Susan Brown

Susan Brown is a Professor at the University of Guelph, holding a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Collaborative Digital Scholarship. She is affiliated with the College of Arts and the School of Theatre, English, and Creative Writing. Her research focuses on digital humanities, critical infrastructure studies, Victorian literature, and feminist theory, particularly through her leadership of the Orlando Project, a pioneering interdisciplinary initiative. She has received significant grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.

Her work bridges feminist literary history with digital innovation, emphasizing collaborative knowledge production and inclusive digital infrastructure. Brown has contributed to university administration, including roles on the Senate Awards Committee, Board of Governors, and editorial boards of journals like Victorian Review and KULA. She has also served on national and international advisory boards, including Compute Canada and the Digital Research Alliance of Canada.

Research interests include feminist digital methodologies, semantic technologies, and the intersection of technology with literary studies. Awards include the Society for Digital Humanities Outstanding Achievement Award (2006) and the T-REX Best New Tool Prize (2008). She has taught extensively in Victorian studies, gender theory, and digital humanities, receiving a teaching award in 1999 for integrating digital methods. Brown founded the DH@Guelph Summer Workshops and co-created the Culture and Technology Studies program.

Grants and projects include funding for the Humanities Interdisciplinary Collaboration Lab (THINC Lab) and the Canadian Writing Research Collaboratory (CWRC). Her recent work explores metadata ontologies, linked open data, and the ethical dimensions of digital cultural heritage.