Researcher
Tanja Grubnic is a researcher and PhD Candidate in English at the University of Western Ontario. She is also the founder of Digital Literary Cultures + (DLC+), a digital resource and research network for scholars of digital literary culture broadly defined.
Her dissertation, titled Art or Con? Exploring Instapoetry at the Intersection of Creator Culture, Digital Entrepreneurship, and Artistic Innovation, is a three-part case study of “instapoets” in Canada. It explores the complex ways in which twenty-first century communications technologies and social media are challenging traditional notions of authorship, reshaping contemporary literary forms, and blurring the lines between art and commerce.
Tanja is currently co-editing a special issue for the Indigenous literary studies journal Transmotion. This issue, created in collaboration with Ashley Caranto Morford and Canada Research Chair Jeffrey Ansloos (Cree), examines Indigenous literary engagements with social media and digital environments. She is also contributing an interview with the Plains Cree social media-based artist Paul Seesequasis on his Turning the Lens: Indigenous Archival Photo Project.
Her research has been featured on Canada’s flagship broadcaster CBC News, and she 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.
Tanja is the recipient of prestigious awards such as the Fulbright Fellowship, which she pursued at Duke University, as well as three consecutive Ontario Graduate Scholarships.
You may contact her at [email protected].