What We Do

The Humanities Matter

The humanities shape the way we engage our world as citizens.

By examining the cultural, historical, philosophical, linguistic and artistic dimensions of human experience, the humanities help us to understand the diversity and complexity of our world.  As distances shrink and global competition mounts, the humanities bridge cultures, engendering new relationships.

Through improved understanding of others, the University of Toronto's humanists are helping to fight racism, work for peace, and promote environmental sustainability.

In exploring cultures from other times and other places, they offer new perspectives on the world's most pressing problems.

The Jackman Humanities Institute (JHI)

The JHI advances humanities scholarship, generates interdisciplinary ways to understand human experience, and provides opportunities for scholars to learn from each other by:

  • Creating new research and study networks (both virtual and physical) that complement and go beyond the mandates of individual disciplines
  • Providing funding to faculty members to bring arts and humanities out of the classroom and into the public domain through events and exhibitions
  • Offering scholarships to students and faculty at all career stages from all three University of Toronto campuses and other universities.

We enable humanities research to reach outside the university walls and engage with the wider public.

The Institute is a Community of Research and Study

By offering a variety of ways for students and faculty from the University of Toronto's three campuses to learn from each other, as well as from visiting scholars, the Jackman Humanities Institute is developing new interdisciplinary modes of understanding human experience.

  • The Institute is a portal to the humanities at the University of Toronto, coordinating ongoing humanities activities, and hosting initiatives such as weekly seminars and international conferences.
  • The Institute's activities provide both graduate and undergraduate students with opportunities for one on one interaction with world-renowned humanists.
  • In its focus on collaborative scholarship across academic boundaries, the Jackman Humanities Institute is designed to stimulate interaction among scholars, providing further impetus for innovative teaching and research projects.
  • Through its breadth and inclusiveness, the Institute promotes the University of Toronto's participation as a leader in the humanities.

The Jackman Humanities Institute is a member of the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes.