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Biography

Phillipa Chong is a Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS-SSHRC doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto and a Fellow in Sociology at Harvard University (Spring/Summer 2010). Her research broadly concerns the social bases of worth and authority: this includes the value we assign to cultural objects (e.g., books, paintings, etc) as well as to groups of people (e.g., racial and ethnic minorities, women, cultural connoisseurs, etc).

Her dissertation focuses on the role book reviewers play in framing the value of literary fiction. Phillipa is particularly interested in how critics use authors’ personal history to engage with literary works and the changing nature of book reviewing in the age of the Internet. This research interest stems in part from her time spent working at the Marketing & Publicity department of a major Canadian publishing house before entering academia.

Phillipa’s research has won multiple awards including the 2008 Barbara Frum Memorial Award in Canadian Studies and the 2009 Canadian Sociological Best Student Paper award.

Phillipa lives in the west-end of Toronto with her painter-husband who explores similar problems of value and reception in the context of the gallery and museum space.

Research Interests: Cultural Sociology; Race/Ethnicity; Sociology of Arts & Literature; Categorizaton/Classification; Cultural Critics; Sociology of Evalaution

Email: phillipa.chong@utoronto.ca / pchong@fas.harvard.edu

Curriculum Vitae: 2010 (pdf)

  
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 News

A New Face at Massey College

Phillipa has been selected to be a Junior Fellow at Massey College for the 2010/2011 academic year. The College is an interdisciplinary academic and social community that brings together top graduate students, "distinguished senior scholars, and eminent members of eminent members of society beyond the academic world" for intellectual exchange.

Manuscript Earns 2009 Canadian Sociological Association's Best Student Paper Award

Phillipa's sole-authored paper, "Race, Ethnicity, Nation, and Worth: How literary critics use authors' race and ethnicity as tools for critical appraisal" was judged best in competition by a panel of three senior sociologists as part of the 2009 Canadian Sociological Association's annual meeting. She is currently revising the manuscript for publication in Poetics: Journal of Eempirical Research on Culture, the Media and the Arts.

 

Phillipa Awarded SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship - Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council offers foreign study grants to "support high-calibre Canadian graduate students in building linkages and international networks through the pursuit of exceptional research experiences abroad." Phillipa takes up the award at Harvard University.


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