Contact
Biography
Born in Ottawa, Canada, I have dual British and Canadian citizenship and have worked at the University of Nottingham since 1994. I took my BA in English and History (with a minor in French) at Carleton University in Ottawa. My MA and PhD were completed at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.
Teaching Summary
My main area of expertise is post-1960 Canadian literature written in English. My special interests include queer writing, women's writing, and Indigenous writing. I incorporate a broad range of… read more
Research Summary
I am currently engaged in a project with the working title, "Is It Getting Better Yet? The Function of Young Adult Literature with Queer Content in Secondary Education." It is now 15 years since gay… read more
Selected Publications
BILLINGHAM, S., 2010. Écriture au trans-féminine: Trish Salah's 'Wanting in Arabic' Canadian Literature: A Quarterly of Criticism and Review. 205, 33-51
BILLINGHAM, S., 2011. Il/legitimacy: sexual violence, mental health and resisting abjection in Camilla Gibb’s Mouthing the Words and Elizabeth Ruth’s Ten Good Seconds of Silence. In: GUNNE, S. and BRIGLEY THOMPSON, Z., eds., Feminism, literature and rape narratives: violence and violation Routledge. 96-113
BILLINGHAM, S., 2012. "A wanted man": transgender as outlaw in Elizabeth Ruth’s 'Smoke'. In: MILLER, V. and OAKLEY, H., eds., Cross-cultural connections in crime fictions Palgrave Macmillan. 76-90
My main area of expertise is post-1960 Canadian literature written in English. My special interests include queer writing, women's writing, and Indigenous writing. I incorporate a broad range of genres in my classes, including novels, short fiction, graphic narratives, poetry, drama, life writing, and 'borderblur' texts that challenge generic bounds altogether. I contribute to the first-year core module Canadian Literature, Film and Culture. I teach some American literature as well.
My current optional modules include Recent Queer Writing (Level 3/4) and Contemporary North American Fiction (Level 2). In the past I have taught options on women's writing, Indigenous Writing of Canada and the US, and contemporary Canadian literature.
I have served as Head of Department (2016-20), and also as Director of Taught Courses or Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department, so I am actively involved in designing our curriculum and seeking innovative methods of learning and teaching.
Current Research
I am currently engaged in a project with the working title, "Is It Getting Better Yet? The Function of Young Adult Literature with Queer Content in Secondary Education." It is now 15 years since gay marriage became legal in Canada. The first national climate survey of Canadian high school students in 2011 revealed that 14% of Canadian youth self-identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, or two-spirit. Yet there remains a disjunction between the growing acceptance of gender and sexual diversity, and a spike in high-profile cases in which misogyny, homophobia or transphobia lead to violence, bullying and teen suicides. What work still needs to be done to make questioning youth feel more included-in the school curriculum, and in Canadian society more broadly? I conceive my project as an example of applied literature, exploring the creative and transformative potential of narrative and other cultural forms to foster political engagement, community formation, and social justice. I aim to combine conventional literary analysis with qualitative and quantitative research into educational and institutional contexts (such as curricula, lesson plans, textbooks, safe school policies), in order to investigate the pedagogical potential of teaching young adult literature with LGBTQ content in the classroom.
I am eager to supervise PhD or M.Res candidates interested in working in any aspect of lesbian, gay, queer or transgender literature and theory, especially in the North American context. This is an expanding field with numerous areas as yet unexplored. Possible topics include: writing as/and agency; the intersection of trauma (such as incest, rape, genocide, war) and sexual identities; homophobia, backlash and blame; 'female masculinities,' 'brazen femmes,' and other forms of (un)doing gender. Writers for investigation include: Daphne Marlatt, Erin Moure, Dionne Brand, Nalo Hopkinson, Shani Mootoo, Hiromi Goto, Ann-Marie Macdonald, Camilla Gibb, Gail Scott, Tomson Highway, Daniel David Moses, Timothy Findley, Shyam Selvadurai, Jane Rule, Dorothy Allison, Leslie Feinberg, Chrystos, Audre Lorde. These suggestions are by no means exhaustive.
I have also conducted research on various women writers such as Carol Shields, Lola Lemire Tostevin and Lorna Crozier. Canadian women's writing is particularly strong, making frequent appearances on short-lists for international awards like the Man Booker and Orange prizes. Apart from well-established names such as Atwood, Shields, Munro and Laurence, much remains to be done on writers such as Barbara Gowdy, Aritha van Herk, Jeannette Armstrong, and Lee Maracle, to name but a few. All inquiries regarding topics on feminist theory or women's writing in general will be welcome.
Recent Publications:
- "Performed Ethnography: The Pedagogical Potential of Research-Informed Theatre." London Journal of Canadian Studies 34 (Nov. 2019): 201-26. DOI https://doi.org/10.14324/111.444.ljcs.2019v34.0010
- "Detained at Customs: Jane Rule, Censorship and the Politics of Crossing the Canada-United States Border." Parallel Encounters: Culture at the Canada-U.S. Border. Ed. Gillian Roberts and David Stirrup. forthcoming Wilfrid Laurier UP 2013.
- "Écriture auTrans-féminine: Trish Salah's Wanting in Arabic." Canadian Literature 205 (2010): 33-51.
- "Fraternizing with the Enemy: Constructions of Masculinity in the Short Fiction of Timothy Findley." Short Story Criticism Vol 145. Gale 2011. Rpt from Yearbook of English Studies 31 (2001).
Past Research
My past research interests revolved around 'language-focused writing.' My first book was on the experimental Canadian poet bpNichol. This challenging writer started out in the 1960s in concrete and sound media, and engaged actively with post-structuralist linguistic theory and postmodern approaches to writing. He wrote a multi-volume life-long work entitled The Martyrology, where he invented his own canon of saints from words beginning with 'st' (for example, 'stranglehold' became St Ranglehold). I continue to be interested in writing that plays with language and transgresses generic boundaries.