Meet Our Instructors

Jennette Boehmer Jennette Boehmer (she/her) has a background in both management consulting and academic research and instruction. She engages with academic, professional, and business writers to facilitate their development as clear and compelling writers in various genres. She also provides editing support to academic writers in a range of disciplines.  Jennette has been a member of the New College Writing Centre team since 2015 and currently coordinates the Writing Room, our drop-in student writing space. In addition to the English Language Learning (ELL) program, she has taught with numerous writing-intensive courses and the faculty-wide Writing-Integrated Teaching (WIT) initiative, where she focused on assignment design and TA training. Jennette holds an undergraduate degree in education and a graduate degree in Egyptology. Her research focus is the role of myth and ritual in ancient Egyptian funerary practices. When not teaching or researching, Jennette is an active member of her neighbourhood residents’ association, where she advocates for a green and liveable city connections. 

Linguistic Profile:

Jennette is fluent in English and can read texts in French, German, and Egyptian (hieroglyphs).

Ralph Callebert researches and teaches on labour, Africa, climate change, and global history. His book, On Durban’s Docks: Zulu workers, rural households, global labor (University of Rochester Press, 2017), is on dock labour, households, and the informal economy in 1950s Durban, South Africa.

Ralph’s recent work engages the intersections of labour, citizenship, and climate change. He has a Ph.D. in history from Queen’s and received an M.A. from the Department of Economic History and Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa.

Linguistic Profile:

Ralph is fluent in English and Dutch. He is confident when reading in French and has lower intermediary French speaking skills. Ralph also has a basic understanding of Afrikaans and German.

Daveeda Goldberg prides herself on knowing how to use semicolons; she is also passionate about supporting student writing, from conception to punctuation. In addition to teaching here at the New College Writing Centre, Daveeda teaches in U of T’s ELL Program, volunteers as a tutor for under-served high school students, freelance-edits for clients in diverse fields like Finance, Physics and Philosophy, writes and rewrites her dissertation on self-constructivist ethics in Late Modern Europe, and enjoys using parallelism to compose long, overstuffed sentences. Daveeda also recently completed an Ontario College of Teachers-certified course in Special Education, and continues to search out ways to better support non-typical learners with their university-level writing.

Linguistic Profile:

Daveeda is fluent in English. She also reads French and Spanish near-fluently (orally and aurally — that is, in speaking and in hearing — Daveeda is much less fluent). Daveeda also has a basic understanding of Hebrew. 

Jordana Greenblatt has worked as a Writing Instructor at U of T since 2014, working with writing across a wide range of disciplines in the arts, social sciences, and sciences. They also teach in the English Department at York University and have taught Women and Gender Studies at U of T, McMaster, and Queens. Jordana is the editor of Querying Consent: Beyond Permission and Refusal (Rutgers UP) and has published articles in a variety of literature and interdisciplinary journals and scholarly collections. Currently an Executive Member of the Comparative Gender Studies Committee of the International Comparative Literature Association, they research sexuality in a range of creative media and contexts, including contemporary literature, comics, legal texts, and medical humanities. In addition to their academic work, Jordana is a professional aerial acrobat, performing on trapeze and corde lisse, and is a member of the international Circus Thinkers Platform based out of Cirkus Syd in Lund, Sweden, in which context they have edited and written chapters for two public intellectual collections on circus. In 2023, they received a Canada Council for the Arts Research and Creation Grant for their circus project, “Lifting Belly.”

Linguistic Profile:

Jordana is fluent in English; they also have advanced knowledge of French and intermediate knowledge of both German and Yiddish. In addition, they have studied basic Spanish and Latin.

Margaret Herrick has taught writing in a number of different contexts and institutions for over twenty years.  She completed her PhD through the University of Toronto’s Department of English and Centre for South Asian Studies, and her dissertation concerns the roles played by widows and hijras (or third gender people) in 20th century Indian novels and plays. Her work has been published in the Journal of Commonwealth Literature, University of Toronto Quarterly, Literature and Theology and Interventions. 

Linguistic Profile:

Margaret is fluent in English, and speaks, understands and reads French at an intermediate level.  She also has a beginner’s ability to read in Latin. 

Susan Hopkirk has spent over two decades teaching writing through university classes, workshops, and writing centres. She started working at the University of Toronto in 2010, joining the New College Writing Centre and the English Language Learning (ELL) Program. Susan also works as a Writing Instructor at St. Michaels’ College. She is interested in academic, reflective, professional, and graduate writing, as well as the intersection of writing and learning strategies, and loves discussing – and practicing – these with students.  

Susan completed her PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Alberta, and her dissertation focused on gendered language use and reading practices as feminist agency in medieval romance. Susan also has an Ontario Graduate Certificate in Learning Strategies. 

Linguistic Profile:

Susan is fluent in English and also has a working knowledge of French.

Marci Prescott-Brown (she/her/elle) is the Director of the New College Writing Centre and Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream in Writing Studies. She has practiced decolonialist and antiracist writing pedagogies since she began tutoring students from low income and minority backgrounds as a teenager. For over seventeen years, she has taught writing in various postsecondary and other academic contexts. She completed her dissertation using the principles of antiracist writing, receiving her PhD in English from the University of Toronto in 2019. She also completed a TESL Diploma in 2020 and earned the OCELT professional designation. Currently, she is the President of the Canadian Writing Centres Association/Association Canadienne des Centres de Rédaction (CWCA/ACCR). Her pedagogical and research focus is on how varieties of speech, language, and technology can be used as part of decolonialist and antiracist writing instruction to empower writers. Marci facilitates the writing group for the Caribbean, African, Equity and Solidarity Studies (CAESS) programs as well as the Write Now! Staff and Faculty Writing Group at New College. When relaxing, Marci enjoys baking pies, playing games, making crafts, and travelling with her family.

Linguistic Profile:

Marci is fluent in English and can read French texts. She also speaks, reads, and writes Jamaican Patios and can aurally comprehend and read many of the creoles/dialects/patios varieties of the Caribbean. Beyond this, Marci also aurally comprehends and reads African American English/Black English and related linguistic varieties.

J. Coplen Rose (he/him) is an educator and scholar in Toronto, Canada. He teaches in a range of areas including postcolonial theory and literature, fantasy fiction, and introductory courses to engineering communication and design. Coplen earned his PhD in English and Film Studies. His primary area of research is post-apartheid South African literature and drama. His other research interests include science fiction, humour and political satire, and engineering communication. Coplen is currently the Executive Officer for the Canadian Association for Postcolonial Studies

Designation: STEM Writing Specialist (Focus: Engineering Communication)

Linguistic Profile:

J. Coplen Rose is fluent in English and has basic French reading and speaking skills.

Shalika Sivathasan (she/her) is a doctoral candidate in the Department of English at York University. She holds an MA in Contemporary Literature, Culture, and Theory from King’s College London, and a BA in History with minors in English and Political Science from the University of Toronto, St. George. While at York, Shalika has served as a TA in the Departments of English, Humanities, and Social Science, where she enjoys working alongside a diverse array of undergraduates, from first year and first-generation to fourth year and returning students with aspirations for graduate school, medicine, and law. In addition to working as a Writing Instructor and with the ELL Reading eWriting Program at New College since 2022, Shalika is a Professor in the School of English and Liberal Studies at Seneca College, where she teaches Writing Strategies and courses related to the intersections of literature and health. 

Linguistic Profile:

Shalika is fluent in English and has basic reading comprehension in French.

Megan Stewart (she/her) has an extensive background in STEM and STEM writing, completing an HBSc with a specialization in Genetics at the University of Western Ontario as well as an MSc at the University of Toronto. Research conducted throughout her MSc project included investigating and describing the anatomy of neuron populations involved in social behaviour in Drosophila melanogaster.  In addition to research, Megan supported students in their academics through TAships during graduate school at the University of Toronto in 1^st to 4^th year classes. Recently, Megan earned a teaching certification from the University of the West of Scotland, and she is certified to teach grades 7-12 biology and science. 

Designation: STEM Writing Specialist (Focus: Biology)

Linguistic Profile:

Megan is fluent in English and also aurally comprehends some French. 

Ty Walkland (he/him) has spent over a decade working with learners of all ages to confront power, privilege, and the possibilities of more just and equitable futures—both on and off the page. In a past life, he taught high school English, Social Sciences, and Special Education north of Toronto. Now a Ph.D. Candidate at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), Ty’s research explores critical and care-centred approaches to school-based drug education, as well as collaborative, participatory, and arts-shaped inquiries among youth and educators more broadly. He also helps coordinate the Toronto Writing Project (www.torontowritingproject.com), a network of educators that supports teachers of writing in supporting their students. Someone even handed him a microphone to host the project’s Teaching Writers Speak podcast. As well as offering one-on-one writing guidance, Ty runs New College Writing Centre’s QT Write-Ins and provides part-time administrative support. When Ty’s not hunched over a keyboard and pouring over works-in-progress, he’s almost always outdoors—ideally on a beach.

Linguistic Profile:

Ty is fluent in English.

Jude Welburn is a Fellow at the Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies at Victoria College. He received his PhD in English literature from the University of Toronto and holds an MA in Social and Political Thought from York University. His dissertation explores the social and historical context for the emergence of utopian literature as a genre. Jude has taught courses on renaissance literature and science fiction at the University of Toronto, McMaster University, and Wilfrid Laurier University. His published work has appeared in journals such as English Literary Renaissance, Studies in Philology, and ELH. His current research examines the idea of the commons in the political literature of the English Revolution.

Linguistic Profile:

Jude is fluent in English and has basic French reading skills.

Georgia Wilder completed her PhD in English literature in 2000, followed by a TESOL certificate. She has taught courses in literature and writing at the University of Toronto, and worked in campus writing centres for many years. She was a recipient of the inaugural Margaret Procter Award for excellence in writing centre instruction She also has expertise in high-stakes language assessment and language learning. As a creative writer, her poetry and short stories have been published in several literary journals.

Linguistic Profile:

Georgia is fluent in English and has studied French, Spanish, and Old English (Anglo-Saxon).