HUMANITIES AT LARGE Jackman Humanities Institute Newsletter Volume I:Issue 1 (September 2017) NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS HIGHLIGHTING HUMANITIES: U OF T’S JACKMAN HUMANITIES INSTITUTE CELEBRATES 10 YEARS, WELCOMES NEW DIRECTOR From the undergraduate scholars-in-residence research program to the creation of a digital humanities network, the Jackman Humanities Institute has much to celebrate over the last decade. Jackman Humanities Institute (JHI) was established in 2007 thanks to significant donations from the Hon. Henry N.R. “Hal” Jackman, former lieutenant governor of Ontario and former U of T chancellor. In 2002, he donated $15 million to support the humanities at U of T and then doubled that donation in 2007 with another $15 million – making it the largest gift to the humanities at a Canadian university. The gifts were double matched by the university, spurring increased investment in U of T’s humanities departments. As JHI marks its 10th anniversary this year, U of T's Kim Luke spoke with outgoing director Robert Gibbs, who has led the institute since its inception, and incoming director Alison Keith about the institute's achievements and what’s ahead. WHAT HAVE BEEN KEY ACHIEVEMENTS FOR JHI OVER THE PAST TEN YEARS? Robert Gibbs: The short answer is that we have expanded both the range and the kinds of humanities research activities at the U of T. We aimed to support research that would augment and often complement the traditional and disciplinary research. So, we always looked for ways to forge connections and engage across disciplines, units, faculties and campuses. No single department could host the research that we have sponsored. For example, the undergraduate scholars-in-residence research project involves faculty from seven different disciplines and five faculties and reaches 50 students from all of the colleges and all three campuses. The chance for our undergraduates to explore humanities research, even at this relatively small scale, is enhanced by the multiple methods and approaches at play. It also creates a cohort of faculty who otherwise might not know each other. Each year, we bring together a group of scholars, a Circle of Fellows, to explore a theme from their various perspectives. The annual themes, such as Translation and the Multiplicity of Languages; Humour, Play and Games; and Time, Rhythm and Pace, help forge connections across disciplines and generations. Because we do not have a core discipline or approach, the JHI has been open to greater latitude, and this openness allows the different methods and topics to proliferate.

The digital humanities network is one of the most important communities of research to emerge at U of T in the last years. With over 300 members, it is changing the digital humanities landscape at U of T. Scholars are finding out about new methods, finding new collaborators and creating new projects. There is a huge desire to learn from each other and the JHI is playing a key role by bringing people together.

PHOTO CREDIT: DIANA TYSZKO WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO TAKE ON THE ROLE OF BECOMING JHI'S NEXT DIRECTOR? Alison Keith: I was excited to be offered an academic administrative post in which humanities research figures centrally. There are very few administrative positions in the contemporary academy in which we have the opportunity to nurture and celebrate the research conducted by scholars across the full range of humanities disciplines – from the study of languages, linguistics and literature to art, history, philosophy and religion. The JHI is also an ideal environment for the kind of multidisciplinary research that I do. As a classicist, I work daily with texts written in Latin and ancient Greek (and scholarship in French, German and Italian) and try to assess the historical events that shaped the philosophical and religious commitments and artistic goals of classical authors. So, the opportunity to foster and participate in theoretical and methodological conversations across the humanities disciplines that the JHI supports excites me very much. WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH DURING YOUR TERM AS DIRECTOR? Alison Keith: The JHI has achieved a great deal in its first years, and I hope not only to maintain the momentum of the established programs but also to consolidate the innovative developments in international, digital and undergraduate humanities research initiated this past academic year.

My top priority is to raise the public profile of humanities research in general and the research undertaken at the JHI, in particular. We have a long way to go get the word out on the street – or even across our huge university – about the most basic questions driving humanities research at JHI. Social media offers some terrific opportunities, and I hope to launch a weekly blog to showcase the innovative research questions and cross-disciplinary dynamics at the institute. I’m also excited about the idea of a podcast to showcase humanities scholarship in the public sphere. Raising our international profile is important, and I hope to explore the possibility of targeting specific areas for new streams of postdoctoral fellows in journalism or public humanities research and also for scholars-at-risk. WHAT DO YOU WISH PEOPLE UNDERSTOOD BETTER ABOUT THE HUMANITIES DISCIPLINES AND THEIR ROLE IN TODAY’S WORLD? Alison Keith: I wish that people understood that humanities disciplines aren’t studied in a vacuum but interact with today’s world in so many ways. Reading books and visual images and being able to analyze narrative and argument are skills that we use all the time in our lives and workplaces to make sense of our personal as well as the larger social contexts in which governments and institutions act. Historical interest in how a given society approaches different issues also informs our own understanding of the different forces that influence today’s social policies and inform global conflicts. The arts we enjoy in our leisure – music, visual art and theatre – can also be enriched for us by critical reflection about their origins and techniques, which are again part of humanist study. WHAT WOULD YOU ADVISE STUDENTS WHO WANT TO STUDY HUMANITIES BUT ARE CONCERNED ABOUT HOW WELL THEIR STUDIES WILL PREPARE THEM FOR THE JOB MARKET? Alison Keith: As a scholar and chair of classics, I always tell students that in the uncertain economy of the future, they can’t go wrong by strengthening their literacy and analytic skills through study in the humanities: critical reading, critical writing and critical analysis are transferrable skills that will take them far in whatever profession they wish to pursue. Students in humanities courses are trained to read texts and images closely, write carefully and analytically about complex ideas and synthesize complicated arguments for oral presentation. These remain valuable and relatively rare skills in our society. I also advise students to make the most of their opportunity to have an academic experience since the opportunity to focus on study for the sake of study, inquiry for the sake of inquiry, and the satisfaction of one’s own intellectual curiosity are not usually available outside of the university context and are worth pursuing if only to learn about oneself and one’s own particular interests. This kind of immersion in academic inquiry ideally helps to focus students’ professional interests beyond the university too.

FAREWELL TO BOB GIBBS 6 June 2017, 10th Anniversary of Jackman Gifts

President Meric Gertler thanks outgoing Director Bob Gibbs for his service (photo credit: Jaclyn Shapiro) On 6 June 2017, the University of Toronto formally celebrated the tenth anniversary of the founding gifts that established the Jackman Humanities Institute with a reception at Massey College for the Institute’s alumni fellows, Chancellor Jackman professors, and members of the Jackman family. The Honorable Henry N.R. Jackman was presented with a set of ten monographs by JHI fellows, and custom poster that incorporated the themes of all ten years. Professor Katherine Larson (fellow, 2014-15) spoke warmly of her experiences at the Institute: “The fellowship year was an invaluable gift of research and writing time for me. But it was the year-long conversation—at the coffee machine, over lunches, after talks and presentations, on excursions, and in conjunction with visits from guest speakers—that will stay with me above all. The opportunity to be immersed in a community of brilliant thinkers from a range of fields pushed my work on the rhetorical significance of women’s song performance in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England in new—and crucially playful (appropriate for that year’s theme) directions. No less important were the opportunities the fellowship community afforded for informal and formal mentorship. The unique inter-generational structure of the Circle of Fellows brings scholars at very different stages of their professional development into close and often transformative dialogue. There was also a second, less formal party for Bob Gibbs on 2 June 2017, when the JHI community also took the opportunity to share stories, drink wine, and eat chocolate in honour of his work. At this time, he was presented with a print by Distinguished Visiting Indigenous Faculty Fellow Sherry Farrell Racette and a caricature of the JHI staff by artist Kimberley Whitchurch.

[ 2017-2018 AT THE JHI ANNUAL THEME: INDELIBLE VIOLENCE: SHAME, RECONCILIATION, AND THE WORK OF APOLOGY Performances of reconciliation and apology attempt to erase violence that is arguably indelible. What ideological and therapeutic work does reconciliation do, under whose authority, for whose benefit, and with what limits? What would it mean to acknowledge the role of shame? How might the work of truth and reconciliation commissions be compared to other ways of shifting relations from violence and violation to co-existence? How does the work of apology stabilize social identities, conditions, and relations and how do indelible traces of violence work for and against those conditions, identities and relations? EXHIBITION OF ART AT THE JHI We are pleased to announce the launch of our 2017-2018 art exhibition, Morning Star, which is curated by Masters of Visual Studies (curatorial) students Darryn Doull and Jason Baerg.

Image: Nadya Kwandibens, Lisa Charleyboy, 2008, chromogenic photograph, 50.8 x 76.2 cm. Courtesy of artist. Waabanang is Ojibwe for Morning Star or the planet Venus and has been a beacon of light, serving as a navigational entity for Indigenous Peoples of this land for millennia. In response to the 2017-18 annual theme of the Jackman Humanities Institute, Morning Star ascends to shine light on presence, visibility and collective Indigenous agency to renounce naïve impressions of (re)conciliation that continue to be discussed throughout much of the settler culture across Turtle Island. By opening personal, psychic and linguistic pathways that simultaneously guide to one and lead away from another, Indigenous kinship and survivance come into sharp focus. The exhibition will be formally open from 13 September 2017 to 29 June 2018 at the Jackman Humanities Institute. The launch party will take place on Wednesday 13 September, 4:00—6:00 p.m. We are grateful for the support of Barbara Fischer, Curator of the Art Museum at the University of Toronto.

STATEMENT OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF TRADITIONAL LAND We would like to acknowledge this sacred land on which the University of Toronto operates. For thousands of years it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land. DIGITAL HUMANITIES NETWORK CONFERENCE JHI-DHN AT UTSC, 29-30 AUGUST 2017 For the past year, the JHI has nurtured a community of humanities and social science scholars whose research is dependent on a range of newly-developing technologies: artificial intelligence, 3D printing, big data analysis, databases of scanned documents and many more. They have met frequently for lightning lunches and training sessions in coding and other technical skills, and they gathered at the beautiful UT-Scarborough campus to consider the futures of their work and to launch a website dedicated to the promotion of the digital humanities at the University of Toronto. Highlights included talks by Bo Wandschneider, UofT’s new CIO; Sacha Judd (Hoku Group), and new faculty members Adam Hammond (English), TL Cowan (Arts, Culture, Media), and Fadi Ragheb (Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations).

(left) DHN postdoctoral fellow Elizabeth Parke, whose work has been at the heart of the digital humanities community in 2016-2017; (right) Alex Gillespie, Director, JHI-DHN and Chair, UTM English & Drama. Photo credit: Ken Jones New DHN website: www.dhn.utoronto.ca

UPCOMING EVENTS (A SELECTION) PLEASE SEE THE WEBSITE FOR LOCATION & REGISTRATION INFORMATION. For all events, please see https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca/event_year or follow twitter: @JHIevents 5 September-21 October 2017 Unsettling Exhibition at UTSC Doris McCarthy Gallery Curated by Bojana Videkanic https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca/event_details/id=3042 11 September 2017—10 March 2018 Take Care Exhibition at UTM Blackwood Gallery Curated by Letters & Handshakes https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca/event_details/id=3045 11 September 2017, 4:00-6:00 pm Moral Responsibility, Blameworthiness, and Intention: In Search of Formal Definitions Talk by Joe Halpern, Computer Science, Cornell https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca/event_details/id=3058 13 September 2017—29 June 2018 Morning Star JHI exhibition of art Curated by Darryn Doull and Jason Baerg https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca/event_details/id=2997 15 September 2017, 6:00-8:00 pm Europe Between Brexit, Trump, and Putin Munk Annual Lecture by author Timothy Gartin Ash https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca/event_details/id=3072 18 September 2017, 1:00-4:00 pm Reading North Korean Wartime Literature Jerôme de Wit, University of Tübingen https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca/event_details/id=3052 19 September 2017, 4:30 p.m. Truth to Power: Politics from Below in Roman Comedy Stubbs Lecture by Amy Richlin, UCLA https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca/event_details/id=3086 25 September 2017, 2:00-4:00 p.m. The Cultural Contexts of Indigeneity in Southeast Asia Oona Paredes, National University of Singapore https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca/event_details/id=3054 27-30 September 2017 Global Reformations Conference of the Centre for Reformation & Renaissance Studies https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca/event_details/id=3044

JHI COMPETITION DEADLINES For funding competitions that are currently accepting applications, please see: https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca/funding JHI Faculty Research Fellowships (12 and 6 months) Deadline: 15 September 2017 For information about Faculty Research Fellowships, please see: https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca/fellowships Scholars-in-Residence Faculty Supervisors (May 2018) Deadline: 15 November 2017 (date TBC) Scholars-in-Residence student participants (May 2018) Deadline: 8 February 2018 For faculty and student information about Scholars-in-Residence, see: https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca/SIR JHI Graduate Fellowships, 2018-2019 “Reading Faces, Reading Minds 15 March 2018 For information about graduate fellowships, please see: https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca/Fellowships#graduate JHI Program for the Arts (events in 2018-2019) “Reading Faces, Reading Minds Deadline: 20 March 2018 For this year’s awards, please see: https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca/announce_ProgArts_17-18 JHI Undergraduate Fellowships, 2018-2019 “Reading Faces, Reading Minds” Deadline: 5 April 2018 For information about Undergraduate Fellowships, please see: https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca/Fellowships#undergraduate JHI Working Groups, 2018-2019 Deadline: 15 May 2018 For program information and this year’s groups, see: https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca/WorkingGroups Calls for applications for each of these competitions will be posted to the JHI website in the coming weeks. The normal application period is the 4-6 weeks before the deadline. Contact us: Director: Alison Keith jhi.director@utoronto.ca Associate Director: Kim Yates jhi.associate@utoronto.ca Office Manager: Monica Toffoli: jhi.admin@utoronto.ca Website: https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca Twitter: @JHIevents Telephone: (416) 978-7415