Tanja Grubnic

I am a researcher of digital literature and culture. In December 2024, I completed my PhD in English at Western University and my dissertation (on instapoetry!) received the 2024 Carl. F. and Margaret E. Klinck Prize for an Outstanding Thesis in Canadian Literature. I was also a 2022-2023 Visiting Fulbright Scholar at Duke University. One of my favourite highlights was interviewing Sheila Heti about her experimental writing with AI for a public dialogue I organized called “Can AI be Creative?” in March 2024.

Beyond this, I am the Co-Founder and Lead Director of Digital Literary Cultures (DLC+), an open-access resource for scholars of digital literary culture broadly defined. You may have seen my work on published in venues like the European Journal of English Studies and the Australasian Journal of Popular Culture. Currently, I am working on a book project about the relationship between reading aesthetics and self-care culture in the social media age.

I maintain an interest in the vitality of Indigenous digital and visual cultures. I recently interviewed Plains Cree photojournalist Paul Seesequasis about his social media curation work “Turning the Lens: Indigenous Archival Photo Project” for a special issue of Transmotion, an Indigenous literary studies journal I co-edited with Ashley Caranto Morford and Jeffrey Ansloos (Cree).

My research has been featured on Canada’s flagship broadcaster CBC News, and I recently provided expert insight on the evolving public function of libraries in the social media age due to phenomena like #BookTok for The Globe and Mail.

My CV is available here. To reach me, email [email protected].