Allan Weiss is a Professor in the Departments of English and Humanities. He is a creative writer and scholar with a variety of interests. He has published mainstream/literary, science fiction, and fantasy short stories in numerous periodicals and anthologies.

Allan Weiss is a Professor in the Departments of English and Humanities. He is a creative writer and scholar with a variety of interests. He has published mainstream/literary, science fiction, and fantasy short stories in numerous periodicals and anthologies.

His story collection, Living Room--a story cycle--appeared in 2001. He has also been working on historical fiction and other creative projects. As a scholar, he specializes in Canadian literature and fantastic fiction; among his publications are A Comprehensive Bibliography of English-Canadian Short Stories, 1950-1983 (ECW Press, 1988) and two volumes of proceedings of the Academic Conference on Canadian Science Fiction, of which he is Chair. As both a writer and academic, he is interested in questions of genre: how it works and how we respond to and understand it.

Allan believes that no text can be understood without its context, so he discusses every text in terms of the conditions that surrounded it: biographical, social, historical, cultural, literary, and so on. He feels that students need to understand why and how a literary work or film came to be the way it is. He is not afraid to challenge students with lots of ideas, and hopes that they will share his enthusiasm for intellectual exploration. As he frequently says in his courses on utopian and dystopian fiction, 'We're going to deal with a lot of ideas here. If you're not interested in coming along for the ride, you'd better get out now!' He also feels strongly that students should have the basic skills needed for studying and writing, and so he has adopted the alter ego of Grammar Man, champion of proper spelling and syntax. Visit Grammar Man's website at www.grammarman.ca

Allan has served York as Undergraduate Program Director in the English Department, a long-time member of the Petitions Committee, and a member of other committees at the departmental and upper levels. He has also been an active Fellow of Stong College, giving talks and readings and meeting with students to discuss his--and their--work. He has done volunteer work, spoken at community centres and meetings of community groups, and given readings of his fiction at various venues. He has proudly represented York at conferences all over the world, from India to northern Norway to Hawaii.

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