Linda Harwood

Instructor, English, Technical Writing & Communications

“Selkirk College is a sturdy stepping stone to university degrees and careers, and I am very grateful and proud to contribute as a college professor to my beautiful communities in the West Kootenays and beyond.” – Linda Harwood, Instructor, English, Technical Writing & Communications

Born and raised in Castlegar, I graduated from Stanley Humphries Secondary School where you can find my picture on the wall there as Linda King in the class of 1984. After turning down some athletics scholarships, I decided to stay local for two more years and attended Selkirk College instead. In 1986, I transferred directly into the University of British Columbia's Honours English program, graduating with a BA (Honours English) in 1988. My honours thesis was on gender roles in Peter Pan.

After working several summers at Celgar as a chemical lab tester and a pulp grader, I returned to the Lower Mainland in the fall of 1988 for graduate school at Simon Fraser University. After taking two years out to work full-time for the federal government in the Finance Department of the Canada Employment and Immigration Commission (CEIC) in Vancouver from 1990 -1992, I graduated with an MA (English) in 1993. My MA thesis took a biographical approach to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus.

Shortly thereafter, I returned to Castlegar to start teaching here at Selkirk College in the Fall of 1993. Thinking I would teach for a while before starting a doctorate, I soon realized that “a while” had turned into a couple of decades! Nevertheless, after chairing the School of University of Arts & Sciences for a three-year term (2010-2013), I was inspired to return to teaching full-time and to study for a doctorate in higher education with the University of Liverpool. My doctoral research has been on faculty responses to student plagiarism and policy compliance.

I have been a member of the BCCAT English Articulation Committee since the mid-1990s, and I have been serving as its provincial Chair since 2009. I have also been serving as a Director for the Castlegar Sculpturewalk board since 2017.

My lifelong passions have been and continue to be children's literature as well as teaching and learning. I also enjoy homeschooling my 16-year-old daughter who has introduced me to a whole new world of cosplaying.

I look forward to guiding and supporting your learning process this semester!