Dr. Richard Pickard

Biography

Richard Pickard is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of English and the Academic & Technical Writing Program at the University of Victoria. He holds a BA and MA from the University of Victoria and a PhD from the University of Alberta, where his dissertation focused on environmental attitudes in eighteenth-century English poetry. His areas of expertise include environmental humanities, composition, and professional technical writing. He teaches professional communication and academic writing with a specialization in literature that emphasizes non-urban British Columbia. Richard has been involved in the Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada (ALECC) since its inception, having hosted the 2009 biennial conference and organized the 2018 event. His current research explores British Columbia's literary past alongside ecological futures, critically examining the cognitive effects of using large language model-powered AI tools within educational contexts. Richard has delivered conference presentations on various themes including ecological grief and pedagogies in ecocriticism, and he has been published in notable literary journals and anthologies, contributing significantly to discussions on climate change, literature, and environmental ethics.

Research Interests