Mount Allison English Department

This fall, Canadian Studies and the Department of English are starting a student book club.

Books will be provided by the Centre for Indigenous and Critical Canadian Studies.

The book we will be reading is What I Mean to Say: Remaking Conversations in Our Time by Ian Williams.

What I Mean to Say is a booked billed as a conversation about conversations; it is about how we talk to each other, what inhibits discussion, and what can be done to improve it.

The author’s website introduces the book like this: “Enough small talk. Let’s get right to it: Why can’t we talk to each other anymore? What makes good communication? And how do we restore the lost art of conversation.”

Students will be divided into different groups to meet three times during the semester and discuss the book.

If you are interested, please contact Drs. James Hahn (they/them), Andrew Nurse (he/him), or Bryn Jones Square (she/her) - our email addresses are on the poster.

Thank you for your consideration and looking forward to hearing from you! 💙💛💙💛

Mount Allison University Mount Allison University Faculty of Arts

Our department, alongside Canadian Studies, is organizing a symposium on Friday, October 2 entitled “Hope and the Humanities: Empathy, Ecological Consciousness, and Environmental Justice."

This will be a one-day, student-centred, community-engaged, interdisciplinary hybrid symposium. It will bring students, faculty, community members, artists, performers, and invited speakers together to explore the capacity of the humanities to respond to the environmental and social crises of our time.

The symposium, which will include student and faculty panels and presentations, keynote and invited speakers, artistic and musical performances, and opportunities for dialogue, will explore how empathy, ecological consciousness, environmental justice, and hope can shape the ways we understand and respond to the world around us.

We will be sending out a formal Call for Papers in the coming weeks, but please feel free to email Dr. Bryn Jones Square (Shoshannah Bryn Jones Square) with questions and/or expressions of interest any time at [email protected].

We will be announcing our AMAZING keynote speaker soon! ✨✨✨✨

Mount Allison University Mount Allison University Faculty of Arts

On Sunday, August 2, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson will be speaking about her beautiful, urgent, and inspiring book Theory of Water (short-listed for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for non-fiction) at MtA's Owens Art Gallery as part of Sackville's SappyFest.

Simpson's latest album, Theory of Ice, was named to the Polaris Prize short list, and she was the 2021 winner of the Prism Prize’s Willie Dunn Award.

The event, OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, is hosted by our department, with a brief introduction by Dr. Shoshannah Bryn Jones Square.

Many thanks to Dr. Geordie Miller for organizing this!

Please come join us! 🌍🍃

Mount Allison University Faculty of Arts Mount Allison University

We wish we could take this!!! You're missing out if you haven't taken a class with Dr. Geordie Miller yet!! 💙💚💜

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Dr. Vicki St. Pierre, Dean of Arts at Mount Allison University, on her appointment as Provost and Vice-President, Academic at Capilano University in North Vancouver, BC.

Since joining Mount Allison in 2015, Dr. St. Pierre has made significant contributions as a faculty member, academic leader, and Dean of Arts. St. Pierre also served for one year as Interim Provost and VP Academic and Research.

We thank her for her leadership and wish her every success in this exciting new role.

Read more: https://mta.ca/about/news/dr-vicki-st-pierre-appointed-provost-and-vice-president-academic-capilano-university-thu

Dr. Amelia (Molly) Labenski is a Canadian scholar of American literature and animal studies and now an Assistant Professor in our department! 🥳

Her dissertation, Canine Death in Canonical American Fiction, has been acquired by Bloomsbury and will be published as part of their Ecocritical Theory and Practice Book Series.

Mount Allison University Mount Allison University Faculty of Arts

Congratulations to Dr. Geordie Miller on the launch of his chapbook Love Poems for Landlords, published by Gaspereau Press ¶ Printers & Publishers!

It was a beautiful and moving evening of poetry, music, and community!

In addition to Geordie's excellent readings - check out https://thefiddlehead.substack.com/p/the-frond-issue-19-winter-2026?open=false #%C2%A7love-poems-for-landlords-by-geordie-miller - the night featured:

Colleen Coco Collins: https://www.biblioasis.com/.../new.../sorry-about-the-fire/

Caged Animals, solo: https://www.cupsncakespod.com/.../2026/02/25/caged-animals

Jon McKiel: https://youvechangedrecords.com/portfolio/jon-mckiel/

All of the congrats again, Geordie (and thank you for bringing so many people together to celebrate the arts!)!

Mount Allison University Mount Allison University Faculty of Arts