Public Engagement

L.M. Montgomery Institute Hub (proposed). With Drs. Elizabeth Epperly and Philip Smith, along with funding from the UPEI Office of the President, I’m working to develop UPEI’s and the LMMI’s capacity for enhancing public engagement. I supervised UPEI student assistant, Heidi Haering, who has created samples of the kind of work the hub proposes to do, including this map of Montgomery’s PEI and this timeline celebrating the links between Montgomery and UPEI, at the university’s 50th anniversary in 2019.

Community Partnerships/Engagement. I represent UPEI’s L.M. Montgomery Institute on the Anne/L.M. Montgomery Roundtable which brings together PEI Montgomery stakeholders (from the academic/education, arts, culture, heritage, tourism, and economic development sectors) to strategize and collaborate on Montgomery projects.

As a Research Assistant with Dr. Morgan Gardner (Education, Memorial University), I worked on projects that partnered with a social housing community and an alternative school. These projects include Youth Engagement in Educational Change (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada funded), Growing Community Power to Enhance Youth Success in School, and We Know What We Need to Graduate. We have published the article, “From Collapse to Relationality Improv: High School Stories in Motion for Justice,” based on this work in the Alberta Journal of Educational Research (AJER).

Consulting. In 2018-19, I was a member of the advisory committee consulting on the redevelopment of Parks Canada’s new Green Gables Interpretive Centre in Cavendish, PEI. CBC PEI interviewed me about this experience and the launch of the centre. I also consulted on the cross-PEI tour, The Inspiring World of L.M. Montgomery – A Literary Tour.

Digital Humanities. The digital humanities has powerful potential for engaging new audiences, anywhere in the world. I am developing the project, Halifax’s Literary Landmarks, and supervising students working on Montgomery-related projects. My student assistant Heidi Haering and I co-presented on this work in a presentation called “Mapping Atlantic Canadian Literature” at UPEI’s Applied Geospatial Research in Public Policy, a workshop that brought together academics, civil servants, and other practitioners. I have also taught Digital Humanities (UPEI, Winter 2018).

Media Interviews/Citations: I have been interviewed by CBC PEI online, TV, and radio, Halifax FM radio, and CTV National News about my L.M. Montgomery work. PEI newspapers The Guardian and The Journal-Pioneer have also profiled my work. See, for example, CBC’s “New Green Gables interpretive centre puts focus on L.M. Montgomery” (June 20, 2019) and The Guardian’s “Open¬access journal is published by the L.M. Montgomery Institute and Robertson Library” (June 12, 2019). My interview on CTV National News about Historica Canada’s Montgomery Heritage Minute can be viewed here and about Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado’s visit to PEI and UPEI can be seen here.

Talks: Public/Non-Academic Audiences. I have given a range of public talks, including at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, Japan (2019), UPEI’s “Sharing our Research” course with PEI Seniors College (2019), a Montgomery-themed fundraiser for Project Bookmark (2018), an event celebrating Montgomery’s time at Dalhousie (2018), UPEI’s Island Studies Lecture Series (2018), the L.M. Montgomery Society of Ontario’s annual workshop (2017), and Newfoundland and Labrador Branch (Urban) Planners Plate (2011). In 2019, I also had the honour of hosting an event welcoming Her Imperial Highness and Honorary Patron of the L.M. Montgomery Institute, Princess Takamado of Japan, to UPEI.

Public Writing/Research Dissemination. I am the editor of the open access, online Journal of L.M. Montgomery Studies. An article on Montgomery’s relationship to Charlottetown and Summerside is forthcoming in Island Magazine, published by the PEI Museum and Heritage Foundation. I have written various pieces for general, but highly engaged, online audiences; for example, “Chapter XXXV: The Winter at Queen’s,” which appeared in the Anne of Green Gables Read-a-long on the LMMI’s website (lmmontgomery.ca) and “‘Miss Morland; do but look at my horse’: Horses’ John Thorpe Problem,” which appeared in the Youth and Experience: Northanger Abbey and Persuasion series on sarahemsley.com, both in 2018.