Humanities at Large

Seeing a place through someone else's lens can shape how we imagine it. In this final episode of Series 2, photographer Tamara Abdul Hadi revisits the Iraqi Marshes, layering her own images, family archives, and crowdsourced photographs over a colonial-era photo book that once defined the region in the global imagination. Her project develops a decolonial vision of a landscape central to Iraq's cu...

Talking about death is never easy, but how we handle it says a lot about how we live. Chris Miller examines the rise of natural burials, from simple shrouds to human composting, and what these eco-friendly practices reveal about our relationship with death and nature. His work invites us to see endings as part of a wider cycle of life. Chris was our 2024-25 CDHI/JHI Digital Humanities Postdoctoral...

Julien Lefort-Favreau explores print nationalism, the government-funded system that keeps Canadian publishing alive, and the new pressures it faces from neoliberalism, Amazon, and algorithm-driven culture. His research considers why literature remains central to Canada's public life and how publishing connects to democracy, freedom of speech, and the idea of culture as a public good. Julien was th...

The cowboy is usually imagined as white, but that story erases a much deeper history. Through the songs of Black cowboys, Karina Vernon uncovers a hidden archive that stretches from the Canadian prairies to Texas cattle drives and back to West Africa. Her work brings forward voices that reframe belonging, survival, and identity on the North American frontier.

Indigenous history is not a side story but the foundation of how we understand the past. Aroha Harris explains why all history is Indigenous history, and how Māori ways of thinking about time, place, and connection can reshape our shared future. Her perspective highlights how Indigenous approaches open up new possibilities for history and for how we relate to one another today. Aroha was the JHI's...

Fire was more than warmth and light in the ancient world. Archaeologist and JHI Faculty Research Fellow Sarah Murray explains how cremation, animal sacrifice, and the birth of iron technology reshaped ideas of life, death, and rebirth in the centuries after the Bronze Age collapse. Her research reveals how fire transformed what it meant to be human in ancient Greece.

In this last episode of Series 1 of Humanities at Large, Kamari Maxine Clarke joins host Melissa Gismondi for a discussion about Clarke's work on absences in historical knowledge and archives, particularly in the context of Black and Indigenous lives. They explore Clarke's interest in documenting and making visible forms of knowledge and memory that are often rendered invisible or unintelligible,...

Olivia Shortt is a classically trained saxophonist and multi-disciplinary artist known for their bright, bold performance attire, experimental music and immersive experiences that invite the audience to interpret and engage with the art. In this conversation with host Melissa Gismondi, Shortt talks about the rematriation/repatriation of Indigenous artifacts as well their diverse influences—from an...

Landscape architect Jane Wolff and Indigenous scholar Jennifer Wemigwans guide host Melissa Gismondi on a tour that explores how water is hidden in Toronto's urban landscape. They examine the city's relationship with water, from buried creeks to the impact of climate change and discuss the need to shift from controlling water to living in a reciprocal relationship with it, and to recognize water's...

Nilanjan Das joins host Melissa Gismondi for a conversation about the philosophical prowess of Udayana, a Sanskrit philosopher from the late 10th and early 11th centuries, who Das compares to Immanuel Kant and Aristotle in terms of his influence on Indian philosophy. Das also discusses the need for a broader understanding of philosophy that includes different traditions and perspectives, arguing f...

Chloe Bordewich joins host Melissa Gismondi for a conversation about the role of secrets and information in shaping political relationships and historical narratives. Bordewich reflects on her experiences in Egypt during the 2013 coup and the spread of rumours during times of political turmoil. This episode also explores the history of information control in Egypt and the impact it has on public u...

Teresa Heffernan joins host Melissa Gismondi for a conversation about artificial intelligence (AI). They discuss topics like the public's perception of AI, as well as AI's limitations, environmental impact, and its relationship with fiction. They also touch on the narratives and hype surrounding AI, the concentration of wealth and power in the tech industry, and the need for regulation and ethical...