your research, academic program, or community involvement). Our student residency is a volunteer position requiring approximately 5 hours/month. Monthly meetings with CCENA staff, affiliated faculty, and community partners will facilitate mentorship, skills sharing, collaboration, and opportunities for students to get involved with projects proposed by our community partners.

Interested students can apply online until September 30th here: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=B2M3RCm0rUKMJSjNSW9HcpdX_t-H-VRJvI3z39Y6lr5UNUszWkIyR1RRRDE1SEhOSzg5OVlTNzRXMy4u

Please contact us with any questions at [email protected]

09/17/2025

The 2025 Taylor Conference—40 Years of Sister Vision—will be held on September 25th, 2025 to mark the 40th anniversary of Sister Vision Press.

The conference, organized by ECS faculty member Dr. Ronald Cummings, brings together writers and scholars to reflect on the books, conversations and interventions that Sister Vision made possible as the first Black women and women of colour press in Canada.

Please see the website to register!
https://sistervision.carrd.co/ #

A website for the 40 YEARS OF SISTER VISION symposium, which marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of Sister Vision Press. We bring together writers and scholars to reflect on the books, conversations and interventions that Sister Vision made possible as well as commemorate the trailblazing wor...

06/06/2025

We are delighted to announce that Dr. Sarah Brophy has won the 10th annual Hogan Prize which recognizes “an outstanding essay” published in a/b: Auto/Biography Studies for her essay “Mask Aesthetics: Prophylaxis, Post-Digital Arts, and Reimagining Vulnerable Selves.” Congratulations to Dr. Brophy!

06/06/2025

We're delighted to announce that Dr. Gena Zuroski's new book, A Funny Thing: Eighteenth-Century Literature Undisciplined, has just been published with Cambridge University Press!

"Eighteenth-century literature is weirder than we realize. A Funny Thing invites readers to be taken by its oddities, its silliness, and its absurdities – both because reading this way is fun, and because this challenges colonialism's disciplinary epistemes of propriety that have consistently bound liberal selfhood to extractive capitalism. Focusing on three aesthetic modes largely unnamed in existing studies of the period's literature – the anamorphic, the ludic, and the orificial – this book offers fresh readings of work by Haywood, Walpole, Bentley, and Burney that point to unexpected legacies from the so-called Age of Reason. This book is for any reader curious about the wilder flights of fancy in eighteenth-century fiction, the period's q***r sense of humour, and how writing and art of the time challenge colonial reality."

Congratulations to Dr. Zuroski!

06/04/2025

💕💫Delighted to share the happy news that Susie O'Brien has won the Gabrielle Roy Prize for her 2024 MQUP book What the World Might Look Like!

06/04/2025

We are delighted to share this wonderful news: Dr. Susie O'Brien has won the prestigious Gabrielle Roy Prize for her book What The World Might Look Like (MQUP 2024)!

Congratulations to the 2024 Gabrielle Roy Prize (English section) winner, Susie O’Brien, for her book What the World Might Look Like: Decolonial Stories of Resilience and Refusal.

See the press release: https://alcq-acql.ca/en/we-are-pleased-to-announce-the-winner-of-the-2024-gabrielle-roy-prize-english-section/