Michèle Irwin

Michèle Irwin
Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream
Building AC 310B

BIography

Michèle Irwin’s primary role in the Centre for Teaching and Learning is to support student writing development by offering in-class writing workshops as well as writing retreats. Michèle holds a PhD from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto for her research on the efficacy of integrating Creative Expressive Writing into academic and English language teaching and learning contexts. She holds an MEd in Language and Literacy Education, also from OISE, as well as a TESOL certificate. Michèle earned an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. As a fiction writer, she has participated in conferences and residencies including Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and is currently participating in the Stanford Online Certificate in Novel Writing program.

Teaching Interests

Creative Expressive Writing, life writing, English language development, academic literacy, qualitative research methods

Research Interests

Michèle’s research seeks to explore how academic and English language writing instruction can become a site where scholarly inquiry and creativity meet the negotiation of self, culture and society, while supporting the development of confidence and skill in student writers. Michèle has lectured internationally on writing as it affects personal and academic development. She has published her research in the Journal of Transformative Education and is a contributing editor of Teaching from the Thinking Heart: The Practice of Holistic Education and on the editorial team of The Palgrave Handbook of Race and the Arts in Education. Michèle has held the SSHRC and numerous other scholarships for her research.