Elected Directors
Vin Nardizzi (Associate Professor, English, University of British Columbia) teaches Renaissance literature, ecocriticism, and queer and disability studies. Website / Email
Tiffany Werth (Associate Professor, English, University of California, Davis) teaches the English Reformations, romance in all its forms, and is currently researching early modern habits of taxonomy and all things mineral. Website / Email
David Coley (Associate Professor, English, Simon Fraser University) teaches Medieval literature, with an emphasis on the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. He is currently working on the Black Death and the shape it assumes in late-medieval English poetry. Website / Email
Executive Council of Players (2018-21)
Diversity Office: Mo Pareles (Assistant Professor, English, University of British Columbia) teaches medieval literature. She currently researches the mutual construction of species, sexual, and ethnic difference in medieval English religious literature. Website / Email
International/National Liaison: Allan Mitchell (Professor, English, University of Victoria) works across a range of medieval genres and is currently writing about how scientific texts and technical objects functioned as environmental interfaces. Email
Activities Coordinator: Fran Dolan (Distinguished Professor of English, University of California, Davis) has published five books, most recently True Relations: Reading, Literature, and Evidence in Seventeenth-Century England (2013), which won the John Ben Snow prize from the North American Conference on British Studies. Her current project, Digging the Past: How and Why to Imagine Seventeenth-Century Agriculture, includes chapters on composting and soil amendment, local food and turnips, winemaking, hedgerows, and Historic Jamestown. Email
Membership: Louisa Mackenzie, (Associate Professor, French and Italian Studies, University of Washington in Seattle). Their research and teaching interests include early modern French literature, ecocriticism, Animal Studies, and contemporary science fiction. Email
Membership: Sharon O’Dair (Professor Emerita, English, University of Alabama) currently lives in Berkeley, California and writes about Shakespeare, ecology, social class, and the profession of literary studies. Email
Secretary: Courtney Barajas (Assistant Professor of English & Director of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Whitworth University in Spokane) works at the intersection of literary, environmental, and religious studies. When she’s not reading or teaching, Courtney spends her time hiking, kayaking, and adding to her collection of cacti.
Graduate Student Liaisons
Job Description: Oecologies Graduate Student Liaisons
The Graduate Student Liaison (GSL) is an appointed position made on the recommendation of Oecologies’s Directors. Once appointed, GSLs serve in the Executive Council for a two-year term. The GSLs are responsible for facilitating connections and discussions and attending to interests, questions, and concerns across graduate communities. They likewise contribute to the growth and flourishing of the cluster by collaborating with and assisting Elected Directors, other members of the Executive Players, and Coordinators in their own respective projects and duties. GSLs’ responsibilities include (but are not limited to):
- Working with Oe members on organizing and participating in ecocritical panels at conferences, as well as helping to coordinate workshops and invited talks on member campuses
- Designing materials for social media and blog posts pertinent to graduate students and opportunities for graduate involvement
- Updating, in collaboration with the Digital Strategies Manager, the master list of scholarly resources/online bookshelf and the multimedia section of the website
- Amplifying the cluster’s presence by highlighting upcoming events, workshops, and recent publications on social media and across campuses
- Organizing and mediating both online and in-person graduate reading groups, workshops, and meetings
- Mentoring undergraduate students and devising initiatives for undergraduate involvement, where appropriate and in consultation with Oe Directors, Players, and/or Coordinators
- Assisting Oe members with fundraising logistics and efforts
- Staying up-to-date on professionalization and trends in graduate studies beyond the cluster to better serve the members of Oe
Alex Cosh, (English, University of British Columbia) researches early modern mercantile culture, economy, and conflict.
Karol Pasciano, (English, University of British Columbia) researches ecomateriality, queer ecologies, and affective transcorporeality in early modern theatrical environments. Twitter / Email
Breanne Weber (English, University of California, Davis) is obtaining her Ph.D. in English Literature with a designated emphasis in Science and Technology Studies. Her research interests include early modern women’s writing, environmental humanities, history of science/the book, and digital humanities. Email
If you have questions about our webpage or our programming, please contact Alexander Cosh.
