Cheryl Mattingly is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Southern California in the Department of Anthropology and the Division of Occupational Science and Therapy. Mattingly is the Director of the University of Southern California Initiative of Health, Humanity and Culture. She has authored and edited five books, including The Paradox of Hope: Journeys through a Clinical Borderland, which won the 2012 Stirling Book Prize.
Hope is not a simple “denial” of reality, but something that is painstakingly cultivated. Part of the struggle for hope involves a shift of perception in light of changing circumstances.