Professor Randy Boyagoda is Director of the Jackman Humanities Institute and Dean’s Special Advisor in the Humanities. A Professor in the Department of English, he has been associated with the JHI in several capacities since joining the University of Toronto in 2016, including leading Scholars-in-Residence teams on Dante and civil discourse.
Boyagoda has held several senior academic leadership roles at the University of Toronto, including Vice-Dean, Undergraduate in the Faculty of Arts and Science, Principal and Vice-President of the University of St. Michael’s College, where he also held the Basilian Chair in Christianity, Arts and Letters, Acting Vice-Provost, Faculty & Academic Life, and Provostial Advisor on Civil Discourse, the first such position at a Canadian university.
A writer, critic, and essayist, Boyagoda is the author of eight books: the novels Governor of the Northern Province, Beggar’s Feast, Original Prin, Dante’s Indiana, and Little Sanctuary; a SSHRC-supported critical biography of Richard John Neuhaus; and a monograph about race, American identity, and immigration in the fiction of William Faulkner, Ralph Ellison, and Salman Rushdie. His new book is Lords of Serendipity, a global campus novel (2026). He writes about books and ideas for The Atlantic, the New York Times, Globe and Mail, Financial Times, and Times Literary Supplement, and appears frequently on CBC Radio. Visit his website for more information about his literary work.
As a teacher, writer, and researcher, his interests include U.S. literature and culture, the Catholic intellectual tradition, contemporary literary fiction, and the role of ideas in Canadian and global public life.
Email: jhi.director@utoronto.ca