Libe García Zarranz

Dr. Libe García Zarranz is Associate Professor of Literature in English in the Department of Teacher Education at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Norway. She is also Research Affiliate for the Canadian Literature Centre at the University of Alberta. Prior to joining NTNU in 2017, she taught critical theory and gender studies at Magdalene College, University of Cambridge (UK). She has also held positions as Lecturer in English at the University of Innsbruck (Austria) and Postdoctoral Fellow in Globalization and Cultural Studies at the University of Manitoba.

She holds a PhD in English and Film Studies from the University of Alberta and an MA in Textual and Cultural Studies from the University of Zaragoza (Spain). Her doctoral work was awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal in 2013. García Zarranz researches at the intersection of Canadian literary studies, trans literature and visual art, feminist and queer theory, and affect studies. She is the author of the monograph [TransCanadian Feminist Fictions: New Cross-Border Ethics] (McGill Queen’s UP, 2017) and the co-editor of the special issue “Affecting Feminist Literary & Cultural Production” for [Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture and Social Justice] (2018). Her latest publications have appeared in Canadian Literature: A Quarterly of Criticism and Review (2021) and Wilfrid Laurier University Press (2021). Her current research project, [TransLit: Sustainable Ethics, Affects, and Pedagogies] (2018-2021) has been funded by NTNU.

She is also a member of the EU H2020 funded project [Inclusive Science and European Democracies] (ISEED) (2021-2024) and the international research project [Cinema and Environment: Affective Ecologies in the Anthropocene] (2020-2023), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. She writes the Canada chapter (journals) for [The Year’s Work in English Studies] (Oxford UP) and she serves on the Editorial Board of [The Raymond Carver Review].

Experience as a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar 

"I think I can say, without hesitation, that receiving the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholarship literally changed my life in a variety of ways. First of all, being part of the Foundation has enabled me to share ideas with and learn from a wide network of international and Canadian scholars working across fascinating topics in the Humanities and the Social Sciences, thus enriching my intellectual life in extraordinary ways. Then, I would say that having the Hon. Frances Lankin as my Mentor in the Foundation provided me with an alternative perspective from which to look at my PhD on contemporary queer transCanadian women writers, pushing me to look outside the rigid walls of academia and paying more attention to society at large. Finally, having these resources, particularly the travel allowance, has granted me a sense of freedom that I had never experienced before in my life (and I'm 34!): I have been able to present my research in venues across Canada, the US, and Europe; I have held Visiting Scholarships at the University of Leeds and the University of Cambridge; I have heard speakers like Rosi Braidotti in Utrecht; I have helped bringing public intellectuals like Carole Boyce Davies to the University of Alberta; and I have had the opportunity to collaborate with other students and professors on a number of projects besides my dissertation. Such collaborations are very hard to create and sustain, especially when you are in the very earliest stages in your career as a PhD student, so I will always be thankful to the Foundation for working so hard to create alliances between emerging and established scholars working in different fields, turning hierarchical divisions and barriers, which are so prevalent in academia, into potential sites for dialogue and productive collaboration. Finally, and equally important, being part of the Foundation has allowed me to meet a number of contemporary writers without which my dissertation would not be what it is: glimpses of Vancouver, with Larissa Lai; Halifax, with Hiromi Goto; Edmonton, with Dionne Brand; and Toronto, with Shani Mootoo. These conversations will be forever imprinted in my memory, so my thanks to all of these writers for their wonderful creativity and talent.

My deep gratitude to the Foundation for its formidable capacity to transform lives...gracias por existir!"