Scholarly Interests:
Dr. Banting teaches courses focused on writing: disciplinary writing in literary studies, editing, critical reading and writing for academic purposes, and rhetorical strategies for writing in various genres and reaching a wide variety of audiences. Her approach to teaching writing emphasizes situation-specific writing styles and rhetorical strategies, with special attention to the qualities that make student writing successful in academic and disciplinary contexts.

Her research focuses on the motivations and rhetorical strategies of academic writing in literary studies and appears in Written Communication, English Studies in Canada, Canadian Literature, and the Canlit Guides. She focuses, as well, on pedagogy and degree structures in English programs and was co-organizer, with Madeline Scarlett, in 2022, of the "English and the Humanities, Here & Now: The English Major in 2022" conference; this work appears in Arts and Humanities in Higher Education. She is co-editor, with Brandon McFarlane, of a cluster of articles called "Possibilities for English Studies Scholarly, Research, and Creative Activities," slated to appear in English Studies in Canada.

Teaching Statement:
Successful writing is so context-specific! I try to help students understand the contexts they're writing in, by introducing you to the university and the disciplines within it, discussing how they differ from non-academic communities, inviting you to understand the circumstances and audiences you are writing for, and offering you options for how to address those audiences in ways they will recognize.

Selected Publications:
with Madeline Scarlett. "Decanonizing the curriculum: English degree requirements in Canadian universities today, and the promise of a method-focused degree." Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 2023.

"Humanistic Knowledge- Making and the Rhetoric of Literary Criticism: Special Topoi Meet Rhetorical Action." Written Communication, vol. 40, no. 1, 2023.

"If What We Do Matters: Motives of Research in Canadian Literature Scholarship." English Studies in Canada, vol. 42, no. 3-4, 2016.

"Hailing Distance: On Citation and the Pandemic." English Studies in Canada, vol. 44, no. 4, 2018.

 "Uncomfortable Lessons in Literary Studies." English Studies in Canada, vol. 40, no. 4, 2014.

Selected Grants, Honours and Awards:
Distinguished Faculty Award (nomination), 2023.

Faculty of Arts Distinguished Service Award (nomination), 2022.

SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship (awarded), 2005-2009.

Photo Credit: Ashley-Rae Photograpy