valihora


Karen Valihora

Photo of Karen Valihora

Department of English

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.

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Degrees

Ph.D. Department of English, Yale University
Diplôme 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 Studies

Professional 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

English , Philosophy, Aesthetics, Politics, Genres and Modes of Literature

Current Research Projects

The Picton Gazette

    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.

    Home

    See more
    Role: Publisher and Editor

    Start Date:
      Month: May   Year: 2023

    Collaborator: Christopher Fanning
    Collaborator Institution: Queen's University
    Collaborator Role: Publisher and Editor

Books

Publication
Year

Austen’s Oughts: Judgment after Locke and Shaftesbury. Newark: University of Delaware Press through Associated University Presses (AUP), 2010. (363 pages)

2010

Book Chapters

Publication
Year

“Adam Smith’s Narrative Line,” in Adam Smith: His Life, His Thought, His Legacy, ed. Ryan Hanley. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016. Pp. 405-422.

2016

The Silence of Ajax: Hume's Moral Sublime in Karen Valihora, Austen's Oughts (Delaware, 2010).

2010

Book Reviews

Publication
Year

“The Whig Theory of Mind.” Review of Jacob Sider Jost, Interest and Connection, Virginia, 2020. The Adam Smith Review, Winter 2023.

2023

“Genealogies of Common Sense.” Review of Christopher Henke, Common Sense in Early 18th-Century British Literature and Culture: Ethics, Aesthetics and Politics, 1680-1750. De Gruyter Mouton, 2014. The Scriblerian and the Kit-Cats, Spring 2018.

2018

“Aesthetics à la Mode.” Review Essay: The Temporality of Taste in Eighteenth Century British Writing, by James Noggle, Oxford UP, 2012. Eighteenth-Century Life 38.3 (Fall 2014): 158-64.

2014

Journal Articles

Publication
Year

Emma Pastoral, Review of English Studies, December 2022.

2022

“’She Got Up and Went Away:’ Rachel Cusk on Making an Exit,” English Studies in Canada. (No. 45.1-2 March-June 2021) 19-35.

2021

“Impartial Spectator meets Picturesque Tourist: The Framing of Mansfield Park.” Eighteenth-Century Fiction 20.1 (Fall 2007) pp. 57-87.

2007

“The Judgement of Judgement in Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments,” British Journal of Aesthetics 41.2 (April 2001) pp. 138-61.

2001

Review of Speaking in Hunger: Gender, Discourse and Consumption in Clarissa, by Donnalee Frega, Eighteenth-Century Fiction 11.3 (April 1999) pp. 363-66.

1999

Conference Papers

Publication
Year

Panelist, “Aesthetics and Politics of Kames and Burke.” Chair: Rachel Zuckert. Liberty Fund Colloquium. Seattle, Washington. August 2010.

2010

Panelist, “Commerce, Civilization and Liberty: Montesquieu and Adam Smith.” Liberty Fund Colloquium. Chair: Maria Pia Paganelli. Montreal. August 2009.

2009

Panelist, “Republican Liberty in Milton’s Political Writings and Paradise Lost.” Liberty Fund Colloquium. Chair. John T. Scott. San Diego. May 2009.

2009

Panelist, “The Liberties of History.” Liberty Fund Colloquium. Chair: Eduardo Velasquez. Tuscon, Arizona. November 2009.

2009

“The Silence of Ajax: Hume’s Moral Sublime.” Panel: Classical Literature and English Prose. Chair: Adam Potkay. American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS). Richmond, Virginia. March, 2009.

2009

“Empiricism Under Judgment.” Panel: Aesthetics after Locke. Chair: David Richter. American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS) Portland, Oregon. April, 2008.

2008

Panelist, “Religion, Freedom and Citizenship in Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise.” Liberty Fund Colloquium. Chair: Eric Schliesser. Indianapolis, June 2008.

2008

Panelist, “The Moral and Political Economy of Freedom: Kames and Smith.” Liberty Fund Colloquium. Chair: Eduardo Velasquez. San Francisco, November 2008.

2008

“Immediate Perception.” Panel: Aesthetics after Locke. Chair: Ian Balfour. Northeast American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (Neasecs). November, 2004.

2004

“The Small Town as Film Set.” Panel: The Small Town in Literature, Film and Song. American Culture Association. San Antonio, Texas. April 2004.

2004

“Aesthetics after Locke.” Panel: General Session on the History of Aesthetics. International Association for the Study of Literature and Philosophy (IAPL). Leeds, England. May, 2003.

2003

“Back to Beauty.” Panel: Aesthetics after Locke. Chair: Dr. Ian Balfour. American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (ASECS). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. March 2000.

2000

“The Figure in the Mirror: Shaftesbury’s Advice to an Author.” Panel: The Mind and World from Locke to Stewart. Chair: David Raynor. Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (CSECS). University of Toronto. October 2000.

2000

“Clarissa and the Eyes of the World.” Panel: Epistolarity and the Moral Sense. Canadian Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (CSECS). Montreal, Quebec. October 1999.

1999

“The Spectacle of Private Life in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.” Panel: The Invention of Scandal: The Publicity of the Private. Northeastern Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (NEASECS). Durham, New Hampshire. December 1999.

1999

“Transparent Views: Narrative Aesthetics in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park.” Panel: Eighteenth-Century Landscapes and Textscapes. Chair: John Crossen. American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (ASECS) Milwaukee, Wisconsin. March 1999.

1999

“Fragmented and Unfinished Discourses: The Ruin of the Picturesque.” Panel: The Unfinished. International Association for the Study of Literature and Philosophy (IAPL). Irvine, California. May 1998.

1998

“‘The True Art of Seeing Nature’: Sir Joshua Reynolds and the Discourse of the Picturesque.” Panel: The 1790s. American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (ASECS). Notre Dame, Indiana. April 1998.

1998

“Good Old British Common Sense and Kant’s Critique of Judgment.” Panel: German Philosophy in England. Chair: David Hensley. North East American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (NEASECS). Ottawa, Ontario. September 1995.

1995

Public Lectures

Publication
Year

“Austen’s Oughts: Moral and Aesthetic priorities in Emma,” McMaster University Critical Intimacies series. November, 2009.

2009

“Austen’s Oughts: Shaftesbury and Pride and Prejudice.” University of Toronto Eighteenth-Century Studies Colloquium. November 2008.

2008

“Psychic Economics of the Small Town Film.” York University Department of English Graduate Student Colloquium. January 2005.

2005

“The Golden Age and the Small Town.” Toronto Arts and Letters Club. January, 2005.

2005

“Adam Smith’s Moral Sentiments and Kant’s Aesthetic Judgment.” Invoking Community: York University Graduate Student Colloquium. March 1998.

1998

“The Ruin of the Picturesque: Reynolds and Gainsborough.” Paper and Slides presentation. York University Faculty Colloquium, Department of English. March 1998.

1998


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 University
Diplôme 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 Studies

Professional 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

English , Philosophy, Aesthetics, Politics, Genres and Modes of Literature

Current Research Projects

The Picton Gazette

    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: Funded
    Role: Publisher and Editor

    Start Date:
      Month: May   Year: 2023

    Collaborator: Christopher Fanning
    Collaborator Institution: Queen's University
    Collaborator Role: Publisher and Editor

All Publications


Book Chapters

Publication
Year

“Adam Smith’s Narrative Line,” in Adam Smith: His Life, His Thought, His Legacy, ed. Ryan Hanley. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016. Pp. 405-422.

2016

The Silence of Ajax: Hume's Moral Sublime in Karen Valihora, Austen's Oughts (Delaware, 2010).

2010

Book Reviews

Publication
Year

“The Whig Theory of Mind.” Review of Jacob Sider Jost, Interest and Connection, Virginia, 2020. The Adam Smith Review, Winter 2023.

2023

“Genealogies of Common Sense.” Review of Christopher Henke, Common Sense in Early 18th-Century British Literature and Culture: Ethics, Aesthetics and Politics, 1680-1750. De Gruyter Mouton, 2014. The Scriblerian and the Kit-Cats, Spring 2018.

2018

“Aesthetics à la Mode.” Review Essay: The Temporality of Taste in Eighteenth Century British Writing, by James Noggle, Oxford UP, 2012. Eighteenth-Century Life 38.3 (Fall 2014): 158-64.

2014

Books

Publication
Year

Austen’s Oughts: Judgment after Locke and Shaftesbury. Newark: University of Delaware Press through Associated University Presses (AUP), 2010. (363 pages)

2010

Journal Articles

Publication
Year

Emma Pastoral, Review of English Studies, December 2022.

2022

“’She Got Up and Went Away:’ Rachel Cusk on Making an Exit,” English Studies in Canada. (No. 45.1-2 March-June 2021) 19-35.

2021

“Impartial Spectator meets Picturesque Tourist: The Framing of Mansfield Park.” Eighteenth-Century Fiction 20.1 (Fall 2007) pp. 57-87.

2007

“The Judgement of Judgement in Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments,” British Journal of Aesthetics 41.2 (April 2001) pp. 138-61.

2001

Review of Speaking in Hunger: Gender, Discourse and Consumption in Clarissa, by Donnalee Frega, Eighteenth-Century Fiction 11.3 (April 1999) pp. 363-66.

1999

Conference Papers

Publication
Year

Panelist, “Aesthetics and Politics of Kames and Burke.” Chair: Rachel Zuckert. Liberty Fund Colloquium. Seattle, Washington. August 2010.

2010

Panelist, “Commerce, Civilization and Liberty: Montesquieu and Adam Smith.” Liberty Fund Colloquium. Chair: Maria Pia Paganelli. Montreal. August 2009.

2009

Panelist, “Republican Liberty in Milton’s Political Writings and Paradise Lost.” Liberty Fund Colloquium. Chair. John T. Scott. San Diego. May 2009.

2009

Panelist, “The Liberties of History.” Liberty Fund Colloquium. Chair: Eduardo Velasquez. Tuscon, Arizona. November 2009.

2009

“The Silence of Ajax: Hume’s Moral Sublime.” Panel: Classical Literature and English Prose. Chair: Adam Potkay. American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS). Richmond, Virginia. March, 2009.

2009

“Empiricism Under Judgment.” Panel: Aesthetics after Locke. Chair: David Richter. American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS) Portland, Oregon. April, 2008.

2008

Panelist, “Religion, Freedom and Citizenship in Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise.” Liberty Fund Colloquium. Chair: Eric Schliesser. Indianapolis, June 2008.

2008

Panelist, “The Moral and Political Economy of Freedom: Kames and Smith.” Liberty Fund Colloquium. Chair: Eduardo Velasquez. San Francisco, November 2008.

2008

“Immediate Perception.” Panel: Aesthetics after Locke. Chair: Ian Balfour. Northeast American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (Neasecs). November, 2004.

2004

“The Small Town as Film Set.” Panel: The Small Town in Literature, Film and Song. American Culture Association. San Antonio, Texas. April 2004.

2004

“Aesthetics after Locke.” Panel: General Session on the History of Aesthetics. International Association for the Study of Literature and Philosophy (IAPL). Leeds, England. May, 2003.

2003

“Back to Beauty.” Panel: Aesthetics after Locke. Chair: Dr. Ian Balfour. American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (ASECS). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. March 2000.

2000

“The Figure in the Mirror: Shaftesbury’s Advice to an Author.” Panel: The Mind and World from Locke to Stewart. Chair: David Raynor. Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (CSECS). University of Toronto. October 2000.

2000

“Clarissa and the Eyes of the World.” Panel: Epistolarity and the Moral Sense. Canadian Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (CSECS). Montreal, Quebec. October 1999.

1999

“The Spectacle of Private Life in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.” Panel: The Invention of Scandal: The Publicity of the Private. Northeastern Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (NEASECS). Durham, New Hampshire. December 1999.

1999

“Transparent Views: Narrative Aesthetics in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park.” Panel: Eighteenth-Century Landscapes and Textscapes. Chair: John Crossen. American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (ASECS) Milwaukee, Wisconsin. March 1999.

1999

“Fragmented and Unfinished Discourses: The Ruin of the Picturesque.” Panel: The Unfinished. International Association for the Study of Literature and Philosophy (IAPL). Irvine, California. May 1998.

1998

“‘The True Art of Seeing Nature’: Sir Joshua Reynolds and the Discourse of the Picturesque.” Panel: The 1790s. American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (ASECS). Notre Dame, Indiana. April 1998.

1998

“Good Old British Common Sense and Kant’s Critique of Judgment.” Panel: German Philosophy in England. Chair: David Hensley. North East American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (NEASECS). Ottawa, Ontario. September 1995.

1995

Public Lectures

Publication
Year

“Austen’s Oughts: Moral and Aesthetic priorities in Emma,” McMaster University Critical Intimacies series. November, 2009.

2009

“Austen’s Oughts: Shaftesbury and Pride and Prejudice.” University of Toronto Eighteenth-Century Studies Colloquium. November 2008.

2008

“Psychic Economics of the Small Town Film.” York University Department of English Graduate Student Colloquium. January 2005.

2005

“The Golden Age and the Small Town.” Toronto Arts and Letters Club. January, 2005.

2005

“Adam Smith’s Moral Sentiments and Kant’s Aesthetic Judgment.” Invoking Community: York University Graduate Student Colloquium. March 1998.

1998

“The Ruin of the Picturesque: Reynolds and Gainsborough.” Paper and Slides presentation. York University Faculty Colloquium, Department of English. March 1998.

1998