Shoshannah Bryn Jones Square

I am an Assistant Professor in Literature, the Environment, and Climate Change at Mount Allison University and received my PhD/DPhil in English literature from the University of Oxford, my dissertation for which explores the role of empathy in Mary Shelley’s novels and argues for the prosocial potential of reading fiction. After completing my PhD, I worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Manitoba (UM) and was a Research Affiliate with the UM Institute for the Humanities (UMIH), which promotes and supports interdisciplinary research in the humanities.

I have taught English and Interdisciplinary courses at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in BC and recently finished two terms as an Assistant Professor in English literature at Bishop’s University in Quebec, where I taught courses on literature and the environment, ecocriticism, Austen and film, Gothic and Victorian literature, science fiction, Romantic poetry, children’s literature, women writers, and more. In April 2024, I received the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) Community Engagement and Involvement Teaching Award for my teaching at BU.

I have published articles on imagination, literature, empathy, mental health, emotional contagion, feminism, and social change, and the chapter I co-authored with Dr. Carol-Ann Farkas for the Routledge Handbook of Health and Media, “Climate Health Is Human Health: Working Through Eco-Anxiety with the Written Word in Print and Digital Media,” was published in August 2022. My forthcoming book chapter for Dr. Jessica Riddell's Hope Circuits 3.0, "Kindling Connections: How Diverse Neural Networks Enhance Empathy and Creativity in Higher Education," will be published later in 2025.

My current research examines how literature intersects with ecology, neuroscience, and psychology, particularly focusing on representations of consciousness and neurodiversity in texts and exploring connections between literary works and climate activism.