Dr. Jessica Riddell    Jarislowsky Chair of Undergraduate Teaching Excellence

Official Bio: Dr. Jessica Riddell is the founder of Hope Circuits Institute, a think tank dedicated to systems re-wiring and renewal in the post-secondary sector. She is a Full Professor of Early Modern Literature in the English Department at Bishop’s University (Quebec, Canada). She holds the Stephen A. Jarislowsky Chair of Undergraduate Teaching Excellence at Bishop’s University; in this capacity, she leads conversations about systems-change in higher education that shifts the focus from resilience to human flourishing. In her research, teaching, leadership, and administration, she participates in a wide range of interchanges at the national and international levels about how universities fulfil the social contract to a broader society. 

 
An award-winning educator and scholar, she has published on Shakespeare, institutional culture change, inter-institutional collaborations, experiential learning, and inclusive high impact practices. Her recent book, with collaborators Dr. Lisa Dickson and Dr. Shannon Murray, is called Shakespeare's Guide to Life, Hope, and Learning (University of Toronto Press, 2023) and was nominated for the Gordon Book Prize. Her newest book, Hope Circuits: Rewiring Universities and other Systems for Human Flourishing (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2024) offers a powerful critique of the fragmentation, weakening of purpose, and instrumental practices of higher education and an expansive call for the reinvention of universities and the renewal of their public mission.  

 

Dr. Riddell is a leading intellectual on the intersection between the humanities and higher education. She is one of Canada’s most prolific public scholars on the role universities play in a civil, just society and regularly convenes conversations about how education shapes creative democracy. As an inter-disciplinary researcher, she’s engaged in knowledge creation in diverse fields from Shakespeare to transformative learning, inclusive high-impact practices to systems- and design thinking.  ​

 

Dr. Riddell was awarded the William and Nancy Turner Award for Teaching Excellence (2011-2012) at Bishop’s University, received the 3M National Teaching Fellowship in 2015, was the recipient of a D2L Innovation Award for Teaching and Learning in 2022, and won the inaugural award from Forces Avenir (Quebec’s highest recognition in higher education) for Most Engaged Faculty/Staff Member in 2022.
 
She has received research funding from SSHRC, ECQ (Entente Canada et Quebec), and STLHE (Society of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education) and was awarded funding for innovation from the McConnell Foundation, The Jarislowsky Foundation, CEWIL (Canadian Experiential Work-Integrated Learning), Business Higher Education Round Table (BHER). 
 
Jessica Riddell has a robust leadership portfolio in higher education and serves on several boards, including the Board of Directors for the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), the Research Advisory Board for Future Skills Centre, and has served on the 3M National Fellows Council and as VP Canada for International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.