THE POWER OF STORIES

How have writers used literary forms to tell feminist stories or imagine feminist futures? If we understand feminism as a political project that works towards a fair and just world for women, how can creating narratives about such worlds assist in the project? In this class, we will read various stories of adventurous and resilient women and gender-diverse characters. We will pay particular attention to narratives that push the boundaries of realism as we focus on gothic, fantastical, and speculative fiction. The playfulness and flexibility of these forms can make for creative ways of telling feminist stories. In addition to shorter readings, students will be assigned four novels: Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Octavia Butler’s Kindred, and Jessica Johns’ Bad Cree.

With enrolment up 20% since 2023, a 40% surge in second-year courses, and 98% graduate satisfaction, the Department of English saw the fastest growth in enrolment of any department at the University of Lethbridge in the period 2023-2025.

University of Lethbridge Professor Daniel Paul O’Donnell’s 2017 co-authored paper on the culture of research assessment has been named among Nature’s Top 50 Humanities Articles of the Decade. With more than 64 000 reads, 192 citations, it is the top paper in the Humanities published in the Nature imprint, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications.

Adjunct Assistant Professor and founding member of the Humanities Innovation Lab, Barbara Bordalejo, delivered a keynote address to the Genesis conference at Vilnius University on Thursday, October 2, 2025.

What happens when two Holocaust survivors rebuild their lives—and their friendship—through letters across continents and decades?
In Letters from the Afterlife, Professor Emerita Goldie Morgentaler brings to light the extraordinary correspondence between Chava Rosenfarb and Zenia Larsson, revealing a deeply personal post-Holocaust narrative of trauma, resilience, and literary achievement.

Students Present Research in French at International Conference

Undergraduate Jocelyn McKnight and PhD candidate Davide Pafumi represented the University of Lethbridge this week with a French-language lecture on digital philology

The Department of English welcomes two new colleagues this semester: Jessica Copley (Contemporary Literature) and Dana Lew (Eighteenth Century). 

Jessica Copley has been appointed to a tenure-track position in contemporary literature. She is teaching our first year course (English 1900) this semester and will be teaching courses in her research specialty in the Winter Semester. 

Dana Lew joins us for a three-year position in eighteenth-century literature. He is currently teaching a fourth year seminar, Violent Voyages: Fiction and Travel before 1800.

Both new faculty members come to the University of Lethbridge from the University of Toronto.

Professor Ian McAdam’s Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Religious Toleration has just been published by University of Toronto Press. The major work of scholarship reconsiders how Marlowe and Shakespeare engaged with the theological conflicts of their age, offering new insight into the early stirrings of religious tolerance.

Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Religious Toleration is McAdam's third monograph.

Dr. Daniel Paul O’Donnell, Professor of English and Director of the Humanities Innovation Lab, has received a four-year, $300,000 Insight Grant from SSHRC. His project, Resistance to Data, explores how humanities scholars work with research materials and how data infrastructure can better support them. Over 90% of the funding will support graduate students and a postdoctoral fellow.