Dr. Conrad van Dyk
Professor, English
I specialize in Middle English literature and legal history. My book John Gower and the Limits of the Law (Boydell and Brewer, 2013) deals with the intersection of law and literature in the fourteenth century, particularly in the works of John Gower. More recent articles explore such legal maxims as necessity knows no law as well as the theory of literature and law. I have also made a major contribution to the Online Gower Bibliography (160+ entries), and in 2019 I received the John Hurt Fisher Prize for my contributions to Gower studies. My current research has increasingly focused on twentieth-century fiction, particularly the works of G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis.
I am also the creator of the online writing guide The Nature of Writing, which provides hundreds of videos, exercises, and tutorials on all aspects of academic writing.
In 2020, I received the Judith C. Meier Teaching Award for my contributions to teaching at Concordia. I have taught a broad range of subjects, including medieval literature, first year composition, children鈥檚 literature, critical theory, and contemporary British literature. I am usually happy to supervise an Independent Study (ENG 480) in these areas.
Education
- SSHRC Post-Doctoral Fellow, 2008, Cornell University
- PhD, English, 2007, University of Western Ontario
- MA, English, 2003, University of Western Ontario
- BA, English, 2002, University of the Fraser Valley
Select Publications
van Dyk, Conrad. The Nature of Writing. .
van Dijk, Conrad. 鈥淐hesterton鈥檚 Duel with Nietzsche in The Ball and the Cross.鈥澛�Religion & Literature聽57.1, forthcoming.
鈥� 鈥� 鈥�.聽 鈥淎 Question of Spiritual Atmosphere鈥�: The Mystical Semiotics of G. K. Chesterton鈥檚 The Club of Queer Trades.鈥� Christianity & Literature 74.2, 2025, pp. 217-38.
鈥� 鈥� 鈥�. 鈥淐hesterton and Marxism in The Man Who Was Thursday,鈥澛�The Chesterton Review 51.1-2, spring-summer 2025, pp. 113-22.
鈥� 鈥� 鈥�. 鈥淕ottfried von Strassburg鈥檚 Tristan and the Allegory of Law.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;Literature and the Legal Imaginary: Knowing Justice, vol. 4 of Crossroads of Knowledge in Early Modern Literature, edited by Subha Mukherji and Dunstan Roberts, Palgrave Macmillan, 2025, pp. 241-61.
鈥� 鈥� 鈥�. 鈥淚s Wilfred Owen鈥檚 鈥楢nthem for Doomed Youth鈥� an Anti-Elegy? A Comparison with Thomas Gray鈥檚 鈥楨legy Written in a Country Church Yard.鈥欌�� The Explicator 82.1, 2024, pp. 6-9.
鈥� 鈥� 鈥�. 鈥淪urvival or Revival? C. S. Lewis鈥� Medievalism in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;Journal of Inklings Studies 13.2, 2023, pp. 180-201.
2023 鈥淒ecrees, Book of (Decretum).鈥澛�The Chaucer Encyclopedia, edited by Richard Newhauser, Vincent Gillespie, Jessica Rosenfeld, and Katie Walter. Wiley Blackwell, 2023.
鈥� 鈥� 鈥�.聽 鈥淛ohn Gower and the Law: Legal Theory and Practice.鈥澛�The Ashgate Research Companion to John Gower, edited by Ana S谩ez-Hidalgo, Brian Gastle, and R. F. Yeager, Routledge, 2017, pp. 75-87.
鈥� 鈥� 鈥�. 鈥溾�楴ede hath no law鈥�: The State of Exception in Gower and Langland.鈥� Accessus: A Journal of Premodern Literature and New Media, vol. 2, no. 2, 2015, article 2. .
鈥� 鈥� 鈥�. John Gower and the Limits of the Law. Boydell and Brewer, 2013.
鈥� 鈥� 鈥�. 鈥淰engeance and the Legal Person: John Gower鈥檚 Tale of Orestes.鈥� Theorizing Legal Personhood in Late Medieval England, edited by Andreea Boboc, Brill, 2015, pp. 119-41.
鈥� 鈥� 鈥�. 鈥淕iving each his due鈥�: Gower, Langland, and the Question of Equity.鈥� Journal of English and Germanic Philology, vol. 108, no. 3, 2009, pp. 310-35.