The research and development of the Urban Fox Project is being carried out in the context of an Interdisciplinary Masters program at York University in Toronto. I am investigating how human-driven factors (including habitat change, public policy and representational discourses) effect the urbanization of wildlife (specifically, the red fox in the GTA). Alexander Wilson, among other writers, has analyzed how wildlife documentaries have shaped our interpretations of nature. Through the microcosm of a Toronto urban fox colony, I will examine how intersecting systems of representation impact on city life, and potential cultural responses using digital media.

I will research public policy effecting animals in the Greater Toronto Area, and in other cities. This policy research is informed by readings on science, ecofeminism, and the history of imaging technologies, including such authors as Rosi Braidotti, Catriona Sandilands, Elizabeth Grosz, Donna Haraway, N. Katherine Hayles and many others. Field research will be supervised by Leesa Fawcett, a biologist specializing in human/animal interactions. This research might include interviews with biologists, policy-makers, wildlife workers, animal rights activists and people dwelling in the proximity of urban wildlife. The profusion of urban fox web sites on the Internet, ubiquitous and shifting nature TV programming, and urban geographies are examples of pertinent representational systems for analysis.