Current Fellows
Jane Toswell
Jane Toswell teaches Old English, medieval studies, medievalism, and speculative fiction in the Department of English and Writing Studies. As a researcher she is something of a magpie, having recently published major studies of Longfellow’s medievalism, the role of women in the rediscovery of Old English texts in the Victorian era in England, vernacular psalters in early medieval Britain, Jorge Luis Borges, and the medieval university as it survives in the modern university.
Toswell is currently on sabbatical and she is working on her “Medieval Canada” monograph, towards which she has been developing material for close to a decade. Her research focuses on the underlying medievalism inherent in Canadian society. Toswell looks to examples of conservative medievalism in Canadian literature, and in such other features as architecture, heraldry, governance and institutional structures, and even sports such as hockey.
During her time as a Massey Fellow, Toswell also plans to work on a book about “Navigating the Canadian University.” The book will develop ideas from a course Toswell has taught at Western University entitled “This University” and the book will explore how universities function across the country. Toswell's position as a Massey Fellow will allow opportunities to engage with people from other institutions, exchanging ideas and investigating new thoughts.
David Sandomierski
David Sandomierski is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law. His scholarship investigates the underlying commitments and expansive possibilities of legal education. Sandomierski is also a Teaching Fellow with the Centre for Teaching and Learning at Western.
Sandomierski strives to enhance the capacity of legal education to cultivate versatile professionals and critical, engaged citizens. Through his research agenda, he examines the elements of law school and the levers the institution holds to educate students and inspire a vision of the myriad ways they can serve society. In pursuit of this mission, Sandomierski integrates diverse scholarly interests in Contracts, comparative legal thought, legal history, and the empirical study of legal education and the legal profession.
His latest SSHRC-funded project, The Architecture of Law Schools, brings legal education and architecture scholars together with practicing architects to uncover what law school buildings communicate about the law, legal professionalism and legal education. Sandomierski will also spend time during his sabbatical at Massey on a second project that will seek to understand how medical and legal education can learn from one another in their aspiration to cultivate leaders and public advocates.
David holds an SJD from the University of Toronto and degrees in common and civil law from McGill University.
