Faculty Bio

Dr. Dirks started to teach at St. Mary’s University in January, 2023. She teaches introductory literature courses, Canadian literature, and literary theory. Her academic journey began at the University of Winnipeg (BA) and then the University of Manitoba (MA). She then received her PhD from the University of Alberta’s Department of Comparative Literature, Religion, Film/Media Studies.

She researches and publishes in the areas of women's and gender studies, focusing on Canadian literature and writers of the 1890s-1925 like Oscar Wilde, Bliss Carman and Virginia Woolf. Her current project, in its editing stage, is a book on a contemporary Canadian author Miriam Toews, entitled “Silence and Rage: The Mennonite Novels of Miriam Toews”. When she is not teaching or writing, she is often in her garden with her three cats, all named after poets.