Education
PhD (2021), English Language and Literature, University of Waterloo.
Dissertation: The Myth of Disenchantment: Religion and the Environment in Contemporary American Literature.
MA (2007), English, University of Ottawa.
B.Ed. (2009), Intermediate/Senior – English/History, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.
BA (Hons) (2006), English/Philosophy, Redeemer University.
Courses
- Ways of Reading: Fiction (ENG-103)
- Ways of Reading: Poetry and Drama (ENG-104)
- Expository Writing I (ENG-201)
- American Literature Survey (ENG-232)
- Contemporary American Literature (ENG-332)
- Postcolonial Literature (ENG-376)
- Western Culture & Tradition I (HUM-110)
- Understanding Our World Through the Arts (HUM-210)
- Western Culture & Tradition II (HUM-120)
- Introduction to Christian Worldview (CTS-110)
About
Doug Sikkema is an Associate Professor of English Literature and the Core Program, teaching courses in the Core Humanities and American literature. His research area is contemporary American literature with a particular focus on the ways in which the material world is imagined by Christian writers in a postsecular culture. Doug is currently a Wolters Fellow for the Humanities in the Albert M. Wolters Center at Redeemer. In the publication world, Doug works as an associate editor with Comment, a journal of public theology, where you will regularly find some of his writing. He also serves as an advisory board member of Traces journal, a Canadian creative writing publication that features writers of faith. He also serves on the Board for the Charlotte Mason Institute and has been given a five year appointment as a Visiting Scholar with the University of Cumbria in partnership with Redeemer University. For the World’s Sake: Charlotte Mason’s Enduring Wisdom for the Anthropocene was published in 2023 to mark the centenary of Mason’s death. Since then, Doug has worked with Kevin Foth to create the first critical editions of Mason’s education philosophy. Baker Academic has slated them for release in Spring 2027. Doug is invested in education, and helped start up Oak Hill Academy, a classical Christian school located in Ancaster. He is also a Senior Fellow in Research at Cardus. Together with their four children, Doug and his wife Vanessa live on a small acreage outside of Hamilton.
Research Interests
- Classical Education
- History of “Great Books” education
- American literature
- Ecocriticism
- Secularism/Postsecularism
- Aesthetics
- Technology
- Calvinist Influences on Humanistics Education
Selected Research Publications
Dissertation
Sikkema, Doug. “The Myth of Disenchantment: Religion, Literature, and the Environment in Contemporary American Literature.” University of Waterloo, 2021.
Books
Sikkema, Doug, and Kevin Foth, eds. Home Education: An Annotated Critical Edition. Grand Rapids, Baker Academic, 2027.
Sikkema, Doug, and Kevin Foth, eds. School Education: An Annotated Critical Edition. Grand Rapids, Baker Academic, 2027.
Sikkema, Doug. For the World’s Sake: Charlotte Mason’s Enduring Wisdom for the Anthropocene. Charlotte Mason Institute, Pidgen Press, 2023.
Book Chapters and Articles
Sikkema, Doug. “Contemporary Fiction in the Secular Age: Considering Christian (Post) Secular Alternatives.” In Christian Higher Education in a Secular Age. Eds. Matthew Zantingh and Joy Demoskoff. Routledge, 2025.
Sikkema, Doug. “Christian Wiman: (Post)Secular Ways to Say God.” In Secularism and the Pursuit of Transcendence. McMaster General Studies Series 17. Eds. Stanley Porter and Wendy Porter, 277-297. Hamilton: Pickwick Publication, 2024.
Sikkema, Doug. “The Path Not Taken: Reconsidering the Way of Winthrop.” In Genealogies of Modernity, November 2023.
Sikkema, Doug. “To Dwell Ecologically: The Practice of Re-Enchantment.” In Christian Environmentalism and Human Responsibility in the 21st Century. ed. Katherine Quinsey. New York: Routledge, 2023.
Sikkema, Doug. “The Atmosphere.” In Breaking Ground. Plough Publishing, 2021.
Sikkema, Doug. “Between the City and the Classroom: The Influence of Wallace Stegner on Wendell Berry.” In Telling the Stories Right. Eds. Jeffrey Bilbro and Jack Baker. Front Porch Republic, Wipf and Stock, 2018.
Sikkema, Doug. “Christianity, Enchantment, and Modern Ecology.” In Eco-Theology and Nonhuman Ethics. Rowman and Littlefield, 2016.
Popular Articles
Sikkema, Doug. “Sex in the Cities: Abundance, Control and the Theater of God’s Glory,” Comment, Summer 2023.
Sikkema, Doug. “Education for an Eternal Kingdom.” Ekstasis. Summer 2021
Sikkema, Doug. “The Enduring Crisis.” Front Porch Republic. Summer 2021.
Sikkema, Doug. “The Atmosphere” Breaking Ground. June 2020.
Sikkema, Doug. “This Body, Broken.” From The Stories We Tell. Comment, May 2020.
Sikkema, Doug. “Happiness is Not a Horizon” Simplify Magazine. November 2019.
Sikkema, Doug. “What is Marilynne Robinson Hawking?” Comment. February 2018.
Sikkema, Doug. “Designed Isolation.” Comment. December 2016.
Sikkema, Doug. “Is Ecology Haunted? An Ecocritic Reads Laudato Si’. Comment. July 2015. (Reprinted in Crux, 2016).
Sikkema, Doug. “Stealing Past the Dragons: Marilynne Robinson’s Fiction” Convivium. 3, no. 17 (Winter 2014).
Sikkema, Doug. “Longing for our Lost Home.” Convivium. 3, no. 14 (Summer 2014).
Reviews
Sikkema, Doug. “How the Bible Means” Review of Enjoying the Bible: Literary Approaches to Loving the Scriptures, by Matthew Mullins. Comment. Summer 2021.
Sikkema, Doug. “The Permanent Crisis”. Review of Permanent Crisis: The Humanities in a Disenchanted Age, by Chad Wellmon and Paul Reitter. Front Porch Republic. Summer 2021. University of Chicago Press, 2021.
Sikkema, Doug. “Disenchantment, Actually?” Review of The Myth of Disenchantment, by Jacob Josephson-Storm. The New Atlantis. Chicago UP, 2017.
Sikkema, Doug. “Befriending Geoffrey Chaucer” Review of Fellowship of the Beatific Vision: Chaucer on Overcoming Tyranny and Becoming Ourselves, by Norm Klassen. First Things. Cascade Books (Wipf and Stock) 2017.
Sikkema, Doug. “The New Scientism: Still Fighting the Phantom War.” Review of Excellent Beauty: The Naturalness of Religion and the Unnaturalness of the World, by Eric Dietrich. Books & Culture. Columbia UP, 2015. In Books and Culture, 2016.
Sikkema, Doug. “Loving God’s Wildness.” Review of ’s Loving God’s Wildness: The Christian Roots of our Ecological Crisis, by Jeffrey Bilbro (Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama, 2015). ISLE 22, no. 4 (fall 2015).
Sikkema, Doug. “Talking about God in Public” Review of The Edge of Words: God and the Habits of Language, by Rowan Williams. Comment. December 2014.
Sikkema, Doug. “Getting Back to Place.” Review of Why Place Matters: Geography, Identity, and Civic Life in Modern America,Eds. Wilfred M. McClay and Ted V. McAllister. Comment. April 2014.
Interviews
“Reformed Education on Purpose: What is Classical Education?” League of Canadian Reformed Schools. Podcast. Summer 2021.
A University for the World. A Conversation with Dr. Randy Boyagoda. Comment. Spring 2018.
“The Moral Enterprise of Creation: An Interview with Scott Masson.” Podcast. Cardus Audio. December 2014.
Word FM: The John and Cathy Show. “Will Beauty Save the World?” Pittsburgh, PA. April 10, 2014.
“Participating in Creation: An Interview with Dr. Norman Wirzba and Dr. Ellen Davis.” Podcast. Cardus Audio. February 2014.
Conferences
Sikkema, Doug. “Poetry in an Age of Control” Conference on Christianity and Literature (CCL), Western Division. Trinity Western University. May 2024.
Sikkema, Doug. “Ecologically Man Dwells: The Practice of Re-Enchantment” a Roundtable on Christian Environmentalism. Conference on Christianity and Literature (CCL), West Trinity Western University. May 2024.
Sikkema, Doug. “The Weight of Beauty, the Glory of the Real.” Kuyper and Kintsugi conference. Redeemer University College. Spring 2023.
Research Funding
- Invited Travel Fund, Redeemer University, 2022
- SSHRC Doctoral Award, 2016-2018
- Reid Trust recipient, 2017
- Reid Trust recipient, 2016
- Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS), 2015-2016
- Reid Trust recipient, 2014
Awards and Certificates
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Visiting Scholar Appointment. University of Cumbria, 2026 – 2031