Katherine Larson

Headshot of Professor Larson
Professor
Vice-Dean Teaching, Learning & Undergraduate Programs (on leave 2023-24)
Email
Telephone number
416-287-7169
Building HW 322
Status
On Leave 2023-24

Professor Larson’s research and teaching are rooted in feminist practices and focus on 16th- and 17th- century literature and culture; women’s writing; gender and language; rhetoric and embodiment; and music and song. Her most recent book, The Matter of Song in Early Modern England: Texts in and of the Air  (Oxford University Press, 2019; pbk 2022), integrates her training as a singer through an open access online companion recording. She is also collaborating on Early Modern Songscapesa digital project that aims more fully to animate song’s least tangible, yet essential facets: its generic fluidity; its ability to register multiple meanings and permeate boundaries in unexpected ways; and its airy form.

Professor Larson is currently serving as Vice-Dean Teaching, Learning, and Undergraduate Programs at UTSC (on leave in 2023-24). As an academic leader, she has been actively involved in equity-related work and responses to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action, especially as they relate to curriculum and pedagogy. Professor Larson established the Working Circle, which collectively led the Campus Curriculum Review at UTSC and the development of the 2022 report, “Recommended Actions, Learnings, and Next Steps.”

Professor Larson’s work has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Connaught Foundation, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Bodleian Library, the Renaissance Society of America, and the Jackman Humanities Institute. A Member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, she is the recipient of the John Charles Polanyi Prize for Literature and a Rhodes Scholarship.

 

Research Interests

16th- and 17th- century literature and culture; women’s writing; gender and language; rhetoric and embodiment; and music and song.