Laura Van Dyke, PhD

Part-time Instructor of English

Laura Van Dyke has taught part time in the English department at Trinity Western University since 2015. She completed her PhD at the University of Ottawa in 2019, with specializations in Twentieth-Century British Literature and in the environmental humanities.

  • PhD (University of Ottawa/ Université d’Ottawa; 2019)
  • MA (Trinity Western University; 2011)
  • BA Honours (Trinity Western University; 2009)

Expertise

British and Irish Modernism, Twentieth Century and Contemporary British Literature, Ecocriticism and the Environmental Humanities, Fantasy Literature, The Inklings

Awards & Honors

  • University of Ottawa Excellence Scholarship (2011-2013)
  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) CGS Doctoral Scholarship (2011)
  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) Joseph-Armand Bombadier Canada Graduate Scholarship (2009)

Recent Publications

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

DISSERTATION
  • Van Dyke, Laura. “An Eco-Alchemical Vision: Hermetic Writing in Twentieth-Century British
    Literature.” 2019. University of Ottawa, PhD dissertation.
EDITED BOOKS
  • The Inklings and Culture: A Harvest of Scholarship from the Inklings Institute of Canada, edited by Monika B. Hilder, Sara L. Pearson, and Laura N. Van Dyke, Cambridge Scholars, 2020.
BOOK chapterS
  • Van Dyke, Laura N. “Literature and the ‘Grand Art’: The Poetic Vision of Charles
    Williams.” The Inklings and Culture: A Harvest of Scholarship from the Inklings Institute
    of Canada, edited by Monika B. Hilder, Sara L. Pearson, and Laura N. Van Dyke,
    Cambridge Scholars, 2020, 167-178.
  • Van Dyke, Laura. “‘Self-contained and singing to itself’: Reading the Fairy Melusine in
    A.S. Byatt’s Possession.” Curious, If True: The Fantastic in Literature. Ed. Amy
    Bright. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2012. 145-158.
Selected non-peer reviewed articles
  • Van Dyke, Laura N. “Holy Ground and the History of the Land: Vignettes from Calvin B.
    Hanson’s On the Raw Edge of Faith (1977),” ConVersing/ConServing: The Gift of the Land, Fern Hill Publications, 2024.
  • Van Dyke, Laura. “Perelandra: An 80 Year Anniversary.” Library Guides, The Kouwenberg
    C.S. Lewis and Friends Collection, 2023. https://libguides.twu.ca/c.php?g=728159&p=5306401
  • Van Dyke, Laura. “Taking Eros to Church: Charles Williams and Romantic Theology,” Radix
    Magazine Fall 2021. https://www.radixmagazine.com/2021/11/09/taking...
edited chapbooks
  • ConVersing/ConServing: The Gift of the Land, co-edited with Jessica Walters and Elaine Ries, Fern Hill Publications, 2024.
reviews
  • Van Dyke, Laura N. Review of Tolkien in the Twenty-First Century: The Meaning of Middle-Earth Today by Nick Groom. Mythlore Vol. 42, no. 2, 2024.
  • Van Dyke, Laura. “A Medium for Life.” Review of Claire Tacon’s In the Field. Ed. David Richardson. Foment, 2012, 54-55.
  • Van Dyke, Laura. Review of Victorian Vulgarity: Taste in Verbal and Visual Culture. Eds. Susan David Bernstein and Elsie B. Mitchie. Brontë Studies, vol. 35, no. 3, 2010, 301-302.
interviews

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
  • Van Dyke, Laura. “Conversing with ‘the earth and its doings’ in Owen Barfield’s Eager Spring. Conference on Christianity and Literature, Western Region, Langley, May 9-11 2024.
  • Van Dyke, Laura with Faith Nelson. “ConVersing with the History of Trinity Western University.” Conference on Christianity and Literature, Western Region, Langley, May 9-11 2024.
  • Van Dyke, Laura with Katharine Bubel. “The Liminal Land of Glome in Lewis’s Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold.” Christianity and Literature Study Group: ACCUTE Conference,
    Edmonton, May 27-29 2021.
  • Van Dyke, Laura. “A Coinherent Ecology? Charles Williams’ Arthurian Poetry.” Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA) Conference, Bellingham, Nov 9-11 2018.
  • Van Dyke, Laura. “The “mere stress of glory”: Poetry and the Poet in Charles Williams’ Arthuriad,” Verge Conference, Trinity Western University, Langley, September 29 2016.
  • Van Dyke, Laura. “Towards an Alchemical Theology? Hermetic Spiritualities in Lindsay Clarke’s The Chymical Wedding and Patrick Harpur’s Mercurius” Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English (ACCUTE) Conference, Fredericton, May 28-31 2011.
  • Van Dyke, Laura. “‘With no eyes on her’: The Fairy Melusine and Self-Constructed Identity in
    A.S. Byatt’s Possession.” University of Victoria Graduate Conference 2011: Curious, If True: The Fantastic in Literature, Victoria, March 10-12 2011.
  • Van Dyke, Laura. “‘A world without maps’: Nationalism and Hybridity in Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient.” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) Conference 2011: World Literature, Comparative Literature, Vancouver, March 31-April 3 2011.
  • Van Dyke, Laura. “‘My Tales’: Saleem’s Telling of Histories in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s
    Children.” Trinity Western University MAIH Colloquium: Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries: Negotiating Literature, History, and Philosophy in the Twenty-First Century
    Langley B.C., Nov. 4 2010.
  • Van Dyke, Laura. “Monstrous Reflections: Race and Colonialism in Bram Stoker’s Dracula”
    International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA) Conference: Race and the Fantastic, Orlando Florida, March 17-21 2010.

Graduate Courses:

  • ENGL 582 Modern British Literature 
  • ENGL 590 Literature and the Environment
  • ENGL 591 Children’s Literature
  • ENGL 593 Fantasy Literature

Undergraduate Courses:

  • ENGL103 Introduction to Literature: Short Fiction and the Novel 
  • ENGL 104 Introduction to Literature: Poetry and Drama 
  • ENGL 218 Studies in Modern Canadian Literature
  • ENGL 318 Studies in Modern Canadian Literature 
  • ENGL 382 Modern British Literature 
  • ENGL 390 Literature and the Environment
  • ENGL 391 Children’s Literature 
  • ENGL 392 Fantasy Literature
  • ENGL 400 Special Topics in English: Contemporary Fantasy Literature
  • ENGL 400 Special Topics in English: Modernist and Postmodernist Metafiction 
  • FNDN 201 Ideas That Inspire
  • WRTG 100 Writing in the University Context