Teaching

I have taught thirteen undergraduate courses at the University of Calgary and St Mary's University, Calgary, from first-year lectures to fourth-year seminars, and won two student-nominated teaching awards.

Benjamin Blyth reading and discussing a book

My range runs from Chaucer and late medieval literature through Shakespeare and Renaissance drama to contemporary Canadian poetry and critical writing, and my teaching draws on both performance and textual studies.

Inclusive teaching

My teaching is student-centred and built on “activated learning”: rather than receiving historical texts passively, students engage with them through performance exercises, manuscript work and creative interpretation. I prioritise accessible and inclusive teaching methods, pairing medieval and early modern texts with contemporary perspectives, as in my course on postcolonial ecocriticism, and using digital tools such as group podcast assignments so that every student has a way in.

I am committed to diversifying and decolonising medieval and early modern syllabi, and recognize this is a real challenge. I meet it by reading the period’s racial and colonial narratives critically with students, and by making room for the voices and perspectives the traditional canon has left out.

Awards

Students' Union Teaching Excellence Award, University of Calgary, student-nominated: 2017 (Shakespeare) and 2018 (Literature to 1660).

Courses taught

CourseLevelInstitution
Literature to 16601st/2nd-year lectureSt Mary's University
Literature from 16601st/2nd-year lectureSt Mary's University
Introduction to Critical Writing1st-year lectureSt Mary's University
Issues in Late Medieval Literature3rd-year seminarSt Mary's University
Issues in Renaissance Literature3rd-year seminarSt Mary's University
Shakespeare's Early Works3rd-year seminarSt Mary's University
Shakespeare's Later Works3rd-year seminarSt Mary's University
Contemporary Canadian Poetry3rd-year seminarSt Mary's University
Chaucer3rd-year seminarSt Mary's University
Postcolonial Ecocriticism in Late Medieval and Early Modern Literature3rd/4th-year seminarSt Mary's University
Literature and SocietyLectureUniversity of Calgary
Introduction to Poetry1st-year lectureUniversity of Calgary
Introduction to Drama1st-year lectureUniversity of Calgary