Isabel Trono

I am a PhD student entering the second year of my studies in the Department of English, with a collaborative specialization in Massey College’s Book History and Print Culture program. I hold an Honours Bachelor of Arts in English, Socio-Cultural Anthropology and Semiotics, and a Master of Arts in English, both from U of T. I also hold a long-standing interest in the arts, including visual arts and theatre. My dissertation project, supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), takes as its object of study portrayals of landscape in contemporary Canadian literatures and visual arts, investigating the ethical, cultural and formal implications of using land as an aesthetic object in light of Canada’s current environmental and political climate. Accordingly, my BHPC practicum project focussed on Canadian women’s artist’s books with ecological themes, such as Joyce Wieland’s True Patriot Love. Ultimately, through literary and visual analysis, my research seeks to illuminate how landscape impacts form, and in turn, how form impacts landscape. This year, I will also be serving as Secretary for the Graduate English Association (GEA).