Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan’s performance piece The Local Sky Tonight or What is Being Refusedwas originally commissioned as one of a series of pieces meant to represent different parts of stories. Their original prompt was on the hero’s call; the significance of the secondary title catalyzes from the moment our rabbit-guide begins their rumination of Campbell’s infamous … Continue reading The Local Sky Tonight Review

Once dismissed as an amateur’s avocation, the history of food has finally entered its own and emerged as a serious subject of study. Indeed, that earlier disregard for the history of this essential fact of life now seems strangely narrow-minded.  Today it is widely recognized that food is a very powerful lens through which to view … Continue reading Food for Thought: Some Lessons on Food and Society from the Deep Past

“The season of the witch is truly upon us.” So opens a recent piece in The Guardian, from which this entry borrows its title. I am not sure I entirely agree, but only because I am not convinced witches ever really went out of season, as it were. On the other hand, it is hard … Continue reading Season of the Witch: Rethinking the History of Witchcraft

As the leader of the A-Team, Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith, said in nearly every episode of the ‘80s television classic, “I love it when a plan comes together.”  So do I. In this case, the plan refers to some of the upcoming programming variously linked with the UMIH, and right away it should be said that … Continue reading Frankenblog, or, a Dark and Stormy Tale of Frankenstein, the History of Science, and the Internet.

A while back I posted a piece on this blog about the importance of talking to our students when attempting to assess or demonstrate the importance and value of a humanities education. This was to be the beginning of a larger project—initiated by Professor Roisin Cossar and her University of Manitoba history students—intended to open … Continue reading Personal Student Narratives are One Key to Demonstrating the Value of a Humanities Education

This piece takes its inspiration from a recent “Arts of Conversation” talk by Cary Miller.  Dr Miller is Anishinaabe, descending from St Croix and Leech Lake communities, and the new Head of the Department of Native Studies at the University of Manitoba. She came to us from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she was a … Continue reading Reconciliation and the Future of the Humanities

The humanities, it is constantly said, are in free fall and notable only for their dramatic decline and the unremitting “crisis” confronting them. This crisis may be more apparent than real however, as the UMHumanities blog and others have discussed; or if it is real it is because references to this “crisis” have been so common … Continue reading Want to Assess the Importance and Value of a Humanities Education? Ask your Students

In late October the University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities, in partnership with the Faculty of Graduate Studies, brought Maren Wood and Jennifer Polk of Beyond the Professoriate to campus to deliver a series of workshops entitled “PhDs That Work: Finding Success in an Uncertain Job Market.” They were fantastic. Drs Wood and Polk brought the … Continue reading PhDs That Work—Beyond the Professoriate