Anna Smol
Dr. Anna Smol is Professor Emerita at Mount Saint Vincent University and the Principal Investigator in the “Tolkien’s Alliterative Poetry” project. Her teaching and research interests include Tolkien studies, medievalism, Old English poetry, and pedagogy. She has published on Tolkien in the Journal of Tolkien Research, Tolkien Studies, Mythlore, Modern Fiction Studies, and in various edited collections. She is currently on the editorial board of Mallorn, the peer-reviewed journal of the Tolkien Society. Her blog, A Single Leaf, contains information and occasional posts on Tolkien and medievalism, while more information on her teaching and research can be found on her site at annasmol.net. She can also be found on Twitter: @AnnaMSmol and on Blue Sky: @annasmol.
Gavin Foster
Gavin Foster is a third-year PhD candidate at Dalhousie University. His research interests include Tolkien studies, Old English literature and translation, and queer theory. His dissertation aims to trace trajectories of grief through the experiences of female characters in Old English oral-formulaic poetry, Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. He is currently an ad hoc EDID committee member for the Canadian Society of Medievalists and a general committee member of Ceræ, a peer-reviewed journal originating at the University of Western Australia.
Alyssa Evans
Alyssa Evans recently completed her Bachelor of Arts program at Mount Saint Vincent University, double majoring in both English and French and graduating with distinction. She is currently enrolled in the Bachelor of Education program at the same university, and later hopes to return to complete a Master of Education (and/or English!). She loves to travel and explore new places, and wishes to one day teach abroad with her education degrees.
Redford Ingram
Redford Ingram is a fifth-year English major at Mount Saint Vincent University, currently completing his honours degree in English with minors in both writing and history. Although Redford is most interested in contemporary writing and pedagogy, as a student of Dr. Anna Smol, he has developed a great appreciation for Old English poetry, translation, and alliterative verse, and he is excited about the opportunity to explore the potential for the old and the new to crossover within these varying areas of interest. Having taken Dr. Anna Smol’s Old English Translation course, Redford has already experienced these exciting possibilities first hand, transposing “The Battle of Maldon” into a modern-day meat market in his own translation of the Old English poem. Redford looks forward to doing further inquiry as a research assistant on Dr. Smol’s “Tolkien and Alliterative Verse” project, and perhaps continue to try his hand at Old English translation.
2021-2022
Jordan Audas
Jordan Audas is a project analyst and junior project manager at Digital Nova Scotia. He graduated from the Masters of Information program at Dalhousie University, becoming the first student of that program to be successfully awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) grant for his thesis, entitled “The Price of Glass Slippers: Folklore, Intellectual Property, and Neoliberalism”. Prior to graduate school, Jordan completed his bachelor degree at Mount Saint Vincent University, majoring in English and graduating with distinction.
MacKenzie Moore
MacKenzie Moore recently received her Bachelor of Arts, with a major in English and a minor in Writing, from Mount Saint Vincent University with distinction. She has a deep passion for learning, and currently applies this passion to her work with the Wentworth Learning Centre, a small non-profit organization that is dedicated to the advancement of lifelong learning in rural Nova Scotian communities. In her spare time, she enjoys creative writing, and hopes to pursue a career in this someday.
Tolkien and Alliterative Verse 