Institute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University

07/22/2026

Join us on August 8th @ 7:30PM for the inaugural town hall hosted in collaboration with No AI Vancouver!

This town hall aims to bring together researchers and community members to discuss concerns around AI technology and data centre projects in Vancouver. We want to facilitate strategy sharing for community involvement and increasing transparency in the shaping of Canada’s AI policy and regulation.

See event details: https://ow.ly/vaV050Zrb8t

04/08/2026

Recording now on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/awlOowHrooA?si=EkkKAtSZB13dydsB!

Join us virtually on January 23 @ 6PM PST for a book launch and panel discussion of "After Savagery: Gaza, Genocide, and the Illusion of Western Civilization." Registration required for Zoom Webinar access.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Hamid Dabashi’s "After Savagery: Gaza, Genocide, and the Illusion of Western Civilization" was written during a genocide. In a world dominated by moral double standards, Dabashi refers to the staggering death toll of Palestinians in Gaza—often reported in a cold and detached numbers —and explores the possibility of making sense of this world of not only incredible injustices but also continued settler colonialism by “the West” and its extensions. The unwavering support by the United States and Europeans of Israeli military campaign in Gaza, as Dabashi argues, reveals the quintessence of “Western civilization.” Dabashi’s work invokes love, poetry, and solidarity in response to oppression, colonization, and genocide. Viewed from the point of view of the wretched of the earth, Palestine is the world and the world is Palestine.

Details and registration: https://ow.ly/7hZs50XIIyP

04/07/2026

Due to unforeseeable circumstances, the event has been cancelled. Apologies for the late notice and any inconvenience it may cause.

Join our J. S. Woodsworth Chair in the Humanities, Adrian Ivakhiv, on April 7th @ 6–8pm PDT at SFU Harbour Centre for a talk by psychological anthropologist Josh Brahinsky, titled "Do The Subaltern Speak in Tongues? How Charismatic Prayer Inspires Spirit-Filled Activism."

ABOUT THE TALK

Speaking in tongues offers an empirical window into the relationship between spirituality and activism. Practiced by an estimated 500 million people worldwide, mostly poor, mostly BiPOC, this is a case where practitioners deliberately relinquish linguistic control and then describe the experience as renewing the mind and motivating deeper engagement with the world. The paradox is right there on the surface: activism emerges from surrender. Agency comes from letting go. "Tongues of Fire" pursues that paradox through neuroscience, anthropology, and phenomenology. It shows that culturally embedded practices can produce states where letting go genuinely becomes a pathway to agency and social engagement—loosening cognitive constraints, raising creativity, and leaving practitioners feeling not less empowered but more so, and more connected to others.

Learn more: https://ow.ly/BJXJ50YtUM8

03/20/2026

Join our J. S. Woodsworth Chair on April 7th @ 12:00–1:30PM PDT for the next installment of the hybrid webinar series on "Radical Hope in Feverish Times." Registration required for Zoom webinar access.

ABOUT THE SESSION
“Finding Psyche in Feverish Times”

Are we anxious enough yet? In the firehose of current crises and challenges—from Trump and the Epstein Files to Iran, Venezuela, Gaza, and Ukraine, to climate change, conspiracy cults, the weirdness of AI, and all the rest—is there any place where we might find ourselves, or the agency to resist, or something solid and comforting behind or beneath the onslaught? Or is there too much of ourselves already, and not enough opening to the otherness that we fear or resist? Where in the maelstrom is ‘nature,’ or God, or our common humanity?

Speakers will include ecopsychologist Andy Fisher, author of "Radical Ecopsychology: Psychology in the Service of Life" (2013); Lacanian psychoanalyst Hilda Fernandez-Alvarez, co-founder of the Lacan Salon and president of Corpo Freudiano Vancouver; and psychological anthropologist Josh Brahinsky, author of "Tongues of Fire: How Charismatic Prayer Changes Evangelical Brains and Inspires Spirit-Filled Activism" (2026). They will be joined in conversation with poet Clint Burnham. Hosted and moderated by Adrian Ivakhiv.

Register now: https://ow.ly/Mrfc50YwBIg

03/17/2026

Join our J. S. Woodsworth Chair in the Humanities, Adrian Ivakhiv, on April 7th @ 6–8pm PDT at SFU Harbour Centre for a talk by psychological anthropologist Josh Brahinsky, titled "Do The Subaltern Speak in Tongues? How Charismatic Prayer Inspires Spirit-Filled Activism."

ABOUT THE TALK

Speaking in tongues offers an empirical window into the relationship between spirituality and activism. Practiced by an estimated 500 million people worldwide, mostly poor, mostly BiPOC, this is a case where practitioners deliberately relinquish linguistic control and then describe the experience as renewing the mind and motivating deeper engagement with the world. The paradox is right there on the surface: activism emerges from surrender. Agency comes from letting go. "Tongues of Fire" pursues that paradox through neuroscience, anthropology, and phenomenology. It shows that culturally embedded practices can produce states where letting go genuinely becomes a pathway to agency and social engagement—loosening cognitive constraints, raising creativity, and leaving practitioners feeling not less empowered but more so, and more connected to others.

Learn more: https://ow.ly/BJXJ50YtUM8

03/04/2026

Thank you to all those who attended and performed (Vancouver-based Nigerian-Ukrainian composer, DJ, and choirmaster Oleksiy Hrynyshyn and the Kolo Choir) at our February 8th book launch for and panel discussion of "Terra Invicta: Ukrainian Wartime Reimaginings for a Habitable Earth."

The edited volume, the first English-language book-length anthology of wartime Ukrainian environmental humanities writing (and art), is now fully open access thanks to McGill-Queen’s University Press and the Olga M. Ciupka Memorial Fund.

See full text now: https://ow.ly/Sgzu50YoV95

02/27/2026

Join the Chetna Association of Canada on March 15–16 for this year's Dr. Ambedkar Symposium on Emancipation (ASE 2026) on “Overcoming Caste Barriers for Social and Economic Equality.” The symposium brings together international scholars, activists, and policymakers to enhance awareness of caste-based discrimination in Canada and beyond. This two-day event will also serve as a hub for an ongoing research project at UBC, supported by SSHRC. Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in an online survey and sign up for in-person interviews to help document the experience of caste in Canada.

The event is supported by the Government of Canada; Province of British Columbia; UBC Department of History and Centre for India and South Asia Research at UBC; Institute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University, David Lam Centre, and SFU Political Science; Kwantlen Polytechnic University; South Asian Studies Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley; Hari Sharma Foundation; Ambedkar International Mission of Calgary; Homekey Mortgages Inc.; and other community organizations.

See full schedule: https://ow.ly/oPCu50YmLcp

02/25/2026

Join us on March 3rd @ 12:00–1:30PM PST for the next installment of our J. S. Woodsworth Chair's hybrid webinar series on "Radical Hope in Feverish Times." Registration required for Zoom webinar access.

This third session will feature a panel of Ukrainian authors and scholars connected to the volume "Terra Invicta: Ukrainian Wartime Reimaginings for a Habitable Earth" speaking on the ‘multipolarizing’ world order, the rise of authoritarianism and neo-imperialism, and connections between the Russo-Ukrainian war and other world events, from Gaza to Iran to Venezuela to Greenland.

Details and registration: https://ow.ly/5etW50YlGY9

02/03/2026

On Feb. 23, join Spyros Sofos, assistant professor of Global Humanities at SFU, and Gerardo Otero, professor emeritus at the School for International Studies, as they examine how contemporary populist governments challenge the international order, contesting the very terms of legitimacy, authority, and sovereignty.

Rather than seeking incremental change within existing rules, populist revisionism advances alternative moral and political foundations for domestic and international order, with significant implications for diplomacy, multilateralism, and global governance. RSVP at https://buff.ly/sHAH1Dt

02/02/2026

Join us on February 26 @ 1:00PM PST for an in-depth panel discussion about the current uprising and incredibly complicated situation in Iran. Panelists include Mojtaba Mahdavi, Sara Naderi, Kevin Anderson, Janet Afary, and Peyman Vahabzadeh. Registration required for Zoom Webinar access.

ABOUT THE PANEL

The Iranian people’s uprising in January 2026 against the Islamic Republic represents a turning point as it reveals that the vast majority of Iranians want change. The uprising began as protesting the government’s policies in response to sanctions that caused unprecedented inflation. In 400 cities and towns, people of all walks of life took to the streets to demand the downfall of the Islamic Republic. Their peaceful protests were met with shocking violence of unprecedented scale by the regime’s various armed forces which reveals that the state had anticipated and plans in place to repress the uprising. Horrifying reports hold that tens of thousands of citizens have been killed, hundreds of thousands injured, and thousands more have been arrested and threatened with expedited legal process and death sentence. At the same time, exiled Reza Pahlavi, son of Iran’s deposed monarch in 1979, has been stepping up his efforts and is now celebrated as the leader of the projected political transition in the country. He enjoys measurable support inside the country, while his expatriate supporters dominate media, discourse, and rallies outside of the country. The voices within Iranian civil society that diverge from the dominant discourse that demands the return of monarchy, the voices that demand a participatory and democratic future are silenced and marginalized. By and large, the global Left lacks an understanding of this situation and simplistically attributes the struggles of Iranians for freedom and dignity to imperialist game plans (including targeted economic sanctions). All the while, the President of the United States has deployed one of America’s largest armadas to the Persian Gulf for possible all-out attack or targeted military intervention. The entire Middle East region is on alert as the region’s states fear potential destabilizing effects, massive refugee crisis, and potential ramifications of a failed state in Iran.

Details and registration: https://ow.ly/UEJZ50Y53vc