About Us

Clive Baldwin, PhD, Director of CIRN, is Canada Research Chair in Narrative Studies and Professor in the School of Social Work at St. Thomas University. He has been active in developing narrative as methodology and practice in academia and social organizations. He is undertaking research projects to explore the dynamics of narrative in social/health care organizations, to develop narrative literacy in professional education, and to implement training programs in narrative ethics in research.

Gül Çalışkan, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at St. Thomas University. She engages in postcolonial feminist and critical race literatures and narrative inquiry to examine the complex relations between global processes and everyday realities. She has extensive research and publication involving field work taking place in Ankara, Berlin, and Fredericton, and has taken an active role in CIRN’s research projects on resilience in older adults.

Jennifer Estey, BSW, MA, is a Registered Social Worker employed by the Government of New Brunswick, working with adults. Her interest in narrative began during her undergraduate study. She completed her Master of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of New Brunswick, focusing on ethics in long-term care.  She is co-author of two articles on narrative and the self.

Brandi Estey-Burtt, PhD, is incoming Managing Editor of Narrative Works. Her research and teaching interests include postsecular literature, critical animal studies, and postcolonialism and religion.  With degrees in English Literature and Theology and Religious Studies, Brandi continues to be interested in narratives of religious identity in a spiritually-fluid moment.

Dolores Furlong, PhD, is retired as Professor of Nursing at the University of New Brunswick. With Bill Randall, she inaugurated the Narrative Matters Conferences in 2002, was again co-organizer of Narrative Matters 2004, and co-authored (with Bill Randall and Rosemary Clews) The Tales that Bind: A Narrative Model for Living and Helping in Rural Communities. She has also played a major role in CIRN’s research projects on resilience in older adults.

Michelle Greason, PhD, is a social worker and part-time faculty member in the School of Social Work at St. Thomas University. In collaboration with CIRN, she is researching the development of a training program in narrative care for those working in the helping professions. Her dissertation focused on ethics and ethical reasoning in long-term care, and she has published on aging, micro-citizenship, dementia, narrative and argumentation, the rhizomatic self, and qualitative Delphi methodology.

Marcea Ingersoll, PhD, is Associate Professor and Director of the School of Education. Building on her experiences as an international teacher and teacher-educator, her scholarly work is situated at the crossroads of curriculum, narrative, teacher education, and international schools and their communities. She has taken an active role in CIRN’s research projects on resilience in older adults.

Anthazia Kadir, MEd, has taught in her native Guyana and in Saskatchewan within an Indigenous context.  She has authored two novels exploring the complexities and contradictions of being human, and currently facilitates life writing workshops for seniors and immigrants to Canada. Her research interests include contemplative pedagogy and the process of decolonization in education, the complexities of eurocentric ideologies in educational spaces, culturally responsive teaching in response to oppressive classroom practices, and life writing and curriculum inquiry.

Elizabeth McKim, PhD, is retired as Professor of English at St. Thomas University, where she taught narrative-based courses on literature and medicine, literature and aging, and life writing. She served as co-organizer of Narrative Matters 2010; was founding Associate Director of CIRN; and is co-editor (with Bill Randall) of Narrative Works. She has collaborated with Bill on a variety of presentations, publications, and workshops on the poetics of aging, including the book Reading Our Lives: The Poetics of Growing Old.

William L. (Bill) Randall, EdD, is Professor of Gerontology at St. Thomas University.  With Dolores Furlong, he inaugurated the Narrative Matters conferences in 2002, and was also co-organizer of the conferences in 2004 and 2010. He was founding Director of CIRN, and is co-editor (with Elizabeth McKim) of Narrative Works.  His current areas of interest include narrative resilience in later life, narrative care with older adults, and lifestory work in late-life spiritual development. His books include The Stories We Are: An Essay on Self-Creation; Reading Our Lives: The Poetics of Growing Old (with Elizabeth McKim); and The Narrative Complexity of Ordinary Life: Tales from the Coffee Shop. https://www.williamlrandall.com/

Denise Resmi, BAA, began as a research assistant for CIRN in 2017. Her interest in narrative, especially within psychology and gerontology, was  sparked while studying at Saint Thomas University. At CIRN, she has taken an active role in CIRN’s research projects on resilience in older adults.

Matte Robinson, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of English at St. Thomas University. His research interests are in American modernism, focusing on the poet H.D. He has been involved in the publication of several of her archival works and has also produced criticism on her work. He has also taken an active role in CIRN’s research projects on resilience in older adults.