| Lorraine Janzen Kooistra | |
| Spouse: | John Peter Kooistra |
| Children: | 2 |
| Education: | BA., 1977, Brock University MA., PhD., McMaster University |
| Thesis Title: | The artist as critic: bi-textuality in fin-de-si'ecle illustrated books. |
| Thesis Year: | 1994 |
| Discipline: | Literature |
| Workplaces: | Nipissing University Toronto Metropolitan University |
| Main Interests: | Victorian poetry |
Lorraine Janzen Kooistra is a Canadian professor of English and a member of the Yeates School of Graduate Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University). She is the founding co-director of TMU's Centre for Digital Humanities. She was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2018.
Janzen Kooistra is a first-generation Canadian.[1] She was born to parents John G. Janzen and Irma Marie Koop and has three siblings.[2]
Janzen Kooistra earned her Bachelor of Arts, with honours, from Brock University and her Master's degree and PhD from McMaster University.
While earning her Bachelor of Arts, Janzen Kooistra earned a job with the Lincoln County Board of Education as a teacher from 1973 to 1975. From there, she earned a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto between 1977 and 1979. Beginning at the turn of the 1990s, Janzen Kooistra worked as an assistant professor at Nipissing University.[3] In 1999, Janzen Kooistra published The culture of Christina Rossetti: Female poetics and Victorian contexts, which was an analysis of poet Christina Rossetti's work.[4] Two years later, while working at Nipissing University, Janzen Kooistra was awarded the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research.[5] She continued her examination into Rossetti's poetry by publishing Christina Rossetti and illustration: a publishing history in 2003.[6]
Janzen Kooistra was hired by Ryerson University in 2005 to serve as the Chair of their English department.[7] She served in this role until 2008 before becoming the English department's first Undergraduate Program Director in 2010.[8] While in her role as Chair, Janzen Kooistra was appointed to the North American Victorian Studies Association Advisory Board in 2009 and again in 2012.[9] In 2010, Janzen Kooistra helped found Ryerson's Centre for Digital Humanities[10] and later the Children's Literature Archive.[11]
While working as Ryerson's Undergraduate English Program Director in 2012, Janzen Kooistra was awarded the Provost's Experiential Teaching Award for her teaching style[12] and was a recipient of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations Teaching Award.[13] That year, Janzen Kooistra published Poetry, Pictures, and Popular Publishing: the Illustrated Gift Book and Victorian Visual Culture, 1855-1875.[14] [15]
In 2016, while working as the principal investigator on "Visualizing the Unmarked: The Social Politics of Fin-de-siècle Periodicals and Digital Humanities Mark-up Practices,"[8] Janzen Kooistra was awarded the 2016 President's Award for Excellence in Teaching by Ryerson University.[16]
In 2018, Janzen Kooistra was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada for her work in 19th century literature.[17] [18]
The following is a list of publications:[19]