This site includes my blog, “A Single Leaf,” where I post about Tolkien studies, medievalism, Old English, and university teaching — and sometimes all of those things all rolled up together. Mainly, my blog posts aim to inform researchers in Tolkien studies (and that includes faculty, independent scholars, students) as well as fans who are interested in exploring Tolkien’s works and/or medieval literature, or who are just curious about what professors in the field are talking about in their conferences and articles.

My other webpages will also give you a glimpse into my life as an English professor at Mount Saint Vincent University. The Teaching page includes links to current course outlines as well as information about my other teaching experiences. For a look at my various scholarly activities, go to the Research page. (And if you see something there that you’d like to read, do email me to request a copy). I’ve also included a page called Service – as every professor knows, part of our job is to work on administrative tasks enabling the running of the university. On the Service page, I outline some of the recent projects I have been involved in that have contributed to the intellectual life and ongoing maintenance of the university. The Contact page includes everything you need to know to get in touch with me.

I am currently a professor in the Department of English at Mount Saint Vincent University. I’ve also served as an adjunct faculty member in the graduate English program at Dalhousie University and in the Joint M.A. in Women and Gender Studies (Saint Mary’s University and Mount Saint Vincent). All three of these universities are located in the lively city of Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada. Although I have now lived here for many years, I am originally from Montreal, where I completed my undergraduate degree at what was then Loyola College (but which became part of Concordia University by the time I graduated). I continued my studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, where I received an M.A. and a PhD specializing in Old English literature. Before finishing my doctorate, though, I spent two years teaching on sessional contracts at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John and at Brock University in Ontario. Once I had that PhD in hand, I was lucky enough to get a permanent job, so I moved my family to Halifax to take up a position at Mount Saint Vincent.

Selected recent additions

• a post on Humphrey Carpenter’s views on Tolkien’s ideas about drama
• updated course descriptions for History of Writing,Reading, and the Book and for Old English: Translation Theory & Practice, both to be taught in January 2023.
• a post on the open-access journal Mallorn and my thoughts about recent discussions about Tolkien scholarship
• abstract of a newly published article on “The Homecoming” by me and Rebecca Foster in Journal of Tolkien Research
• my recorded talk for the Tolkien Symposium 2021, “Tolkien the Playwright” along with other links to the Symposium talks
• an updated Research page with my most recent conference papers and publication.
• “It all depends on what you mean by use”: teaching and learning in the arts now
• a post on Tolkien the Playwright
• Student projects in Studies in Medievalism, part 1: an adaptation of “Harbard’s Song” in video; part 2: ironic Silmarillion collectibles; part 3: “Misty Mountains” video

Image: The image used at the top of this page (“Bird in flowering tree”) is a detail from early drawings by J.R.R. Tolkien published in the J.R.R. Tolkien Calendar 1979 by George Allen and Unwin. The image can also be found in various places online.

Disclaimer

This site was last updated on 30 December 2022.