Joel Deshaye

Dr. Joel Deshaye is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Memorial University of Newfoundland. His research focuses on Canadian literature, ecocriticism, celebrity studies, and genre theory, particularly the Western. He has supervised graduate students in topics like ecopoetics, public intellectuals, and Canadian poetry.

• PhD from McGill University (2010)
• MA and BA (Hon.) from the University of Saskatchewan (2001, 1999)

His research explores intersections between media ecology and Canadian poetry, building on his SSHRC-funded books The American Western in Canadian Literature (2022) and The Metaphor of Celebrity: Canadian Poetry and the Public, 1955-1980 (2013). Recent work analyzes how the Western genre reflects North American political conservatism and how media shapes perceptions of natural environments in poetry.

Dedicated to graduate supervision, Deshaye encourages projects on distant reading, industrial technologies in Westerns, and public intellectuals. He has presented extensively on Canadian literature and media at conferences like the Canadian Society for Digital Humanities and the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. His teaching emphasizes literature as both art and practical knowledge.