Doug Sikkema

Doug Sikkema
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Doug Sikkema grew up in Southern, Ontario amidst vineyards and peach orchards. He earned a B.A in English from Redeemer University, an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Ottawa, and a PhD in contemporary American literature from the University of Waterloo. His current research explores the relationship of religion, literature, and the environment. Doug is an assistant Professor of English and Core Humanities at Redeemer University College and an aspiring gentleman farmer. Doug is also the Board Chair of Oak Hill Academy, a Classical school he helped start with his wife Vanessa and a group of parents. Three of their four children attend the school. Zero of their two dogs do.

Recent Essays

What in the World is the World?

Perhaps it’s the nudge you need to reconsider your little actions and the grand narrative which guides and orients them. And, perhaps, you’ll go out to confront the real in all its strange mystery and strain to hear the music and the summons that invite you to re-embed yourself in the real, to feel awe at all that’s been given to you, and to consider living a life of creaturely gratitude and creativity.

On to Ottawa Redux: Notes from Canada’s “Freedom” Convoy

The Revolutionary Spirit promises—especially to the disaffected in extreme situations—a false hope in burning the status quo to the ground. It promises a new world order. It promises a reset. The Revolutionary Spirit inhabits the Left and the Right, but it must be resisted if we hope to participate in the desperately-needed, constructive work of political, cultural, and economic repair.

Canadian Story Cycles: A Conversation with author John Van Rys

Van Rys hopes readers are shaped by his tales of domestic comedy to see that love for the long haul, difficult as it is, is not only possible but greatly to be desired; to see that through our weakness and brokenness a certain glory shines.

Speaking Freely in Times of Crisis: A Conversation with Paul Kemeny, Ben Faber, and Richard Gamble

Examining, with Paul Kemeny, Richard Gamble, and Ben Faber, fraught moments in history where questions about communication and censorship, politics and propaganda, freedom and government intervention came to a head. What might we learn from such moments?

Education, Virtue, and Virtue Signalling

Doug Sikkema fills in for Jeffrey Bilbro on this week's Water Dipper.

Dear Mom: A Letter on Time

Learning from Wallace Stegner, Doug Sikkema considers the timeless blessings of his childhood in a letter to his mother.