Shannon McConnell

Shannon is a writer, educator, and musician originally from Vancouver, British Columbia. She holds degrees in English Literature and Education from the University of the Fraser Valley and Simon Fraser University, respectively, and also holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing and a Master of Arts in History from the University of Saskatchewan. Over the last five years she has researched and written about the former British Columbian institution Woodlands School which served as a custodial training school for children with disabilities. Her PhD work will build off of her knowledge of Woodlands and incorporate new research concerning Huronia Regional Centre which was a custodial training school in Orillia, Ontario. The institutions share many similarities, particularly their fraught history of systematic abuse and the subsequent fight by survivors for compensation from the government. Shannon plans to blend her archival research skills with her creative writing background to dig deeper into the understanding of the complex history of custodial training schools within Canada.