I have written personal essays, academic papers, software instructions, historical biographies, and articles on topics from using computers in education to vacationing in an RV. I’m a member of the Writers’ Council at the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, and the Romance Writers of Atlantic Canada.
I have a particular interest in film studies. This started when I obtained a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. I developed an interest in gender theories and film studies in that program, and explored the interest further in an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Film Studies. I began to specialize in film classification, particularly in Canada, and researched that in a Master of Arts in Canadian Studies. I have published three papers in peer reviewed journals. I continues to study film, and have recently completed courses in film noir and the Nova Scotia film industry.
Other interests include Children’s Rights. From 1999 to 2008 I maintained the website for the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children. I’ve prepared this list of Children’s Rights books, and this Wikipedia article on Children’s Rights Education. I maintain an archive of resources for teaching children’s rights from the University of Cape Breton Children’s Rights Centre.
Links to selected published and unpublished non-fiction.
Government versus Industry Self-Regulation: Film Classification in Canada and the United States (Journal Article, 2020). To promote the article, I wrote this guest blog, Film Ratings Still Matter.
Amy Heckerling: A Look at Her Filmmaking Career and Her Perspectives on Women in Hollywood (Online Article, 2017)
Children’s Participation Rights in Film Classification Systems (Journal Article, 2017)
Engagements (Canadian Stories Volume 20, Number 114, April/May 2017) A short biography of Katherine Covell.
Dragonslayer: A Disappointing Attempt to Update the Princess and the Dragon (Online Article, 2016)
Sorceress: A Flawed Telling of Women and Worship in the Middle Ages (Online Article, 2016)
It took three decades, but my master’s degree was well worth the journey (Newspaper Essay, 2015)
To Know Ourselves: Possible Meanings of Canadian Pornography (Journal Article, 2015)
Film Classification in Canada and the United States: The Freedom of Government Control? (MA Thesis, 2015)
The Censoring and Selling of Sizzle: In Praise of Older Women (Essay)
Gender and Comedy in Airplane! (Essay)
Gender Representations in Camila, Hour of the Star, and Blood of the Condor (Essay)
Secondary Characters in The Thin Man and The Blue Dahlia (Essay)
Men at Work: Constructing and Deconstructing National Myths [The Four Feathers, Chocolat] (Essay)
Tools in Transition: Cameras, Magazines, and Photojournalism in Rear Window (Essay)
The Best of Beowulf Brought into English (Essay)
The Kings and Queens of England: A Primer (Compleat Anachronist 104) at The Society for Creative Anachronism (writing as Oliver Peren). HTML version of the manuscript.
Tim Covell 