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INSTITUTE FOR THE HUMANITIESANNUAL REPORT 2014-2015

introduction 1

board of management 1

message from the director 2

director’s 2014-15 research 4

the research affiliates 5

the research clusters 6 aging before modernity

history of emotions

passions, pedagogies, & publics

umih programming 9

co-sponsorships with other units 10

student training & outreach 12

financial report 2014-15 12

2015-16 asking budget 13

asking budget: schedule a i

asking budget: schedule b ii

The constitution of the Institute for the Humanities requires the Director to report annually to the Dean of Arts, the Vice-President (Academic) and Provost, and the Vice-President (Research). It is customary for this report to be presented annually at the year-end meeting of the Board of Management. Copies are also distributed on campus to the President, the Associate Deans of Arts, the Institute’s Board of Management, and many supporters who are members of the University of Manitoba community. Copies are distributed off-campus to a selection of other Humanities Institutes, and to other friends and supporters. This is the twenty-fourth report since 1990-91, there having been no report in 1997-98.

The UMIH Board of Management met once during the 2014-15 academic year. The Board’s principal tasks were to elect the research affiliates, select the research clusters, choose the recipient of the UMIH Fellowship, approve the asking budget, review terms of reference for affiliate and cluster programs, and assist with the planning of the Institute’s programs.

Board of Management Members 2014-15

Lisa Alexandrin (Religion)Greg Bak (History)Russell Field (Kinesiology & Recreation)Michelle Honeyford (Faculty of Education)Mark Hudson (Sociology) Karin James (German & Slavic Studies)Serenity Joo (English, Film & Theatre)Fabiana Li (Anthropology)Dana Medoro (English, Film & Theatre)Liz Millward (Women’s & Gender Studies) Debra Parkes (Faculty of Law)Jocelyn Thorpe (Women's & Gender Studies)

Cover Images: Shawn Jordan

University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities | 1

INTRODUCTIONINDEX

BOARD OF MANAGEMENT

In the first message I wrote for a UMIH annual report I wrote about Charlotte’s Web. In my second report, I wrote about Frozen. It therefore seems appropriate to end this trilogy of reports with a children’s book that has recently been adapted for film (or, rather, a trilogy of films that are not really directed at children): The Hobbit. I am a parent who insists that my children read the book before seeing the movie. The main reason I do this is because it means we get to share both time and some excellent books together. The other reason I do this is because it encourages their imaginative engage-ment with the text and seems to develop their critical thinking skills as well. For example, my daughter was initially motivated to read The Hobbit by the promise of seeing the film, but her knowledge of the book allowed her to engage deeply and critically with the screen ad-aptation. My son, on the other hand, wanted to read the book despite finding the film trailers to be creepy. Both my children agree the book, but not the film, would be okay for children a little younger than them. By saying this, they are making a distinction between themes and their representation, but they are also describing the film as a rite of passage that can help them distinguish between who is ready for its mode of representation and who isn’t. Literature often works this way for children. Who, they wanted to know when they were younger, was ready for Harry Potter and the Philoso-pher’s Stone? What about The Hunger Games? Who needs permission to read the “mature reading” books on the Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Awards shortlist? The relationship between a book like The Hobbit and its film adaptation invites us to explore the intimate relationship between themes and the technologies through which they are represented. Read to the child, a book like this indicates that the reader feels the child is ready for it. Read by the child, a book like this indi-cates their ability to read graphemes adeptly enough to remember and imagine the text as it is being read. I will now look a little more closely at the way that the film and the book treat the relationship between technology and imagination, for it seems pertinent to many of the activities undertaken at the UMIH this year.

University of Manitoba Institute for the HumanitiesAnnual Report

2014-2015

2 | University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities

Photo: Ian McC

ausland

Tolkien’s book deals with the relationship be-tween nature and technology in far more nuanced ways than Peter Jackson’s adaptation, This may seem surpris-ing, given that Tolkien was writing in the middle of the twentieth-century while Jackson’s films were being made in a time of acute concern about global warming and the human impact on the environment. I think this is due to a major conceptual difference between Tolkien and Jackson, not necessarily a difference in the forms they use. Both books and films are technological: this means neither one nor the other is more “natural” than the other. Nonetheless, Tolkien’s work focuses consistently on how we can use a technology like the book to pay greater attention to the natural world and to the hubris-tic notion that the power of technology (e.g., rings of power, genetically modified armies, etc.) can overcome nature, Jackson’s depiction of Middle Earth is often driven by what it is possible to do through technol-ogy. He uses everything from costume and make-up to crowd simulation software and 3D technology to ask us to focus certain aspects of his art. One consequence of this is that the child who might be fully absorbed and engaged while imagining the encounter between Bilbo and the trolls early in the novel might be so overcome by their appearance on screen so as to have difficulty watching them (and this is one of the less scary scenes). Whereas Tolkien uses the technology of the book to invite characters and readers to imagine a different world, Jackson’s special effects often overwhelm the viewer. The films may be suggesting we should be overwhelmed with the state of the world we’ve created, but their content and form sug-gest that the solution to all problems is techno-logical.

DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE


In terms of content, both the film and the book in-clude a scene where Bilbo and the dwarves respond to be-ing chased by a pack of wargs (i.e., wild wolves) by climbing trees and using fire to stave them off before being rescued by eagles. Both the film and the book suggest that one use of technology to attempt to end the conflict literally back-fires on them as the fire Gandalf has created starts to burn the trees into which they have escaped. In the book, the fire successfully keeps the wargs away, but the goblins from whose mountains the company has just escaped arrive and decide to let the trees burn. The film changes this scene by transforming the pursuers into a pack of Orcs riding wargs, who seem to have been bred for this purpose. This leads to another change, which involves Bilbo using his sword to combat and kill his attackers. Despite what we may have read in the book, this scene in the film suggests that heroes must prove their mettle by using the technologies available to them in order to engage directly in conflict. The introduction of the Orc-riding wargs creates a challenge for the film at the level of form, for it translates moments like the dwarves’ escape from the woodland elves from one that relies on patience and trust to one that involves dexterity with weapons and exceptional cinema-tography. In the book, the dwarves do use a technology—empty wine barrels—to escape, but they do not fight their way out of their prisons. Instead, they must give them-selves over to nature’s power by floating down the river in cold and cramped conditions, completely enclosed in the barrels, while Bilbo recognizes the danger posed to his friends by leaky barrels. Perhaps recognizing how difficult it would be to sustain suspense throughout this sequence on screen, Jackson decides to change it so that the dwarves battle their way out against both elves and orcs while they sail down rapids in open barrels.

DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE, CONTINUED

Dr Jobb Arnold presents at Repetition and Media, a conference organized by UMIH Research Affiliate Monika VrečarPhotograph by Shawn Jordan

While an astonishing range of special effects make this scene in the film marvelous to watch, the film’s repre-sentation of active heroism through prowess with weap-onry fails to account for one of the major themes explored at this point in the book. It is far easier psychologically for the dwarves to fight their way out than it is for them to trust to the barrels, the river, and their friend as they do in the book. When seen in contrast to Jackson’s version of events, Tolkien’s narrative suggests that the dwarves must learn that that they cannot simply overcome any challenge through technological mastery: better weapons and deep-er mines do not provide viable solutions to every problem. I don’t believe that Tolkien thinks all technologies are problematic. I do believe he’s saying we should not imagine that new technologies in themselves can solve our most pressing problems. The dwarves, after all, are among the most technologically advanced people in middle earth. Their mining and refining capabilities generated untold wealth; ironically, though, this seems to be the cause of their problem as much as its solution. Technologies can help us to meet the challenges of our world, but their ef-fectiveness depends on the way we imagine them to work in the world. While the relationship between technology and the way we imagine our world was not our theme this year, it is notable that many of our events explored this question in some way. In a talk called “Laboratories of Modernity,” Dean Irvine helped us to consider some positive and nega-tive outcomes of using everything from books to voice recording to digital repositories in order to preserve and represent indigenous words over time. In a day-long work-shop on software he is developing in the Digital Humani-ties, Dr Irvine helped us to think very carefully about the relationship between the way we imagine such projects and the way in which we carry them out.

CONTINUED

During the same weekend, we were also joined by Timothy Morton, who told us about an elaborate sound experi-ment in order to invite us to think about how technologies can both distract us from the world while making us more attuned to it. He, too, helped us to think about the relationship between technologies and the imagination as we try to grasp the scale of human history and the legacy of our impact in the world. Our three research affiliates this past year all shared an interest in questions of media and identity, and they helped us to understand how the technologies of print and other media both shape and are shaped by the way that we understand the world. Our research clusters focused on a variety of themes that focused on interpersonal relationships as well as relationships with the environment, often as they are mediated through medical technologies (Cluster on Aging) and writing (Prairie Pedagogies and History of Emotions). Other programming explored the relationship between vari-ous technologies and the past. For example, one day grade 3 and 4 children learned about making music in the Middle Ages with Jimmy Maiello, reading the Bayeux tapestry with Roisin Cossar, and the role of medieval books with me. We also thought about the relationship between modernity and the medieval during a symposium organized by Dustin Geeraert that featured graduate students across various various humanities programs—many of whom were clearly influenced by Tolkien! We are often told in the University that we must look for innovative solutions to the world’s problem. This is often either meant or understood as an imperative to find new technologies to solve our problems: better foods to feed more people, better drugs to make us happier, better energy sources to power our technologies. I think it’s laudable for us to try to make the world a better place. The Hobbit, however, helps us to understand that innovative technologies in themselves can’t address the all-too-human problems that often limit their effectiveness. After all, the dwarves in The Hobbit summon the dragon by hoarding gold not because it is scarce but because they have an excessive amount. What we really need, then, is some technology that could help us to learn more about people practices in other times and places, a technology that could help us to empathize with others and to think critically about their struggles, a technology that could help us to imagine the world in new ways and that can be accessed in many different ways by different people at different ages with different levels of expertise. As Tolkien recognized, we already have such a technol-ogy: the book. We in the humanities need to keep insisting that learning about humans is as innovative and vital now as ever. The real reason books matter to people in the humanities, in my view, is that people matter. I would therefore like to close here with a note about the people at UMIH. I would like to express my thanks to Krista Walters, who moved on from her post as the Assistant to the Director this year after many years of service. I wish her all the best as she continues her study. I would also like to welcome Elizabeth-Anne Johnson, the new Assistant to the Director, who began last sum-mer. It has been wonderful to work with her, and we look to an exciting year to come.

DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE, CONTINUED

DIRECTOR'S 2014-15 RESEARCH

During the past year, I have been working on three projects. One of these projects is called Maple Leaves: The Study of Manuscripts and Early Printed Books in Western Canada, and it is designed to make the collection of manuscripts and early printed books in western Canada known to a wider audience, both public and scholarly. It is also designed to encourage others to see the early books in western Canada as a chance to understand their place historically. Finally, by making the collection and its value known, we hope to ensure that the books and the tools to study them will remain available to future generations. I published one article related to this work during the past year and have another in press. I have also been working on a new project called Awkwardness and Grace in Late Medieval England. During the past year, I taught a graduate-level seminar on this topic and am currently developing a conference paper and book proposal arising from my research. My argument is that readers familiar with The Office and The 40-Year-Old Virgin may be well situated to contemplate awkwardness in other ages. My book focuses on the later Middle Ages, a time when some of the most graceful writers—including the Gawain poet and Julian of Norwich—introduced remarkably awkward moments and when some of the most awkward moments—like those that appear in Thomas Hoccleve’s depiction of the fifteenth-century office and Margery Kempe's attempt to be considered a virgin well after 40—arose out of a profound desire for grace. Finally, I have continued to develop my research on the topic of mescréaunts from the time that the word was introduced into English in the mid-fourteenth century to the Early Modern Period, when it had changed its meaning fun-damentally. I have given several conference papers on this topic in the past year.

Dr David Watt, the Director of the Institute, is an Associate Professor in the Department of English, Film, and Theatre.


The Institute supported three Research Affiliates for the 2014-15 academic year: Jon Malek, Kenton Storey, and Monika Vrečar. Research Affiliateships are non-stipendiary positions—each affiliate is provided with a private office on campus, a computer, library privileges, and a limited subsidy for research expenses while they work on the project outlined in their application to the Institute.

JON MALEK

Jon Malek is a PhD candidate in History at Western University under the supervision of Stephanie Bangarth. He is also enrolled in the Migration and Ethnic Relations collaborative graduate program. During the 2014-2015 academic year, Jon conducted a series of oral interviews with members of the Filipino community in Winnipeg for his dissertation, The Pearl on the Prairies: The History of the Winnipeg Filipino Community, 1959-2010. At the same time, he conducted archival research at the Provincial Archives of Manitoba, the Manitoba Legislative Library, and the Library and Archives of Canada in Ottawa. Jon also engaged in a number of other projects. An article, “Memories of Migration,” was submitted to the Oral History Forum d’histoire and is the revision process. Jon worked on papers on the identity construction of Filipinos in Winnipeg during the 1970s for presentations given at Western University, the Institute for the Humanities, and at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Historical Association in Ottawa. A developed edition form of this paper has been selected to be presented in July 2015 at the Institute of Philippine Culture (IPC) International Summer School for Doctoral Researchers on the Philippines at Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines. His submitted paper, entitled “Silangan Rising: Filipino Cultural Identity Negotiation,” will be presented to this session. Following this workshop, this paper will be submitted to Philippine Studies journal. In May 2015, he submitted an entry for publication in a forthcoming encyclopedia on Spanish colonialism, which drew upon research conducted during his MA at the University of Manitoba. Funding provided by the Institute allowed the purchase much needed books, and enabled Jon to hire a transcriber to assist in the transcriptions of interviews.

KENTON STOREY This past year Dr. Storey worked on the final amendments to his book manuscript for UBC Press, Anxiety, Violence, and Humanitarianism: New Zealand and Vancouver Island in the British Empire, to be published later this year. As well he drafted and submitted an article entitled "Donald Fraser and Gold Rushes of British Columbia" and presented a paper on the same topic at the annual meeting of the Western Conference of British Studies in Calgary in October 2014.


RESEARCH AFFILIATES

MONIKA VREČAR

Over the course of her affiliateship at the UMIH in 2014-15, Monika has made important progress towards the completion of her dissertation, The Media Theories of Marshall McLuhan and Vilém Flusser, and on a number of related projects. In October, she revised her essay for a critical anthology on McLuhan and Flusser that will be published later this year by Video Pool Media Arts Centre, and completed an article entitled “Three Dimensions of the Image: Light, Time, and Memory”, which will be published in an upcoming English language issue of the Slovenian journal Fotografija. In February, Monika attended the UMIH workshop Digital Editions, led by Dr Dean Irvine, director of Editing Modernism in Canada. In March, she organized a day-long symposium entitled Repetition and Media, where eight speakers presented papers on topics ranging from current information production and consumption, to affect in politics, to contemporary art practices. Later that month, she attended the annual Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference, which this year was held in Montreal. In April, Monika flew to Belgrade to present a paper, “The Crisis in Humanities; What is Human About Information Age” at the conference Transdisciplinary Transformations of contemporary Discourses in Art and Culture.

UMIH Research Affiliate Monika VrečarPhotograph by Shawn Jordan


Research Clusters are research groups composed of faculty members and graduate students from a variety of departments and disciplines. Cluster members share common research interests and focus on interdisciplinary research, and typically follow a theme or a topic across several disciplines. Many North American humanities centres or institutes support Research Clusters; the University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities has supported at least two Research Clusters each year since 2005.

The three Research Clusters supported by UMIH this year were the new Conceptualizing and Experiencing Aging Before Modernity and History of Emotions Research Clusters and the returning Passions, Pedagogies, and Publics Research Cluster.

Along with administrative support, photocopying, printing, and office supplies, the clusters were awarded financial support for their programming: the History of Emotions cluster received $2665, the Aging Before Modernity cluster received $1700, and the Passions, Pedagogies, and Publics cluster received $3000.

The Institute was pleased to have once again received support from Dr Jeffery Taylor, Dean of Arts, which is essential to the continued success of the Research Cluster program. In addition to the funding from the Institute, the History of Emotions Research Cluster received $150 from the Department of History, for a total of $2815 in funding.

All three Research Clusters were very active. In addition to regular meetings, each cluster organized and co-sponsored a variety of public events held on- and off-campus, including workshops, colloquia, and talks by guest speakers.

The Conceptualizing and Experiencing Aging Before Modernity Research Cluster, led by Dr Enrique Fernandez of the Department of French, Spanish, and Italian, is intended as an interdisciplinary forum for the exchange of ideas about how the physiological reality of aging was envisioned before modernity. The group’s intention is to build a bridge between the members of the Group for Premodern Studies, a past Research Cluster, and the members of the Centre on Aging at the University of Manitoba. The Cluster had an active year. It hosted 6 events on campus, looking at various aspects of aging across the centuries, as well as two events off-campus, where Dr Fernandez spoke to diverse groups of people. The work of the Research Cluster also led to a publication by Dr Fernandez.

PRESENTATIONS AND COLLOQUIUMSThe cluster met regularly every month, having formal and informal colloquiums in the UMIH Boardroom. These activities were coordinated with the Centre on Aging.• 23September“Conceptualizing and Experiencing Aging Before Modernity Research Cluster” - inaugural session, roundtable• 29October“Are Seniors Selfish? A historical exploration of the issue from the perspective of the humanities and social sciences,” presented by Lynne Fernandez• 27November “Aging in China across the Centuries,” presented by Hai Luo• 28January“Aging in Medieval Italy,” presented by Roisin Cossar• 24February“Changes in Geriatrics across the centuries,” presented by Phil St John, MD• 25March“Healthy Aging in Peace after War: The Manitoba Follow-up Study of WWII RCAF Veterans,” presented by Robert Tate

OTHER ACTIVITIES RELATED TO THE CLUSTEREnrique Fernandez gave the following presentations:• 23February“Don Quixote of La Mancha and active aging in the Renaissance.” Creative Retirement Manitoba, First Unitarian Universalist Church of Winnipeg• 4March“Don Quijote y Santa Teresa como casos de vejez activa.” XV Congreso Internacional de Literatura Hispánica, Antigua, Guatemala.

RESEARCH CLUSTERSCONCEPTUALIZING AND

EXPERIENCING AGING BEFORE MODERNITY

The purpose of this cluster was to initiate an interdisciplinary and inter-institutional dialogue around writing in the humanities. Our aim was to create a “passionate affinity space” (Gee & Hayes, 2012) for those who care about writing and the teaching of writing. We hoped to initiate a dialogue that would include faculty, staff, and students from across the humanities, as well as other disciplines and Faculties at the University of Manitoba, and colleagues in K-12 schools and other informal learning spaces across the province.

PASSIONS, PEDAGOGIES, AND PUBLICS RESEARCH CLUSTER EVENTS

In this second year of cluster activities, we designed a series of events to further develop the work we had begun in Year 1. The events were informed by key threads of those conversations, with an emphasis on curriculum and practice. Again, our focus was on creating a space for inter-institutional and interdisciplinary dialogue about writing. We were also excited about the community of participants we were creating through the events: there were many who attended multiple events, telling us that the opportunity to think about writing in their professional circles was rare. Thus, we designed a series of events that would sustain that ongoing conversation with our “frequent flyers” as well as be accessible to “first time” visitors.

Events were all open to the public and held during “afterschool” hours (and on a Saturday morning) to accommodate K-12 teachers. They were advertised through posters on campus and electronic copies of the posters were distributed via email lists to faculty and graduate students in the Faculty of Education, as well as various district and provincial education email lists. The events were also advertised through a listserv of attendees from Year 1 events, and the posters were displayed on the Manitoba Writing Project website: manitobawritingproject.weebly.com. The third event, held at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, was also advertised through the listserv of the U of M’s Centre for Human Rights Research.

The History of Emotions Research Cluster (HERC) is a graduate student-driven reading and research group, whose focus is on small-group interdisciplinary exchange of ideas between researchers whose work engages with the history of emotions. HERC focuses on historical methodologies, sources and readings, but encourages the participation of faculty and graduate students from any discipline who are interested in exploring cluster themes. As there are no courses on the History of Emotion offered at the University of Manitoba, HERC offers students and faculty a unique opportunity to consider the ways in which studies of the History of Emotion might fit with their work.

Our activities in our first year as a research cluster included two small-group readings seminars, a joint readings seminar with the Interdisciplinary Research Circle on Globalization and Cosmopolitanism, a panel presentation and discussion, a lunch and readings seminar with visiting scholar Dr. Angela Wanhalla (University of Otago, New Zealand), and a book discussion with Dr. Adele Perry.

HISTORY OF EMOTIONS RESEARCH CLUSTER EVENTS

•September11IntroductoryInformationMeeting

• October14ReadingMeetingGroup discussion of readings by:• Jan Plamper• Barbara Rosenwein• Wilemijn Ruberg

• November19PanelDiscussionA discussion in the UMIH Boardroom with three speakers:• Benjamin Baader (History, University of Manitoba)• Adele Perry (History, University of Manitoba)• Alison Marshall (Religion, University of Brandon)

• December4Wind-upGatheringandWinterPlanningSession

• February3Small-GroupReadingsDiscussionReadings by Ute Frevert

• February26JointReadingsSeminarwiththeInterdisciplinaryResearchCircleonGlobalizationandCosmopolitanismReading: Joseph Masco, The Theater of Operations: National Security Affect from the Cold War to the War on Terror


PASSIONS, PEDAGOGIES, AND PUBLICS

RESEARCH CLUSTERS

• March10LunchandReadingsSeminarwithDr.AngelaWanhalla(UniversityofOtago)Readings and discussion of selections of Dr. Wanhalla’s publications

HISTORY OF EMOTIONS


•October22WritingandGender:ProvocationsfortheUniversityClassroomandtheK-12SchoolSystemThis event was held on Tuesday, October 22, 2014 from 4:30-6:30 pm, and featured two guest speakers:• Dr. Liz Millward, Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, who spoke about “Politicizing the Personal in Women’s & Gender Studies Writing Assignments.”• Judy Amy, M.Ed student and “mommy blogger”, who spoke about “stereotyping: Blogging Toward Acceptance and Understanding.”

The event was attended by about 15 people. Those attending the event included graduate students and faculty from Women’s and Gender Studies at the U of M and the U of Winnipeg. Graduate students and K-12 teachers also attended. Video excerpts from the presentations, as well as a detailed description of their talks are available at:http://manitobawritingproject.weebly.com/writing-and-gender.html •November20TheBirchBarkCanoe:NavigatingInterdisciplinaryInquiriesThis event was held on Thursday, November 20 from 4:30-6:30 pm. The event featured three guests:• Pauline Broderick, Faculty of Education• Peter Jordan, Filmmaker• Randy Hermann, Engineering Access Program (ENGAP)This panel presentation included a showing of The Birch Bark Canoe documentary and an interactive conversation with the three panelists about creating the documentary and interdisciplinary curriculum. Through the example of the birch bark canoe, we then explored the idea of artifacts as catalysts for trans-disciplinary inquiry and writing pedagogy in both university and K-12 classrooms. Participants were encouraged to engage with others at the event to consider artifacts that might work to support such interdisciplinary and creative inquiry in their own contexts.

The event was attended by about 16 people. Those attending the event included K-12 teachers, graduate students, and faculty, as well as a visiting scholar (Iceland). Video excerpts from the presentations, as well as a detailed description of their key points are available from:http://manitobawritingproject.weebly.com/birch-bark-canoe.html

•March14WorkinProgress:ConversationsaboutWriting,BeingWriters,andTeachingWritingforSocialJusticeThis event was held on Saturday, March 14, 2015 from 9:30-12:30 in the Senator Nancy Ruth Boardroom at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. The workshop, facilitated by Beth Albers-Jones (recently retired from Seven Oaks School Division), was designed to offer an opportunity for participating educators to write, reflect on and discuss their own writing and their work as educators in using and teaching writing for social justice. The event was filled to capacity (25), with a broad range of participants, including K-12 educators and university faculty.

GOALS MET1.AFocusonPractice: Year 1 focused on initiating conversations about writing through themes significant to emerging areas in K-16 writing in and across the humanities. In Year 2, we designed our activities to invite and explore curriculum and practice. Participants commented that these events were very valuable to them in their thinking about their practice—in a wide range of contexts.

2.OnlineKnowledgeMobilization: The first two sessions have detailed summaries and video excerpts available for anyone to read and view online. The ideas are thus accessible to those who could not attend, or others who may find this information by searching for writing communities in the province.

3.CreatingDialogueAcrossInstitutionsandDisciplines:We have always emphasized this work as inter-institutional and interdisciplinary. These events—in Year 1 and Year 2—truly did bring together presenters and participants from a range of disciplines, contexts, and levels, from kindergarten through faculty and graduate student participants. This was a very unique aspect of these events, and has represented a tremendous opportunity for us as a cluster. Feedback about all events has been tremendously positive; there is great interest in further events and activities of this kind.

4.BuildingCommunity: Further to the last point, these events—over the two years of the cluster—have contributed to creating a “thought collective” of people who are passionate about writing in the humanities. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the UMIH in this effort, and will be seeking ways to continue to grow and sustain this community.

RESEARCH CLUSTERSPASSIONS, PEDAGOGIES, AND PUBLICS


For the 2014-15 academic year, in addition to Research Cluster programming, many of the Institute’s on-campus events were directly sponsored and organized with UMIH. These included public talks, a one-day colloquium, an undergraduate research poster workshop, a workshop on teaching abroad, as well as the Institute’s long-running Colloquium Series, highlighting the research of recently hired faculty members in Arts.

MedievalDayforChildrenThe Institute of the Humanities welcomed grade 3 and 4 students from St Avila school to campus in June for a medieval day. Roisin Cossar (History) introduced students to the Bayeux Tapestry, James Maiello (Music) led them in medieval song, and David Watt (English, Film, and Theatre) looked at medieval manuscripts with them. The students had a great time, and we hope to repeat the event in the future.

UndergraduatePosterWorkshop•22October2014On Wednesday 22 October, from 2:30-4:00 pm in the Media Lab (233 University College), UMIH presented a workshop on creating and presenting academic posters in the humanities. This workshop was designed specifically for Faculty of Arts Students who planned to participate in the Undergraduate Research Poster Competition on October 30. The workshop supplemented the general information session on poster presentations by focusing specifically on what a poster in the humanities might accomplish. It also provided students with an opportunity to work with faculty members who could offer ideas and feedback on student posters. Interested students were invited either to bring a draft or materials in order to get started or to discuss their poster with other participants.

LaboratoriesofModernity:Collaboration,Repatriation,andDigitalTechnologies•5February2015UMIH brought in Dr Dean Irvine, Director of the Editing Modernism in Canada project, for two events in early February. The first was this discussion of the history of laboratory-based research in the arts and humanities since the turn of the twentieth century and in relation to the conceptualization of laboratories in the fields of salvage ethnography and digital anthropology.

DigitalEditions•6February2015This all-day workshop, the second event led by Dr Irvine, discussed methods of using the Modernist Commons to create digital editions of early Canadian texts. Both events were well-attended by faculty members, students, and staff from the University of Manitoba Libraries, and sparked discussion of the future of digital humanities at the University of Manitoba.

UMIH PROGRAMMINGRepetition&Media:AnInterdisciplinarySymposium•6March2015UMIH Research Affiliate Monika Vrečar organized and moderated this symposium, inviting individuals from a variety of departments and fields inside and outside of the University of Manitoba to discuss repetition and media.

Programme:10:30am-12:00pm• Sarah Ciurysek (School of Art, UM, Artist), “A word after a

word after a word”• Angela Sylvester (ChangeMakers), “Social Marketing and

the Stages of Change”• Jobb Arnold (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, UM), “Upside

Down Canadian Flag Days: Affective Edges and Sovereign Channels”

• Kevin Ramberran (MA candidate, Department of English, Film, and Theatre, UM, musician), “Instrumentality: Backing Tracks and Performance in Rap”

1:00pm-2:30pm• Oliver Botar (School of Art, UM), “Moholy-Nagy: An

Education of the Senses”• Laura-Zoë Humphreys (Department of Anthropology,

UM), “Paranoid Readings and Ambivalent Allegories: Cuban Cinema and the Politics of Interpretation”

• Alex Snukal (Media Lab, UM, Artist), “Magic Acid Video Clash Crash Feet”

• Richard Altman (Artist, Software Developer), “I’m Not Saying It Was McLuhan.......But It Was McLuhan”

This event was well-attended by members of Winnipeg’s academic and artistic communities and stimulated conversation on a wide variety of topics.

ResearchAffiliatePublicTalks•26March2015UMIH Research Affiliates Kenton Storey and Jon Malek both presented on their research on Thursday 26 March in the UMIH Boardroom.

Mr Malek spoke on “Silangan Rising: Ethnic Identity Formation in Winnipeg’s First Filipino Newspaper.” This presentation looked at the first year of Silangan, Winnipeg’s first Filipino newspaper, to analyze the role it played in the development and articulation of the Filipino community in Winnipeg in 1977.

Dr Storey gave a talk entitled “—‘Every able man who chooses to work will make money’: Donald Fraser, The Times, and the British Columbian Gold Rushes, 1858-1866.” He discussed the ways Donald Fraser wrote about the gold rushes along the west coast in the mid-19th century.


This ongoing series of public research talks highlights the work of recently hired faculty members at the U of M in Arts, and those in other faculties who are engaged in humanities-focused research. The series facilitates getting to know new members of the faculty, making potentially important and rewarding connections, and hearing new and innovative research.

During the 2014-15 year, the Institute for the Humanities welcomed community members from across campus to 11 talks from recently hired professors and instructors in Arts as part of our Colloquium Series. These colloquia, routinely scheduled on Mondays or Tuesdays at 2:30 pm in the UMIH Boardroom (409 Tier), were well-attended and helped showcase the work of scholars working in all areas of the humanities at the U of M.

UMIH COLLOQUIA

Monday29SeptemberDrJimmyMaiello(Music)“The Epiphany Liturgy at Pistoia as an Expression of Episcopal Authority”

Monday6OctoberDrJustinJaronLewis(Religion)“Wine, Women, and Death: Yiddish Writings from Renaissance Italy”

Tuesday28OctoberDrPaulDyck(English,CanadianMennoniteUniversity)“Divine Double Decree and the Singular Action of Christ: Calvinist Predestination and George Herbert’s ‘The Bag’”

Monday3NovemberDrErinKeating(English,Film&Theatre)“Affinity/Revulsion: Audience Affect and the Restoration Secret History”

Monday17NovemberDrIrèneChassaing(French,Spanish&Italian)“Dysnostia: Return to the Native Land in Contemporary French Canadian Literature”

Monday24NovemberDrWillOxford(Linguistics)“Adjectives in a language without adjectives: Lessons from a comparison of English and Cree”

Tuesday13JanuaryDrHeidiMarx-Wolf(Religion)“Strange Madness: Embryos and Demons in Porphyry of Tyre”

Tuesday20JanuaryDrJocelynThorpe(Women’s&GenderStudies)“Engaged Writing, or Writing Engagingly: Do Academics Have a Responsibility?”

Tuesday27JanuaryDrMeredithBacola(History)“How you advertise a hermit saint when your abbey is in Lincolnshire (or Abbot Henry de Longchamp’s program for revitalizing Crowland Abbey)”

Tuesday10FebruaryDrSarahHannan(PoliticalStudies)“Is Childhood Good or Bad for Children?”

Tuesday24MarchDrNicoleRosen(Linguistics)“How can we characterize the Prairies accent, and where does it come from?”

THE UMIH COLLOQUIUM SERIES

CO-SPONSORSHIPS WITH OTHER UNITS

During the 2014-15 academic year, UMIH continued its practice of providing financial and administrative assistance for guest lectures, workshops, and conferences hosted by other units at the University. The Institute also co-organized public events with other units.

CulturalEncountersandSharedSpacesintheRenaissanceCity:AConferenceinMemoryofShonaKellyWray•12&13September2014Recent scholarship in the history of information, art, and science has emphasized how knowledge and ideas flowed in varied ways and circulated between people of different social status with distinct levels of formal education and access to power.

This interdisciplinary conference sought to explore in greater depth the ways that material spaces of the early modern city functioned to facilitate cultural encounters and the nature of these exchanges. The organizers hoped to uncover cases of unexpected encounters by using creatively the surviving evidence (e.g. graffiti, architecture, marginalia, sketches, books of secrets, ricordanze, archival records, etc.) In addition they aimed to illuminate the ways in which the activities and vocabulary of different spaces permeated multiple disciplines and discourses, often generating new ideas.


CanadiansandtheirPasts:ACanadianStudiesRoundtable•26September2014The Canadian Studies Programme hosted a roundtable on “Canadians and Their Pasts” with Margaret Conrad (University of New Brunswick), Peter Seixas (University of British Columbia), and Gerald Friesen (University of Manitoba). “Canadians and their Pasts” is a major study of the “historical consciousness” of Canadians. Three of the authors discussed the main findings of the book that concluded the project, Canadians and their Pasts, published recently by the University of Toronto Press. The authors will discuss such subjects as the role “history” plays amongst the public and differences between the public and academic perceptions of Canada’s past. There was time given to questions and discussion. Sadedanstoussesétats:Deuxcentsansdecontroverses•21et22Octobre2014Pour marquer le bicentenaire de la mort de Sade, ce colloquese propose de réexaminer les controverses auxquelles son nom est associé. De l’énigme de sa personnalité et des difficultés associées à la lecture de ses textes ont jailli une infinité de débats qu’il s’agit d’éclairer à la lumière des dernières avancées critiques sur Sade et le 18e siècle.

TheBookProposal:InsightandtipsfromUofMPress•6November2014This workshop with U of M Press editor Jill McConkey addressed the following questions on creating and submitting successful book proposals: How does a book proposal differ from a grant application? What do editors prioritize? How much time should I spend on my proposal? Why do I need to provide information about audience and market? Where should I send it?Participants were invited to bring along a book proposal in progress or a grant application that would become the basis for a book project for discussion.

pAGEScolloquium:MakingSense(s):InterdisciplinaryConsiderationsofSense,Senses,Sensing•23January2015UMIH supported the English graduate students’ annual conference, “Making Sense(s): Interdisciplinary Considerations of Sense, Senses, Sensing”. This conference was held in the Cross Common Room at St John’s College and featured a keynote address from Dr Andrew Burke of the University of Winnipeg: “National Park Nightmares: Landscape and Horror in 70s Canadian Cinema.”

SidneyWarhaftDistinguishedVisitingSpeaker•5February2015UMIH co-sponsored the 2015 Sidney Warhaft Distinguished Visiting Speaker, Dr Timothy Morton, who gave a lecture entitled “On Ecological Touching: Knowing (As) Intimacy”. UMIH also provided support for Dr Morton’s informal discussion with graduate students in English.

CO-SPONSORSHIPS WITH OTHER UNITS

MattersoftheHeart:AHistoryofInterracialMarriageinNewZealand•9March2015Together with the Office of the President and the Departments of Women’s and Gender Studies, Native Studies, and History, UMIH sponsored the visit of Dr Angela Wanhalla from Otago University (Aotearoa/New Zealand). Dr Wanhalla also spoke with our History of Emotions Research Cluster (see page x for details)

SocialAspectsofHuman-RobotInteraction•12March2015The Department of English, Film, and Theatre Media Lab and UMIH presented a talk by Dr Jim Young from the U of M Department of Computer Science. Dr Young spoke on and demonstrated the social implications of how humans interact with robots.

TheFutureofArchivesinCanada?:ResponsestotheRoyalSocietyofCanadaReport•17March2015This brown-bag roundtable at the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections addressed issues of archival collections in light of deteriorating budgets, limited services and access, and new pressures to collect digital records well as paper and other records. Speakers from the Archives of Manitoba, the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections and several academic departments at the University of Manitoba discussed issues from varied perspectives, focussing on the grave difficulties of maintaining access, ensuring robust collections, and pressing for adequate funding for archives.

Medieval&Modern:AnInterdisciplinarySymposium•19March2015From the Romantic period to the present day, writers, scholars and poets have seen the medieval era as an idealized elsewhere. Into this elsewhere they have projected their own beliefs, dreams, hopes, and fears. This symposium was a day of thought-provoking conversation about art, culture, and history as participants discussed how society has fictionalized medieval culture and what that culture has to say to us today.

Accessibility,Disability,andtheHumanities•25March2015Writer, filmmaker, and performer Simi Linton, author of Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity, and filmmaker Christian von Tippelskirch, along with Dr Vanessa Warne and Nadine LeGier of the University of Manitoba, discussed humanities research in the field of Disability Studies and the work of advocating for and promoting the accessibility of academic work, academic settings, and research findings for people with disabilities.


The UMIH asking budget for supplies and programs for 2014-15 was $28,000, matching the budget of 2013-14. On September 4, 2013, we were informed by Dean Dr Jeffery Taylor that the Institute had been awarded the full amount of $28,000. The Institute is extremely grateful for the continuing generous support from the Dean of Arts.

The Institute has a small endowment of $92,096 (Market Value). As in previous years the endowment income was reinvested in the fund itself. Going forward, however, the Institute is offering a fellowship of up to $3,000 to a student enrolled full-time in the Faculty of Graduate Studies in any year of a master’s or doctoral program who is conducting research in the humanities and holds a GPA of at least 3.5 based on the previous 60 credit hours of study.

In addition to the $28,000 provided to UMIH by the Faculty of Arts for supplies and programs, Arts supplied a further $42,715.82 for support staff salaries and benefits. The entire Institute budget—supplies, programs, and support staff salaries—for 2013-2014 was $70,715.82.

UMIH spent $24,617.75 on Supplies and $3,354.17 on Programs, totaling $27,971.92. Not all of the invoices entered for payment in EPIC were paid out during the year, even though they were entered before the deadline for Year-End. The total of these amounts comes to $5298.48. We have been told this was a result of errors made entering the invoices at the UMIH, where we had a new assistant to the director this year. Both the assistant and the director made several attempts to ensure these payments were made (some date back to November and were revised more than once) but still not paid out. We are hoping to be able to work out an agreement with the Faculty and Purchasing Services to ensure this will not have an impact on next year’s budget, but we may have to modify our spending.

Much of our 2014-15 Programs budget was directed towards support of our Research Clusters. The Conceptualizing and Experiencing Aging Before Modernity Research Cluster received $1,700; the History of Emotions Research Cluster received $2,665; and the Passions, Pedagogies and Publics cluster received $3,000. Because the total amount requested by the clusters was less than what was budgeted, the remaining $1,635 from the Research Clusters budget line went toward events meant to seed future Research Clusters and to events relating to former clusters. Altogether, the amount spent on Research Clusters and related events totalled $8315.35. This resulted in a surplus of $684.65, due largely to the falling through of a research assistant that the Aging Before Modernity cluster had planned to hire. This money was re-allocated to other events hosted by the Institute. In addition to their support from the Institute, the History of Emotions Research Cluster also received $150 from the Department of History, for a total budget of $2,815.

STUDENT TRAINING & OUTREACH FINANCIAL REPORT 2014-15

UMIH remains committed to providing support for students working in the humanities through research training opportunities. These include Research Assistantships, public talks, research clusters, workshops, and Research Affiliateships for students from other institutions. In 2014-15, the Institute continued to facilitate student training and outreach through new initiatives and ongoing programs already in place.

UndergraduatePosterWorkshop•22October2014See page 9 of this report for details.

pAGEScolloquium:MakingSense(s):InterdisciplinaryConsiderationsofSense,Senses,Sensing•23January2015See page 12 of this report for details.

TimothyMortontalk•5February2015Prior to Dr Timothy Morton’s address as the Warhaft Distinguished Visiting Speaker, UMIH hosted and provided refreshments for an informal conversation between Dr Morton and graduate members of DEFT.

Medieval&Modern:AnInterdisciplinarySymposium•19March2015UMIH provided administrative and financial support for this symposium, organized and largely presented by students. See page 12 of this report for details.

InfoDaysUMIH created a pamphlet promoting work in the humanities to be shared with prospective students and their parents at the 2015 Info Days.

StudentResearchAssistantUMIH Director Dr David Watt employed PhD candidate Cameron Burt as a research assistant this year. Mr Burt has been working on the role of modern editors in the production of early modern books, and worked with the Director on the collection of early modern books held at the University.

HumanitiesOutreachWorking closely with Cecile Foster in the Faculty of Arts, the UMIH hosted two meetings for people doing outreach in the Humanities. The first of these was more formally structured attempt to find out what kinds of outreach are currently underway and how they could be supported. The second meeting arose as one way of supporting outreach. It was a more informal meeting to discuss outreach activities and share ideas. We plan to support this type of meeting once each term in the coming year and thank the Faculty of Arts for its support of this endeavour.

As happens most years due to fiscal year-end falling in the middle of Research Affiliateship appointments (July 1-June 30) and just before some of the larger Humanities conferences, summer language institutes, research trips, and related activi-ties are scheduled each year, some of the Institute’s Research Affiliates expenses from 2012-13 were taken from the 2013-14 budget. Similarly, some of the 2013-14 Affiliate expenses will come out of 2014-15 budget.3 These funds were budgeted into our 2013-14 Asking Budget, and due to smaller amounts being spent by the 2012-13 affiliates, the 2013-14 affiliates were able to use funds from the same budget line to attend conferences in the fall and winter terms.

The Institute is pleased to have completed another successful and busy year of programs. We are especially pleased with the move toward supporting more Research Affiliates; they have made important contributions to the Faculty of Arts and to the University as a whole. Our Research Clusters, also, are ben-eficial to the Institute, the faculty, the University, and also the public, particularly as clusters begin to work in interdisciplin-ary circles that include communities outside of the University (e.g., the Passions, Pedagogies, and Publics cluster).

2015-16 UMIH ASKING BUDGET

TThe Institute is asking for the same amount of money that the Faculty of Arts provided us with last year. Our asking budget for 2014-15 was $28,000, which was the amount we were awarded. We believe this level of funding enabled us to provide excellent programming, and we have made plans to make the same amount of money go even further again this year.

The Programsbudgetis $24,080, which is equal to the amount from last year’s asking budget. After having four research clusters in 2013-14, we decided only to fund three re-search clusters in 2014-15. This enabled us to provide support for three research affiliates instead of two. This year, we plan to support three research clusters once again, and we are look-ing into the possibility of additional office space in order to support a third research affiliate once again. We plan to divide the small research funds available to our affiliates between three affiliates if possible, though we will only provide funds to two if that is all we can accommodate through office space.

Our Research Clusters appreciated the fact they received sufficient funds to organize a substantial number of events. Several of the Clusters raised additional funds or worked in concert with departments in order to support specific or larger-scale events. Overall, the level of funding was substan-tial enough that the clusters did not need to spend a great deal of time looking elsewhere to support their events. All three of our Research Affiliates spent most of their research funds during the academic year. Since affiliateships run most often from July through June each year (while year-end for the Institute is in March), some of our 2015-16 budget will be allocated to affiliates from 2014-15. This normally occurs, since


FINANCIAL REPORT 2014-15

most affiliates plan to attend conferences in May and June, often with the support of UMIH.

In keeping with the Institute’s increasing commitment to students, $2,000 has been designated to pay a student or students to do research either for the Director, a UMIH project, or for one of the Research Clusters or, as was done this year, to support a workshop for students. We also had a proposal to use our endowment to fund a scholarship valued at up to $3,000 each year for a graduate student working in the Humanities. This scholarship is funded directly from the endowment, so it will have no effect on the Institute’s budget.

We have budgeted $2,000 for Institute Travel this year in order to ensure that the director and assistant to the director can attend the Future of the Humanities conference hosted by McGill in May. We were asked last year to participate in the national discussion on the White Paper on the future of Graduate Education in the Humanities. We hosted an event to discuss the White Paper and will host further meetings in response to our experience in Montreal during the coming year.

Finally, we continue to fund new or recently developed programs using existing budget lines. For instance, we will draw on money from our Co-sponsorship budget to explore offering community outreach projects in conjunction with other faculties.

Our Supplies&Equipmentbudget has remained at $3,920 this year. Last year, we purchased a device that allows us to copy and scan in the office. We have budgeted some money for supplies this year because we anticipate having to purchase some software to support our work, as we do from year to year. We anticipate having to upgrade computer equipment in the coming years, but our equipment is satisfactory at the moment.

Supplies & Equipment $3,920Programs: $24,080TOTAL:$28,000

UNIVERSITYOFMANITOBAINSTITUTEFORTHEHUMANITIES I

UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA INSTITUTE FOR THE HUMANITIES ASKING BUDGET

2015-2016SCHEDULE A

14-15 Asking 14-15 Actual 15-16 AskingComputers

Hardware/Software 600.00 203.35 600.00 Courses - - -

Subtotal 600.00 203.35 600.00

Telephone 1,470.00 1,468.62 1,470.00

Other Office ExpensesStationery/Supplies 500.00 483.12 500.00

Printing/Photocopying 300.00 314.21 300.00 Postage/Courier/Shipping 100.00 17.82 100.00

Water Cooler 100.00 67.05 100.00 Furnishings/Equipment - - -

Subtotal 1,000.00 882.20 1,000.00

Art Rental 800.00 800.00 800.00

Equipment Rental 50.00 - 50.00

Outstanding Expenses - - -

Total 3,920.00 3,354.17 3,920.00 Total Schedules A + B 28,000.00 27,971.92 28,000.00

UNIVERSITYOFMANITOBAINSTITUTEFORTHEHUMANITIES II

UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA INSTITUTE FOR THE HUMANITIES ASKING BUDGET

2015-2016SCHEDULE B

14-15 Asking 14-15 Revised 14-15 Actual 15-16 AskingSupport for Research

Director 1,750.00 2,000.00 2,014.89 2,000.00 Affiliates 2014-15 3,600.00 5,000.00 4,773.53 n/aAffiliates 2015-16 n/a n/a n/a 5,000.00

Subtotal 5,350.00 7,000.00 6,788.42 7,000.00

Institute Travel 1,700.00 1,500.00 2,094.94 2,000.00

UMIH ProjectsConferences/Workshops 1,000.00 1,250.00 1,326.52 1,000.00

Research Clusters 10,500.00 9,000.00 8,217.25 9,000.00 UMIH Guest Speakers 1,200.00 1,000.00 1,500.00 1,000.00

Student Research Assistants 2,000.00 2,000.00 1,992.89 2,000.00 Subtotal 14,700.00 13,250.00 13,036.66 13,000.00

CHCI Membership 480.00 480.00 484.00 480.00

Co-Sponsorships 1,000.00 1,000.00 1,343.57 1,000.00

Other Program ExpensesAdvertising/Publicity 400.00 400.00 418.94 300.00

Non-Project Entertainment 300.00 300.00 301.22 300.00 Subtotal 700.00 700.00 720.16 600.00

Outstanding Expenses 150.00 150.00 150.00 -

Total 24,080.00 24,080.00 24,617.75 24,080.00 Total Schedules A + B 28,000.00 28,000.00 27,971.92 28,000.00

As indicated in the Director’s Comments on the Asking Budget, after we had submitted our asking budget last year, the Board of Management decided to slightly alter amounts within the budget as a whole in order to increase the budget to allow us to fund three Research Affiliates rather than two. This increase was accommodated by reducing the amount allocated to Research Clusters; the remaining Clusters then spent less than they intended to, largely due to a planned Research Assistantship falling through. The remaining money from the Research Cluster budget line was then redistributed to fund co-sponsored events and to pay the fee of the Institute's guest speaker, Dr Dean Irvine. In order to reconcile his University travel card expense on time, the Director paid for his Congress accommodation for May 2015 from this line ($479.96). Overall, we balanced the expenditure in Schedule B budget by decreasing the amount spent on supplies in Schedule A.

Director: Dr David WattAssistant: Ms Krista Walters, MA (until June 2014)

Ms Elizabeth-Anne Johnson

407 Tier BuildingUniversity of ManitobaWinnipeg, MB Canada

R3T 2N2

Phone: (204) 474-9599Email: [email protected]

umanitoba.ca/institutes/humanities

The University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities (UMIH) was established in 1990 to foster research and scholar-ship in the Humanities at the University of Manitoba, to promote interdisciplinary research in the

Humanities, and to help obtain external funding for Humanities research.

The Institute addresses the needs and interests of researchers in a broad range of subjects including literature and languages, philosophy, history and religion, and also the literary, philosophical, theological and historical aspects of the

social and physical sciences, mathematics, the arts, and professional studies.

The UMIH is located within the Faculty of Arts, but is intended to serve the entire Humanities constituency in the University and the general community. The Institute is, accordingly, committed to community outreach

through programs and lecture series for the general public.

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