Faculty of Arts

Institute for the Humanities

The University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities (UMIH) was established in 1990 to foster research and scholarship in the humanities, to communicate the value of humanities scholarship to the public and to help obtain external funding for humanities research.

The UMIH is a member of the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI).

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Students at Frankenreads event

What we do

  • The Institute addresses the needs and interests of researchers in a broad range of subjects including:

    • literature and languages,
    • film and visual culture,
    • philosophy,
    • history and religion and
    • the literary, philosophical, theological and historical aspects of the social and physical sciences, mathematics, the arts and professional studies.

    The University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities also supports research clusters and research affiliates. The Institute is located within the Faculty of Arts but, serves the entire humanities constituency in the university and the general community.

    The Institute is committed to community outreach through public programs, exhibitions, microgrants and lectures.

  • Students walking outdoors in varying directions in front of the administration building.

Who we are

Headshot of Vanessa Warne.

Director

Dr. Vanessa Warne
Acting Director of the Institute for the Humanities 
vanessa.warne@umanitoba.ca  

Assistant to the director

Ekene Emeka-Maduka
Assistant to the Director
407 Tier Building
Phone: 204-474-9599
umih@umanitoba.ca

Board members

Dr. Joyce Chadya
Department of History
2021-2026

Dr. Sarah Ciurysek
School of Art
2022-2025

Dr. Katrina Dunn
Department of English, Theatre, Film & Media
2022-2025

Dr. Bruce Erickson
Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources
2022-2025

Dr. Mara Fridell
Department of Sociology and Criminology
2022-2025

Dr. Fenton Litwiller
Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management
2021-2026

Dr. Simone Mahrenholtz
Department of Philosophy
2022-2025

Dr. Armelle St. Martin
Department of French, Spanish and Italian
2021-2026

Dr. Nicole Rosen
Department of Linguistics
2023-2026

Research Clusters

Research clusters are groups of faculty and graduate students from different departments and disciplines with shared research interests. Research clusters undertake activities related to the mandate of the institute:

  • facilitating meaningful dialogue on an exploration of humanities-related themes across disciplinary boundaries;
  • fostering and promoting interdisciplinary research in the humanities;
  • demonstrating a willingness to seek external funding or collaborative research.

Successful groups are awarded up to $5,000 (subject to budgetary approval) annually.

Application deadline is March 31, 2025.

2024 - 2025 Research Clusters

  • Prairie Abolition

    The Prairie Abolition Research Cluster comes out of the urgent need to understand what prison abolition means on the prairies, on treaty land and occupied land where Indigenous people are disproportionately incarcerated. This Research Cluster regards prisons as a core part of the settler colonial project on the prairies. Working together, members will explore abolition within the specific context of Indigenous resistance, including movements and calls for land back. Part of this Research Cluster is also involved in tracing Indigenous practices and theories of justice and repair that exceed settler colonialism and its recent history.

    Photo: Research cluster coordinator, Dr. Hee-Jung Serenity Joo, Department of English, Theatre, Film & Media

  • Headshot of Hee Jung Serenity Joo standing in front of green trees outside of Tier Building.

Prairie Abolotion research cluster members

Dr. Hee-Jung Serenity Joo
Professor, English, Theatre, Film & Media
Research Cluster Coordinator

Karrie Auger
Community educator and artist

Danielle Bird
Indigenous Studies, University of Saskatchewan

Jacob Carson
Faculty of Education

Anny Chen
Community Engaged Learning

Dr. Joe Curnow
Faculty of Education

Dr. Bronwyn Dobchuk-Land
Department of Criminal Justice, Univeristy of Winnipeg

Ashley Huot
Librarian and interdisciplinary artist

Dr. Erin Keating
English, Theatre, Film & Media

Trixie Maybituin
Faculty of Law

Dr. Nancy Van Styvendale
Native Studies, University of Alberta

Kirsten Wurmann
Manitoba Library Association and Manitoba Law Library

  • Ecology, Canadian Poetry and Labour

    The Ecology, Canadian Poetry and Labour Research Cluster will be studying  contemporary Canadian poetry that addresses the complexities of climate change written by working people. The group will focus primarily on Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) poets from Winnipeg and the Canadian prairies who are thinking about how race, gender, sexuality and ability shape the way we think and write about climate change. Work poetry encompasses poets with all kinds of jobs. It can be written by loggers, oil workers, farmers, office workers, teachers, cashiers, factory workers, homemakers, telemarketers and even students and academics. Some of the “insider” poets the group will explore are artists with long writing and publishing careers, while others are emerging artists. The goal of this cluster is to help create a conversation on campus between working poets and academics around the anxieties of climate change. We hope to nurture new artistic and scholarly work on the intersection of race, climate justice and labor.

    Photo: Research cluster coordinator, Dr. Jaimie Paris

  • Headshot of Jaimie Paris.

Ecology, Canadian Poetry and Labour research cluster members

Dr. Jaimie Paris
Instructor II, English, Theatre, Film & Media
Research Cluster Coordinator

Dr. Steve Asselin
English, University of Winnipeg

Dr. Brenda Austin-Smith
English, Theatre, Film & Media

Dr. Kathy Block
Academic Learning Centre

Dr. Melanie Dennis Unrau
St. John's College

Dr. Lindsay Diehl
English, Theatre, Film & Media

Theodore J. Farough
English, Theatre, Film & Media

Dr. Mylène Yannick Gamache
Indigenous Studies; Women's and Gender Studies

Lakshmisree Shaji Marar
English, Theatre, Film & Media

Dr. Christine Stewart
Women's and Gender Studies

Hanako Teranishi
English, Theatre, Film & Media

Sakshi Tyagi
English, Theatre, Film & Media

How to create a research cluster

Eligibility

  • Research clusters must contain at least two UM faculty members from the Faculty of Arts, ideally from two different departments.
  • Clusters involving students, members of the community or scholars at other universities are particularly welcome.
  • Proposals must be on a humanities theme (defined in terms of both content and methodology).
  • Clusters may receive UMIH funding for a maximum of three years in any consecutive six-year period. First- or second-year applications will be prioritized over third-year applications.

Selection criteria

The UMIH Board will act as the selection committee using the following criteria:

  • the qualifications of the applicants;
  • the sig­nificance of the proposed theme and its potential appeal to a wider humanities audience;
  • the proposed activities for the coming year;
  • the viability of the program and budget. 

Award

Successful groups are awarded up to $5,000 (subject to budgetary approval) annually in seed money, which can be used toward the costs of meetings, photocopying, visiting speakers, etc. Clusters will have access to space on the UMIH website, the UMIH blog and to room 409 Tier Building for meetings. Clusters will receive some administrative support. As part of their activities, each group will be required to plan at least one public event for the fall term and one for the winter term. Awards are granted annually, but may be renewable for a second year. Two-year schedules are welcome.

How to apply

The following materials must be submitted:

  • a one-page curriculum vitae for each member of the cluster with one contact person clearly identified;
  • a maximum two-page proposal outlining the theme of the cluster and highlighting the original and interdisciplinary features of the proposal; 
  • a tentative outline of the activities to be undertaken by the cluster with preference given to activities leading to a tangible scholarly event such as a workshop, conference, speaker series or publication;
  • a one-page budget with justifications and an indication of the potential sources of additional funds, if required.

Application materials will be handled in accordance with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Manitoba).

All application materials are to be submitted to:
University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities
c/o Ekene Emeka-Maduka
umih@umanitoba.ca

Past research clusters

2022-2024

Writing Towards a Just World
Food Matters

2020-2021

The Occupy Bartleby Collective
Graphic Narrative: Beyond the Gutter
Power and Resistance in Latin America 
Death as a Transformative Experience

2019-2020

Power and Resistance in Latin America 
Health Humanities
Shelter

2018-2019

Collecting, Citing, Curating
Health Humanities

2017-2018

Alternate Histories
Critical Environments Research Group (CERG)
Collecting, Citing, Curating
Power and Resistance in Latin America

2016-2017

Alternate Histories
Critical Environments Research Group (CERG)

2015-2016

Alternate Histories
History of Emotions
Power and Resistance in Latin America

2014-2015

Conceptualizing and Experiencing Aging Before Modernity
History of Emotions
Passions, Pedagogies, Publics

2013-2014

Film Worlds
Group for Premodern Studies
Passions, Pedagogies, Publics
Queer Biopolitics

2012-2013

Film Worlds
Group for Premodern Studies
Histories of the Body

2011-2012

Film Worlds
Power and Resistance in Latin America

2010-2011

Histories of the Body
Power and Resistance in Latin America

2009-2010

Jewish Studies
Law and Society
Power and Resistance in Latin America

2008-2009

Histories of the Body
Power and Resistance in Latin America

2007-2008

Histories of the Body
Postcolonial South Asian and African Study Group
Representations of War

2006-2007

Law and Society
Postcolonial South Asian and African Study Group
Representations of War

Research Affiliates

The Institute for the Humanities regularly supports research affiliates. Each affiliate works on the research project outlined in their application and is expected to present a colloquium on their research during or soon after their affiliateship. These positions are non-stipendiary.

Application deadline is March 31, 2025.

  • 2024 - 2025 Research Affiliates

    Rachel Shields (McMaster University)
    Rachel Shields is a doctoral candidate in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University. She holds a BSc in Neuroscience and an MA in Sociology from the University of Lethbridge. Her SSHRC-funded dissertation is entitled “After Bersani: On the Scandal of Mothers without Maternity” and represents an engagement with both the queer theory of Leo Bersani and the field of motherhood studies. Her project explores ways in which the cultural ideal of “maternal love” reproduces what Bersani has described as the “sacrosanct” value of the self-possessed individual. With broad interests in critical theory—especially queer and feminist theories—and literary studies, she is interested in pursuing research that upends some of our culture’s most dearly held beliefs around the self, the family and the love that is assumed to hold them together.

    Photo: Research affiliate, Rachel Shields

  • Headshot of Rachel Shields.

  • Dr. Youcef Soufi (University of Toronto)
    Youcef Soufi, Ph.D, is the author of Homegrown Radicals: A Story of State Violence, Islamophobia, and Jihad in the Post 9/11 World (NYU Press, 2025), a book that critiques the violence unleashed during the War on Terror by focusing on the voices of a Muslim community under suspicion after the "radicalization" of three of its members in 2007. An authority in the history of premodern Islamic legal thought with publications that include The Rise of Critical Islam: 10th–13th Century Legal Debate (Oxford UP, 2023), Dr. Soufi is the former head of the Connaught Global Challenge Project’s International Working Group on Islamophobia at the University of Toronto. He is also the former Chair of the Canadian Association for the Study of Islam and Muslims (CASIM).

    Photo: Research affiliate, Dr. Youcef Soufi.
     

  • Headshot of Youcef Soufi.

How to become a Research Affiliate

Selection criteria

Applications are welcome from:

  • post-doctoral fellows,
  • independent scholars,
  • graduate students enrolled in the program generally considered to be the highest in their field (e.g. PhD, LLM, MFA) and
  • individuals in full-time university appointments who wish to spend all or part of a sabbatical leave in Manitoba.

Applicants must have a clearly defined project in some field of humanities scholarship. Interdisciplinary projects are particularly welcome. Graduate candidates will be considered only if they have completed all course requirements at the highest degree level and expect to be engaged in full-time research. Preference will be given to students not enrolled in a program at the University of Manitoba.

The University of Manitoba is strongly committed to diversity within its community and especially welcomes applications from visible minority groups, women, Indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, persons of all sexual orientations and genders and others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas.

Details

There is no stipend, but a private office, computer, telephone, library privileges and some administrative assistance will be provided. If more than two research affiliates are chosen, private office space and computers will be guaranteed to the top two candidates only. Affiliates may also apply to the Director for limited subsidies or research expenses. Additional support for UMIH programming ideas (panels, roundtables, workshops, etc.) may be available. Affiliates will be expected to participate in Institute activities and use their offices regularly. The maximum teaching load during the tenure of the affiliateship will normally not exceed six credit hours.

The standard tenure of the affiliateship is twelve months, from July 1 to June 30. However, applications for alternative tenures will also be considered (e.g., six- or eight-month terms).

How to apply

Submit a letter of application stating the period for which the affiliateship is desired, together with:

  • a research proposal,
  • curricula vitae and
  • two letters of reference.

Applications materials should be sent to:
University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities
c/o Ekene Emeka-Maduka
umih@umanitoba.ca

Application materials will be handled in accordance with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Manitoba). 

Past research affiliates 2010-2024

2022-2024

Dr. Melanie Dennis Unrau
English

2021-2022

Caitlin McIntyre
English

Dr. Melanie Dennis Unrau
English

Dr. Shoshannah Bryn Jones Square
English

2020-2021

Dr. Melanie Unrau
English

Dr. Murray Leeder
Communication, Media and Film

Viviane Luiza
Anthropology

Tracey Turner
Anthropology

2019-2020

Dr. Katelyn Dykstra
Kinesiology and Recreation Management

Dr. Christopher Crocker
Icelandic Language and Literature

Dr. Shoshannah Bryn Jones Square
English

Dr. Murray Leeder
Communication, Media and Film

Celiese Lypka
English

Dr. Adrian Thieret
Asian Studies

2018-2019

Dr. Matthew Neufeld
History

Dr. Shoshannah Bryn Jones Square
English

Jason Brown
Medieval Studies

Celiese Lypka
English

2017-2018

Dr. Jessica Herdman
Musicology

Dr. Sarah Bezan
English

Jon Malek
History

Jason Brown
Medieval Studies

2016-2017

Dr. Jessica Herdman
Musicology

Dr. Maria Mazzoli
Linguistics

Dr. Dustin Geeraert
English

Jon Malek
History

2015-2016

Christopher Crocker
Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies

Dr. Scott de Groot
Gender and Sexuality

Monika Vrečar
Philosophy and Theory of Visual Culture

2014-2015

Jon Malek
History/Migrant and Ethnic Relations

Dr. Kenton Storey
History

Monika Vrečar
Philosophy and Theory of Visual Culture

2013-2014

Dr. Dina Guth
Classics

Dr. Paul Jenkins
History

2012-2013

Dr. Albert Kaganovitch
History

Anne Lindsay
History/Archival Studies

2011-2012

Dr. James Honeyford
Religious Studies

Matthew McRae
History

Christopher Mead
English

2010-2011

Dr. James Honeyford
Religious Studies

Nicholas Simon
History

 

Past research affiliates 1998-2009

2009-2010

Virginia Lee Strain
English

Dr. Albert Kaganovitch
History

2008-2009

Dr. Albert Kaganovitch
History

Krista Walters
History

2007- 2008

Christopher Dooley
History

Gregory Scofield
Writer/Independent Scholar

2006-2007

Christopher Dooley
History

Emily Downing Muller
Philosophy

Stephanie Pena-Sy
English

2005-2006

Dr. Roewan Crowe
Artist/Independent Scholar

Chris Dooley
History

Chunhong Zhang
English

2004-2005

Brandon Christopher
English

Dr. Seth Wigderson
History

2003-2004

Brandon Christopher
English

David Cuthbert
English

Dr. Chris Frank
History

Dr. Seth Wigderson
History

2002-2003

David Cuthbert
English

Youngok Kang-Bohr
History

Dr. Len Kuffert
History

2001-2002

Christopher Frank
History

Youngok Kang-Bohr
History

Dr. Rose Montgomery-Whicher
Art Education/Art History

Nicole Rosen
Linguistics

2000-2001

Dr. Warren Cariou
English

Dr. Fred Cutler
Political Studies

Dr. Rose Montgomery-Whicher
Art Education/Art History

1999-2000

Dr. Peter Ives
Sociology/Political Studies

Len Kuffert
History

Dr. Phyllis Portnoy
English

1998-1999

Dr. Val Clemens
English

Dr. Moti Shojania
English

Fellowships

UMIH Graduate Fellowship

The University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities is pleased to offer the UMIH Graduate Fellowship. An annual fellowship valued at up to $5000 (subject to budgetary approval).

Application deadline is March 31, 2025.

Eligibility

The UMIH Graduate Fellowship will be offered to a University of Manitoba graduate student who:

  • is enrolled full-time in the Faculty of Graduate Studies in any year of a masters' or doctoral program and is conducting research in the humanities; and
  • has achieved a minimum degree GPA of 3.5 (or equivalent) based on the previous 60 credit hours of study.

The University of Manitoba is strongly committed to diversity within its community and especially welcomes applications from visible minority groups, women, Indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, persons of all sexual orientations and genders, and others who may contribute to the future diversification of ideas.

Application requirements

Candidates are required to submit an application consisting of:

  • A cover letter (maximum 1000 words) that describes
    • the status of the applicant's research,
    • the potential significance that the applicant's research will have for one or more disciplines in the humanities,
    • the benefits the student hopes to gain by being associated with the Institute for the Humanities,
    • the expected timeline for the completion of the degree.
  • A statement describing the applicant's research project that follows the UM Graduate Fellowship guidelines for word limit and references;
  • A current academic transcript;
  • Two letters of recommendation.

Please send your application materials or any questions to:
University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities
c/o Ekene Emeka-Maduka
umih@umanitoba.ca

Application materials are handled in accordance with the freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Manitoba).

Current recipients

Headshot of Karen Brglez.

Karen Brglez
PhD student
History

Karen Brglez is a settler scholar in the Department of History at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Treaty 1 Territory and the Homeland of the Métis Nation. Her PhD research examines the role of the sentimental emotions in the settler colonial project to determine how white Christian women justified their intervention into Indigenous lives on the Canadian prairies. Supported by the Winnipeg Foundation Centenary Fellowship for Doctoral Studies in Canadian History and a Drummond Fellowship, Karen’s research draws on frameworks of history of emotions, critical race scholarship, feminist historiography and postcolonial theory to explore how British and Canadian-born women from the eastern provinces moved to the Prairie West to facilitate the operation of Protestant missions and their involvement in the genocide perpetuated at Indian Residential Schools in Saskatchewan. She serves as Graduate Student Representative for the Canadian Committee on Women’s and Gender History and has published works on the history of German migrants to Canada. During her affiliation with the Institute, she plans to complete her dissertation and to continue to work with Parks Canada on Indigenous histories of the Motherwell Homestead National Historic Site, the File Hills Colony and the File Hills Residential School.
 

Headshot of Carla Kennedy.

Carla M. Kennedy
PhD student
Indigenous Studies

Carla M. Kennedy, an Anishinaabe-Nehiyaw Ikwe from Zagime Anishinaabek First Nation of the Treaty 4 Territory, is a PhD student at the University of Manitoba, located on Treaty One Territory. Her educational background includes a 4-year BA in Indigenous Studies from what is now First Nations University of Canada [aka Saskatchewan Indian Federated College]. She holds an Honours certificate in Anthropology and Archaeology from the University of Saskatchewan, an MA in Anthropology from UM, and a MEdin Educational Foundations from the University of Saskatchewan. While in Graduate school, Carla worked as a Research Curriculum Officer at Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies and as a Sessional Lecturer at First Nations University of Canada. She has experience in developing culturally relevant curriculums and teaching about contemporary issues; Indigenous history and culture; Indigenous paradigms; and pre-treaty history as recanted through oral traditions. Carla seeks to contribute to Humanities through Indigenous stories and land-based learnings.

Past recipients

2022-24
Jessie Krahn
English, Theatre, Film & Media

Amal Majumder
English, Theatre, Film & Media

2021-22
Tasheney Francis
Linguistics

2020-21
Ifeoluwa Adeniyi
English, Theatre, Film & Media

2019-20
Jacqueline Jordaan
Anthropology

2018-19
Krista Barclay
History

2017-18
Sardana Nikolaeva
Anthropology

2016-17
Gerhard Jordaan
Anthropology

2015-16
Cameron Burt
English

Blue and purple graphic. Text: Funding Opportunity. Conducting research in the humanities? Become a graduate fellow at the Institute for the Humanities. Annual fellowship valued at up to $5000, subject to budgetary approval.

Graduate student assistant

  • 2024 - 2025 Graduate Assistant

    Lakshmisree Shaji Marar
    English, Theatre, Film & Media

    Lakshmisree Shaji Marar (she/her) is a second year Masters student. Her research interests include Marxist theory, fan theory, affect theory, critical race studies and gender and sexuality studies. Her dissertation research takes an intersectional (race, gender, class) approach to South Asian representation in North American popular culture and fandom. The thesis examines the fan cultures surrounding Bridgerton and Ms. Marvel as products of and responses to the dominant social value system and demonstrates how the cultural identity of the South Asian characters is central to understanding the affective fan responses on social media. As a fan and researcher of color, Lakshmi aims to engage with the scholarship of BIPOC academics (acafans) in fan studies and contribute to it. 
     

  • Headshot of Lakshmisree Shaji Marar.

Undergraduate student interns

The UMIH student internship program started in 2020. The internship has two spots available for Faculty of Arts undergraduate students. The program’s focus is to foster students' connection to the UMIH research community both on and off campus, support their research and writing and train them in an array of transferrable skills.

The 2024-2025 Undergraduate Student Interns are Patrick Fermin (History) and Hanako Teranishi (ETFM).

Current interns

Patrick Fermin
UIMH Undergraduate Student Intern
History

Patrick is a fourth-year student hoping to pursue an honours degree in History, with a keen interest in modern history regarding gender, race, and sexuality. Apart from school, Patrick has a deep love for films, fine arts, literature and music, as well as creative writing and making short films. You can also usually find him on the dancefloor or napping with his beautiful cat.

Hanako Teranishi
UMIH Undergraduate Student Intern
English, Theatre, Film & Media

Hanako (they/them) is a fifth-year student pursuing an honours BA in English literature. They are interested in studying Asian North American literature, specifically the representation of labour in literature through the perspective of anti-capitalist, Queer and critical race theory. Hanako is also a creative writer who finds enjoyment in the forms of poetry and creative non-fiction. In their spare time, they love to cook and bake cultural dishes to share with family and friends as a way of reclaiming and reconnecting with their cultural identity. 

Programming

Throughout the year, the Institute for the Humanities offers a number of lectures, colloquia, workshops and discussions both on and off campus.

Upcoming events

UMIH Crafternoons

A series of drop-in crafting sessions. Try out a new craft or bring your own project. All supplies and instructions will be provided. 

All sessions take place 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. in 409 Tier building.

Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Weaving with looms

Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Repurposing rags into rugs

Wednesday, November 27
Block printing and paper arts

NEW - UMIH Book Club

This term, UMIH invites members of the UM community to join us for two conversations about Tiya Miles’ (Harvard University) award-winning book All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake (2022). 

Learn more about this book

Tuesday, October 22, 2024
2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
409 Tier building
The first meeting of the book group  will cover the Intro to Chapter 4. 

Tuesday, November 19, 2024
2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
409 Tier building
The second meeting will cover Chapters 5 to 7.

Please come for tea, snacks, and conversation. Students, instructors, support staff and library staff are all welcome. Ten free copies of All That She Carried are now available, first come, first served. If you’re thinking of joining our book group, please email to request your free copy.

Working at the Edges of the Anthropocene

Dr. Mark Nowak, Manhattanville University

Wednesday, November 20, 2024
2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Online via Zoom

Talk description TBA.

Professor Nowak is a 2010 Guggenheim Fellow and a 2015 Lannan Fellow. His book Social Poetics (2020) is central to understanding the idea of working-class poetry in North America. He is also an accomplished poet and social critic, and his book Coal Mountain Elementary (2009) has become essential reading for anyone interested in the white working class. 

Presented by the UMIH Ecology, Canadian Poetry, and Labour Research Cluster. 

Email umih@umanitoba.ca to receive the Zoom link.

Public Humanities on the Ground: Cultivating Flax for Papermaking in a Campus Community Garden

Dr. Maria Zytaruk, University of Calgary

Friday, November 29, 2024
2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Online via Zoom

All welcome.

This lecture treats the more than year-long project that Zytaruk and a group of students, university staff, and community members undertook to cultivate flax for hand papermaking in the campus garden. From the sixteenth century to about the mid nineteenth century, paper in Europe was made from linen and hemp rags. Timothy Barrett has written of the ways in which rag paper embeds an “intimacy between the fibre and its human handlers.” Zytaruk’s project made tangible the labour, agricultural and creative, that coalesces in each piece of handmade paper. In cultivating flax during a time of climate crisis, and against the backdrop of smoke-filled skies due to forest fires, questions about the sustainability of paper and books, in the hand-press period and today, became pressing matters.

Dr. Zytaruk is a professor, curator and radio documentary maker. 

Email umih@umanitoba.ca to receive the Zoom link.

  • The Arts of Conversation Series

    This series is intended to showcase new research by scholars from across the humanities and other related fields, from outstanding doctoral students to senior professors. The aim of the series is to strengthen intellectual connections across disciplines as well as to foster a lively research community and culture.

    Listen to past conversations

Community Projects

hUManities blog

Annual reports

The director of the institute reports annually to the Dean of Arts, the Vice-President (Academic) and Provost, and the Vice-President (Research).

Annual reports are available in an accessible format upon request. Please contact umih@umanitoba.ca or 204-474-9599.

Donations

UMIH gratefully accepts donations from individuals, corporations and other organizations which help support its vision, goals and objectives. Donors will receive a receipt for income tax purposes.

In the "Direct my gift to" field, choose "Enter a fund name". In the "Enter a fund name" field, type "University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities".

Donate to the UMIH (general)

Donate to the UMIH Graduate Fellowship

For more information on making a donation to UMIH, please contact donor.relations@umanitoba.ca.

Contact us

  • Dr. Vanessa Warne
    Acting Director
     

  • Ekene Emeka-Maduka
    Assistant to the Director
    umih@umanitoba.ca

Institute for the Humanities
407 Tier Building
173 Dafoe Rd W
University of Manitoba (Fort Garry campus)
Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2

umih@umanitoba.ca
204-474-9599