Hilary CunninghamProfile page
Associate Professor Emeritus/Emerita
Faculty of Arts and Science, Department of Anthropology
- Associate Professor Emeritus/EmeritaFaculty of Arts and Science, Department of Anthropology
- +1 (416) 978-0472 (Work)
- University of Toronto, Gerald Larkin Building, 15 Devonshire Pl, Toronto, ON, M5S 2C8, Canada
BIO
Hilary (Cunningham) Scharper is an Associate Professor (Emeritus) and a Canadian novelist. Her academic work focuses on human/non-human encounters and interactions as "borderscapes." As a multispecies ethnographer, Hilary also engages with visual, sensory and other arts-based methodologies.
Professor Cunningham also publishes literary fiction and is associated with a newly-minted subgenre of the Gothic called the “ecoGothic.” Literary scholars have described this as a “more ecologically aware Gothic,” attuned to the spaces of “dark nature” and the roles which human fear and ambivalence play in shaping responses to the agency of the natural world. Her current work entails a collection of short stories on nonhuman soundscapes, as well as a five-volume project on the sentient landscapes of The Great Lakes. The first volume in the series, “Perdita” was published by Simon&Schuster, Source Books USA, La Court Echelle (French-language edition).
(For more informations see her literary website: http://www.hilaryscharper.com/ )
In 2013, Hilary and her spouse (Stephen Scharper) achieved precedent-setting legal protection for urban trees, resulting in changes to municipal by-laws in Ontario and providing (internationally) the first holistic definition of a tree’s “trunk “ in English law. See Boundary Trees: Whose Woods These Are.
Professor Cunningham also publishes literary fiction and is associated with a newly-minted subgenre of the Gothic called the “ecoGothic.” Literary scholars have described this as a “more ecologically aware Gothic,” attuned to the spaces of “dark nature” and the roles which human fear and ambivalence play in shaping responses to the agency of the natural world. Her current work entails a collection of short stories on nonhuman soundscapes, as well as a five-volume project on the sentient landscapes of The Great Lakes. The first volume in the series, “Perdita” was published by Simon&Schuster, Source Books USA, La Court Echelle (French-language edition).
(For more informations see her literary website: http://www.hilaryscharper.com/ )
In 2013, Hilary and her spouse (Stephen Scharper) achieved precedent-setting legal protection for urban trees, resulting in changes to municipal by-laws in Ontario and providing (internationally) the first holistic definition of a tree’s “trunk “ in English law. See Boundary Trees: Whose Woods These Are.
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
- Associate ProfessorUniversity of Toronto, Department of Anthropology, Toronto, CanadaJul 1997 - 30 Jun 2023
DEGREES
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)Yale University, New Haven, United States1992
- Master of Arts (M.A.)University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
- Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
AVAILABILITY
- Media enquiries
- Collaborative projects