SM
Robert Bray, photographer, 2014
Dr. Susan Minsos, PhD
Canadian Published Author
Website & Blog:
Email:
Contact Address:
14327 MacKenzie Drive NW
Edmonton Alberta T5R 5V6
Social Media Links
Professional Synopsis
Academic, Canadianist, Philosopher, Theorist, Essayist, Dr. Minsos is a published Canadian Writer of seven interdisciplinary print and audiobooks, including four novels and three academic works. Methodology for all books centres on the philosophy of manners: Homo sapiens’ overriding instinct to build power structures (culture clubs), for which dominators can set and administer harmonizing club manners, is evident in all but the most solipsistic literature.
Topics, lectures, illustrations reflect her philosophical perspective. Minsos’s academic background in Canadian theatre, (MA thesis, James Reaney’s Trilogy, The Donnellys, and reviewer of Canadian drama for NeWest Magazine) and her PhD thesis on the Canadian novel in English (doctoral dissertation focus, Sara Jeannette Duncan) invest her fiction and nonfiction with a distinctive and innovative dramatic style.
Curiosity about why literature presents different cultural manners has given Minsos her philosophical focus. Manners reflect dominators and compiliors' attitudes to socialization and, in the face of their affordances, speak to their cultural honesty, deception, cruelty, or kindness as they seek to survive. She calls the asymmetrical tit-for-tat matrix game we play to socialize, Weird Tit-for-Tat, because the matrix social game has three moves instead of the expected two.
Game theory must account for groups and group manners. For more about the origins of game theory and to evaluate whether her objections to a two-choice tit-for-tat game are valid ––she objects to game theorists' insisting that cooperation is the foundation upon which human societies are built––, please note the logical flaws in the seminal book on cooperation and game theory: Robert Axelrod's The Evolution of Cooperation. In all her writing, Minsos speaks truth to power. And don't we know it: power lies with the body politic.
Scroll to the bottom to review a Q and A with Dr Minsos.
Or contact Dr Minsos. sminsos@me.com
Publications - Print & Audio
DELC, Audiobook - Sky Walker, Tehawennihárhos Charter. In production.
Reader: Elijah Lucian. Production manager: Eric Svilpis, Evius Studios. Producer: DELC Ltd.
CELA and Eschia Books, Audiobook - Sky Walker, Tehawennihárhos. Book 1. Mark Demeda, Reader. David Stinson, Production Manager. Available for borrowing at CELA libraries. Book 1 chosen for audio recording by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta.
Three Rascals Press - Culture Clubs: The Real Fate of Societies. Kindle and paperback available on Amazon Prime.
Margaret E. Atwood@MargaretAtwood Nov 25, 2022. Culture Clubs: The Real Fate of Societies by Susan Minsos. @PhillipsPOBrien A propos of left-right convergences. Plus a bonus: Are women funny? [Check out] goodreads.com
Culture Clubs: The Real Fate of Societies
DELC - Sky Walker Tehawennihárhos: Charter, Mohawk Trilogy, Book 3
Foreword Magazine Review Rating: 5 stars out of 5 "[Charter's] lovable, intricate characters and the challenges that they face every day, from protecting their lands to safeguarding their hearts, are an irresistible draw." Lillian Brown
Audiobooks.com - Sky Walker Tehawennihárhos and the Battle of Vinegar Hill, Book 2, DELC, producer. Elijah Lucian, reader. Eric Svilpis, production manager.
Audiobooks.com - Sky Walker Tehawennihárhos, DELC, producer. Elijah Lucian, reader. Eric Svilpis, production manager.
Eschia Books - Sky Walker Tehawennihárhos, Mohawk Trilogy, Book 1
Dragon Hill Publishing - Sky Walker Tehawennihárhos and the Battle of Vinegar Hill, Mohawk Trilogy, Book 2. Writer awarded Canadian 150-year commemorative pin for books 1 and 2 of the trilogy, recognizing their contribution to Indigenous Truth and Reconciliation. Lectures to public (on the Grand River Navigation Company's scandal), sponsored by Government of Canada grant, given at the University of Alberta, and later, at MacEwan University during her tenure at the latter as Writer-in-Residence.
Spotted Cow Press – Squire Davis and the Crazy River
Spotted Cow Press - Weird Tit-for-Tat: The Game of Our Lives
Podcast with Bob Chelmick (CKUA) about the matrix game of socialization, producer, Spotted Cow Press.
Spotted Cow Press - Culture Clubs: The Art of Living Together
Published, Human Universals and Cultural Illusions – focus on Canada and Japan, published in Reports of Serial Lectures on Canadian Studies. Tokyo: Meiji University, Centre for International Programs. As Coordinator of the Canadian Studies program at the University of Alberta, Dr Minsos was invited to lecture at Meiji University.
Presenter, British Association of Canadian Studies, Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent, UK. Topic: English-Canadian speech and British expressions.
ERA. PhD Dissertation. Narration, Dialogue, and Plot Structure in Duncan's The Path of a Star, The Imperialist and Set in Authority
Great Plains Quarterly – Reviewer, “The History of Prairie Theatre” by E. Ross Stuart.
Canada Theatre Review. Author. "The International Fallacy at the House Shocter Built."
ERA. MA Thesis. Toward a Myth of Community: James Reaney's Trilogy: The Donnellys
Canada New Play Reviews, Principal Reviewer, NeWest Magazine.
Summer (for teens) and Winter (for High School teachers in Public and Catholic High School systems, Edmonton) drama classes and exhibition, and An Introduction to New Canadian Playwrights, done consecutively. Co-creator, with Sally Williams. Sponsored by Government of Alberta.
Formal Education
Doctor of Philosophy - English (Canadian) Literature
University of Alberta | Edmonton, Alberta
Master of Arts - English (Canadian) Drama
University of Alberta | Edmonton, Alberta
Bachelor of Arts - English and Philosophy
Western University | London, Ontario