Tanja Grubnic

I am a scholar of digital literature and culture. My research intersects with literary studies, visual studies, and internet and media studies to study the contemporary purposes to which literature is put in the new attention economy. I am currently a 2025-2027 SSHRC Postdoctoral Scholar, hosted by Duke University.

In February 2025, I completed my PhD in English at Western University. My dissertation (on instapoetry!) received the Carl F. and Margaret E. Klinck Prize for an outstanding thesis and was nominated for the Governor General’s Gold Medal. I was also a 2022-2023 Canada-US 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 in March 2024 called “Can AI be Creative?” which also included Dr. Aarthi Vadde.

Currently, I am working on my first book, tentatively titled The Author as Influencer. It studies the rising tension between authors and influencers in the social media age. It also considers the relationship between reading aesthetics and digital self-care culture. I am particularly interested in the rise of the new “It Girl” as a reader and how this changes the perceived accessibility of bibliotherapy when it is encased in glamour and celebrity. My work has been published in venues like The Australiasian Journal of Popular Culture and the European Journal of English Studies.

My research has been featured on Canada’s flagship broadcaster CBC News, for whom I have also provided expert insight on internet culture. Beyond this, I am the Co-Founder of Digital Literary Cultures (DLC+), an open-access resource and research network for scholars of digital literary culture broadly defined.

To contact me, please email tanja [.] grubnic [@] duke [.] edu.