Conferences & Public Lectures

Conferences Organized & Chaired

Co-Organizer and Co-Chair (with Jean Mitchell), L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature, University of Prince Edward Island, 23-27 June 2010. (Call for Papers found here and here)

Conference Sessions Organized & Chaired

Organizer and Chair, “Nature vs. Nurture: Cultural Inheritance in Canadian Literature.” Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English congress, Concordia University, May 2010. (Call for Papers found here)

Chair, “A Different Anne? Anne in Translation.” L.M. Montgomery—Writer of the World, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden, 22 August 2009.

Co-Organizer and Co-Chair (with Irene Gammel), “Anne of Green Gables: New Directions at 100.” Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English congress, University of British Columbia, 31 May 2008. (Call for Papers found here and here)

Chair, “Transforming our Gender(ed) Icons.” Transformations, Children’s Literature Association conference, Los Angeles, CA, 10 June 2006.

Chair, “Building a Career in Children’s Literature.” Performing Childhood, Children’s Literature Association conference, Winnipeg, MB, 10 June 2005.

Organizer and Chair, “Changes and Choices: Intertextuality and L.M. Montgomery.” Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English congress, University of Manitoba, 31 May 2004.

Invited Keynote Paper

“Agency, Belonging, Citizenship: The ABCs of Nation-Building in Contemporary Canadian Texts for Adolescents.” International Symposium on Adolescent Literature, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China, 19 May 2007.

Papers Presented at Refereed Conferences

“‘Used in Some Other Book’: L.M. Montgomery as Reader.” L.M. Montgomery—Writer of the World, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden, 22 August 2009.

“What’s in a Name? Anne Shirley, Modern Hollywood Star.” L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, and the Idea of “Classic,” University of Prince Edward Island, 25 June 2008.

“In Search of Someday: Reparation and Repetition in Joy Kogawa’s Post-Obasan Fiction.” Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English congress, University of British Columbia, 1 June 2008.

“Anne Shirley, RKO Gal: From Avonlea Girl to Modern Hollywood Star.” The Centenary of Anne of Green Gables: A Ryerson Showcase, Ryerson University, 5 April 2008.

“Conflict and Dissonance in the L.M. Montgomery Archives: Untying the Yellow Ribbon.” Storm and Dissonance: L.M. Montgomery and Conflict, University of Prince Edward Island, 25 June 2006.

“Adolescence through the Looking-Glass: Ideology and the Represented Child in Degrassi: The Next Generation.” Transformations, Children’s Literature Association conference, Los Angeles, CA, 9 June 2006.

“‘Caroline, I’ll See to the Ponies’: Adapting and Readapting Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie.” Transformations, Children’s Literature Association conference, Los Angeles, CA, 9 June 2006.

“Nationalism, Nostalgia, and Intergenerational Girlhood: Narrative Extensions to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House.” Performing Childhood, Children’s Literature Association conference, Winnipeg, MB, 10 June 2005.

“From Bad Boy to Dead Boy: Agency, Homophobia, and the Unsaid in Diana Wieler’s Bad Boy and Brian Payton’s Hail Mary Corner.” Of Rainbows and Dream-Catchers: The Diversity of Childhood, Children’s Literature Association conference, El Paso, TX, 7 June 2003.

“Pigsties and Sunsets: L.M. Montgomery, A Tangled Web, and a Modernism of Her Own.” ReCalling Early Canada: Reading the Political in Cultural and Literary Production, McMaster University, 23 June 2003.

“The Performance Anxiety of L.M. Montgomery.” L.M. Montgomery and Life Writing, University of Prince Edward Island, 22 June 2002.

“Our Beloved Lucy Maud: Mythologizing the Creator for the Sake of the Creation.” L.M. Montgomery and Popular Culture, University of Prince Edward Island, 1 July 2000.

“‘Waging the War’: The Religious Right’s Obsession with Homosexuality.” Implications and Interpretations: Interdisciplinary Studies in Religion and Culture, Concordia University, 13 May 1999.

“Walter’s Closet.” Message in a Bottle: The Literatures of Small Islands, University of Prince Edward Island, 26 June 1998.

Roundtables and Colloquia

Invited Participant, panel discussing two short films related to L.M. Montgomery. From Canada to the World: The Cultural Influence of Lucy Maud Montgomery, University of Guelph, 23 October 2008.

Invited Participant, “Anne of Green Gables: A Literary Icon at 100—Canadian Scholars and Critics Reflect on Anne of Green Gables in the Centenary Year.” Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English congress, University of British Columbia, 31 May 2008.

Invited Participant, representing Canadian Children’s Literature / Littérature canadienne pour la jeunesse. Open Access Symposium, University of Winnipeg, 5 February 2007.

Public Lectures

“Our Home on Native Land: Adapting and Readapting Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie.” Institute of Humanities and Creative Arts Academic Seminar series, University of Worcester (UK), 25 November 2009; Children’s Literature series, Faculty of Education, Cambridge University (UK), 21 April 2010.

“Looking Away: The Traumatized Child in Canadian Fiction.” Institute of Education Research Seminar series, University of Worcester (UK), 18 November 2009.

“Looking Back: The Retrospective Child in Canadian Fiction in English.” American and Canadian Studies Research Seminar, University of Birmingham, 28 September 2009.

“In Maud and Ewan’s Room: Bedroom Politics in The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery.” The Montgomery Theatre, Cavendish, PE, 24 July 2009.

“Divided City, Divided Self: Reading Montreal in MacLennan and Roy.” The Metropolis Lectures, in conjunction with Literatures of Modernity 8950: Unreal Cities: Reading the Metropolis (graduate course), Modern Literature and Culture Research Centre, Ryerson University, 30 March 2009.

“The Blythes Are Quoted in the Centenary Year: A Look Back.” Lucy Maud Montgomery Christmas, Norval, ON, 29 November 2008.

“Viewing and Reviewing The Simpsons: Satire, Socialization, and the Question of the Resisting Viewer.” Vox Populi graduate student discussion series, Department of English, McMaster University, 15 November 2002.