Laura Robinson
A professor of English and Theatre and Women’s and Gender Studies at Acadia University, former Visiting Scholar at the L.M. Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island, now the Chair of the LMMI’s Management Committee. Laura has published many articles on Montgomery’s work, most recently on Netflix’s “Anne with an E” in L.M. Montgomery in Conversation about Children and Childhood(s). With E. Holly Pike, she edited the volume L.M. Montgomery and Gender (MQUP 2021). She acted as a consultant on Historica Canada’s L.M. Montgomery Heritage Minute, the Inspiring World of L.M. Montgomery Literary Tour in PEI, and the Royal Canadian Mint’s L.M. Montgomery Commemorative coin. She curated a multi-media exhibit that travelled internationally over the four-year centenary of The Great War, entitled, “The Canadian Homefront: L.M. Montgomery’s Reflection on the First World War.” She is also a consulting editor for the Journal of L.M. Montgomery Studies. She has also published on other children’s literature and Canadian women’s writing.
Proposed Sessions: 5 classes of 2 hours each on Tuesdays in Winter term
Week 1 - Introduction to Children’s Literature, the Golden Age of Children’s Literature, Didacticism and Delight
Week 2 - Who Are You?: Didacticism and Identity in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
Week 3 - ‘There’s No Place Like Home’: Redefining Identity in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
Week 4 - ‘So many different Annes’: Gender, Nationalism, and Love in Anne of Green Gables (1908)
Week 5 - Changing or Losing Identity: Race, Gender, and Empire in The Secret Garden (1911)
