The Jackman Humanities Institute (JHI) hosts annually an intergenerational community of fellows, each pursuing independent research for an academic year while in residence at the JHI on the 10th floor of the Jackman Humanities Building. The fellows are linked by theme, and they participate in a set of common activities, including weekly lunch seminars and other workshops and lectures.
We are seeking a small number of advanced undergraduates who propose to conduct research on a topic in the humanities related to our annual theme, Undergrounds/Underworlds. These will be undergraduates, including those in humanities oriented second-entry programs, who are likely to go on to graduate school in the humanities. The opportunity to converse with and to be mentored by leading scholars and to participate in a cutting-edge interdisciplinary conversation in the humanities should provide major impetus and inspiration for growth
Deadline for applications: Thursday, April 25, 2024 at 4:00pm ET.
2024 - 25: Undergrounds/Underworlds
Undergrounds have figured powerfully in human histories and imaginations as places of alterity, concealment, exploration, and discovery; of fear, transition, transportation, and transmutation. They have also figured as spaces of hope, refuge, and fugitivity that weave them into radical traditions and visions of the future. From the Epic of Gilgamesh, through the Greek katabasis and Dante, to crime rings and chthonic gods, infrastructures and escape routes, DJs and the Dark Web: our languages are fascinated with depth. But our surface worlds depend crucially on subterranean networks of extraction, exploitation, and disposal. Now more than ever, we need to understand the place of underworlds in human pasts, presents, and futures. This JHI theme encourages proposals that examine what a descent into the underworlds might reveal.
The undergraduate fellows will be linked to one or more specific faculty fellows who will serve as supervisor(s) for the research project. Each will complete a 300 or 400 level independent research course for 1.0 FCE (or directed research project at an appropriate weight), the number consistent with the program of their department of concentration. Each undergraduate fellow will be provided with carrel space for study on the 10th floor and will be expected to participate in the JHI activities of the fellows. Each fellow will be provided with a $1250 scholarship to assist with the cost of registration in the independent study course. JHI also provides limited support for research-related travel upon request to the Director.
Each of the undergraduate fellows will receive one of the following named awards as a component of the fellowship:
- Dr. Michael Lutsky Undergraduate Award in the Humanities
- James Fleck Undergraduate Award in the Humanities
- Zoltan Simo Undergraduate Award in the Humanities
- Dr. Jan Blumenstein Undergraduate Award in the Humanities
- Jukka-Pekka Saraste Undergraduate Award in the Humanities
- Milton Harris Undergraduate Award in the Humanities
Selection Process
Applications are ranked by a selection committee that includes the JHI Director and a Vice-Dean Undergraduate from one of the U of T’s three campuses. Incoming Faculty Research Fellows then review the applications to be certain that can supervise the proposed projects.
The Faculty Research Fellows for 2024-25 (Undergrounds/Underworlds) are:
- Tong Lam, Associate Professor, UTM Historical Studies—Secrecy as Spectacle: Dust, Sand, and Cloud in China’s Atomic Age
- Sarah Murray, Associate Professor, A&S Classics—Descending through Hephaistos’ Sooty Realm: Metallurgy, Pyrotechnology, and Death Ritual in Early Greece
- Ato Onoma, Professor, A&S Political Science—Mobility, Faith, and Segregated Cemeteryscapes
- Karina Vernon, Associate Professor, UTSC English—Black Noise: Wayward Listening in the Black Prairies’ Sonic Archives
Check out the announcement on our website more more information about the 2024-25 Faculty Research Fellows and their research interests.
How to Apply
Please be aware that all upload documents must be saved as a single file in PDF format. Your application may be completed in more than one sitting; use SAVE to return to your application and SUBMIT to finalize the submission of your application.
Complete the online application for this fellowship.
Your upload document must include the following components in this order:
- A description of your proposed research project (max. two pages or 500 words)
- A copy of your transcript or Complete Academic History from ACORN for all work at the University of Toronto
- One essay from a related course
- 100-word description of your proposed research project
- 100-word biographical statement
You will be asked to provide the name of the Faculty Research Fellow with whom you would like to work, and you will be asked to provide the name and email address of an instructor at the University of Toronto whom we will ask for a letter of reference.
Eligibility
Full-time University of Toronto undergraduate students in the humanities, qualitative social sciences, Music, Information and Architecture, who propose a humanities-focused project. Applications are welcome from students at all of the University of Toronto’s three campus locations. Applicants will be selected on the basis of a record of academic excellence and the promise of future achievement. A minimum grade point average of 3.7 for third-year course work is required. Project topics must connect to the theme for 2024-25, Undergrounds/Underworlds. Preference will be given to students who will be in the final year of their program during the fellowship year.
Questions about the fellowship? Contact JHI Associate Director, Dr. Kimberley Yates
Technical questions about the application? Contact JHI Communications Officer, Sonja Johnston
Deadline for applications: Thursday, April 25, 2024 at 4:00pm ET
Frequently Asked Questions
The JHI Undergraduate Fellowship is an opportunity to pursue an Independent Study of your own choice while you study in an interdisciplinary research centre for a year.
This is your own project. Your supervisor will help to guide and evaluate your progress, but it is your work, not theirs. You should check out the research they do to help you to choose the person who will be the best match for your idea.
It’s up to each student and supervisor to work out the details, but in general, most fellowships result in a 30-minute presentation and an original paper of about 40 pages. Some projects may take other forms if it seems appropriate.
No—in this case, residential means you will work on site, but not live there.
You will have access to the Institute 24/7, and you will hold a secured carrell. The JHI also provides printing and copying, Wi-Fi, and a catered lunch every Thursday. You can book meeting spaces, and the JHI will arrange for you to have graduate-level borrowing privileges at the library. You will also receive a $1250 award, and a title. JHI provides limited support for research-related travel upon request to the Director.
The heart of our work is interdisciplinary research—you’ll have the opportunity to learn from scholars in a lot of different fields, and probably, to study with a supervisor who was trained in a different subject from your own. You’ll be a member of a Circle of Fellows who are doing research at faculty, postdoc, grad student and undergrad student levels, and who come from all three campuses, multiple divisions, and who use different methods to do research. You’ll all be doing projects that are related to the Annual Theme, and you’ll learn a lot from each other.
The Annual Theme is a set of ideas and questions that reaches across disciplines. It brings people together to talk and think and share research from different perspectives. Everyone who holds a JHI fellowship in your year will be doing research related to this theme.
Yes—neither opportunity is exclusive of the other. The applicant pool, eligibility, and experience will be different in each program.
Full-time University of Toronto undergraduate students in the humanities, qualitative social sciences, Music, Information and Architecture, who propose a humanities-focused project. Applications are welcome from students at all the University of Toronto’s three campus locations.
A minimum grade point average of 3.7 for your current-year course work is required.
Preference will be given to students who will be in the final year of their program during the fellowship year; it is possible to do this fellowship while you are in your third year, but it will be easier if you are in your final year.
The application form will ask you to provide a name and email for an instructor at the University of Toronto. You should contact this person to ask them if they are willing to be named; tell them what you are applying for, and what the deadline for their reference is (it will be one week after the deadline for your application). When you apply, the JHI will contact them to request your reference.
The purpose of the writing sample is to show how well you write. It doesn’t need to be on the annual theme or written for one of the incoming faculty research fellows, but it should be a humanities or social sciences essay that you are proud to have written. Please choose whatever you consider to be your best work.
Space is limited. Focus on the idea you want to explore and name the books that are major influences. Explain what you want to do, how, and why it is important. Be sure to link your proposed project with the Annual Theme.
The JHI does not award degrees, so you will negotiate with your home unit to be placed in its Independent Study course for credit. We’ll help you through this process. The mark in this course will be generated by your JHI faculty supervisor as a reflection of the work you do on your project.
Yes. It is a for-credit course that counts toward your graduation. The Undergraduate Fellowship comes with a cash award of $1250 that will help to offset this tuition fee. You will receive this award in September if you are selected.
Most (about 60%) JHI Undergraduate Fellows go into graduate study, usually in MA programs, and then into PhD programs. Many receive funding for their studies. About 20% go to law school and eventually enter legal practice. The rest pursue a wide range of careers when they graduate: as writers, poets, teachers, public policy makers, musicians—there is even one practicing MD.
- 2024–25: Undergrounds/Underworlds
- 2025–26: Dystopia and Trust
Detailed descriptions of the Annual Themes are available.