From left: Dr. J. R. Mattison, Dr. Aren Roukema, Dr. Tim Bourns.
The UBC Department of English Language and Literatures (EL&L) is an academic community made up of professors, graduate students, undergraduate students, and other community members who contribute daily to its vibrance and excellence. One such group in our community are postdoctoral fellows, who work with faculty members in the department, and who make significant contributions to their respective fields.
This academic year, EL&L is pleased to welcome three new postdoctoral fellows to our community. Read on to learn more about Drs. J. R. Mattison, Aren Roukema, and Tim Bourns and their research.
Dr. J. R. Mattison
Killam Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Education
Ph.D., University of Toronto, 2021
What is your research area?
I research medieval literature, multilingualism, and book history. My project examines scribes working in England to copy materials in French; some of these men and women were immigrants, while others were influenced by immigrant artisans. The French manuscripts they created reveal England’s transnational book production, which challenges nationalist frameworks for interpreting manuscripts, their circulation, and their texts.
What are you looking forward to about working at UBC?
I’m looking forward to joining a department with such a wide range of researchers undertaking cutting edge research. UBC has an amazing number of scholars working in medieval studies and book history, so I can’t think of a better place to pursue my project.
What else should we know about you?
In everyday life, I go by Julie. When I’m not researching manuscripts, I’m likely to be found knitting, rock climbing, or cooking something elaborate.
Dr. Aren Roukema
SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship: Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Education
Ph.D., Birkbeck, University of London, 2020
What is your research area?
Cultural History — particularly of heterodox and marginalised knowledge and culture in the mid-to-late nineteenth century Anglosphere.
What are you looking forward to about working at UBC?
UBC is home to researchers and research groups who have done great work in cultures of science, First Nations and Indigenous studies, popular fiction, and esoteric religion, all areas which are important to my project on race and superhuman representation in the late nineteenth century. I’m really looking forward to liaising with some of these experts in search of new perspectives and angles on my research, and hopefully theirs as well. I’m also looking forward to wandering the campus and its surroundings, as well as living in Vancouver.
Dr. Timothy Bourns
SSHRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Education
DPhil, University of Oxford, 2018
What is your research area?
My current research areas include Old Norse-Icelandic, Arthurian Romance, and Chaucer. My postdoctoral work focuses on animal and non-human emotionality, the emotional effects of different environments, ecological metaphors for human emotions, material selfhood, and the affective force of objects – expanding emotion studies beyond the human.
What are you looking forward to about working at UBC?
There is so much to say. I’m looking forward to working with my research mentor, Prof. Robert Rouse; participating in the Oecologies network; and engaging with the Emotion & Self Psychology Lab. I’m from Ontario, but have spent my entire postgraduate and postdoctoral career in the UK and Iceland. It’s fun to be back in Canada.
What else should we know about you?
You can call me Tim, and I’m excited to get to know everyone as much as possible this year!
