COORDINATING TEAM
William Randall, EdD, Director of CIRN, is Associate Professor of Gerontology at St. Thomas University, where he teaches courses on aging and health, counselling older adults, older adults as learners, and narrative gerontology. Educated at Harvard, Princeton Seminary, and the University of Toronto, he first became interested in narrative during his studies in theology, then later in education. Bill has authored or co-authored various publications on narrative approaches to understanding aging. Co-organizer of the first Narrative Matters conferences, in 2002 and 2004, and often asked to speak on narrative gerontology, his research interests include narrative care with older adults, narrative foreclosure in later life, and the narrative complexity of autobiographical memory.
Elizabeth McKim, PhD, is Associate Director of CIRN and Professor of English at St. Thomas University. She regularly teaches courses on the Romantic Period, Jane Austen, literature and medicine, and literature and aging. Her early interest in narratology has broadened into an interest in the psychological and neurological aspects of narrative, and her recent publications have reflected this new direction. She has explored the headache narratives of a 19th century poet, and has collaborated with Bill Randall on a variety of publications on the poetics of aging, most recently Reading Our Lives: The Poetics of Growing Old (Oxford 2008).
Michelle Lafrance,
PhD, is Associate Professor of Psychology at St. Thomas University. Her research and teaching interests are in the area of women and mental health, including women’s experiences of recovery from depression, the social construction of mental illness, and women’s leisure. She adopts narrative and discursive approaches in her analysis of women’s accounts of their experience of distress and well-being. Her book, Women and Depression: Recovery and Resistance (2009), is published by Routledge.
Suzanne McKenzie-Mohr, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Social Work at St. Thomas University. As a practicing social worker for fifteen years, her interest in the role of narrative in people's lives grew out of her work in shelters, hospitals, and counselling centres. Content on narrative practice theory with adults, children, and in response to trauma is covered in her courses. Her doctoral thesis involved exploration of the role of narrative in women's navigation of the post-rape process toward living well. Related scholarly interests include the use of audience, counterstories, and narrative repair in response to oppressive conditions.
Theresa Swift, MEd (Cand), is working as Administrative Assistant for CIRN and on a Masters of Education in Counseling Psychology at the University of New Brunswick. After completing a BSc in computer science, she discovered a keen interest in older adults and aging and completed a Certificate in Gerontology at St. Thomas. Her present research focuses on older homeless women, with narrative being instrumental in her work for both data and analysis purposes.
John McKendy, PhD, was Associate Professor of Sociology at St. Thomas University and much loved by students, colleagues, and community members alike. He regularly taught courses on social justice and discursive practices. His research passions included the narrative construction of identity by men in prison. Up until his tragic death in October 2008, he was a central member of the CIRN coordinating team. In everything that CIRN goes on to do or be, John’s memory will be cherished.