Hilary Cunningham
Hilary Cunningham, Ph.D. (Yale University, 1992)
Associate Professor, Anthropology, St. George Campus
LA 306 (Larkin Building, Trinity College)
Tel: (416) 978-0472
Field: Borders and boundary-making, environment and anthropology, contested environments, theories of nature, wilderness and society; anthropology of animals (wildlife-human conflicts).
FEATURED RESEARCH PROJECTS:
Nature and its "Edges": Borders, Boundaries and the Politics of Enclosures in Wilderness Areas. (SSHRC-funded).
Prof. Cunningham's current research is based in northern Ontario on the Bruce Peninsula and explores what she terms "gated ecologies," especially those pertaining to transfrontier nature reserves and wilderness areas. In her work, Prof. Cunningham has expanded scholarly discourse around borders and ecology by exploring boundary-making itself as a multi-faceted encounter with "nature." She is currently developing a distinctive epistemological framework within studies of environment by arguing that the "bounding" of nature remains a central problematic for contemporary debates on ecological issues. Adopting a unique interdisciplinary framework that builds on anthropological insights into culture, power and history, she explores "nature" as entailing boundary-making—i.e., as entailing metaphysical, aesthetic and political act(s) that both enact and enable particular human-nature interactions.
RECENT AND/OR FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS:
Book chapter.
Gating Ecology in a Gated Globe: Environmental Aspects of ‘Securing our Borders’. In Borderlands: Ethnographic Approaches to Security, Power and Identity, edited by Hastings Donnan and Tom Wilson. University Press of America. 2010.
Forthcoming book chapter.
Bordering on the Environmental: Permeabilities, Ecology and Geopolitical Boundaries in The Blackwell Companion to Border Studies. Thomas M. Wilson and Hastings Donnan, eds. Wiley Blackwell, 2011.
FEATURED RECENT OR UPCOMING PUBLICATIONS:
Cunningham, H. Ecology, poverty and possible urban worlds, in I. Stefanovic and S. Scharper (eds.) The Natural City: Re-envisioning the Built Environment. University of Toronto Press. (Forthcoming.) This chapter explores the nexus between poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability in cities and critically examines the potential of the “global” city to address both.
