Faculty Profiles

Michelle Banks, Instructor

Education & Credentials:

• BA (Honours), University of King's College, 1999
• MA, Dalhousie University, 2002
• PhD, University of Western Ontario, 2007

Began teaching at MHC: 2014

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Michelle Banks's research explores the dynamics of connection operating in various types of multi-textual works (trilogies, sequels, seriality, comics), especially in American and contemporary literature.  Narrative studies, phenomenology, hermeneutics, fictional worlds and fictionality, historical discourse, and film theory are all crucial to her approach.  Other past scholarship includes work on gender and sexuality, genre studies, superheroes, and bluegrass music.  Dr. Banks has published on narrative theory, American literature, multi-textual fictions, and Canadian poetry.  Current projects include research on Kazuo Ishiguro, graphic novels, representations of grief, regionalism, and imaginative non-fiction.

Professor Banks appreciates the commitment to small class size at Medicine Hat College.  Her preferred style of teaching is Socratic, and small classes allow for the kind of inquiry, analysis, and discussion that foster the virtues and values of an intellectual community.  Each class is grounded in an appreciation for the creativity and complexity of the literary arts, and in the conviction that among the best ways to deepen our understanding of the human experience and get us closer to creating a healthy society, is to read and think and talk and write.  Dr. Banks also thinks two funny things (at least) should happen or be said in every class.