Magdalena Kay

Magdalena Kay is a Professor and Honours Program Adviser in the Department of English at the University of Victoria. She has been teaching since 2007, specializing in contemporary British, Irish, and Polish poetry, comparative literature, and poetics. Her research explores the complex interplay between form, cultural context, and identity in poetry.

Education: She earned a B.A. (magna cum laude) in English from Harvard University (1999) and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Berkeley (2007).

Teaching: Her courses cover modern and contemporary British and Irish literature, including seminars on practical criticism, Modernism, and the poetry of Seamus Heaney. She has taught both undergraduate and graduate-level courses, emphasizing close reading and comparative analysis.

Research Interests: Kay’s work focuses on 20th- and 21st-century poetry, particularly examining how Eastern European poets like Czesław Miłosz and Zbigniew Herbert influence Irish and British writers. She investigates themes of belonging, cultural displacement, and the ethical dimensions of poetic form.

Publications: Her monographs include Poetry Against the World (2012) and In Gratitude for All the Gifts (2012), which analyze the transnational connections between poets. Recent articles explore the aesthetics of Seamus Heaney, the legacy of Philip Larkin, and the cross-cultural dialogues shaping modern poetry.

Advising & Engagement: As Honours Program Adviser, Kay mentors students in advanced literary studies. Her work also extends to co-creating The Close Reading of Poetry, a resource for students and educators.