Katharine Bubel, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of English

Ph.D. (2018)

Department of English, University of Victoria

“Edge Effects: Poetry, Place and Spiritual Practices”

Supervisor: Dr. Nicholas Bradley

M.A. Interdisciplinary Humanities (2009)

Department of English, Trinity Western University

“Recovering Sophia: The Judeo-Christian Wisdom Figure and the Sophiological Aesthetics of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Thomas Merton”

Supervisor: Dr. Jens Zimmermann

B.A. (2007)

Department of English, Trinity Western University

Expertise

  • American Literature
  • Literatures of the West Coast (American, Canadian)
  • Twentieth and Twenty-first Century Poetry
  • Religion/Spirituality and Literature
  • Environmental Humanities
  • Literary Theory, Phenomenological Hermeneutics

Grants

2013 Graduate Student Support Fund Travel Grant, Dept. of English, University of Victoria

2012 Graduate Student Support Fund Travel Grant, Dept. of English, University of Victoria

2012 Graduate Student Travel Grant, University of Victoria

2010 Graduate Student Travel Grant, University of Victoria

2009-2012 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Joseph-Armand   Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship - Doctoral ($35,000 per annum for three years)

2008 SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship - Master’s ($17,500 for one year)

Awards & Honors

2018 Nominated for the Governor General’s Gold Medal, University of Victoria

2014 Nominated for Davis Distinguished Teaching Award, Trinity Western University

2013 Nominated for Provost’s Innovative Teaching Award, Trinity Western University

2010 Mairi Riddel Memorial Book Prize, Dept. of English, University of Victoria

2010 ALECC Graduate Student Presentation Award

2009 University of Victoria Graduate Award ($3,000)

2009 Outstanding Academic Achievement Award, MAIH, Trinity Western University

2007 Great Distinction, B.A., Trinity Western University

Recent Publications

Peer-Reviewed Articles

“‘The Terrible, the Merciful, the Mothers’: Tracing Wisdom in Merton’s ‘Hagia Sophia’ and  Malick’s ‘The Tree of Life.’” The Merton Annual vol. 28, 2015, pp. 134-48.

“Nature and Wise Vision in the Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins.” Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature, vol. 62, no. 2, 2010, pp. 117-40.

“The Prophetic Vision of Beauty: The Ethical Intersection of Literature and Theological Aesthetics.” Illumine, the Journal of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society, vol. 8, no.1, 2010, pp. 21-36.

“Transcending the Triangle of Desire: Eros, Death and the ‘Fulfillment of Love’ in Middlemarch and Jane Eyre.” Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature, vol. 60, no. 4, 2008, pp. 295-308.

“Knowing God ‘Other-wise’: The Wise Woman Archetype in George MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin, The Princess and Curdie, and The Golden Key.” North Wind: A Journal of George MacDonald Studies vol. 25, 2006, pp. 1-17.

Book Chapters

Nelson, Holly Faith and Katharine Bubel. “Discordia Concors: The Poetry of Louise Imogen Guiney.” Borderlands: The Art and Scholarship of Louise Imogen Guiney, Ed. Jonathan Nauman and Holly Faith Nelson, The Vaughan Association, 2021. (forthcoming)

Daemonic Dread, Libido Dominandi, and Ordinate Love: Stances to Nature in Till We Have Faces. The Inklings and Culture: A Harvest of New Scholarship from the Inklings Institute of Canada. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Forthcoming 2020.

 “The Longing”: Place and the Desire for Home. A Field Guide to the Poetry of Theodore Roethke. Ed. William Barillas. Ohio University Press. December 2020.

Nelson, Holly Faith and Katharine Bubel. “‘Spiritum nolite extinguere’: Reading Religion in the Works of Christine de Pizan.” French Women Writers: Significance of the Spiritual. Ed. Kelsey Haskett and Holly Faith Nelson. University of Delaware Press, 2013.

Book Reviews

“Go Down Singing.” Rev. of Canadian Primal: Poets, Places, and the Music of Meaning, by Mark Dickinson. Canadian Literature: A Quarterly of Criticism and Review. Forthcoming.

Superabundantly Alive: Thomas Merton’s Dance with the Feminine by Susan McCaslin and J. S. Porter. The Merton Annual, vol. 32, 2019, pp. 263-268.

Conference Proceedings

“‘The Terrible, the Merciful, the Mothers’: Wisdom in Thomas Merton’s “Hagia Sophia” and Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life.” Love, Knowledge and the University: Essays and Poetry from the Christianity and Literature Study Group, Victoria, 2013. Ed. John North. Waterloo: North Waterloo Academic Press, 2014. 191-203.

Encyclopedia Entry

“Robinson Jeffers.” Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism. Gen ed. Stephen Ross. Oxford: Routledge, 2016.

Works in Progress

“‘Holy Places are Dark Places’: The Sacred Landscape of Lewis’s Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold” (working title). Peer-reviewed paper for submission to Journal of Inklings Studies. Expected date of completion: Summer 2020.

“Edge Effects: Poetry, Place and Spiritual Practices.” Book manuscript. Expected date of completion: Winter 2020.

Creative

“Upon Reflection.” [spaces] vol. 13 (2019), Trinity Western University, pp. 40-43.

Invited Talks (External/Internal)

“Robinson Jeffers and Practices of Place.” Robinson Jeffers Association-Tor House Foundation webinar. August 2021.

“In-between and to the Edges: Practicing Ecopoetics on the Salish Sea.” Walking the Stəh:luxʷ  Watershed Project Group (SSHRC Insight Grant), Langley, March 2021. In Exhibition October 2021.

Conference Presentations

w/ Laura Van Dyke. “The Liminal Land of Glome in Lewis’s Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold.” Christianity and Literature Study Group Conference (Virtual), Calgary, AB. May 2021.

“Merton, Lilburn, and Zwicky: A Common Vision of Ecospiritual Wisdom.” Christianity and Literature Study Group. Vancouver, BC. June 2019.

“Holy Fear, Libido Dominandi and Loving Vision: Stances to the World in Lewis’s Till We Have Faces.” Christianity and Literature Study Group and Inklings Institute Panel, ACCUTE-Congress. Vancouver, BC. June 2019.

“Roethke’s ‘North American Sequence’: A Lyrical Drama of Reinhabitation.” Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association Conference. Western Washington University. Bellingham, WA. November 2018.

“‘O, but the sea wanders everywhere’: Wrack and Eros in Zwicky’s Forge.” Association of Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada Conference. University of Victoria. Victoria, BC. June 2018.

“Levertov’s Mountain Aura: Resacralizing the Profaned Mount Rainier-Tahoma.” Western Literature Association Conference. Big Sky, Montana. September 21-24, 2016.

“Roethke’s Shape of Pacific Desire: The Nootka Rose in ‘North American Sequence.’” Western Literature Association Conference. Victoria, BC. November 2014.

“Santa Lucia’s Eyes: Desire, Attention and Place in Hass’s Poetry. Western Literature Association Conference. Berkeley, CA. October 2013.

“‘Star-fire and rock-strength’: The Strain and Peace of Robinson Jeffers’s Inhumanist Theological Aesthetics.” Conference on Christianity and Literature. Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, WA. May 2012.

“Cultivating the Paradise Tree in the Desert: The Figure of Wisdom and Kenosis in Merton's 'Hagia Sophia'." Conference of The International Thomas Merton Society, Loyola University. Chicago, IL. June 2011.

"Divine Presence and the Intrinsic Value of the More-Than-Human Community in the Poetry of Robinson Jeffers and Denise Levertov." Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada Conference. Cape Breton University, Sydney, NS. August 2010.

“Ascent and Descent: Contemplation and Prophetic Engagement in the Poetry of Thomas Merton and Denise Levertov.” Conference on Christianity and Literature. Biola University, La Mirada, CA. May 2008.

“The Prophetic Vision of Beauty: Ethics Revealed in the Light of Aesthetics.” Conference on Christianity and Literature. Trinity Western University, Langley, BC. May 2007.

Affiliations & Memberships

  • Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English
  • Association for Literature, Environment and Culture in Canada
  • Christianity and Literature Study Group
  • Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association
  • Western Literature Association

  • ENGL 103 Intro to Lit:Poetry & Short Fiction
  • ENGL 104 Introduction to Poetry and Drama
  • ENGL 216 Intro to Poetry in the 20th Century
  • ENGL 223 Introduction to American Literature
  • ENGL 323 Intro to American Literature
  • ENGL 334 European Literature in Translation
  • ENGL 390 Am. Lit.: Making Nature Sacred
  • ENGL 414 Literature and Spirituality
  • ENGL 490 Literary Theory and Criticism
  • ENGL 495 Literary Theory
  • ENGL 514 Literature & Spirituality
  • ENGL 590 Individual Authors:Thomas Merton
  • ENGL 600 Reading theTimes:Text&Interpretat'n
  • ENGL 607 American Literature
  • FNDN 201 Ideas that Inspire