Ann Gagne

Ann first graduated from UTSC in physical inorganic chemistry and worked in the geo-chemical field for almost a decade. However, her passion from a young age was always English literature and teaching so she returned to UTSC to complete her English degree before pursuing a Master’s degree in English at York University and PhD in Victorian literature at Western University. Her dissertation focused on the representation of tactility in Victorian literature and she can attribute her love of nineteenth-century literature to Professor Christine Bolus-Reichert. Professor Bolus-Reichert’s Romantics course along with Professor Andrew Patenall’s courses, which she took as an undergraduate, inspired Ann to go to graduate school.
Ann has been teaching English literature and working in post-secondary institutions for more than a decade. She is currently the Educational Developer (Universal Design for Learning) at the Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre at the University of Toronto-Mississauga where she supports inclusive curriculum development and accessible pedagogy. Previously she was a Curriculum and Instructional Design Consultant at Durham College and a program coordinator for applied arts programs at Seneca College. How students interact with course material and the classroom environment is a theme that carries from her teaching practice and work to her scholarly research. Her present research looks at the intersection of tactility and education in in-person and online course delivery. She has been published in The Hardy Review, Victorians: A Journal of Culture and Literature, MAI:Feminism & Visual Culture Journal, and Response: The Journal of Popular and American Culture.
 
UTSC is always a place Ann will call home, “Scarborough means so much to me; it is a special place filled with people who really care about their community on micro and macro levels.”