Jackman Humanities Institute

09/28/2026

Is there still room at universities to explore ideas for their own sake?

The Globe and Mail came to University of Toronto's first Night Owls to check out the new series and the appetite for thinking and conversation for their own sake in an increasingly career-focused university landscape.

Read more

In a STEM-focused postsecondary landscape, evening with celebrity philosopher promotes talking about ideas purely for their own sake

09/25/2026

Standing room only for the first Night Owls event! 🌙

Thanks to all the U of T undergrads who joined us for “Is Capitalism Ethical?”, a conversation between Agnes Callard and Joseph Heath.

It was great to see the room packed for a conversation about a big question. See you at the next Night Owls!

Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy, U of T Scarborough, UTM Department of Philosophy, UTSC Department of Sociology, and Jackman Humanities Institute.

09/25/2026

What does a year at the JHI look like?

Our 2025–26 Year in Review brings together the research, people, programs, events and conversations that shaped life at the Institute over the past year.

Revisit our Circle of Fellows, Scholars-in-Residence, Art Exhibition, Program for the Arts, Working Groups and much more through stories, images and highlights.

Pick up a copy at JHI or read online: uoft.me/jhi-yir

09/24/2026

📰 There’s lots to catch up on in the latest JHI Newsletter!

This issue features:

▸ Our 2025–26 Year in Review
▸ Episode 2 of Humanities at Large
▸ Fellowship calls & funding opportunities
▸ Dead Book Clubs for U of T undergrads
▸ Events …and more!

Read now: https://mailchi.mp/utoronto/jhi092426
Not subscribed yet? Sign up: https://uoft.me/jhi-news

09/23/2026

What happens when an oil company builds not just an industry, but an entire community?

Historian Luis van Isschot takes us to Standard Oil’s company towns in Colombia and Peru, where coveted jobs, housing and social services came with tight corporate control over everyday life.

Hear about the workers and communities who challenged that power, and the connections between oil extraction, inequality, violence and environmental harm.

Listen: https://uoft.me/hal-s3

09/23/2026

09/22/2026

Cartographies of Longing is now on view at the Doris McCarthy Gallery.

Through family histories, oral traditions, and archival fragments, nine artists explore intergenerational relationships to land and imagine new relationships with the places they remember and inhabit.

Featuring Muriel Ahmarani Jaouich, Nour Bishouty, Amanda Boulos, Deanna Bowen, Christian Chapman, Meryl McMaster, Arthur Shilling, Travis Shilling, and Shellie Zhang.

On view September 15 to December 5

Full program: uoft.me/cGq

09/21/2026

What can Ancient Greece teach us about anti-intellectualism, and how we might guard against it?

For the 2026 CBC-JHI Lecture, philosopher Jacqueline Feke looks to Ancient Greece to explore striking similarities between anti-intellectualism then and now, and what ancient philosophers and mathematicians had to say in defense of the intellectual.

Feke is the JHI’s 2026–27 Visiting Public Humanities Faculty Fellow.

Register: uoft.me/2026-cbc-jhi

09/18/2026

You can make the same coffee every morning. But could you replace a beloved pet with its clone?

For the 2026 Annual Jackman Lecture in the Humanities, philosopher Gwen Bradford explores what makes some things replaceable and others truly unique, and why, for certain important things, no substitute will do.

📅 October 8 | 4–6pm
📍 Room 100, 170 St. George St.

Register: https://uoft.me/ajl26

09/17/2026

Take the next step in your research at the Jackman Humanities Institute.

Applications are open for the 2027–28 JHI Postdoctoral Fellowships. Spend a year pursuing your research at U of T as part of an interdisciplinary community of scholars in the JHI’s Circle of Fellows.

Applications are welcome internationally.

Deadline: October 27, 2026

Learn more and apply: https://uoft.me/calls