Jackman Humanities Institute

10/14/2026

Bring your ideas. Join the conversation.

JHI Distinguished Visiting Fellows spend eight months pursuing their research or creative practice while taking part in the interdisciplinary Circle of Fellows.

It's an opportunity to share your work with people beyond your own field, encounter different perspectives, and contribute your own ideas to the intellectual life of the JHI.

Applications for 2027–28 are open until October 27.

Learn more and apply: https://uoft.me/calls

10/13/2026

Anti-intellectualism is nothing new.

For the 2026 CBC-JHI Lecture, philosopher Jacqueline Feke examines its history in Ancient Greece and the arguments ancient thinkers made in defense of the intellectual.

Join us for Defending the Intellectual: Lessons from Ancient Greece.

October 20 | 4–6pm

Register: uoft.me/2026-cbc-jhi

10/09/2026

📣 Eleven new Arts & Events activities across the are receiving JHI funding!

From exhibitions and film screenings to symposia, public lectures and workshops, these activities will explore topics ranging from animal histories and art to cultural heritage and reparatory justice.

Congratulations to everyone whose proposals were selected! We look forward to sharing more about these events as they approach.

Full list of funded activities: uoft.me/cJM

10/08/2026

💀 You wanted the reading list? We've got the reading list!

Here's the full lineup of dead authors that Margaret Atwood helped select for JHI's Dead Book Clubs, from Kafka and Munro to Butler, Bradbury, Poe and more.

Which one would you pick up first? Have you read any of them? Tell us in the comments 👇

Oh, and undergrads - you can still put your name on the wait list.

👉 uoft.me/deadbookclubs

Margaret Atwood

10/08/2026

📰 There's plenty happening at JHI, and lots to catch up on!

From a packed house at Night Owls to 11 newly funded Arts & Events projects, our latest newsletter is full of news from across the Institute.

Also featuring South Africa's artist networks of resistance, fellowship and funding opportunities, upcoming events, and more.

👉 Read now: https://mailchi.mp/utoronto/jhi1008426
Not subscribed yet? Sign up: https://uoft.me/jhi-news

10/08/2026

The Dead (authors) Book Club at University of Toronto, Jackman Humanities Institute. Reading for pleasure! Radical!
Full reading list available. And a Mystery Librarian who helped choose the books! Now whoever could that be? (Available slots filled up on first day. Wild enthusiasm! That could happen at Your university, too!)

10/07/2026

What can art make possible when a government tries to dictate who you are and who you can become?

Curator Qanita Lilla reflects on growing up under apartheid in South Africa, where artists created spaces that challenged state-imposed ideas about race and identity. From a childhood art lesson to underground networks that circulated banned calendars, she explores how creativity, community and trust offered ways to imagine a different future.

Qanita was the 2025-26 JHI New Media and Public Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow.

Listen: https://uoft.me/hal-s3

Agnes Etherington Art Centre

10/07/2026

What if undergraduate students aren't losing interest in reading? Maybe they just need more opportunities to read for its own sake?

In the Chronicle of Higher Education, JHI Director Randy Boyagoda reflects on the response to our new Dead Book Clubs: 160 spots filled on the first day, growing waitlists, and Friday afternoons spent reading and discussing books without phones, grades or professors.

And the mystery is over! Our Dead Author Librarian, Margaret Atwood, helped select the books and will join us for our final gathering in December!

👉 Read the article:

A solution to the reading crisis: Make space for students to discuss literature outside the classroom.

10/06/2026

This Thursday! Join us for the 2026 Annual Jackman Lecture in the Humanities with philosopher Gwen Bradford who'll explore what makes some things replaceable and others truly unique, and why, for certain important things, no substitute will do.

October 8 | 4-6pm
Room 100, 170 St. George St.

Register: https://uoft.me/ajl26

10/05/2026

U of T faculty: make JHI your research home for 2027–28.

The JHI Faculty Research Fellowship offers eligible faculty in the humanities and qualitative social sciences a full year away from teaching and departmental service to focus on their research.

Along with research support and an office at JHI, fellows become part of our interdisciplinary Circle of Fellows, sharing their work and ideas with scholars from across the University and beyond.

Applications close October 16
Learn more and apply: https://uoft.me/calls

The John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design
University of Toronto Faculty of Arts & Science
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
University of Toronto Faculty of Law
UofT Music
Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto Mississauga
University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC)