A C A D E M I C A P P O I N T M E N T S
Lecturer in Literature and the Environment
University College Cork, Ireland (School of English & Digital Humanities)
Postdoctoral Research Associate in Perceptions of Biodiversity Change, 2020-2024 (Maternity Leave 2021-2022)
The University of York Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity
Research Associate, 2020
The University of Sheffield Department of Politics and International Relations BIOSEC Project
Newton International Fellow (British Academy), 2018-2020
The University of Sheffield Animal Studies Research Centre (School of English)
Project: “Animating the Fossil Image: Iconographies of Contingency in Contemporary Film and Art”
A C A D E M I C A F F I L I A T I O N S
Visiting Scholar in Science, Technology & Innovation Studies, 2022
School of Social and Political Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, UK
Greenhouse Green Transitions Fellow, 2022 (Declined)
The University of Stavanger, Norway
Honorary Research Fellow, 2020-2023
The University of Sheffield Animal Studies Research Centre
Founding Member, 2020-ongoing
UK Future Earth Early Career Researcher & Practitioner Network, Kings College London, UK
Member, Zoo Studies Group, 2020-ongoing
The University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
Research Affiliate, 2018-2021
Digital Animalities Project; Funded by the Social Science & Humanities Research Council of Canada, The University of York, Canada
Visiting Scholar, February 2020
Rachel Carson Centre for the Environment and Society, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany
Visiting PhD Student, Michaelmas Term 2015
University of Cambridge, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
E D U C A T I O N
PhD. in English Literature | The University of Alberta, 2017
Dissertation: “Nature Morte: Decomposing Darwinism’s Evolutionary Aesthetics”
Committee: Dianne Chisholm, Susan Hamilton, Mark Simpson
Higher Education Teaching Certificate | The University of Winnipeg, 2012
Teaching Practicum: “Representing Women in Civic Spaces: An Experiential Learning Initiative”
M.A. in English Literature and Cultural Studies | McMaster University, 2010
B.A. Honours in English Literature | The University of Winnipeg, 2009
P U B L I C A T I O N S
Single-Authored Monographs:
1 Dead Darwin: Necro-Ecologies in Neo-Victorian Culture. (Under advance contract with Manchester University Press)
2 Narrating Species Revival in a Biotechnological Age. (Manuscript in progress)
3 Next Natures of the Mammoth: The Allure of Resurrection Science. (Under advance contract with Reaktion Books UK, 2024).
Edited Volumes:
1 “Sex and Nature in the Anthropocene.” A special issue of Environmental Humanities 14.3. Co-edited by Ina Linge and Sarah Bezan, 2022, Duke University Press (In Press; Forthcoming).
2 “Coastal Posthumanities.” A special issue of Anthropocenes: Human, Inhuman, Posthuman 2.1 (2022). Co-edited by Sarah Bezan, Rich Gorman, and James Smith. (In partnership with University of Westminster Press; Forthcoming).
3 Animal Remains. Co-edited by Sarah Bezan and Robert McKay. Routledge Perspectives on the Non-Human in Literature and Culture Series. London: Routledge, 2022.
4 “Taxidermic Forms and Fictions.” A special issue of Configurations: A Journal of Literature, Science, and Technology, vol. 27, no. 2, 2019, pp. 131-138. Co-Edited by Sarah Bezan and Susan McHugh, Johns Hopkins University Press.
5 Seeing Animals After Derrida. Ed. Sarah Bezan and James Tink. Lanham: Lexington Books Ecocritical Theory and Practice Series, Rowman & Littlefield Imprint, 2018.
6 Thompson Butler, Elizabeth. Waterloo Diary: Woman Battle Artist in Training. Ed. Juliet McMaster with Sarah Bezan, Adela Burke, Brandi Goddard, Yifan Li, and Kaarina Mikalson. Sydney, Australia: Juvenilia Press, 2015.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles:
1 “Coastal Methodologies: Audio-Visual Workbooking in Ayasha Guerin’s Submerged.” A special issue of “Coastal Posthumanities” in Anthropocenes: Human, Inhuman, Posthuman vol. 2.1(2022). Co-edited by Sarah Bezan, Rich Gorman, and James Smith. (In partnership with University of Westminster Press; In Review).
2 “Dodo Birds and the Anthropogenic Wonderlands of Harri Kallio.” Parallax, vol. 25, no. 4, 2019: 427-445. (*To be reprinted as a foreword to Harri Kallio, The Dodo and Mauritius Island: Imaginary Encounters, 2nd Edition. Stockport, UK: Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2023).
3 “Regenesis Aesthetics: Visualizing the Woolly Mammoth in De-Extinction Science.” Antennae: Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, vol. 45, 2019, pp. 218-237.
4 “The Endling Taxidermy of Lonesome George: Iconographies of Extinction at the End of the Line.” Configurations: A Journal of Literature, Science, and Technology, vol. 27, no. 2, 2019, pp. 211-238. Co-Edited by Sarah Bezan and Susan McHugh.
5 “Necro-Eco: The Ecology of Death in Jim Crace’s Being Dead.” Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature, vol. 8, no. 3, 2015, pp. 191-207.
6 “Shame as a Structure of Feeling: Raped and Prostituted Women in J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace and Futhi Ntshingila’s Shameless.” Journal of the African Literature Association vol. 7, no. 1, 2012, pp. 15-24.
7 “‘This earth, hot like burning coals’: Alchemical Transmutation in Animal’s People.” Criterion vol. 5, 2012, pp. 99-108. [Graduate Journal]
8 “From the Mortician’s Scalpel to the Butcher’s Knife: Towards an Animal Thanatology.” Journal for Critical Animal Studies vol. 10, no. 1, 2012, pp. 119-37.
Book Chapters:
1 “Sexing Seas: Astrida Neimanis’s Blue Ecofeminism.” In The Oxford Handbook of Ecofeminism. Ed. Douglas Vakoch. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024 (Invited Contribution, In Progress).
2 “Prehistoric Futures of the Past: De-Extinction as Green Transition in Robbie Bushe’s NeoNeanderthals.” Green Transitions. Ed. Dolly Jørgensen and Finn Arne Jørgensen. (Publisher TBD; Invited Contribution; In Progress).
3 “Rewilding the Virtual: Bewilderment and Ecological Augmentation in Jakob Kudsk Steensen’s Re-Wildling.” In Digital Animalities: Media Representations of Nonhuman Life in the Age of Risk. Eds. Jody Berland and Thomas LaMarre. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2023 (Submitted).
4 “The Species Revivalist Sublime: Encountering the Kaua’i ‘ō‘ō in Jakob Kudsk Steensen’s Re-Animated.” In Animals, Plants, Afterimages: The Art and Science of Representing Extinction. Eds. Valérie Bienvenue and Nicholas Chare. New York: Berghahn, 2022 (Invited contribution), 211-229.
5 “A Posthumanist Critique of De-Extinction Science.” In Bioethics and the Posthumanities. Ed. Danielle Sands. London: Routledge, 2022, 87-98.
6 “Speculative Sex: Queering Biotechnological Futures in Larissa Lai’s Salt Fish Girl.” In Ecofeminist Science Fiction: International Perspectives on Gender, Ecology, and Literature. Edited by Douglas Vakoch. London: Routledge, 2021, 75-86.
7 “CanLit’s Ossiferous Fictions: Animal Bones in Margaret Atwood’s Life Before Man and Carol Shields’s The Stone Diaries.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Animals and Literature. Eds. Susan McHugh, Robert McKay, and John Miller. London: Palgrave, 2020, 473-486.
8 “Crossing the Barriers of Taste: The Alimentary Materialism of Jim Crace’s The Devil’s Larder.” In Literature and Meat Since 1900. Eds. Sean McCorry and John Miller. Palgrave Macmillan, “Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature” Series, 2019, 179-195.
9 “A Darwinism of the Muck and Mire: Decomposing Eco- and Zoopoetics in Stephen Collis and Jordan Scott’s decomp.” In Texts, Animals, Environments: Zoopoetics and Ecopoetics. Ed. Roland Borgards, Catrin Gersdof, Frederike Middelhoff, and Sebastian Schönbeck. Freiburg: Rombach Verlag “Cultural Animal Studies Series,” 2019, 241-253.
10 “The Anterior Animal: Derrida, Deep Time, and The Immersive Vision of Paleoartist Julius Csotonyi.” In Seeing Animals After Derrida. Ed. Sarah Bezan and James Tink. Lanham: Lexington Books, Rowman & Littlefield Imprint, 2018, 65-86.
Interviews:
1 “Sexing Seas and Waterways: An Interview with Astrida Neimanis.” A special issue of “Coastal Posthumanities” in Anthropocenes: Human, Inhuman, Posthuman vol 2.1 (2022). Co-edited by Sarah Bezan, Rich Gorman, and James Smith, approx. 5500 words. (In partnership with University of Westminster Press; In Press).
2 “Mapping Digital Animalities: An Interview with Ken Rinaldo.” In Exhibiting Digital Animalities, Ed. Matthew Brower. Toronto: Public, 2021, 70-89.
3 “Toxic Erotics: An Interview with Astrida Neimanis.” Rethinking Sexology (University of Exeter) Podcast Episode, June 11th 2019, 30 minutes.
http://rethinkingsexology.exeter.ac.uk/2018/12/sex-and-nature-1800-2018/
4 “An Interview with Sex and Nature Artist in Residence, Dr Amy Cutler.” Ina Linge and Sarah Bezan, Rethinking Sexology (University of Exeter) Podcast Episode, Sex and Nature Conference, June 11th 2019, 20 minutes. https://soundcloud.com/sexualknowledge/
5 “Towards a Medical Posthumanities: An Interview with Lucinda Cole.” University of Sheffield Animal Studies Research Centre Podcast Episode, April 30th 2019, 23 minutes.
http://sheffieldanimals.group.shef.ac.uk/sharc-podcast/
6 “Navigating the Terrain of Canadian Feminism(s): An Interview with GUTS Magazine, Co-founded by Nadine Adelaar and Cynthia Spring.” Inquire: Journal of Comparative Literature 4.2 (Nov. 2015): 1300 words.
Non-Peer Reviewed Publications:
1 “Why should we bring back extinct species in virtual reality?” 2900 words, Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity News & Views (Leverhulme Trust), May 2022.
2 “The Endling Taxidermy of Lonesome George, the Last Pinta Island Tortoise.” 2300 words, Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity News & Views (Leverhulme Trust), Nov. 2020.
3 “Novelty, Desire, and the Nature of Precedent: Human—Animal Relations in the Age of Covid-19.” 1000 words, BIOSEC Blog (European Research Council), June 2020.
4 “Fieldwork: A Response from Sarah Bezan and Robert McKay.” In Steve Baker: Fieldwork. Sheffield Animal Studies Research Centre Catalog of Works (April 29-30th 2019). ISBN 978-1-52724037-7. (Co-authored with Robert McKay).
5 “ShARC Report: Animal Remains Conference, April 29-30th 2019.” Sheffield Animal Studies Research Centre Blog, May 2019, 650 words.
http://sheffieldanimals.group.shef.ac.uk/animal-remains-report-sarah-bezan/
6 “Multispecies Posthumanism in an Age of Mass Extinction.” Bioethics and Posthumanism Meeting Report, British Academy Project [Posthumanities: Redefining Humanities for the Fourth Industrial Age, PI: Danielle Sands], 600 words. https://posthumanities.co.uk/
7 “Rural Ruins: Rewilding Ghost-Places on the Saskatchewan Prairies.” Route 57, Environs: Modern Natures issue, May 2019, 3000 words, 10 personal photographs.
8 “Skin/Screen: The Enfleshed Fossils of Julius Csotonyi’s Interactive Murals.” Digital Animalities Blog, Dec. 2018, 2500 words.
9 “Nature’s Nickelodeons: A Multispecies Sensorium.” Sheffield Animal Studies Research Centre Blog, June 11th 2018, 750 words.
10 “Draw a New Circle.” In Theory: A Newsletter of the Cornell University International School of Criticism and Theory (2016): 550 words. [Invited contribution.]
11 “Contending With Marginal Histories in Books That Spur.” The Line: An Online Publication of Spur National Festival of Politics, Art & Ideas (2016): 400 words.
https://spurfestival.ca/contending-with-marginal-histories-in-books-that-spur/
12 Guillaume Morissette. New Tab. 2014. 164 pp. The Bull Calf Review 5.2 (Winter 2016): 550 words.
13 Diane Schoemperlen. By the Book. 2014. 218 pp. The Bull Calf Review 5.1 (Winter 2015): 750 words.
14 “Ecology and Environmental Humanities Symposium, Rice University.” Journal for Critical Animal Studies 12.1 (2014): 1000 words.
15 Gail Scott. Obituary. 2010. 186 pp. The Bull Calf Review 2.2 (Spring 2012): 500 words.
T E A C H I N G
Courses Taught:
2022 Advanced Option Module (3rd Year) on Literature and Extinction; Master of Arts in Literature and Film Module (co-taught)
2017-2018 English Composition (online module); Introductory English (Animal Metamorphoses); Postmodern Fiction and Film (half-term to cover a sick leave)
2012, 2014 Topics in Women’s Writing: Death & Desire in Contemporary Women’s Fiction
2011 Topics in Literary Studies
Courses Developed:
2012 Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies: Sexual and Cultural Revolutions (teaching offer declined)
Guest Lectures:
2022 Master of Arts module on Animal Encounters in Film
2019 Undergraduate module on Criticism and Literary Theory (Animal Theory class)
2018 Master of Arts module on American Literature and Postmodernism (Animal Studies class)
Supervisions:
2022 Nikki Paterson, PhD Dissertation, “Linking Biodiversity, Nature Connectedness and Health Over the Lifecourse” (Co-Supervisor with Pete Coventry, Health Sciences & Piran White, Environment and Geography)
2019 George Probert, Master of Arts Work Placement Thesis, “Beyond the Bomber’s Radar View of History: Perspective and Memory in W.G. Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn”
A W A R D S & F E L L O W S H I P S
In the last ten years, I have secured over $423,654 CAD (£263,360) in individual funding and grants towards research, study, and public engagement initiatives.
External Awards:
2022 Green Transitions Workshop Travel & Accommodation Supplement | University of Stavanger, Norway (€600)
2018-20 Newton International Fellowship | British Academy & Royal Society
University of Sheffield, UK (£100,000) *Scheme success rate: 11%
2019 Additional Training and Dissemination Grant | British Academy (£5,000)
2019 Digital Animalities Writing Workshop Travel & Accommodation Supplement (£350)
2019 Narrative Science in Techno-Environments (London School of Economics, UK) Travel & Accommodation Stipend (£250)
2017-18 University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities Research Dissemination Stipend ($1,500)
2017 Australasian Animal Studies Association Conference Travel Scholarship University of Adelaide, Australia ($1,500)
2016 Cornell University International School of Criticism and Theory Tuition Grant ($2,000)
2016 Volkswagen Foundation Travel & Accommodation Supplement for Texts, Animals, Environments International Symposium, Castle Herrenhausen, Germany ($2000)
2015-17 Izaak Walton Killam Doctoral Fellowship ($70,000)
2015 SSHRC Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement ($6,000)
2015 University of Toronto Comparative Literature Travel Bursary ($500)
2013 ACCUTE Conference Travel Award ($500)
2012-15 SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship ($105,000)
Internal Awards:
2017 Andrew Stewart Graduate Memorial Prize ($5,000)
2016 University of Alberta Faculty of Arts Graduate Student Research Travel Award ($2,500)
2016 University of Alberta English and Film Studies Graduate Program for Special Training ($430)
2015 Sarah Nettie Christie Travel Award ($2,000)
2014 University of Alberta Graduate Students Association Professional Development Award ($500)
2014 Profiling Alberta’s Graduate Students Award ($1,000)
2013 University of Alberta Graduate Students Association Professional Development Award ($500)
2013 Sarah Nettie Christie Travel Award ($1,000)
2012 University of Alberta President’s Doctoral Prize of Distinction ($20,000)
2012 University of Alberta Recruitment Scholarship ($5,000)
2010 McMaster University Graduate Entrance Scholarship ($4,000)
Research Grants for Knowledge Exchange Activities:
2023 Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity Internal Funding, Principal Investigator (Co-Applicant: Peter Sands) | The Art and Science of Species Revival Conference (£5,800)
2022-25 Centre for Modern Studies Internal Funding, Co-Applicant with Vanessa Ashall, Amanda Rees, and Erica Sheen | The Elephant in the Ivory Tower: An Antidisciplinary Animal Studies Network (£3,000).
2020-23 British Academy & Royal Irish Academy Seed Funding Grant (Co-Applicants: James Smith, Rich Gorman) | Interdisciplinary Coastal Communities: A Human-Nonhuman Skillshare Workshop (£2,000)
2020-23 British Academy & Royal Irish Academy Seed Funding Grant, Principal Investigator (Co-Applicants Ailise Bulfin, Sam Solnick, Paula McGrath) | Speculative Environments & Prospective Anthropocenes (£1,100)
2019 Arts Enterprise Grant, University of Sheffield (£1,200)
[Animal Remains Conference Artist Showcase, Fieldwork, with Steve Baker]
H O N O U R S
2021 Honourable Mention — Vcologies Early Career Essay Prize (North American Victorian Studies Association) for “A Darwinism of the Muck and Mire: Decomposing Eco- and Zoopoetics in Stephen Collis and Jordan Scott’s decomp.”
2020 Outstanding Postdoctoral Fellow Nomination, The University of Sheffield
https://padlet.com/thinkahead/pa9uq9b2rzr8mkqq
2015 Member of an Editing Team Nominated for a William M.B. Berger Prize in British Art History
[For Juvenilia Press Book Project, Waterloo Diary: Woman Battle Artist in Training]
2013 Featured as one of Top 12 Doctoral Students at The University of Alberta
Quaecumque Vera Honour Society Annual Luncheon (Hosted by University of Alberta President Dr. Indira Samarasekera)
I N V I T E D T A L K S & P U B L I C E N G A G E M E N T
Nov. 2022 “One Health and the Environment.” Panelist nominated by the British Academy & Royal Society, G7 Research Summit | Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada (Declined)
Jul. 2022 “The Culture of Emergency and Crisis.” Panelist, Emergencies, Wellbeing and Social Justice in the Anthropocene Workshop | The University of York, UK & University of São Paulo, Brazil
Jun. 2022 “Literature for a Changing Planet with Martin Puchner (Harvard).” Chair & Moderator, York Festival of Ideas | The University of York, UK
May 2022 “The Species Revivalist Sublime: Encountering the Kaua’i ‘ō‘ō in Jakob Kudsk Steensen’s Re-Animated.” Modern Research Seminar | The University of York, UK
Nov. 2021 Keynote for “Popularizing STEM: Science and Technology in 21st Century US Popular Culture.” PopMeC Association for US Popular Culture Studies | (Declined due to maternity leave)
Oct. 2021 “(S)extinction: Asexual Reproduction, Biotechnology, and the Endling.”
Yale Environmental Humanities Lecture Series | Yale University, USA (Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic)
Dec. 2020 “Famous Monsters: (S)extinction and Endling Sex.” Sex and Nature Salon, co-presented with Maria Lux | The University of Exeter, UK (online)
Oct. 2019 “Introduction to The Missing Lynx: The Past and Future of Britain’s Lost Mammals by Ross Barnett.” Off the Shelf Festival of Words, Author’s Introduction with Ross Barnett and Moderation of Audience Q&A | Sheffield Hallam University, UK
Mar. 2019 “Endling Taxidermy: Lonesome George and the Iconographies of Extinction.”
Modern and Contemporary Literature Seminar | The University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
Feb. 2019 “Regenesis Aesthetics: Visualizing the Woolly Mammoth in De-Extinction Science.”
Northern Animal Studies Network | The University of Leeds, UK
Oct. 2018 “Woolly Mammoth: A Visual Icon for De-Extinction Science.”
Ideas Alive at 5:45| Off the Shelf Festival of Words, Sheffield UK
May 2018 “What are Paleo-Imaginaries?”
The University of Sheffield Animal Studies Research Centre Speaker Series | The University of Sheffield, UK
Nov. 2017 “A Darwinism of the Muck and Mire.”
The University of Manitoba Critical Environments Research Group | The University of Manitoba, Canada
Nov. 2017 “A Kaleidoscope of Colour: Colour Theory and Ichthyology in Richard Flanagan’s Gould’s Book of Fish.”
The University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities Speaker Series | The University of Manitoba, Canada
Apr. 2017 “The Anterior Animal: Derrida, Deep Time, and the Immersive Vision of Paleoartist Julius Csotonyi.”
The University of Manitoba New Research Colloquium Series | The University of Manitoba, Canada
Jan. 2017 “A Post-Mortem Cartography of Corals.”
Stanford University Environmental Humanities Project Workshop Series | Stanford University, USA
Mar. 2016 “Charles Darwin’s Post-Mortem Natural History: (De)Composing the Earth Through the Action of Worms.”
University of Chicago Animal Studies Research Group | University of Chicago, USA
M E D I A A P P E A R A N C E S
Sept. 2022 “Extinction Studies with Sarah Bezan,” Interview Conducted by Dr. Hita Unnikrishnan
In Common Podcast | International Association for the Study of the Commons
Nov. 2018 “Endling Taxidermy with Sarah Bezan,” Interview Conducted by Dr. Siobhan O’Sullivan
Knowing Animals Podcast | The University of New South Wales, Australia
P E E R - R E V I E W E D C O N F E R E N C E P R E S E N T A T I O N S
Nov. 2022 “Prehistoric Futures of the Past: De-Extinction as Green Transition in Robbie Bushe’s NeoNeanderthals.”
Green Transitions Workshop | The University of Stavanger, Norway
Jul. 2022 “The Necrophonics of Blue Extinction.”
Blue Extinction Conference | The University of Sheffield, UK
May 2022 “A Kaleidoscope of Colour: Colour Theory and Ichthyology in Richard Flanagan’s Gould’s Book of Fish.”
Internal Conference | The University of Sheffield Animal Studies Research Centre
Nov. 2020 “Sonorous Fossils: Sculpting Sound in Etienne de France’s Tales of a Sea Cow.”
Life With and Without Animals Conference | The University of Derby, UK
Oct. 2020 “(S)extinction in Public: Endling Zombies and Species Revivalist Horror in Maria Lux’s Famous Monsters.”
Extinction in Public Symposium | Manchester Museum, UK
Apr. 2020 “Test Tube Tiger: Sequencing the Thylacine in Species Revivalist Fiction.”
British Society for Literature and Science | University of Sheffield, UK (Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic)
Mar. 2020 “(S)extinction: Endling Zombies and Species Revivalist Horror in Maria Lux’s Famous Monsters.”
ACLA Conference | Chicago, USA (Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic)
Jul. 2019 “Narrating Species Revivalism.” Panel Presentation & Poster.
Narrative Science in Techno-Environments Workshop | London School of Economics, UK
Apr. 2019 “The Virtual Realities of Species Revivalism: Restoring the Kaua’i Bird in Jakob Kudsk Steensen’s Re-Animated.”
Animal Remains Conference | University of Sheffield, UK
Mar. 2019 “The Bioethics of De-Extinction Science.”
Posthumanities: Redefining Humanities for the Fourth Industrial Age | Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
Mar. 2019 “Extinction’s Ovum: The Origination of Great Auk Eggs in Jeremy Page’s The Collector of Lost Things.”
ACLA Conference | Georgetown University, USA
Nov. 2018 “Unlocking Paleo-Imaginaries: The Speculative Arts and Sciences of the Woolly Mammoth Revival Project.”
SLSA Conference | University of Toronto, Canada
Oct. 2018 “Skin/Screen: The Enfleshed Fossils of Julius Csotonyi’s Interactive Murals.”
Baltic Environmental Humanities and Social Sciences Conference | Latvian University, Latvia
Sept. 2018 “Mammoth 2.0: The Risks and Speculative Aesthetics of Species Revivalism.”
Manchester Centre for Political Theory Workshop on Preventing the ‘Age of Loneliness’: Conservation, Ecological Restoration, Adaptation, & the Nonhuman | Manchester University, UK
Apr. 2018 “Speculative Sex: Queering Origin Stories in Larissa Lai’s Salt Fish Girl.”
British Animal Studies Network | University of Strathclyde, Scotland, UK
Nov. 2017 “Zombie Zoology: Taxidermy and De-Extinction.”
Taxidermic Forms and Fictions Roundtable (Co-Organized by Susan McHugh and Sarah Bezan) | SLSA Conference, Arizona State University, USA
Oct. 2017 Co-presented with Hollande Bezan, Artist. “Decomposing Embodiment in Literature and Art.”
Association for the Arts of the Present Roundtable | University of California at Berkeley, USA
Oct. 2017 “An Edenic Rebirth: Becoming-Compost Through Natural Burial.”
Animals and Religion Conference | University of Winnipeg, Canada
Jul. 2017 “Vegetal Flesh: Embodying Edibility in Jim Crace’s The Devil’s Larder.”
Australasian Animal Studies Association Conference | University of Adelaide, Australia
Jun. 2017 “Darwin’s Geo-Vitalism: Mapping a Cartography of Corals in the Underwater Sculptures of Jason deCaires Taylor.”
ASLE Biennial Conference | Wayne State University, USA
Oct. 2016 “From Annelid to Hominid: (De)Composing the Book in Stephen Collis and Jordan Scott’s decomp.”
Texts, Animals, Environments International Symposium | Castle Herrenhausen, Hannover, Germany
Oct. 2015 “The Mouldering Museum: Taxidermy and the Deconstruction of Animality in Novels by Martel, Mosse, Millet, and York.”
Reconfiguring Human and Non-Human Seminar | University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Sept. 2015 “Charles Darwin’s Post-Mortem Natural History: (De)Composing the Earth Through the Action of Worms.”
ASLE-UKI Biennial Conference | University of Cambridge, UK
Mar. 2015 “Recording “ooze, slyme, murk”: Peter Greenaway’s Ethology of Creaturely Putrefaction in A Zed and Two Noughts.”
ACLA Conference | University of Washington, USA
Mar. 2015 “The Persistence of the Post-Mortem: Survival and Preservation in Lydia Millet’s Trilogy.”
Centre for Comparative Literature “Survival" Conference | The University of Toronto, Canada
Oct. 2014 “Necro-Eco: The Ecology of Death and the Animacy of the Corpse in Jim Crace’s Being Dead.”
A Matter of Life/Death Conference | The University of Manitoba, Canada
Mar. 2014 “Becoming-Inert: Post-Mortem Flesh in the Art of Joel-Peter Witkin.”
ACLA Conference | New York University, USA
Oct. 2013 “Species Extinction, Temporality, and the ‘Last Death’ in Lydia Millet’s How the Dead Dream.”
The End as Enjambment Graduate Workshop | University of Alberta, Canada
Sept. 2013 “The Political Ecology of the Corpse and Carcass in Aurel Schmidt’s ‘Man-eater’ Collection.”
Ecology and Environmental Humanities Symposium | Rice University, USA
Jun. 2013 “Shame as a Structure of Feeling: Raped and Prostituted Women in J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace and Futhi Ntshingila’s Shameless.”
ACCUTE Conference - SSHRC Annual Congress | University of Victoria, Canada
Apr. 2013 “Animal Atopias.”
ACLA Conference | University of Toronto, Canada
Nov. 2012 “The Ethics of Edibility: Food Animals in Perspective.”
Critical Animal Studies Open Dialogue Forum | The University of Winnipeg, Canada
Mar. 2012 “The Alterity of Death and Animality: Collapsing the Divide.”
ACLA Conference | Brown University, USA
Mar. 2011 “From the Mortician’s Scalpel to the Butcher’s Knife.”
Human Rites/Animal Bodies Symposium | The University of Manitoba, Canada
Apr. 2010 “Spotting Banksy: Graffiti and Surveillance Culture.”
The Archive: A Symposium | McMaster University, Canada
Feb. 2010 “Places, Non-Places, and Ghost-Places on the Canadian Prairies.”
A Measure of Place Graduate Conference | McGill University, Canada
C U R A T I O N & P U B L I C A R T S E N G A G E M E N T
2022-23 Lead Organizer for Research-Led Artist Residencies, Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity, University of York, UK (2022-2023)
2019 Fieldwork (Artist: Steve Baker), Co-Curated with Robert McKay (Sheffield) and Maria Lux (Whitman College) for Animal Remains Conference, The University of Sheffield, Jessop West Building (April 29-30th 2019)
2019 The Birds and the Bees: Eco-Sex Pedagogy (Artist: Amy Cutler), Co-Organized with Ina Linge (Exeter) for Sex and Nature Conference, The University of Exeter, Phoenix Gallery (June 10-11th 2019)
I N T E R N A T I O N A L R E S E A R C H & T R A I N I N G
2020 “Zoomorphic Bodies in an Age of Mass Extinction” (co-presented with Jonathan Osborn, York University) at University of Utrecht Reading Zoos: Extinction, Conservation, Resurrection Workshop
2020 British Academy & Royal Irish Academy Knowledge Frontiers Symposium on “Natures, Cultures, and Communities”
Dublin, Ireland
2020 UK Future Earth (EKFE) Early Career Researchers and Practitioners (ECRP) Workshop (*Nominated by Dr. David Farrier, The University of Edinburgh)
Royal Society and British Academy | Kings College London, UK
2019 British Academy & Australian Academy for the Humanities Knowledge Frontiers Forum on “Humanising the Future”
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
2019 Digital Media, Digital Methods and the Humanities Workshop
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
2019 Digital Animalities Writing Workshop (Organizer: Jody Berland)
Queen Mary University of London, UK
2019 Colby College Environmental Humanities Summer Institute (Mellon Foundation)
Directors: Stephanie LeMenager, Amanda Boetzkes, and Kyle Whyte | Waterville, Maine, USA
2019 Oxford University Digital Humanities Summer Institute
Directors: Judy Dendy | University of Oxford, UK
2019 Ischia Summer School on the History of the Life Sciences (Fritz Thyssen Foundation)
Directors: Janet Browne (Harvard), Nick Hopwood (Cambridge), Staffan Müller-Wille (Cambridge) | Ischia & Naples, Italy
2018 Interdisciplinary Environmental Humanities Summer Course (Human Ecology and Culture at Lake Mývatn 1700-2000: Dimensions of Environmental and Cultural Change)
Host: The Svartárkot Culture-Nature Project/The Reykjavik Academy/City University of New York/Stefansson Arctic Institute
Director: Viðar Hreinsson (Reykjavik Academy) | Bárðardalur, Iceland
2018 Animals and Society Summer Institute in Human-Animal Studies
Director: Jane Desmond (UIllinois U-C), Kenneth Shapiro (ASI) et al. | University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), USA
2018 University of Oxford Summer Session
Bodleian Libraries Centre for the Study of Book
Enrolled in Seminar: “The Scientific Image”
Convenor: Roger Gaskell (Cambridge) | University of Oxford, UK
2017 University of Winnipeg Oral History Centre
Introduction to Oral History Workshop (Research Certificate)
Project: “Histories of Inglis and Pangnirtung: Jim and Wendy”
2016 Cornell University International School of Criticism and Theory Summer School
Enrolled in Seminar: “Material Life: Vitalism from Spinoza to Deleuze”
Director: Branka Arsić (Columbia) | Cornell University, USA
2015 Cambridge University Visiting PhD Student (Sept-Dec)
Project: “Charles Darwin’s Post-Mortem Natural History”
Supervisor: Jim Secord | Cambridge University Department of History and Philosophy of Science, UK
2014 Utrecht University “Critical Theory Beyond Negativity” Summer School
Director: Rosi Braidotti | Utrecht University, The Netherlands
P R O F E S S I O N A L D E V E L O P M E N T & P E D A G O G I C A L P R A C T I C E
2022 The Conversation Long Form Writing Workshop | University of York, UK
2022 The Conversation Pitch Writing Workshop | University of York, UK
2020 Marking Training Session | University of York, UK
2020 How to Make a Podcast Workshop | University of Sheffield, UK
2019 Introduction to Research Impact Workshop | University of Sheffield, UK
2017 Accessibility Training | University of Winnipeg, Canada
2013 Teaching Proseminar | University of Alberta, Canada
2012 Teaching Assistant Training Seminar | McMaster University, Canada
2012 Higher Education Teaching Practicum | The University of Winnipeg, Canada
P E E R R E V I E W I N G
2021-2022 Reviewer for Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies
2017-2019 Reviewer for Animal Studies Journal, Colloquy: Text, Theory, Critique, the Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature Series
2016-2017 Reviewer for Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture, and Social Justice
B O A R D M E M B E R S H I P & G O V E R N A N C E
2017-2018 Past President, University of Winnipeg Alumni Association
2016-2017 President, University of Winnipeg Alumni Association
2017 Volunteer, VegFest (an event organized by the Farm Animal Compassion Committee at the Winnipeg Humane Society)
2016, 2017 RBC Emerging Scholar, Spur National Festival of Politics, Art & Ideas (Winnipeg)
2014-2016 Council Member, University of Winnipeg Alumni Association
2012-2015 Intern, Institute for Critical Animal Studies (New York, USA)
2013-14 Board Member, Animal Cancer Therapy Subsidization Society of Alberta
2011-12 Board Member, City of Winnipeg Public Library Board of Directors
2011-12 Board Member, LiteracyWORKS Winnipeg Board of Directors
D E P A R T M E N T A L S U P P O R T & A C T I V I T I E S
The University of York:
May 2022 Invited Presenter, “The Coastal Humanities,” Whole Organism Ecology Group
The University of Sheffield:
May 2022 Invited Guest, “What is a Postdoc?” Panel, ShARC Tales Workshop
2018-20 Research Coordinator for ShARC (Sheffield Animal Studies Research Centre)
The University of Alberta:
2013-14 Faculty of Graduate Studies Research Councillor
2012-13 English & Film Studies Department Graduate Student Executive Council
The University of Winnipeg:
Mar. 2017 Organizer & Moderator, Distinguished Alumni Mentorship Speaker Series with Ben Sparrow, CEO of Sparrow Hotels
Jan. 2017 Organizer, University of Winnipeg Alumni Association Book Club
Dec. 2016 Organizer & Host, University of Winnipeg Alumni Association Holiday Jingle
Dec. 2016 Organizer & Moderator, Distinguished Alumni Mentorship Speaker Series with Warren Breckman, Professor of History (University of Pennsylvania)
Sept. 2013 Presenter, Graduate School Information Session
Feb. 2012 Presenter, Rough Cuts & Demo Tapes Roundtable
Sept. 2010 Presenter, Information Session for Honours Students
May 2009 Volunteer, Carol Shields Symposium
S E M I N A R & C O N F E R E N C E O R G A N I Z A T I O N
Dec 2022 Organizer with Peter Sands
“The Art and Science of Species Revival” Conference
University of York Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity, UK
May 2022 Organizer with Paula McGrath, Sam Solnick, and Ailise Bulfin
“Prospective Anthropocenes and Speculative Environments” Tête à Tête Event University College Dublin Environmental Humanities Lecture Series, Ireland
Oct. 2020 Co-Presenter with Giulia Champion, University of Warwick, UK
“Experiential Research for the Environmental Humanities” Brown Bag Lunch Webinar, UK Future Earth Early Career Researcher & Practitioner Network
Jun. 2019 Co-Organizer with Ina Linge, University of Exeter, UK
Sex and Nature Conference | The University of Exeter, UK (60+ abstracts received)
Keynotes: Greta LaFleur (Yale University, USA), Astrida Neimanis (University of Sydney, Australia), with Artist in Residence Amy Cutler (Royal Holloway, University of London)
Apr. 2019 Lead Organizer with Robert McKay, University of Sheffield, UK
Animal Remains Conference | University of Sheffield, UK (90+ abstracts received)
Keynotes: Thom Van Dooren (University of Sydney, Australia), Lucinda Cole (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), with Artist in Residence Steve Baker (University of Central Lancashire)
Nov. 2018 “Strategizing the PhD.” ShARC Tales Masterclass for Postgraduate Students. ShARC Tales Workshop | The University of Sheffield, UK
Oct. 2017 Organizing Committee Member, with Arthur Walker-Jones
Human-Animal Ethics in Religious Discourses Conference | The University of Winnipeg, Canada
Jun. 2015 Lead Discussant, “Necro-Eco: The Ecology of Death in Jim Crace’s Being Dead.”
The University of Manitoba Posthumanism Reading Group | The University of Manitoba, Canada
Apr. 2015 Organizer, “The Animal and the Anthropocene.”
Environment and Animal Studies Roundtable | The University of Alberta, Canada
Jun. 2013 Panel Chair, “Animal Others.”
ACCUTE Conference | The University of Victoria, Canada
Nov. 2012 Organizer & Presenter, “The Ethics of Edibility.”
The Ethics of Edibility Open Dialogue Forum: A Project of the Critical Animal Studies Institute | The University of Winnipeg, Canada
Apr. 2010 Co-Organizer & Presenter, “Rural Ruins.”
Seeds of Thought Vox Populi Graduate Symposium | McMaster University, Canada
L A N G U A G E S
French, Latin (Basic Reading Knowledge); German (Beginner)
M E M B E R S H I P S
UK Future Earth Early Career Researcher & Practitioner Network (ECRP)
British Society for Literature and Science (BSLS)
American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA)
Modern Language Association (MLA)
Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment (ASLE)
Association for Literature, the Environment, and Culture in Canada (ALECC)
Australasian Animal Studies Association (AASA)
Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts (SLSA)