Dr. Sara Humphreys
Position
Contact
Credentials
BA (Nipissing University), MA (University of Toronto), PhD (University of Waterloo)
Area of expertise
Popular video games as cultural expression, Online forms of communication, Multiliteracies with a focus on genres of communication, Workplace communication, Canadian writing and composition and its role in supporting marginalized student populations.
My primary area of interest lies within the field of genre studies, particularly in terms of how narrative genres can function to accommodate, affect, oppress, and even liberate different reading audiences and negotiate multiple traditions of communication in varied social contexts. I am interested in how narrative genres stratify and categorize race, class, and gender in order to sustain long-standing systems of power and oppression. I am particularly interested in the performance of identity and genre in online environments, particularly video games and social media.
My work has been published in the Canadian Review of American Studies, Western American Literature, KULA, and The Centre for Teaching and Learning Excellence Blog. I have book chapters in American Exceptionalisms (2011) and Literature, Rhetoric and Values (2012) and I have also served as an editor for the Canadian Journal of Discourse and Writing.