About Me
My job is to help graduate students become engaged, effective citizens who have a transformative effect on the world wherever they end up, whether that's working in a university, business, government, or non-profit. The skills and knowledge that graduate students develop through their research training give them the tools and the drive to make whatever they touch better--through seeing it more clearly, knowing it more deeply, and imagining it differently.
But it can be difficult for graduate students to find and succeed in the places they could contribute outside of the university. That's where I come in. Through my work in research funding, I ensure that graduate students have the financial support they need to succeed in their degrees. In my work designing, launching, and running professional and career development programs for grad students and postdocs, I provide opportunities for honing transferable skills, developing the knowledge and confidence to pursue multiple career paths, and succeeding in the job search and beyond. With a deep knowledge of the special challenges facing students in the humanities, social sciences, and STEM, and with first-hand knowledge of what it's like to be a PhD seeking a career outside of research and teaching, I also work as a consultant to help the people looking to better serve graduate students ensure that they're truly meeting the needs of that community.
I'm happy to talk, so please get in touch! You can reach me at meldalgleish@gmail.com, or on Twitter at @meldalgleish
My disciplines and areas of professional expertise include…
Current work
I am currently the Program Coordinator for the Research Training Centre at the Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute. I hold a PhD in English from York University in Toronto, Canada. As Program Coordinator, I work with SickKids and University of Toronto partners to provide extensive professional and career development programming for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows pursuing their research training at SickKids. I also administer all of our internal and external graduate and postdoctoral research funding programs. On any given day, my job might include curriculum design, event planning, finance, policy development, HR, and research, and no day is ever boring.
Contact me regarding...
Education
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Queen's University
- 2006
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York University
- 2016
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University of Toronto
- 2005
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Dalhousie University
- 2007
Experience
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The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute
- 3/2015 - Present
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York University
- 9/2008 - 8/2012
- 9/2008 - Present
- 9/2013 - 3/2015
- 9/2012 - 8/2013
- 9/2013 - 3/2015
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Editing Modernism in Canada
- 9/2009 - Present
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Oxford University Press
- 10/2007 - 12/2008
Research
As I researcher, I focus on modern Canadian poetry, digital humanities, editorial theory, and graduate education reform. My dissertation takes a microhistorical approach to the first twenty years of Toronto poet Jay Macpherson's career, and uses the development of her mythopoeic modernism as a case study through which to understand the mythopoeic turn that happens in Canada at mid-century. I also research and write about graduate education, careers, and reform, both for the feminist academic blog Hook & Eye and co-editor, with Daniel Powell, of the #Alt-Academy project Graduate Training in the 21st Century. As a lover of poetry (but not a writer of it), I express my love by regularly reviewing works of Canadian poetry for Canadian Literature and The Bull Calf Review.