Ruth Panofsky

My most recent work blends book history and feminist methodologies to show how publishing is a gendered undertaking. It foregrounds gender as a principal factor shaping the career paths of key women whose feminist practice served to disrupt the dominant masculine paradigm and reinvigorate the culture of publishing and authorship in twentieth-century Canada. Through their efforts – expressly their vision and method – these women became agents of change who helped transform publishing practice in this country. 

Recent Publications

Scholarly Books:

2020 Editor. The New Spice Box: Contemporary Jewish Writing. Toronto: New Jewish Press.

2019 Toronto Trailblazers: Women in Canadian Publishing. Studies in Book and Print Culture. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

2017 Editor. The New Spice Box: Canadian Jewish Writing. Toronto: New Jewish Press.

Poetry Books:

2020 Radiant Shards: Hoda’s North End Poems. Toronto: Inanna Publications.

Sample of supervised ComCult projects:

2019 - Lauren Kirshner; Dissertation: Beyond the Marked Woman: The New Sex Worker In American Popular Culture, 2006-2016

2019 - Hannah Warkentin; Major Research Paper: Alternative Spaces, Alternative Possibilities: Reimagining Space in Contemporary Canadian Dystopian Fiction

2011 - George Walker; Project-Paper: The Evolution and History of the Xylographic Narrative

2010 - Shannon Culver; Thesis: Print Culture in the Digital Era: The Publishing Industry in the 21st Century

2007 - Casey Gurfinkel; Major Research Paper: Globalization And The Direction Of The Canadian Publishing Industry

2005 - Victoria Fulford; Major Research Paper: Stars in their eyes: magazines and celebrity content

2005 - Gabrielle Etcheverry; Thesis: Ediciones Cordillera: A study of Chilean literary production in Canada

ComCult Teaching Activities

• CC 8903 MA Seminar: Research and Practice