English At 50 | University of Waterloo

The University of Waterloo is one of the only schools in Canada where a student can combine language and literary studies, which is why Dr. Sara Humphreys (PhD 2008) chose to pursue her doctoral degree here.

She also wanted to work with Dr. Victoria Lamont. Sara's favourite course was "Women and the West," a seminar on Western American literature written by women. This course opened new areas of American literature to explore and ended up informing her dissertation topic.

During her studies, she and two peers "formed a dissertation support group called the 'Dissertation Divas'". Sara was able to make it through the trials of completing her dissertation with their support. The “Divas” remained friends since her graduation.

One of the lessons that she took away from her time at UW is that is it important to not only engage in rigorous scholarship but also to "be a good colleague."

Before graduating from UW, Sara accepted a position as an assistant professor (LTA) at Trent University in 2007. Because she specializes in both linguistics and literary studies, she teaches a wide variety of courses and finds that her "research is truly interdisciplinary."