Alyssa MacLean

Alyssa MacLean is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Writing Studies at the University of Western Ontario, affiliated with University College. Her research examines Canada-U.S. literary interactions pre-1865 and co-leads the Black Londoners Project, a digital humanities initiative recovering Black histories in 19th-century London, Ontario. Funded by SSHRC and Western grants, this project digitizes archival materials from Benjamin Drew’s The Refugee.

Her book project America’s Canada: Hemispheric Literary Relations and the Construction of U.S. Citizenship, 1830–1865 reinterprets the American Renaissance through transnational lenses. Teaching focuses on North American literature, political countercultures, transnational studies, and Black North American studies.

Her work has been supported by SSHRC Insight, SSHRC Explore, and Western Strategic Priorities grants. She collaborates with Miranda Green-Barteet on digital humanities initiatives and integrates public scholarship with academic research.