Upcoming & Past Defences

Comedy and Satire Against Cynical Withdrawal

Wednesday, August 28th, 2024

    Examining Committee:
    Dr. Sean Zwagerman (Associate Professor, English, SFU), supervisor 
    Dr. Diana Solomon (Associate Chair and Undergraduate Program Chair; Associate Professor, English, SFU), committee member
    Dr. Jeff Derksen (Professor, English, SFU), committee member 
    Dr. Alessandra Capperdoni (Undergraduate Chair, Lecturer, Department of Humanities, SFU) internal-external examiner
    Dr. Raúl Pérez (Associate Professor, Sociology, University of LaVerne), external examiner
    Dr. Matthew Hussey (Graduate Program Chair, Associate Professor English, SFU) defence chair

Postsecularism, Calvinism, and the Mid-Nineteenth-Century Anglo American Novel

   Wednesday, July 10th, 2024

    Examining Committee:
    Dr. Michael Everton (Associate Professor, English, SFU), supervisor
    Dr. Margaret Linley (Associate Professor, English), committee member
    Dr. Mark Knight (Professor in Literature, Religion, and Victorian Studies, Head of Department, English and Creative Writing Department, Lancaster University), committee member
    Dr. Luke Clossey (Associate Professor, History, SFU), internal-external examiner
    Dr. Charles LaPorte (Professor, Englishh, University of Washington), external examiner

Words Go Past There’: Reading and Pedagogy of Mediatized Spoken Word Poetry

   Thursday, May 30th, 2024

    Examining Committee:
    Dr. Stephen Collis, Professor, SFU English, senior supervisor
    Dr. Jeff Derksen, Professor, SFU English and Dean and Associate Provost, SFU Graduate Studies, committee member
    Dr. Constance Crompton, Assistant Professor, Communication, uOttawa, committee member
    Dr. Hannah McGregor, Director & Associate Professor, Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology, internal-external examiner
    Dr. Lillian Allen, Professor, Liberal Arts & Sciences, OCAD, external examiner

Articulated Love: Neoliberalism and the Romantic Couple in Popular Culture

   Friday, December 15, 2023

    Examining Committee:
    Dr. Stephen Collis, Professor, SFU English, senior supervisor
    Dr. Jeff Derksen, Professor, SFU English and Dean and Associate Provost, SFU Graduate Studies, co-senior supervisor
    Dr. Clint Burnham, Professor, SFU English, committee member
    Dr. Eldritch Priest, Associate Professor, SFU Contemporary Arts, internal-external examiner
    Dr. Will Straw, Professor, McGill University Art History and Communications Studies, external examiner

Cold War Hong Kong: An Archipelagic Reading of Short Fictions During the Long Seventies

   Thursday, September 14, 2023

    Examining Committee:
    Dr. Christine Kim, Associate Professor, UBC English, co-supervisor
    Dr. Sophie McCall, Professor, SFU English, co-supervisor
    Dr. Helen Leung, Professor, SFU GSWS, committee member
    Dr. Christopher Lee, Associate Professor, UBC English, committee member
    Dr. Nadine Attewell, Associate Professor, SFU GSWS, internal external examiner
    Dr. Chris Zijiang Song, Assistant Professor, U of T Dept of Language Studies, external examiner

Writing Words and the Written Word: The University and Endemic Crisis

   Wednesday, April 12, 2023

    Examining Committee:
    Dr. Sean Zwagerman, Associate Professor, supervisor
    Dr. Peter Cramer, Associate Professor, committee member
    Dr. Michael Ling, Senior Lecturer, SFU Department of Education, committee member
    Dr. Joel Heng Hartse, Senior Lecturer, SFU Department of Education, internal-external examiner
    Dr. Heather Graves, Professor Emeritus of English and Film Studies, University of Calgary, external examiner

Allegory and Intoxication: Mapping Social Reproductive Separation and the Crises of Capitalism in 2010s Addiction Narratives

   Friday, March 31, 2023

    Examining Committee:
    Dr. Clint Burnham, Professor, supervisor
    Dr. Carolyn Lesjak, Professor, supervisor
    Dr. Margaret Linley, Professor
    Dr. Samir Gandesha, Professor, Director of the SFU Institute for the Humanities
    Dr. Alberto Toscano, Associate Professor, SFU Department of Communications, examiner
    Dr. Caren Irr, Professor of Humanities, Brandeis University, external examiner