sharon d. engbrecht
Professional Appointments
2025-present
Post-Doctoral Fellow, International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation, University of Guelph
Education
2016-2025
Doctor of Philosophy, Department of English Language and Literatures, University of British Columbia
Dissertation: “Challenging Romance’s Story of Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Women’s Critical-Romance Novels”
2014-2016
Master of Arts, Department of English and Cultural Studies, McGill University
2013-2014
Bachelor of Arts Honours Certificate (Creative Thesis), Department of English, University of Regina
2009-2010
Bachelor of Arts, Department of English, University of Regina
2003-2008
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Department of Visual Arts, University of Regina
Research Expertise
Critical studies in gender and sexuality; British and Canadian women’s writing; feminist, queer, intersectional narrative theory and critique; post-colonial and decolonization theory; intercorporeality; critical approaches to feminist theories; critical race theory; histories of feminism; feminisms after Virginia Woolf; queer and trans* studies; the neuroqueer and crip theory; affect theory; phenomenology; critical studies in improvisation; script theory; romance and feminist love studies; feminist critiques of romance; feminist critiques of pornography; feminist approaches to abortion and reproductive justice
Publications
Peer-Reviewed Publications
2026
“The Gloriously Ugly in Marian Engel’s No Clouds of Glory (Sarah Bastard’s Notebook).” Canadian Literature. (forthcoming)
2026
“Encountering the ‘Difficult’ Text: Teaching Nalo Hopkinson’s ‘Inselberg’.” Studies in Canadian Literature. (forthcoming)
2023
“‘the suitcase in the closet’: Talking Zombi(e)s with Junie Désil (an Interview).” Canadian Literature, no. 252, 2023, pp. 104-27.
Peer-Reviewed Publications – Under Consideration
2026
“Deconstructing the Prescience: Margaret Atwood’s Production of Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth.” General submission to Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada. (under peer-review)
2025
“Dwelling In and On the Body: Improvised Unknowings of Gender through Sexuality.” Gender Reimagined special issue of Critical Studies in Improvisation. (submitted 15 Oct. 2025)
Other Publications
2025
“The Handmaid’s Tale Reflects Margaret Atwood’s Eerie Talent for Reading the Palm of Power.” The Conversation Canada, 25 May 2025.
2024
“Margaret Atwood’s Burning Questions.” University of Toronto Quarterly, vol. 93, no. 3, 2024, pp. 479-81.
2024
“Refined Language: How the Oil Industry Rebranded Itself (review).” Literary Review of Canada, September 2024, p. 25.
2024
“A Search for Belonging: James Jean’s Meadowlark Exhibition at CICA (gallery show review).” CICA Vancouver, July 2024.
2024
“Home Alone (Review).” Literary Review of Canada, Bookworm, no. 41, 30 Apr. 2024.
2024
“What Art Thou? (Review).” Literary Review of Canada, Bookworm, no. 27, 23 Jan. 2024.
2023
“Producing Canadian Literature (Editorial).” Canadian Literature, no. 252, 2023,
pp. 5-14.
2023
“Updating the Companion (Review).” Canadian Literature, no. 252, 2023, pp. 183-86.
2023
“Secrets, Deception, Celebrity (Book Review of Margaret Atwood’s Burning Questions and The Testaments),” Canadian Literature, no. 252, 2023, pp. 147-9.
2022
“Fiction about Abortion Confronts the Complicated History of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Rights,” The Conversation Canada, 7 June 2022.
2022
“Why It’s Worth Considering a PhD Co-op,” University Affairs, July-August, 2022, p. 48.
2021
“Verse Forward: A Canadian Literature Poetry Reading Series,” Canadian Literature, no. 245, 2021, pp. 175-83.
2019
“Woman about Town (Book Launch for Outside In),” Literary Review of Canada.
2019
“Being a Graduate Student at Congress 2019 (Blog Post),” Federation of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
2016
“Girl Runner by Carrie Snyder (Book Review),” Bull Calf Review.
2016
(editor/ghost writer) This Dance of Ours: The Memoirs of Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien III.
2015
“Giller Prize Longlist unveiled at Moyse Hall (Article).” McGill Reporter
2014
“I Am a Child of the Earth (Poem).” the carillon, vol. 56, no. 20, “the literary supplement,” U of R
2013
“White Box (Short Story).” the carillon, vol. 55, no. 21, “the literary supplement,” U of R
Guest Lectures
2026 (upcoming)
“Virginia Woolf: Writing (through) Gender.” One-hour lecture, EURO*2200 Gender and Modernism (1848-1920), University of Guelph
2026
“A Really Bad Settler? Susanna Moodie and the Forging of Canada’s National Identity.” Eighty-minute lecture, ENGL*3630 Forging the Canadian Nation, University of Guelph
2026
“Narratives of Intimacy.” One-hour lecture, PHIL*1030 Sex, Love, & Friendship, University of Guelph
2025
“Tracing the Life of Violence.” Ninety-minute talk and guided discussion, for Guelph’s Iteration of “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence,” Guelph Public Library
2025
“World-Building: Improvisation and Narrativity.” One-hour public lecture, International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation and the School of Languages and Literatures, University of Guelph
2025
“Tackling the Fallen Women Trope and Representations of Rape in Early Twentieth-Century Canadian Western Romance Fiction.” Forty-minute lecture, Engl 110 Intertextuality, University of British Columbia
2025
“Dwelling in/on Difficulty: Claudia Rankine’s Citizen and Ian Williams’ ‘The Cameras on Your Phones Make Black People Invisible’.” Three-hour lecture and creative workshop, Engl 100 Making Trouble, University of British Columbia
2024
“The Relationality of Love: Affectively Prickly Situations in Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information.” One-hour lecture, Engl 110 Media and Literature, University of British Columbia
2024
“Apocalyptic Visions, Dystopian Presents: The Figure of the Zombi in Nalo Hopkinson’s ‘Inselberg’.” One-hour lecture, Engl 110 Literary Representations of Climate Change, University of British Columbia
2023
“Bridging Gaps: Catering Your Graduate Degree to Work for You.” One-hour guest talk, Own Your Future lecture series, Western University (zoom)
2021
“The Experience of Being Named: David Chariandy’s I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You.” One-hour lecture, Engl 111 Approaches to Non-fictional Prose, University of British Columbia
2019
“Dangerous Emoting: Intercorporeality in Phillip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” One-hour lecture, Engl 246 Literature and Film, University of British Columbia
2019
“Resetting the World: Margaret Atwood’s Post-Apocalyptic Visions.” One-hour lecture, Engl 120 Climate Change and the Environment in the Anthropocene, University of British Columbia
2018
“The Carnivalesque Female Body in Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus.” One-hour lecture, Engl 100 Fantasy, Satire, and Play, University of British Columbia
2018
“Specular Economies and Fragmented Selves in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway.” One-hour lecture, Engl 221 Literature in Britain, University of British Columbia
2018
“Gender, Sex, and Romance: Virginia Woolf’s Refashioning the Female Body.” One-hour lecture, Engl 110 Literature and Theories of Metamorphoses, University of British Columbia
2018
“Margaret Atwood’s Economies of Debt and Indebtedness.” Two-hour lecture, Engl 110 Climate Fiction, or How Do We Witness Disaster, UBC
2017
“Redefining the Anthropocene in Margaret Atwood’s ‘Time Capsule Found on the Dead Planet.” One-hour lecture, Engl 110 Ghosts, the Fantastic, Science, and Literary Theory, University of British Columbia
Teaching Expertise
Critical studies in gender and sexuality; eco-criticism; creative writing, Canadian literature; queer, trans*, and intersectional feminist theory; transnational feminisms; history of women’s writing; rhetoric and persuasive writing; metafiction; dystopia; speculative, sci-fi, and post-apocalyptic fiction; critical studies in improvisation; affect theory; theories of the gaze; visual and textual representation; intertextuality; perspectives and naming; critical race theory; Indigeneity in the Canadian context
Teaching Experience
The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
2026 (Jan–Apr)
IMPR 6410 – PhD Pedagogy Lab
Instructor of Record
*Discourses of pedagogy in undergraduate classrooms; part of the PhD in Critical Studies in Improvisation qualifying requirements. Students learn about multi-disciplinary approaches to teaching at a post-secondary level, establish their secondary “teachable” area, and develop a repertoire of transferable skills and plans for community engagement outside of academia
2025 (Jan-Apr)
ENGL 110 – Approaches to Literature: “Intertextuality”
Teaching Assistant for Dr. Mary Chapman
*Teaching Assistants for ENGL 110 are responsible for creating materials, organizing, and leading independent discussions once a week; responsible for marking all assignments in the course
2024 (Sept-Dec)
ENGL 110: “Media Theory”
Teaching Assistant for Dr. Richard Cavell
2024 (Jan-Apr)
ENGL 110: “Warming Worlds, Drowning Worlds, Freezing Worlds: Literary Representations of Climate Change”
Teaching Assistant for Dr. Rick Gooding
2020 (Jan-Apr)
ENGL 111 – Approaches to Non-Fictional Prose: “Remembering ‘Otherwise’: Life Narratives of Resistance”
Teaching Assistant for Dr. Laurie McNeill (online, synchronous)
2018 (Jan-Apr)
ENGL 110: “Theory Across Genres”
Teaching Assistant for Dr. Suzy Anger
2017 (Sept-Dec)
ENGL 110: “Themes of Metamorphosis”
Teaching Assistant for Dr. Patricia Badir
Red Deer Polytechnic, Red Deer, AB
2022 (Sept-Dec)
1 section (online)
ENGL 219 – Essay Composition and Critical Reading
Instructor of Record (IoR)
*As the instructor on record, I built and designed the courses according to program curricula, including assessments; responsible for marking and overseeing a marking assistant’s work when I taught 180 students my first semester. As I became more familiar with the course, I moved from teaching a textbook to working with open education resources to help accommodate students’ financial constraints; this included developing and recording my lectures for online courses as well as writing critical readings for each week.
2020 (Sept-Dec)
2 sections (online)
ENGL 219 – Essay Composition and Critical Reading (IoR)
2020 (Jan-Apr)
1 section (in-person)
COMM 250 – Business and Workplace Writing
(IoR; transitioned from in-person to online during early COVID-19 shutdowns)
2019 (Sept-Dec)
4 sections (online)
ENGL 219 – Essay Composition and Critical Reading (IoR)
2 sections (online)
INTP 104 – Interprofessional Communication
(IoR; course for first-year nursing students to learn about communication in a variety of care-giving environments)
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Osan, South Korea
2010 – 2012
English Language Acquisition Instructor
*Created and taught materials for English as a Foreign Language in classes ranging from school age to adult business courses
SungShim Hagwon, Changwon, South Korea
2008 – 2009
English Language Acquisition Instructor
Professional Development
2025 (online)
Training Initiative to Address Human Trafficking, https://helpingtraffickedpersons.org
2025 (1 day)
Identifying and Responding to Microaggressions (U of Guelph)
2025 (1 day)
Fostering Psychological Safety (U of Guelph)
2024 – 2025
(6 months)
CIRTL Teaching Practicum (UBC)
- Lesson Planning & Guest Lecturing
- Teaching Mentorship & Classroom Observation
- Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion (EDI) in the Classroom
- Becoming a CIRTL Practitioner
2025
(1 day)
Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans Certificate (TCPS 2: CORE-2022)
2024
(1-day intensive)
We All Have a Role to Play: Increasing Access to Abortion Care in Canada, Continuing Professional Development, Faculty of Medicine (UBC)
2024
(1-week intensive)
CIRTL SoTL Workshop (UBC)
- Adult Learning Theory
- EDI learning
- Reflections on Learning & Teaching
- SoLT proposals
2021
(6 weeks, online)
Amplify Your Project: “Your Friendly Neighbourhood Professor” (UBC Arts Amplifier)
Created a project about microlessons and open educational resources to help students fill in their learning gaps, especially focuses on the experiences of first-generation post-secondary students
2020
(3 months, online)
Excellence in Online Learning and Teaching Certificate (Red Deer Polytechnic)
- Design in a Learning Management System
- Online Formative and Summative Assessments
- Synchronous Tools
- Creating Media
- Universal Design for Learning in Online Education
- Instructor Presence and Classroom Climate
2020
(1 week)
Introduction to Teaching and Learning (RDP)
2018
(3 months)
Pedagogy Certificate (Department of English, UBC)
2017
(3-day intensive)
Instructional Skills Workshop Certificate (Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology, UBC)
2017
(1 day)
Preventing and Addressing Bullying and Harassment Training (UBC)
2010
(6 months)
Teaching English as a Foreign Language Certificate (ITTT)
Related Professional Experience
2025 – present
Freelance Editor, manuscript development, copy-editing, and proof-reading, remotely and in-person (Guelph, ON)
2023 – 2025
Researcher, SSHRC funded in-progress book project, Damned, with Professor Michelle LeBaron on the global history and politics of abortion, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
2024
Researcher, Broadview Press’ revised and updated edition of Canadian Literature in English for Dr. Laura Moss, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
2022 – 2023
Assistant to the Managing Editor, the scholarly journal of Canadian Literature, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
2021 – 2022
Marketing and Communications Coordinator | Editorial Assistant, PhD Co-op, the scholarly journal of Canadian Literature, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
2020
Digital Communications Assistant, PhD Co-op, dept. of Creative Engagements, Vancouver International Film Festival (remote)
2018 – 2019
Assistant to the Academic Convenor | Program Coordinator, UBC Programming at Congress 2019 for Dr. Laura Moss, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
2015 – 2016
Research Assistant, The Burney Centre for Drs. Peter Sabor and Stewart Cooke (The Letters of Dr Charles Burney: Vol. III, 1794-1800), McGill University, Montréal, QC
2015 – 2016
Research Assistant, Broadview Press’ Critical Edition of City Girl for Dr. Tabitha Sparks, McGill University, Montréal, QC
Conference Organizing Experience
VIFF 2020 (online)
During the COVID-19 shutdowns, I was hired as an assistant in the Creative Engagements’ department at the Vancouver International Film Festival to help coordinate and implement festival programming. This included working closely with the Marketing Manager to implement the Creative Director’s vision for VIFF LABS, AMP, IMMERSED, and Totally Indie Day. These programs cater to new and upcoming creators in the independent film industry. In the months leading up to and during the festival, held digitally from Sept. 24 – Oct. 9, I worked closely with teams from community organizations and other VIFF departments to facilitate experiences for 500+ participants, including welcoming them into different events, moderating, behind-the-scenes production assistance and crowd management, as well as coordinating 60+ Talent Accelerator creators and 80+ LAB attendees. Part of this work included establishing a contact list with 80+ communities locally, nationally, and internationally, while increasing year-round outreach from 160 to 260+ organizations with 65 confirmed community partnerships.
Congress 2019 at UBC
In the yearlong lead up to Federation of the Humanities and Social Science’s Congress in 2019, hosted at UBC, I worked closely with the Academic Convenor (AC), Dr. Laura Moss, to create and organize programming for the week-long conference. I was responsible for working with the AC on UBC programming, which included managing invoicing, with a team of 50+ subvention leaders, as UBC welcomed 10,600+ guests attending 70+ association conferences. I also worked with the leadership team on UBC logistics for the Federation’s Congress flagship events, including Musqueam Elder welcomes and the opening reception, as well as 6 President’s receptions and 6 Big Thinking lectures where I escorted and prepped internationally recognized presenters such as David Suzuki, Esi Edugyan, and Stan Douglas. During this time, I gained intricate knowledge of conference organizing, working with national and internationally recognized associations, as well as university organizations and stakeholders.
Conference Activities
Paper Presentations
2026 (upcoming)
“Worldbuilding through Improvisation.” Worldbuilding as a Political Practice Panel, ACCUTE 2026, Concordia University, Montréal, QC
2026 (upcoming)
“When the Past and Future Collide: Spatiality in The Past Is Red.” Imagining Spatiality in End of the World Narratives Panel, ACCUTE 2026, Concordia University, Montréal, QC
2022
“‘…the most desperate and splendid of adventures’: Dizzying Orientations in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando.” Con/Figurations of Female Adventure, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
2019
“Complicating Gendered Sexuality: Self-Witnessing towards Female Identity in Daphne Marlatt’s Ana Historic.” ACCUTE, Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences 2019, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
2018
“‘Make Margaret Atwood Fiction Again’: The Treacherous Boundary Between Fiction and Reality in Using The Handmaid’s Tale as a Forum for Dissent,“ Margaret Atwood Society panel, ACCUTE, Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences 2018, University of Regina, Regina, SK
2018
“Rejecting the Institution: The Domesticated ‘Lady PhD’ in Marian Engel’s No Clouds of Glory,” Resurfacing: Women Writing Across Canada in the 1970s, Mount Allison University and Université de Moncton, Sackville, NB
2016
“Early Modern Sermon Culture: The ‘Monstrous Mariage’ in Thomas Middleton’s A Chaste Maid in Cheapside,” Society for Textual Scholarship, Carlton University, Ottawa, ON
Panel Chair
2018
Citizen Spaces; Aging Ungracefully.
ACCUTE, Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences 2018, University of Regina, Regina, SK
Panel Presentations
2021
“Persistence in Precarity: Academia’s Gendered Cost of Living,” Women’s Caucus for the Modern Languages, Modern Language Association Conference (hosted in Toronto, ON)
Graduate Student Conferences
2017
“The Threshold of Love: Between ‘You’ and ‘I’.” Endnotes, English Graduate Students’ Caucus, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
2016
“The Difficulty of ‘Chinese-ness’ in Modernist Poetry: The After Life of ‘The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter’.” (Un)restrained Intentions, English Graduate Students’ Association, McGill University, Montréal, QC
2015
“‘The Perfect Woman-Eater’: Lovelace’s Grotesque Imagination in Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa.” Violations: Representations in Literature and Culture, English Graduate Students’ Association, McGill University, Montréal, QC
2013
“The Mechanics and Ethics of Writing Historiographic Metafictions.” Trash Talking: New Directions in Popular Culture and Creative Writing, Regina, SK
2010
“Real Bodies and Avatar Worlds: James Cameron’s Avatar and James Tip Tree, Jr.’s ‘The Girl Who Was Plugged In.” Trash Talking: New Directions in Popular Culture and Creative Writing, Regina, SK
Extracurricular University Service
2025-present
Conference Planning Committee, WGSJ Association, Canada
2025
“16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence” Planning Committee, Guelph Community Network, Guelph, ON
2023-2025
Events and Community Connections Committee, dept. of English Language and Literatures, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
2016-2024
ACCUTE Liaison, English Graduate Students’ Caucus, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
2019-2020
Curriculum Updating Committee, Red Deer Polytechnic, Red Deer, AB
2018 – 2019
Community Liaison, University of British Columbia’s Congress 2019 Programming and Musqueam Cultural Centre, Vancouver, BC
2016 – 2019
Fundraising Committee Chair, English Graduate Students’ Caucus, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
2015 – 2016
ACCUTE Liaison, English Graduate Students’ Association, McGill University, Montréal, QC
Community Involvement
2025 – present
Community Partnership/Organizing and Event Planning Committee, G-W Women in Crisis, Guelph, ON
2025 – present
Graduate Student Mentor, Critical Studies in Improvisation (IMPR) program, U of Guelph, Guelph, ON
2025 – present
Volunteer, Elora House, Guelph, ON
2025
Community Choir, Assistant Coordinator, U of Guelph, Guelph, ON
2024-2025
Community Programmer, UBC Residence Life, Vancouver, BC
2023-2024
Literacy Mentor, Vancouver Public School Board, Vancouver, BC
2019-2022
Literacy Mentor, Red Deer Public School District, Red Deer, AB
2017 – 2019
Community Programmer, UBC Residence Life, Vancouver, BC
2016 – 2018
Literacy Mentor Volunteer, Writers’ Exchange, Vancouver, BC
S. D. Engbrecht 