Staff Listing

I have worked as an educator at Laurier’s Brantford campus since 2010 when I joined the LEAF (Laurier English and Academic Foundation) Program as one of its first English as a second language (ESL) instructors. In 2015, I began my role in Teaching and Learning as writing and learning support coordinator. As part of this role, I support students in developing both academic and resilience skills. Using the frameworks of social justice, academic literacies, trauma-informed practice, and growth mindset, I develop and implement programming that supports students as whole learners and help them to meet their academic goals. In addition to meeting with students, facilitating campus workshops, and providing in-class instruction, I coordinate the Goals, Plans, Achievement! (GPA) program and collaborate with campus colleagues to run Keep Calm and Study On! every December.

Prior to joining Laurier, I completed a Bachelor of Journalism degree at the University of King’s College in Halifax, where I co-founded a chapter of Journalists for Human Rights, produced a documentary film about band names, and spent a semester studying abroad in Umeå, Sweden. I also completed a four-year Bachelor of Education degree at Concordia University in Montreal, where I specialized in teaching English as a second language, building on my international TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) certification from 2006. I am a certified teacher in Quebec and Ontario and have expertise in second language acquisition and linguistics. During my studies at Concordia, I worked on two research projects about using technology in the classroom to engage students as partners in teaching and learning. I have recently completed a Master of Arts degree in Social Justice and Community Engagement here at Laurier. My focus during graduate studies was on the history of women’s unpaid caregiving labour, exploring the social reproduction feminist tradition within Marxist feminist theory and politics. In April 2020, I was awarded the Donald F. Morgenson Staff Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning by Wilfrid Laurier University.

• Laurier peer mentors share first-hand experience at Learning Specialists Association of Canada conference
• Overcome academic struggles with Laurier’s Goals, Plans, Achievement program
• "Keep Calm and Study On!" in Brantford

Karley Doucette and Jenna Olender. 2021. "Indigenizing Writing Support: Transformation Through Transitioning Space." Canadian Writing Centres Association Virtual Conference.

Karley Doucette, Margaret Neveau and Delores Maas. 2019. "Decolonizing Learning Support for Indigenous Students." Learning Specialists Association of Canada Eastern Regional Conference, University of Toronto.

Karley Doucette, Mikayla Peach and Pilar Vegara-King. 2019. "Goals, Plans, Achievement!: Encouraging Resilience in Academically At-Risk Students." Learning Specialists Association of Canada Eastern Regional Conference, University of Toronto.

Karley Doucette. 2019. “Keep Calm & Study On! An Innovative, Collaborative, and Holistic Approach to Supporting Students During Final Exams.” Learning Specialists Association of Canada National Conference, Olds, Alberta.

Karley Doucette and Lynn Farquhar. 2012. "Grammar Guerillas." Staff Development Day, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario.

Dr. Walcir Cardoso and Karley Tabak. 2009. "Make Your Material CLICK: Tweak Your Class with iClickers." Société pour le perfectionnement de l'enseignement de l'anglais, langue seconde, au Québec (SPEAQ) Annual Convention, Montreal, Quebec.

Dr. Walcir Cardoso and Karley Tabak. 2009. "Short and Tweet: Tweaking Your English Class with Twitter." Société pour le perfectionnement de l'enseignement de l'anglais, langue seconde, au Québec (SPEAQ) Annual Convention, Montreal, Quebec.

In Learning Skills and Development, we support student learning and writing in and across the disciplines. As the manager, I oversee the whole team of professional and paraprofessional staff who work to help students develop their skills as learners and writers. To prepare the team for this important and rewarding work, I provide them with intensive training, constructive feedback, and ongoing professional development opportunities throughout the year. I work to ensure that students who visit Learning Skills and Development feel welcome, respected, valued and validated as learners.

In addition to my managerial responsibilities, I provide individual support to graduate students and facilitate a number of workshops and training opportunities for our whole campus community. I also work closely with faculty to develop resources and supports for students, and I deliver in-class sessions to support students' success with course work. I'm dedicated to exploring and developing new ways to engage and support student learning at Laurier's Brantford campus.

I have a varied academic background, which has helped me work with students across all our programs at Laurier's Brantford campus. My undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto were interdisciplinary, and I earned a master's degree from Memorial University of Newfoundland that developed my skills as a qualitative researcher. I completed the Leadership in Higher Education certificate program at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (University of Toronto) in 2012, and I am now completing my doctorate in Higher Education there as well. I am a critical educator and scholar, and my current areas of research interest are student learning and development, creative-based approaches to academic skills development, and evaluation of support service impacts.

At the Brantford campus, I have the pleasure of working with the faculty in the Foundations program to deliver our academic integrity education initiative. Most recently, I have also been working to enhance the learning supports and resources for our community of online learners, including the Gear Up for Graduate Studies program and the new on-campus workshops, drop-in support and online discussion group for our undergraduate students taking online courses with Mary Scott from eLearning. In addition, I support the campus academic journal, Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections, as a staff advisor.

Olender, Jenna & Mary Scott. "Enhancing support for online learners: Researching student needs to inform innovation." Canadian Association for College and University Student Services (CACUSS) Conference, Calgary, Alberta. (2019)

Olender, Jenna & Michael Lisetto-Smith. "Increasing diversity in peer-to-peer education: A case study of manager experiences with student paraprofessionals in learning development in the Canadian context." Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. (2019) https://journal.aldinhe.ac.uk/index.php/jldhe/article/view/456

Olender, Jenna & Michael Lisetto-Smith. "Diversity inside and out? The practice of peer learning for social justice in the Canadian context." Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE) Conference, Heriott-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland. (2016)

Olender, Jenna & Michael Lisetto-Smith. "Being an effective online learner: Developing interactive online learning support modules from idea to impact." Learning Specialists Association of Canada (LSAC) Eastern Regional Conference, Ryerson University. (2015)

Olender, Jenna with Debra Langan. "Partners in professionalization: Supporting graduate students' skills development." Integrated and Engaged Learning Conference, Wilfrid Laurier University. (2014)

Olender, Jenna, Gary Warrick, Judy Eaton, & Irene Tencinger. "Using first-year writing-intensive courses to build better skills in context.” Integrated and Engaged Learning Conference, Wilfrid Laurier University. (2014)

Olender, Jenna, Gary Warrick, & Irene Tencinger. "Designed for success: A research update on scaffolding support for first-year research papers." Learning Specialist Association of Canada (LSAC) Eastern Regional Conference, University of Toronto. (2012)

Olender, Jenna, Christina Michener, Alana Rudrum, & Elizabeth Baisley. "Helping Aboriginal students succeed in a new context for writing." Canadian Association for Studies in Discourse and Writing (CASDW) Conference, University of New Brunswick. (2011)

As the Writing Coordinator, I assist with the facilitation of the tutoring program, including scheduling, social media, and tutor mentorship. I also deliver several online workshops to help develop undergraduate students' skills as they begin their journeys into university-level writing. If you're looking to make an appointment with me, I can tutor both undergraduate and master's level students. Though my expertise is in the Arts, I have experience tutoring students from all faculties at Laurier and particularly enjoy working with students in Education and Business.

I completed my undergraduate degree in film studies and history in 2019 and my OGS funded Master's of English in 2020, both at Laurier. After getting involved with Laurier Writing Services through the Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts (LUJA), I joined the team as a peer tutor in 2018. While holding my position as a graduate writing tutor, I enjoyed working in an additional capacity as a Laurier International tutor, where I worked closely with many English language learners and intercultural communicators. After finishing my Master’s of English, I joined Writing Services as the Writing Coordinator in a full-time capacity.

As a writing consultant, I work with faculty as well as undergraduate and graduate students to design and deliver university-wide writing support. I collaborate with faculty to design discipline-specific writing assignments, and I deliver in-class writing workshops. I have disciplinary expertise in writing in Business, Economic, Science, and Social Work. I enjoy consulting with graduate and undergraduate students during 50-minute individual appointments, guiding students to become more proficient and confident writers. I also deliver scholarship writing workshops for graduate students. With James Southworth, I co-lead the tutor training program, hiring, training, supervising, and mentoring the Writing Services' team of undergraduate and graduate writing tutors.

Before beginning my role as a writing consultant, I was Assistant Professor of Academic Writing in Laurier's Faculty of Arts. I completed my Ph.D. in English and Film Studies at Laurier in 2014, and held a SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard, where I did research in the history of women's writing and British Romanticism. I am an experienced post-secondary educator who has taught writing and literary studies at all levels. For over a decade, I also worked at writing centres at Laurier and the University Alberta in teaching and research roles.

Sharpe, A. In press. Five entries on novels by Mary Charlton and Thomas Clio Rickman. The Cambridge Guide to the Eighteenth-Century Novel, 1660-1820. Ed. April London. Cambridge University Press.

Ty, E. and Sharpe, A. (2017). “Mary Hays and the Didactic Novel in the 1790s.” Didactic Novels and British Women’s Writing, 1790-1820. Ed. Hilary Havens. Routledge. pp. 90-105.

Sharpe, A. (2014). “Margaret Hale’s Books and Flowers: North and South’s Paratextual Dialogues with Felicia Hemans.” Victorian Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Victorian Studies, vol. 40, no.1, pp. 197-209.

Sharpe, A. (2013). “The Case of the Wandering Uterus: Coma, the Medical Thriller and the Woman Doctor-Detective.” Literature/Film Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 220-38.

Sharpe, A. (2012). “Orphan, Embroiderer, Insect, Queen: The ‘Elegant and Ingenious’ Art of Being Ellena in Radcliffe’s The Italian (1796).” European Romantic Review, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 123-40.

As a writing consultant, I work with faculty to develop discipline-specific writing assignments and in-class writing workshops. I work primarily with faculty in the following disciplines: Arts, Seminary, Music, and International Policy and Governance.

I also work with individual graduate and undergraduate students to assist them with their learning of discipline-specific writing conventions. During one-hour appointments, I provide feedback about the strengths and areas for improvement of each student's writing.

I also co-lead the writing tutoring program. This involves recruiting, hiring, training, supervising, and mentoring a team of exceptional undergraduate and graduate student tutors.

I began as a writing consultant at the Laurier Writing Centre in June of 2015. I completed my PhD at the University of Western Ontario in 2014 with an expertise in moral psychology and ethics. While at Western, I taught courses in the Philosophy department and was an instructor for the Teaching Assistant Training Program at the Teaching Support Centre. In 2019, I completed the TESOL certification (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) at Renison College, University of Waterloo.

My current academic research focuses on the interconnection between critical thinking and writing studies.

Peer-reviewed journal articles

Southworth, J. (2020). How argumentative writing stifles open-mindedness. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474022220903426

Chaktsiris, M. & Southworth, J. (2019). Thinking beyond writing development in peer review. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 10(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2019.1.8005

Southworth, J. (2016). The passional nature and the will to believe. Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society: A Quarterly Journal in American Philosophy, 52(1), 62-78. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/625131

Popular

Southworth, J (2020). The problem with argumentative writing. University Affairs. https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/the-problem-with-argumentative-writing/

Southworth, J (2018). The value of the op-ed as a writing assignment. University Affairs. https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/value-op-ed/

PhD Dissertation

Southworth, J. (2014). William James' theory of emotion. Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. Paper 2315. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/2315

Commentary

Southworth, J. (2013). Can morally disvalued traits constitute the symptoms of a mental disorder. Philosophy, Psychiatry & Psychology, 20(3), 221-223. doi:10.1353/ppp.2013.0040

Book Chapter

Southworth, J. (2012). Capabilities and the environment frontier. Hawa, B., & Weidtmann, N. (eds.), The Capability Approach on Social Order, LIT Verlag, Münster, 380-385.