Simon Turner

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
kinship; empathy; ethics; poststructuralism; queer studies; Black diaspora; transgender; disability; identity politics; modernism; horror

CURRENT RESEARCH:
Simon’s dissertation interrogates the ethics of empathy within and between narratives of nonnormative kinship. Breaking down traditional disciplinary silos, Simon’s research brings a variety of novels and films into conversation with one another to see how ostensibly disparate texts address similar themes of subjectivity, identity, community, belonging, and hope for the future.

PUBLICATIONS:
– Turner, Simon. “‘What It Means to be a Woman’: Trans Legitimacy in The Silence of the Lambs.” The Gay Return: Queer Representation Revisits, Challenges, and New Directions, edited by Sarah Baker and Amanda Rutherford. Accepted—forthcoming.
– Turner, Simon and Stuart J. Murray. “Becoming Host: Zooming in on the Pandemic Horror Film.” Creative Resilience and COVID-19: Figuring the Everyday in a Pandemic, edited by Irene Gammel and Jason Wang, Routledge, pp. 145-154, 2022.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS:
– “Friendship’s Inheritance: Creating and Curating Posthumous Legacies.” International E. M. Forster Society Conference: A Passage to India—Centenary Revaluations, June 2024, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn.
– “Reiterative Revision, Ethical Violence: Candyman 2021 as Black Lives Matter Folk Tale.” Canadian Association for American Studies Conference: West by Northeast, Sept. 2023, Mount Saint Vincent University.
– “Celebrating the Ecstasy of Death in ‘Dr Woolacott.’” Re-Orientating E. M. Forster: Texts, Contexts, Receptions, April 2020, University of Cambridge. Cancelled due to COVID-19.
– “Speech in Action: (Mis)communication and Achieving Desire in E. M. Forster’s Maurice.” Department of English MA Colloquium, July 2019, Carleton University.
– “Ecstatic Death as Biopolitical Resistance in E. M. Forster’s ‘Dr Woolacott.’” Endnotes: Disruption, Resistance, Resilience, May 2019, University of British Columbia.
– “‘In My Heart Do I Play a Double Part’: Troubling Identity and the Concept of Home in Countee Cullen’s ‘Heritage.’” English Graduate Student Society Conference: [Per]forming the Present, April 2019, Carleton University.
– “Icarus and Différance: Derrida’s Theories in W. H. Auden and Rob Winger.” Québec Universities English Undergraduate Conference, March 2016, Bishop’s University.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE:
– for Dr. Jan Schroeder, Winter/Summer 2021: Assistance in the formation and implementation of an EDI working group within the Department of English Language and Literature; Help with preparation for the Cyclical Program Review; Research toward the creation of a new literary magazine to be organized by the department.
– for Dr. Dana Dragunoiu, Fall 2020: Editorial assistance, proofreading, and preparation of a monograph for publication.
– for Dr. Jan Schroeder, Summer 2019: Assistance with creation of an interdisciplinary fourth-year course on adoption narratives.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE:
– ENGL 1609A: Introduction to Drama Studies. Carleton University, Fall 2023.

SERVICE:
– Member of the Department of English EDI working group, Carleton University (2021)
– Committee Chair, Department of English MA Colloquium, Department of English, Carleton University (2019)
– Panel Chair, Interface: “(Un)bound: Interdisciplinary Dialogues,” Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art, and Culture, Carleton University (2019)
– Committee Member and Panel Chair, English Graduate Student Society Conference: “[Per]forming the Present,” Department of English, Carleton University (2018–2019)

AWARDS:
– SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, (2021–present)
– Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2020–2021)
– Gordon J. Wood Graduate Scholarship in English, Carleton University (2018–2019)
– George Johnston Poetry Award (First Prize), Department of English, Carleton University (2024 & 2019)
– Barbara Rooke Travel Prize, Department of English, Trent University (2017)
– Sylvia Cherney Scholarship, Department of English, Trent University (2014–2015)