My research interests include ecocriticism, midcentury American poetry, music studies, genre studies, and pop culture studies. My dissertation focuses on the relationship between popular music and environmental activism, and the unique intersection of identity, performance, and art that forms this relationship. I am also interested in the unique relationship today between fame, social media, and activism.
Outside of my dissertation work, I maintain a scholarly interest in the way all kinds kinds of pop culture and media, including television, film and video games, ask readers, viewers, and players to view the natural world through their constructions of nature. I have a graduate certificate in Screenwriting and Narrative Design from George Brown College and experience working in the entertainment and nonprofit industries that I enthusiastically bring to the field of literary studies.
Presentations
"Food, Foraging, Farming: Sustenance and Ecological Responsibility in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom." CGSA/ACÉJ 2024: Sustaining Shared Futures. Montreal, Quebec, 2024.
"'They Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot:' Identity, Performance, and the Popular Musician as a Catalyst for Environmental Resistance." Queen's Special Topics Presentations, Kingston, Ontario, 2024.
Invited Lectures
"Singing the Divine, Nature, the Transcendent: Bach, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Joni Mitchell." ENGL 112: Poetry and Song. 6 Oct 2023.
"Sense of Place/Sense of Planet: Grey Water." ENGL 234: The Short Story. 6 Mar 2024.
"Fantasy Literature: World-Building in Video Games: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom." ENGL 104: Horror, Sci Fi, Fantasy. 10 Oct 2024 (forthcoming)
Molly Wallace
