Karen Valihora
Associate Professor
Graduate Program Director
Office: Atkinson Building, 540
Phone: (416)736-2100 Ext: 66397
Email: valihora@yorku.ca
Media Requests Welcome
Accepting New Graduate Students
Karen Valihora specializes in the history of ideas about community and civil society. She teaches courses on the Small Town in Literature and Film, the Aesthetics of Community, the English Romantics, and Milton. Her book, Austen’s Oughts: Judgment after Locke and Shaftesbury (2010), explores the possibilities for reflective, objective, and shared judgments in eighteenth-century literature and philosophy from Locke to Austen.
Degrees
Ph.D. Department of English, Yale UniversityDiplôme de langue Française de la Sorbonne, Université de Paris IV, Cours de Langue et Civilisation Françaises
M.A. (English Literature), McGill University
B.A. (English Literature), McGill University
Appointments
Faculty of Graduate StudiesProfessional Leadership
Panel Organizer and Chair, “Aesthetics and Affect I” and “Aesthetics and Affect II.” American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies. Baltimore. April 2022.
Director, “The Impartial Spectator in Adam Smith and Jane Austen.” Liberty Fund Colloquium, Toronto, July 12-15, 2018.
Director, “Judgment and Freedom in Shaftesbury and Mandeville.” The Liberty Fund. Toronto. April 21-24, 2015.
Community Contributions
Karen Valihora is the Publisher and Managing Editor of the Picton Gazette newspaper in Prince Edward County.
Research Interests
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
Together with Christopher Fanning, a prof at Queen's, Karen Valihora is the publisher of the Picton Gazette, a weekly paper serving Prince Edward County. The newspaper invites students, colleagues, and members of the public to write features that address any aspect of the sense of place. The newspaper provides a forum for research on issues of global concern – urban planning and the development of rural land, agri-tourism and the farm-to-table movements, sustainable agriculture and fisheries, and the importance of local and living histories, to give just a few examples.
Description:Through the revitalization of a local community newspaper we are engaged in three related projects: to expand and deepen the role and purpose of a historic community newspaper, to make it digitally accessible to a wider audience, and to re-think, re-orient, and re-frame the work the university does. York and Queen's Universities are committed to expanding the role of the university in the community. Part of that work involves transforming sophisticated and original research and scholarship into forms accessible and useful to a wider readership.
Start Date:
- Month: May Year: 2023
Collaborator: Christopher Fanning
Collaborator Institution: Queen's University
Collaborator Role: Publisher and Editor
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summer 2025 | GS/EN6320 3.0 | A | Eighteenth-Century Intellectual Texts | SEMR |
Karen Valihora specializes in the history of ideas about community and civil society. She teaches courses on the Small Town in Literature and Film, the Aesthetics of Community, the English Romantics, and Milton. Her book, Austen’s Oughts: Judgment after Locke and Shaftesbury (2010), explores the possibilities for reflective, objective, and shared judgments in eighteenth-century literature and philosophy from Locke to Austen.
Degrees
Ph.D. Department of English, Yale UniversityDiplôme de langue Française de la Sorbonne, Université de Paris IV, Cours de Langue et Civilisation Françaises
M.A. (English Literature), McGill University
B.A. (English Literature), McGill University
Appointments
Faculty of Graduate StudiesProfessional Leadership
Panel Organizer and Chair, “Aesthetics and Affect I” and “Aesthetics and Affect II.” American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies. Baltimore. April 2022.
Director, “The Impartial Spectator in Adam Smith and Jane Austen.” Liberty Fund Colloquium, Toronto, July 12-15, 2018.
Director, “Judgment and Freedom in Shaftesbury and Mandeville.” The Liberty Fund. Toronto. April 21-24, 2015.
Community Contributions
Karen Valihora is the Publisher and Managing Editor of the Picton Gazette newspaper in Prince Edward County.
Research Interests
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
Together with Christopher Fanning, a prof at Queen's, Karen Valihora is the publisher of the Picton Gazette, a weekly paper serving Prince Edward County. The newspaper invites students, colleagues, and members of the public to write features that address any aspect of the sense of place. The newspaper provides a forum for research on issues of global concern – urban planning and the development of rural land, agri-tourism and the farm-to-table movements, sustainable agriculture and fisheries, and the importance of local and living histories, to give just a few examples.
Description:Through the revitalization of a local community newspaper we are engaged in three related projects: to expand and deepen the role and purpose of a historic community newspaper, to make it digitally accessible to a wider audience, and to re-think, re-orient, and re-frame the work the university does. York and Queen's Universities are committed to expanding the role of the university in the community. Part of that work involves transforming sophisticated and original research and scholarship into forms accessible and useful to a wider readership.
Project Type: FundedRole: Publisher and Editor
Start Date:
- Month: May Year: 2023
Collaborator: Christopher Fanning
Collaborator Institution: Queen's University
Collaborator Role: Publisher and Editor
All Publications
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summer 2025 | GS/EN6320 3.0 | A | Eighteenth-Century Intellectual Texts | SEMR |
