About
My teaching and research interests include nineteenth-century British literature and culture, poetry and poetics, literature and religion/spirituality, and women’s writing. As a teacher, I enjoy helping people to develop practical skills in critical thinking and creative expression. My goal in the classroom is to create opportunities to explore intellectual challenging questions in the spirit of respectful dialogue.
Before joining Texas State, I taught various undergraduate courses on literary studies and academic writing at the University of Victoria, where I received my PhD. My first book,
Biblical Wisdom and the Victorian Literary Imagination, is forthcoming from Bloomsbury Academic. This book traces the imaginative refashioning of wisdom literature as a genre that took on new significance during the nineteenth century. My ongoing research focuses on late nineteenth-century women writers, alternative spiritualities, and periodical press networks.
My work has been generously supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at UVic, and the Visiting Scholars Program of the Armstrong Browning Library. I am honoured to have received UVic’s Governor General’s Gold Medal Award for my PhD studies (2021).
Education
2020 Doctor of Philosophy, English, University of Victoria
2015 Master of Arts, English, Dalhousie University
2014 Bachelor of Arts, English, Ambrose University Publications
Book
Biblical Wisdom and the Victorian Literary Imagination. Bloomsbury Academic, 2024.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
“Spiritual Authority for a (Post)Secular Age: Olive Schreiner’s
Dreams as Literary Theology.”
Victorian Popular Fictions Journal, vol. 5, no. 3 (Autumn 2023), pp. 73-88, doi: 10.46911/QBRM1938.
“Making Things Together: Collaborating and Mentoring on an OER Project.” Equally and jointly co-authored with Andrea Korda, Mary Elizabeth Leighton, and Vanessa Warne. With contributions from Katherine DeCoste, Madison George-Berlet, Maryssa Grayer, Anne Hung, Jessie Krahn, Natalie LoVetri, Anne Mirejovsky, Ruth Ormiston, Allegra Stevenson-Kaplan, and Jamie Zabel.
IDEAH: Interdisciplinary Digital Engagement in Arts & Humanities, vol. 3, no. 4 (2023), doi:
10.21428/f1f23564.0576ee6f.
“Falling into Hope: Wisdom Poetry and the Reinterpretation of Suffering in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s
A Drama of Exile.”
Victorian Poetry, vol. 58, no. 1, Spring 2020, pp. 27-51, doi:
10.1353/vp.2020.0001.
“From Denunciation to Dialogue: Redefining Prophetic Authority in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s ‘A Curse for a Nation.’”
Victorian Review, vol. 46, no. 1, Spring 2020, pp. 67-82, doi:
10.1353/vcr.2020.0011
“The Risorgimento.”
The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Victorian Women’s Writing, edited by Lesa Scholl and Emily Morris. Web. 29 February 2020, doi:
10.1007/978-3-030-02721-6_240-1.
“Gathering and Scattering in ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’: Poetic Form, Biblical Criticism, and Coleridge’s Tropes of the Imagination.”
European Romantic Review, vol. 29, no. 6, Dec. 2018, pp. 768-96, doi:
10.1080/10509585.2018.1534688.
“Garden-Variety Holiness: Bessie Head’s ‘reverence for ordinary people’ in
A Question of Power.” (Equally co-authored with Tim Heath).
ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature, vol. 49, no. 1, Jan. 2018, pp. 53-78, doi:
10.1353/ari.2018.0002.
“The ‘sensation’ of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s
Poems before Congress (1860): Events, Politics, Reception.” (Equally co-authored with Marjorie Stone).
BRANCH: Britain, Representation, and Nineteenth-Century History, edited by Dino Felluga. 5 July 2017.
http://www.branchcollective.org/?ps_articles=denae-dyck-and-marjorie-stone-the-sensation-of-elizabeth-barrett-brownings-poems-before-congress-1860-events-politics-reception.
“Writing Wisdom: George Herbert’s Synesthetic Poetics.”
Christianity and Literature, vol. 66, no. 1, Dec. 2016, pp. 39-56, doi:
10.1177/0148333116677459.
Book Reviews
Review of
Missionary Cosmopolitanism in Nineteenth-Century British Literature. By Winter Jade Werner. Ohio State University Press, 2020, pp. 210. Victorian Review vol. 48 no. 1 (Spring 2022): 134–36. doi:
10.1353/vcr.2022.0021.
Review of
Essays on Religion in George Eliot’s Early Fiction. By John H. Mazaheri. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018, pp. 120.
Victorian Review, vol. 43, no. 2, Fall 2017, pp. 317-18. doi:
10.1353/vcr.2017.0041.
Other Publications
“Incarnation and Education in George Eliot’s Adam Bede.”
George Eliot Scholars. Web. (3500 words). 5 March 2021.
https://georgeeliotscholars.org/items/show/325.
“Crafting Coherent Paragraphs.”
Why Write? A Guide for Students in Canada, edited by Sara Humphreys and Erin E. Kelly. PressBooks, BC Campus Open Education. 2021.
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/whywriteguide/chapter/5-9-crafting-coherent-paragraphs/.
“Prophecy and Pluralism in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s ‘A Curse for a Nation.’”
Victorian Review Blog. (500 words). 11 December 2020.
https://victorianreview.org/?p=1849.
“Forming Wisdom in Victorian Literature: Authority, Revelation, and the Question of Interpretation.”
Centre for Studies in Religion and Society Newsletter vol. 27 (2018-2019), p. 7. Print and Web. 24 August 2018.
https://www.uvic.ca/research/centres/csrs/assets/docs/2018-19-csrs-newsletter-web.pdf.
“Manuscripts and Marginalia at the Armstrong Browning Library.”
Armstrong Browning Library and Museum Blog. Reflections from a Visiting Scholar Series.
Baylor University.
1 May 2018.
https://bit.ly/2FxeBvD.
“E.B. White’s Ethic of Humility: An Ecocritical Engagement with
Charlotte’s Web.”
Writing Life: A Canadian Student’s Guide to Thinking, Writing, and Researching, edited by John Van Rys, Randall VanderMey, Verne Meyer, and Patrick Sebranek, Nelson Education, 2015, pp. 295-301.
“Compounding the ‘double vision’ of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s
Aurora Leigh.” [Runner-Up Award Recipient, 2013 Norton Writer’s Prize, Undergraduate Essay Competition].
W.W. Norton & Company.
2 April 2014.
http://books.wwnorton.com/books/aboutcontent.aspx?id=4294983825&mid=145.
Projects
Since 2018, I have co-convened the
Religion and Spiritualities Caucus of the North American Victorian Studies Association, an organization for which I serve on the Advisory Board.
I have contributed to
Crafting Communities, an open education and public humanities project that combines nineteenth-century material culture and twenty-first century digital pedagogy.
In recent years, I have also worked as a research assistant / research consultant for the SSHRC-funded
Digital Victorian Periodical Poetry project, housed at the University of Victoria (principal investigator: Dr. Alison Chapman).
Courses Taught
Texas State University
Studies in Victorian Prose: Aestheticism, Sexuality, and Mysticism at the
Fin de Siècle. Department of English. In-person delivery. 1 section. 5000-level (graduate). Spring 2024.
British Literature Since 1785: Literary Journeys. Department of English. In-person delivery. 1 section. 2000-level (undergraduate). Spring 2024.
“Approaches to a British Author: Oscar Wilde.” Department of English. In-person delivery. 1 section. 4ooo-level (undergraduate). Fall 2023.
“British Romanticism: Gothic Elements.” Department of English. In-person delivery. 1 section. 3000-level (undergraduate). Fall 2023.
“Victorian Poetry and Spiritual Searching.” Department of English. In-person delivery. 1 section, 15 students per section. 5000-level (graduate). Spring 2023.
“Women’s Writing: Myths of Power and Feminist Re-Imaginations.” Department of English. In-person delivery. 1 section, 25 students per section. 3000-level (undergraduate). Spring 2023.
“The British Victorian Period: Victorian Literature and Social Justice.” Department of English. In-person delivery. 1 section, 3000-level (undergraduate). Fall 2022.
“British Literature Since 1785: Disenchantment and Re-Enchantment.” Department of English. In-person delivery. 1 section, 2000-level (undergraduate). Fall 2022.
University of Victoria
“English Literature 1800 to 1914.” Department of English. Online and in-person delivery. 2 sections, 200-level (undergraduate). Spring 2021 and Spring 2022.
“Victorian Poetry.” Department of English. Online and in-person delivery. 2 sections, 300-level (undergraduate). Fall 2019 and Spring 2021.
“Victorian Culture and Thought.” Department of English. Online delivery. 1 section, 300-level (undergraduate). Fall 2020.
“Academic Reading and Writing.” Academic and Technical Writing Program. Online and in-person delivery. 6 sections, 100-level (undergraduate). Fall 2018; Spring 2020; Fall 2020; Spring 2021.
Memberships
Modern Language Association
North American Victorian Studies Association
Research Society for Victorian Periodicals
Victorian Studies Association of Western Canada
