Gwen Davies, the dean of graduate studies, associate vice president of research and a professor in the department of English literature at the University of New Brunswick, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. A national senior body of

August 23, 2004
UNB Fredericton News Release: D029
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A passion for Maritime literary history has brought recognition from her peers for Gwen Davies.

Dr. Davies, the dean of graduate studies, associate vice president of research and a professor in the department of English literature at the University of New Brunswick, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a senior body of eminent scholars and scientists in the nation.

Earning recognition in the Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dr. Davies will be recognized in a Nov. 20 ceremony in Ottawa with other Fellows. Each year, up to 60 new Fellows are elected on the basis of rigourous peer review.

Fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada is one of the most prestigious academic accolades for scholars and scientists.

Dr. Davies’ specialization is the literary history of the Maritimes. Her passion for literary, historical, archival and bibliographical studies has helped shed new life on the rich cultural life created by the thousands of Planters, Loyalists and Scots whose arrival in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in the 18th and 19th centuries gave rise to an enduring cultural lineage.

Her major focal points include the importance of letters in a manuscript culture, the prevalence of social satirists and the activities of female writers, which have been presented in studies of such authors as Deborah Cottnam, Alice Jones and Marshall Saunders, along with the first scholarly edition of Thomas McCulloch’s influential The Mephibosheth Stepsure Letters.

Dr. Davies is the author of Studies in Maritime Literary History and is publishing in all three volumes of the history of the book project in Canada with the University of Toronto Press.

Prior to arriving at UNB, Dr. Davies taught at Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B., and Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S.

She is president of the Archives of New Brunswick and for the past two years, has been president of the Bibliographical Society of Canada.

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