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Dr. Natasha Hurley is Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Memorial University of Newfoundland, a position she has held since beginning a five-year term on August 30, 2022. Prior to this appointment, she served as an associate professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta. In that role, she also held several academic leadership positions, including Senior Director of the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies, Associate Director of Intersections of Gender, and Director of Media and Technology Studies in the Faculty of Arts. Earlier in her career, Dr. Hurley taught at Mount Saint Vincent University, St. Mary’s University, and Dalhousie University. She was a Killam Post-doctoral Fellow in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta and holds a PhD in English from Rutgers University.
Dr. Hurley is recognized for her interdisciplinary teaching and research, with interests in 19th-century American literary culture and history, children’s literature, gay and lesbian literary history, history of the book, material culture studies, queer theory, feminist, gender, and sexuality studies, psychoanalysis, media studies, studies of the archive, and critical theory. Her publications include the monograph Circulating Queerness: Before the Gay and Lesbian Novel (University of Minnesota Press, 2018) and the co-edited volume Curiouser: On the Queerness of Children (with Steven Bruhm, University of Minnesota Press, 2004). She has authored or co-authored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, including works that received the F.E.L. Priestley Prize and the Foerster Prize. Dr. Hurley has contributed to professional organizations such as the Association for Research in the Cultures of Young People, the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English, and the Modern Language Association, and has held community leadership roles including co-founding the annual Faculty of Arts Conference for Undergraduate Research on Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies and serving on the board of Exposure: Edmonton’s Queer Arts and Culture Festival.
Memorial University of Newfoundland navigates program cuts due to enrollment declines and budget pressures, even as it secures a top 300 global spot in TIME Magazine's 2026 rankings. Explore impacts, reactions, and future prospects for students and faculty in Canadian higher ed.
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