A message from the Dean

As we look forward to the summer days ahead, I cannot help but think about all that we’ve experienced over the last several years and feel proud about what our Humanities community has accomplished. This newsletter provides some highlights of those achievements over the past term.

The world is not the same as it was before the pandemic, and we have been working tirelessly through the transition to ensure that our teaching and research reflects this change and anticipates what’s to come.

Our Departments of English and Pacific and Asian Studies, for example, have overhauled their curricula and we have launched the Media Studies certificate to provide students with a solid foundation of knowledge and skills that will prepare them for life and work in the globally connected twenty-first century.

The Indigenous Studies (IS) program continues to thrive under the direction of Lisa Kealohapaʻaokahaleole Hall, who was recently named President’s Chair – the highest honour a faculty member can receive at UVic. This fall, IS will launch a timely and important course, “IS 100: Responsibilities and Reciprocities to the Place You Are Now,” that will weave together contributions shared by Knowledge Holders from both campus and local communities to highlight relationships of land, water and people in BC and Canada, and share histories of encroachment, resistance and revitalization.

There are several other changes brewing in the Faculty, such as the recent launch of the virtual Critical Humanities Commons in May. This is an interdisciplinary space where our faculty and students can come together to collaborate, create and share their research and pedagogical work. The Commons is intended to be a hub of innovation and creativity, and we look forward to sharing more about it with you in the future.

In the meantime, we send you our warmest wishes for a restful and enjoyable summer.

- Annalee Lepp, Dean

June 8, 2023