Dr. Gregory Brophy’s teaching draws upon a wide range of interests, including Victorian and Modern British Literature as well and film and visual culture. He’s studied at Trent and Queen’s University (B.Ed), and earned his Masters and PhD in English Literature at Western University.

Dr. Brophy’s class structure is shaped by a conviction that learning is a social process. Through it, students practice creating and entering into public space. Ideally, this space begins to take shape through challenging but respectful discussion, guided by the recognition and negotiation of differing points of view, and directed towards the gradual development and expression of one’s own compelling and convincing positions.  He typically uses lectures to draw readings into conversation with present-day concerns, thereby helping students to map out continuities of human experience, as well as identify the irreducible differences of social and historical context that can serve to destabilize our own ideologies and assumptions.

Having taught English at Bishop's since 1975, Robert Brown is the veteran of the department. He holds a cross-appointment in English and Modern Languages and concentrates on first-year courses in short fiction and poetry.

Born and raised in the western United States, Chad earned his B.A. in mass communication from the University of Utah. He spent the next 10 years as a writer working in broadcast news, public relations and corporate communications. Chad received his M.A. in English from Boise State University where he specialized in composition/rhetoric theory and nonfiction literature, with emphasis on the writings of Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Wolfe, and other New Journalists. Chad teaches journalism courses at Bishop’s and a recent addition focusing on another passion of his, the graphic novel.

Dr. Claire Grogan graduated with a Degree in English Literature and Language, and then a Post-Graduate Certificate of Education, from Trinity College, Oxford University. She then moved to Canada and completed a PhD at Calgary University in "Feminist Politics of British Women's Writing in the Revolutionary Period (1780-1830)."

Dr. Shawn Malley teaches a wide range of courses, including literary and cultural theory, postcolonial literatures, and creative writing. He earned his undergraduate and Masters degrees at the University of New Brunswick. His PhD in English Literature was completed at the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Malley's teaching is broadly informed by a cultural studies approach. He encourages students to read, think, and write about texts within the cultural contexts and discourses in which they were-and continue to be-created. He believes that the critical study of texts is the critical examination of ourselves and our world.

Dr. Linda Morra teaches Canadian and American literature, from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, and incorporates masculinity studies, feminist theory, globalization theory, and postcolonial theory.  She also developed courses related to Indigenous literature in Canada, as part of the University's newly developed Indigenous Studies Minor program (launched in October 2009). She is the coordinator of the Morris House Reading Series and SWEET (Student Writing Week/End in the Eastern Townships).

She earned her B.A. from the University of Toronto, and her M.A. and Ph.D. (in Canadian literature and Canadian Studies) from the University of Ottawa. She held a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of British Columbia, during which time she produced her book, Corresponding Influence: Selected Letters of Emily Carr and Ira Dilworth (2006).

Dr. Jessica Riddell has a broad range of teaching and research interests, including Renaissance drama (Shakespeare and his contemporaries); Medieval Drama; Medieval Literature, especially Chaucer; Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Poetry and Prose; Performance Studies; Gender and Sexuality Theory; and Masculinity Studies.
 
Dr. Riddell was awarded the William and Nancy Turner Award for Teaching Excellence (2011-2012), the most prestigious recognition of teaching excellence at Bishop’s. Her passion for teaching and learning – both inside and outside the classroom – is reflected in the many initiatives she has organized at Bishop’s. She is the founder and organizer of a national undergraduate conference called QUEUC (Quebec Universities English Undergraduate Conference), an interdisciplinary seminar series called STEP (Students Seeking to Excel Program), Graduating Gaiters (a program that supports incoming student-athletes), and has organized a number of events, including several debates (2010-2012), Shakespeare’s Trial for Fraud (2011-2012) and Queer Subjectivities, MTV style (2012).  In 2011, Dr. Riddell developed a youtube channel – called Dr. Riddell’s BU Channel – that features videos on how to survive and thrive in university (and covers topics on effective writing, studying, applying to grad school, etc.). She is also currently the founder and organizer of TEDxBishopsU, a TED conference that will take a multidisciplinary look at inspiration in higher education (February 9th, 2013 at Bishop’s University).

Dr. Riddell earned her Masters and PhD in English Literature from Queen’s University, where she held a SSHRC Doctoral scholarship. Upon graduation in 2009, Dr. Riddell was awarded a SSHRC post-doctoral fellowship (which she declined in favour of a tenure-stream position at Bishop’s). Dr. Riddell currently holds a SSHRC Grant for her work on early modern gender and genre theory.

Dr. Steven Woodward has wide-ranging interests in the areas of film studies, cultural studies, children's literature, and modern British literature. He grew up in England, fully expecting to become a secret agent as an adult, but the closest he's come to that is publishing a paper on villains in the James Bond movies. After studying at Queen's University, Ryerson University, and the University of Toronto, he taught at Nipissing University, the University of Toronto, and Clemson University (South Carolina).

Dr. Woodward is currently writing a book about cringe comedies like The Office, Da Ali G Show, and Curb Your Enthusiasm, editing a book of interviews with Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski, and preparing a third book about film adaptations of Jane Austen's novels. He edited a collection of essays about Kieslowski, published in 2009. In addition to his essay on James Bond villains, he has published articles on the architecture in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy and of murderous girls in the movies.

Dr. Joanne Craig grew up near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. She taught at the University of New Mexico before coming to live in Canada. Her degrees, all in English, are an AB from Bryn Mawr College, a BA and MA from the University of Oxford (St. Hilda's College), and a PhD from Harvard University.

She specializes in early modern literature, particularly sixteenth-century poetry. Her interests include feminist theory, new historicism, and psychoanalytic criticism.

Dr. Ken McLean was born in Wales, raised in Ireland, and came to Canada at the age of 10. He received a B.A. in English from Waterloo Lutheran (now Sir Wilfrid Laurier), an M.A. in Canadian Literature from McMaster, and a Ph. D. in Canadian Literature from York University.

Dr. McLean believes in an interactive classroom. He encourages students to participate in the examination of literature rather than passively absorb lectures. Creative reading is the priority.

Dr. Joanne Norman was born and grew up in Calgary, AB, but she received all her postsecondary education in eastern Canada: BA (joint honours English and History) at McGill, MA in Renaissance Literature (University of Toronto), and Ph.D. in Medieval Studies (University of Ottawa).

Professor Norman's interdisciplinary research interests were primarily in the dialogue between literature, art, and culture in the late middle ages. At the time of her death she was working on a survey of representations of the seven deadly sins in French and English medieval wall paintings and manuscripts.

In her teaching Dr. Norman tried to balance a close study of texts, including their language, with an examination of the social and historical contexts in which the texts are embedded. Students could find themselves translating Beowulf, learning about falconry and swordplay, reading a treatise on sex and marriage in Middle English, or participating in a medieval feast.

Dr. Norman passed away in 2008.

Born and raised in Vancouver, Dr. Glen Wickens received his B.A., Honours English, from the University of British Columbia. He did his graduate work at the University of Western Ontario where he wrote both a Master's and Doctoral Thesis on the novels of Thomas Hardy. Dr. Wickens taught at Western, the University of Alberta, and Athabasca University before coming to Bishop's.

Whether teaching a novel or a film, a poem or an essay, Professor Wickens tries to relate text to context and to balance lecturing with class discussion. Outside the classroom he plays tennis, badminton, and golf and enjoys camping and fly-fishing.