Focus on Faculty

by Richard Myers, Vice-President (Academic)

By its very nature, a university depends more than any other kind of institution on continuous renewal. As an institution devoted to the exchange of ideas in an ongoing quest for truth, we need to constantly challenge our faculty and our students with new possibilities and fresh perspectives.

The most effective engine of intellectual renewal is undoubtedly the recruitment into our community of new faculty members. Accordingly, the St. Thomas community is having a particularly invigorating year as we have welcomed nine new full-time colleagues to our staff.

These new colleagues come to us with distinguished records and a wide variety of experience.

Alan Bourassa holds a doctorate in English literature from Vanderbilt University. He has taught at both Vanderbilt and the Université de Montreal. Alan’s teaching and research interests are American literature and the novel. He is also a published poet.

Linda Coates is our newest professor of criminology. Linda holds a doctorate in psychology from the University of Victoria. She comes to us from Okanagan University College, where she taught psychology for the last couple of years. Her special research interest is violence against women.

Bill Dunn holds a doctorate from Cornell University in applied linguistics. His special area of interest is second-language acquisition. Bill is teaching courses in this area in our BEd programme. He is also practicing what he teaches by delivering ESL programming to our Transition Year students.

Joselito Fornier holds a doctorate in Asian history from Northern Illinois University. “Jojo” comes to us from the University of Manitoba, where he held appointments in the Department of History and the Asian Studies Centre. He is currently working on two textbooks, one in Asian history and one in world history. It’s interesting to note that Jojo did his B.A. at one of our ICUSTA partners, the Universidad de Santo Tomas in Manila.

Jim Gilbert-Walsh is our new professor of philosophy. He completed his doctorate at the University of Toronto. Jim is interested in 19th and 20th century continental philosophy and is working on a book on Heidegger and community.

David Ingham holds a doctorate from UBC. He comes to our English department with substantial teaching experience at a number of institutions—most recently, St. F.X. David is also an experienced actor and will be taking a role in the STEEDS production of The Taming of the Shrew. Don’t miss it!

Philip Lee is our first full-time professor of journalism. Philip has won a number of national awards for his outstanding work as a features writer and as an investigative reporter. He also has substantial experience as an editor, including a two-year stint as editor-in-chief of The Telegraph-Journal. Philip has just published a biography of former New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna, entitled Frank.

Linda McNutt is putting the finishing touches on a doctorate in English at UNB. Linda’s primary area of interest is Renaissance drama, so it will be no surprise that she is directing the STEEDS production of The Taming of the Shrew. Linda also has a strong interest in creative writing and has completed two novels, Summer Point and Wintering Over.

Cordula Quint is our new drama specialist in the Department of English. Cordula is just wrapping up a doctorate in theatre from the University of Toronto. She has substantial experience both as a dramaturge and as a director.