Sheila Delany’s

Photo by Phil Maloney

Curriculum Vitae

Academic Training:

BA, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, 1961
MA, University of California at Berkeley, 1963
PhD, English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, New York City, 1967

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Awards, Grants and Distinctions:

• Woodrow Wilson Fellow, 1961–62
• Fiction Award, UC-Berkeley, 1963
• New York State Regents Fellow, 1965–66 and 1966–67
• Canada Council Leave Fellowship, 1975–76
• SSHRCC (Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada) release time stipend, 1987–88
• President’s Research Grant (SFU), 1988
• SSHRCC release time renewal, 1989–90
• SFU Publications Grants, 1990 and 1992
• Creative Non-fiction Prize from Event, for “Alibis,” 1993
• Killam Senior Research Fellowship, 1993–95
• SSHRCC standard research grant, 1993–6
• SFU travel grant, 1996
• SFU/SSHRCC small research grant, 1996–7
• SFU/SSHRCC small research grant, 1997–8
• SSHRCC standard research grant, 1998–2001
• SFU travel grant, 1999
• Society of Canadian Medievalists, first Labarge Prize for best book in medieval studies, for Impolitic Bodies: Poetry, saints and society in fifteenth-century England, 1999
• SSHRCC standard research grant, 2004–07
• Residential fellowship in Cassis, France, at the Camargo Foundation, Fall 2009
• SFU Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Retiree Research Grant, 2013

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Teaching Experience:

• Teaching Assistant, UC-Berkeley, 1963
• Queens College, CUNY, 1967–69: Courses taught include freshman and advanced composition, poetry survey, novel survey, Middle English survey
• Columbia University Summer School, 1970: Evolution of the Hero in Medieval Literature
• Simon Fraser University, 1970–2006: undergraduate and graduate courses in poetry survey, novel survey, Studies in the Essay, Introduction to Prose Genres, Tudor Studies, Chaucer, Middle English Literature, Old Testament Studies, Classical Literature in Translation, Versions of Utopia, Marxism and the Arts, Women in Medieval Literature, Medieval Women Writers, The Judaeo-Christian Tradition in Western Culture, The Big Renaissance Book (Rabelais, Sidney, Cervantes), Creative Writing (prose fiction), Literatures of Metamorphosis, Literatures of Sexual Politics, Medieval Marriage: Theory, Practise, Representation, Chaucerian Dreaming, Cultural Contact and Conflict in Early Western Literature, Medieval Jewish Literature, Medieval Lyric, Four Jewish Poets, Yiddish Literature in Translation, Prison Writing, and numerous uncredited directed reading courses in related areas
• University of British Columbia, 1987: comparative literature graduate course, Women and Word in Medieval Society

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Professional Organizations and Activities:

• Invited participant in ACLS international conference on science, humanities and technology, Dromoland, Ireland, 1972
• MLA Academic Freedom Committee (appointed), 1973–76
• MLA Special Interest Delegate (elected), 1974–77
• Philological Association of the Pacific Coast (PAPC): Chaucer session secretary (1985) and head (1986)
• Medieval Association of the Pacific (MAP): Executive Committee, 1988–89; Program Committee for joint MAP/Medieval Academy conference in Vancouver, 1990
• Field Editor, The Chaucer Encyclopedia.
• Founder, organizer, and member, Vancouver Medieval Symposium, 1988–92
• Organizer and chair for sessions at ACCUTE, 1974 (jointly with Historical Association); MLA 1975; MLA 1983; New Chaucer Society 1984, 1986 (by invitation), and 1990; ACCUTE, 1992
• Nominating Committee, Society of Canadian Medievalists
• Advisory reader for Assays, Chaucer Review, Cultural Anthropology, Exemplaria, Feminist Studies, Mediaevalia, Mosaic, PLL, PMLA, Science & Society, Signs, Studies in the Age of Chaucer, Style, university presses including Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, University Press of Florida, Stanford University Press, and non-university presses
• Editorial board and Manuscript Collective for Science & Society, 1982–April 2020
• Advisory board of Exemplaria: A Journal of Theory in Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1989–2008
• Editorial board of English Studies in Canada, 1994–2000
• Editorial board of The Chaucer Review, 1997–2008
• Advisory board of Disputatio
• Chair (by invitation) for two sessions at Kalamazoo Medieval Congress, 1994
• Organized session on “The Politics of Hagiography” and present paper, MLA (San Diego), 1994
• Adjudicator, NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities), 1995
• Adjudicator, SSHRCC (Social Sciences for the Humanities Research Council of Canada), 1991 and 1992; SSHRCC local feedback group, 1995
• Evaluator for Dictionary of Old English project for SSHRCC, 1996 and 1998
• Evaluator for Canadian Federation for the Humanities (Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme), 1996
• Faculty member, Green College, UBC, 1996–97
• Organize and chair session, “Representing Jews,” for Exemplaria at Kalamazoo, MI, 2000
• Adjudicator for Israel Science Foundation, 2001
• Member, Academic Committee at Green College, UBC, 2001–02
• External PhD examiner or tenure referee: UBC, University of Calgary, University of Melbourne, Dartmouth College, University of Colorado (both Denver and Boulder), University of Massachusetts at Amherst, University of Windsor, SUNY Binghamton, Lewis & Clark College, Louisiana State University, Dalhousie, University of Alberta, Wilfrid Laurier, UC-Riverside, University of New Mexico
• Adjudicator for Canadian Asssociation of Graduate Studies Prize, 2002
• Co-organizer (with Jacek Fisiak) of international invitational conference “Remembering Margaret Schlauch,” at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland, 2002
• Referee for Guggenheim Foundation, 2003
• Adjudicator, Leonard E. Boyle Dissertation Prize for Medieval Studies (a national Canadian competition) 2004
• Referee, Marsden Fund, Royal Society of New Zealand, 2004
• Chair, SSHRC grant adjudication committee, 2005–08
• Manage Vancouver Medieval Symposium e-list, 2007–ongoing
• Reorganize Vancouver Medieval Symposium, 2007–ongoing
• Organize and chair session for MAA/MAP congress, 2008
• Invited to organize and chair session “In their own voices: Medieval Jewish writers” for joint congress of Medieval Academy of America and Medieval Association of the Pacific, 2008
• Invited faculty for “Representation of Jews in Middle English literature” component of the NEH seminar “Jews in medieval England,” Oxford University, August 2014
• Organize “Alternative Indias” conference at Harbour Centre for September 2020.

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Invited Academic Talks:

• Miami University, Ohio, 1980
• McMaster University Feminist Criticism Conference, 1983
• University of Washington Medieval Seminar and Institute for Research on Women, Seattle, 1984
• Australia and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Conference in Melbourne, Australia, 1986
• James Cook University of North Queensland, Australia, 1986
• Speaker and respondent at MLA, San Francisco, 1987
• Stanford University, University of Notre Dame, University of California at Berkeley and Wellesley College, 1987–88
• “Reconceiving Chaucer” conference, Rochester, New York, 1988
• Delaware Valley Medieval Association, Rutgers University, Columbia University, University of Southern California, UC San Diego, Claremont Graduate Center, 1989
• University of London Old and Middle English Research Seminar, Cambridge University, 1989
• Speaker and respondent at MLA, Washington, DC, 1989
• “Women in the Middle Ages”; conference, York University, England, 1990
• “A Wyf Ther Was” international conference, Liège, Belgium, 1990
• Universities of Amsterdam, Utrecht, Leiden and Nijmwegen, 1990
• Humanities Institute Conference “New Studies in the Middle Ages,” Claremont, California, 1991
• Baruch College (CUNY) New York, 1991
• SCM inaugural conference (Learneds), Ottawa, 1993
• Wellesley College, University of Rochester faculty/graduate symposium, Rochester, New York, 1995
• Plenary speaker at South African Society for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Pretoria, South Africa, 1994
• Guest lectures at Universities of Witwatersrand, Durban, Durban-Westville, Pietermaritzburg, Cape Town and Stellenbosch, 1995
• Paper at ninth J. A. W. Bennett Memorial Symposium, Perugia, Italy, 1995
• New York Medieval Club conference, 1995
• Plenary speaker at ACCUTE meeting (Learneds), Montréal, 1995
• Plenary speaker at SCM (Learneds), Brock University, Ottawa, 1996
• Plenary speaker, Montana Medieval Round-up, Bozeman, Montana, Fall 1996
• Two talks at Green College, UBC, Vancouver, Spring 1997
• Rossell H. Robbins annual lecture at New York Medieval Club, Spring 1998
• Lecture at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Spring 1998
• Paper at Leeds International Medieval Congress, 1998
• Panelist at New Chaucer Society International Congress, Paris, 1998
• Green College, UBC, Vancouver, October, 1998: “Dating the Prioress”
• Panelist for “Chaucer and the Millennium” public forum at MLA convention, Chicago, 1999: “Millenial? Chaucer?”
• Ben Gurion University of the Negev, February 2000: “Chaucer and the Paris Jews, 1394”; “Jews in Medieval England”
• Co-organizer and speaker at “Medieval language, literature and culture” conference commemorating Margaret Schlauch, at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland, 2002
• Lectures at University of Warsaw, Jagiellonian University (Krakow) and Central European University (Budapest), May 2002
• Plenary speaker at SASMARS, Pretoria, South Africa, 2002
• Plenary speaker at University of Alberta conference “Meaningful marginalities: Cultural constructions and religious influences,” 2006
• Plenary speaker in a joint session of Canadian Society of Medievalists and Canadian Society for Jewish Studies: “Bovo rides again: An Old Yiddish romance, its hero, and its author” (Learneds), Vancouver, 2008
• Left Forum, New York, June 2011: “Science and Society at 75.”
• University of Texas at Austin, “Bible, Jews, Revolution,” September 2012
• UBC Early Modern Romance Languages seminar, March 2013: “Introducing Sylvain Maréchal: An egalitarian in the French Revolution”

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Community Service

• Writer and staff member, Grape/Western Voice (Vancouver political-cultural newspaper), 1972–73
• Speaker at UBC panel on “Literature and Social responsibility” and Vancouver Public Library lecture series, &“ Art—For Whose Sake?”; seminar leader at SFU Counselling Service, “Toward a Radical Therapy,” lecture for SFU Chaplaincy, all in 1972; lectures and forums at UC Berkeley, San Francisco State University, California State University at Los Angeles, sponsored by International Spartacist Tendency, 1976
• SFU University Speakers Bureau: volunteer lectures on various topics for church groups, senior citizens’ groups, etc., ongoing; Lecture to Canadian Authors Association, 1984; Kootenay School of Writing, 1985
• Author’s readings at Octopus Books, Coburg Gallery, and Kootenay School of Writing, 1985; Co-op Radio, 1986 and other occasions; R2B2 Books, 1987; SFU campus bookstore on various occasions, Harbour Centre, 1996; Participant in group benefit readings at Western Front, 1989–90
• Interviewed for CBC “Ideas” program on Trotsky, aired January 1981. Short story dramatized on CBC, October 1987
• Interviewed on Vicky Gabereau show, CBC, 1993 re: Legends of Holy Women
• Participant (lecturer) in SFU Headstart Program, July 1993
• SFU mentoring program for faculty applicants to funding agencies
• Harlem Tutorial Program, International House, Manhattan, 1994–95
• Editorial collective and Book Review Editor, OUTLOOK: Canada’s progressive Jewish magazine, 1997–99
• Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture, Program Committee Chair, 1999–2003
• Initiator, Centre for Jewish cultural studies at SFU, 2001 (not passed)
• Panelist for “;Reviving the left”; Harbour Centre, December 2003
• Executive board, Canadian-Cuban Friendship Association, 2006–2013; secretary, 2012–13
• “Medieval Jews and their secular books: What they read, what they wrote,” Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, February 2008; Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture (Vancouver), April 2008
• “Bovo rides again: An Old Yiddish romance, its author and its hero,” Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture, 2005; Peretz Seniors, 2006; Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, November, 2006; Jewish Community Center of the East Bay (Berkeley), April 2009
• Organized The Container Project, 2003–08 (with CCFA and Rotary Club World Help Network); computers, books, hospital equipment to Cuba, Haiti, Poland
• Member, Seriously Free Speech Committee, 2010–15
• “Jews in the French Revolution,” Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture, November 2011
• “A French revolutionary studies the Bible in 1800,” invited talk for the Rotary Club of Burnaby, September 2012
• “Jews in the French Revolution,” illustrated talk at Kol Hadash Community for Humanistic Judaism, December 2012
• Member, Independent Jewish Voices, 2012–ongoing; Free Speech committee; fund-raising committee
• Panelist for Pull the Pin Theatre panel on contemporary play “Facts,&8221; 27 April 2013
• Panelist for Michael Lerner lecture at SFU-Harbour Centre, 23 October 2013
• Organized two public talks (at SFU-Harbour Center and Green College, UBC) and a private reception for Steven Salaita, January 2015
• Regular invited column, “Writing on the edge,” for SFU Retirees Association Newsletter, 2016-ongoing; several columns reprinted in other university retiree newsletters and locally in Senior Line.
• Radio interview in French with Prof. Gilles Mossière of Mt. Royal University, Calgary, on CJSW (90.9 FM), 6 March 2017
• “Medieval Jews: What they read, what they wrote”: Brock House, Vancouver, 27 February 2018
• Organized container shipment, with Rotary World Help Network, for Centro Maya Servicio Integral, San Juan la Laguna, Solola, Guatemala, 2017–18.