Kit Dobson
Positions
Professor
Contact information
I'm looking for...
Learning opportunities
I am accepting queries for graduate supervision and committee membership in the areas of literatures in Canada, Indigenous literatures, literary and cultural theory, ecocriticism, and adjacent fields.
Learning opportunities
I am accepting queries for postdoctoral supervision in the areas of literatures in Canada, Indigenous literatures, literary and cultural theory, ecocriticism, and adjacent fields.
Background
Educational Background
PhD English, University of Toronto,
MA English, University of York, UK,
BA Hons English, University of Victoria,
Biography
I am a faculty member whose work brings together concerns about culture, place, and the arts. I have written about literatures in Canada across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This work has been hailed as “foundational” for literary studies in Canada. In 2015, I was awarded the inaugural Outstanding Scholar Award by Mount Royal University’s Faculty of Arts, and in 2016 I was awarded the Eakin Visiting Fellowship in Canadian Studies at McGill University and the Rita and Charles Bronfman Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2020 I served as a visiting scholar at the University of Salamanca, Spain. I joined the University of Calgary as a Profesor in 2021.
My books are Transnational Canadas: Canadian Literature and Globalization; the edited collection Transnationalism, Activism, Art (with Áine McGlynn); and the book of interviews Producing Canadian Literature: Authors Speak on the Literary Marketplace (with Smaro Kamboureli). I am the editor of the selected works of derek beaulieu, the 2014-16 Poet Laureate of Calgary, a book entitled Please, No More Poetry: The Selected Poetry of derek beaulieu. In the fall of 2017, I published a book of literary non-fiction about shopping malls in Canada titled Malled: Deciphering Shopping in Canada. In 2020 I co-edited the book Dissonant Methods: Undoing Discipline in the Humanities Classroom (2020; edited by Ada Jaarsma and Kit Dobson) and in 2021 I co-edited the book All the Feels / Tous les sens: Affect and Writing in Canada / Affect et écriture au Canada (2021; edited by Marie Carrière, Ursula Mathis-Moser, and Kit Dobson). Both are with the University of Alberta Press. My most recent book is the non-fiction book Field Notes on Listening, published by Wolsak & Wynn in 2022. My first novel, with the working title We Are Already Ghosts, is scheduled to be published by the University of Calgary Press in 2024.
At present, I serve on the editorial boards of the Edmonton-based non-profit publisher NeWest Press, the journal Canadian Literature, and the journal ARIEL: A Review of International English Literatures. I am based in Calgary, Alberta, on the territory of the signatories to Treaty 7; the traditional territory of the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot), Iyarhe Nakoda (Stoney), and Tsuut’ina; and of the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3.
Research
Participation in university strategic initiatives
Courses
| Course number | Course title | Semester |
|---|---|---|
| ENGL 251 | Literature and Society | Fall 2023 |
| ENGL 520 | Community Engagement through Literature | Fall 2023 |
Projects
This two-year project is funded by an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. It assembles a team of scholars in order to investigate shifts in our understanding of landscape and environment in western Canada specifically through the lens of biodiversity. Outcomes include an upcoming special issue of the journal Canada and Beyond and a Readers' Forum in the journal Canadian Literature.
This project marks my first publication as a novelist. Scheduled for spring 2024, We Are Already Ghosts is both a multi-generational family drama and a work of experimental fiction that unfolds between 1991 and 2006.
Awards
- Nominee, Students’ Union Teaching Excellence Award, University of Calgary. 2023
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Development Grant, SSHRC. 2022
- Award to Scholarly Publications Program (x2), Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. 2019
- Rita and Charles Bronfman Award for Teaching Excellence, McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, McGill University . 2016
- Faculty of Arts Outstanding Scholar Award, Mount Royal University. 2015
- Award to Scholarly Publications Program, Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. 2011
- Award to Scholarly Publications Program, Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. 2009
- Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship, Dalhousie University. 2008
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship, SSHRC / University of Guelph. 2006
Publications
- Field Notes on Listening. Dobson, Kit. Wolsak & Wynn. 156. (2022)
- All the Feels: Affect and Writings in Canada / Tous les sens: Affect et écritures au Canada. Carrière, Marie, Ursula Moser, and Kit Dobson, editors. U Alberta P. (2021)
- Dissonant Methods: Undoing Discipline in the Humanities Classroom. Jaarsma, Ada, and Kit Dobson, editors. (2020)
- Malled: Deciphering Shopping in Canada. Dobson, Kit. Wolsak & Wynn. (2017)
- Producing Canadian Literature: Authors Speak on the Literary Marketplace. Dobson, Kit, and Smaro Kamboureli. Wilfrid Laurier UP. (2013)
- Transnationalism, Activism, Art. Dobson, Kit, and Áine McGlynn, editors. (2013)
- Please, No More Poetry: The Poetry of derek beaulieu.. Dobson, Kit, editor, and derek beaulieu, author. Wilfrid Laurier UP. (2013)
- Transnational Canadas: Globalization and Anglo-Canadian Literature. Dobson, Kit. Wilfrid Laurier UP. (2009)
In the News
- Canadian Pandemic Books and the During-Times. 49th Shelf. (2023)
- The Best Canadian Nonfiction of 2022. CBC. (2022)
- Uche Umezurike Interviews Kit Dobson. Read Alberta. (2022)
- Writing Alberta: A Recommended Reading List. 49th Shelf. (2022)
- Read the Provinces: Kit Dobson. All Lit Up. (2020)
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