The Culture of Research: Retooling the Humanities
A Public Forum
Friday, October 20, 2006
The Arboretum, the University of Guelph
Sponsored by:
The TransCanada Institute, University of Guelph, and
Canada Research Chairs Daniel Coleman (McMaster) & Smaro Kamboureli (Guelph)
3:30 - 5:30, followed by a reception 5:30 - 7:00
Are you interested in the economic, political and cultural paradigms and conditions that inform and shape the pedagogical directions and research in the Humanities today?
Are you wondering how to negotiate between policy-oriented and critique-oriented research objectives, or why the contribution and significance of a Humanities scholar's research today is measured on the basis of external funding?
If your answer is yes, come to hear, and participate in, a dialogue on these issues with:
- Dr. Diana Brydon, Canada Research Chair (University of Manitoba)
- Dr. Donna J. Palmateer Pennee (University of Guelph), Vice-President, Women's and Equity Issues, CFHSS
- Dr. Wendy J. Robbins (University of New Brunswick), Executive CAUT
- To be chaired by Dr. Alan Wildeman, Vice-President Research, University of Guelph
- Greetings from Dr. Alison Sekular, Associate Vice-President Research, McMaster University, and Donald Bruce, Dean of College of Arts, Guelph
The Culture of Research: "Retooling" the Humanitiesworkshop is designed as an intensive critical dialogue among scholars interested in investigating the impact of 
(View PDF)current institutional paradigms on research funding, grant policies, and allocations for teaching which in turn shape the production and dissemination of knowledge in the Humanities in Canadian universities. Interested in assessing as much the evolving state of affairs in the Humanities at present as the path to "future knowledge" outlined in the recently released policy document, Knowledge Council: SSHRC, 2006-2011, this workshop will include a public forum and research papers presented by scholars. The research papers will result in a book publication edited by the organizers.
Questions and issues the participants are invited to address may include:
- The economic, political, and cultural paradigms and conditions that inform and shape the pedagogical directions and research in the Humanities today
- The goals, practices, or assumptions of the culture of science and culture of arts research
- Negotiating between policy-oriented and critique-oriented research objectives
- What "retooling" (Knowledge Council) of research in the Humanities should enhance or avoid; the impact of this "retooling" process on academic life and work
- The ways in which research funding as currently configured privileges a techno-science mode of research
- Research funding of Humanities projects and the corporatization of universities
- The contribution and significance of a Humanities scholars' research measured on the basis on external funding; grantspersonship as the measure of valuable research
- The uses of external funding by universities (e.g., funding often siphoned by university administrations to supplement losses in base-budget funding)
- Identifying research themes, inter/disciplinary areas, and research categories: key words and grant applications
- Funding agencies: application and evaluation processes
- The function of university strategic plans
- Dissemination of research in the Humanities: how, as the Knowledge Council puts it, Humanities scholars can "do a better job of getting hard-won knowledge out into the world"; what it means, for researchers and society at large, to "use knowledge"; how to measure the "impact" of research knowledge vis à vis the public; what constitutes the "public"
- The occlusion of the classroom in the focus on registering a "public" impact for Humanities research
- Accountability—for individual scholars, university administrations, funding agencies
- Transparency, consultation, policy-making, implementation, monitoring: who or what institutional structures should establish research funding priorities and themes (e.g., it has become customary for SSHRC to set deadlines for elaborate applications for research programs only a month or so after a new program is announced)
- What "innovation" entails and how it can be "measured"
- What "systematic transformation of knowledge into action" (Knowledge Council) means, and what its implications are
- Diversity as a commodity versus diversity as a politics. (Many universities identify diversity as a core value or strategic goal of university life; how much is this a selling feature and how much a project of structural change?)
- The pedagogical gains and/or risks of establishing fast-track graduate degrees
- Partnerships with various sectors of the community: research possibilities and independence; negotiating difficulties
- Research methodologies and tools in the Humanities
- Clustering research and collaboration: gains and risks
- Indigenizing universities: the status of indigenous studies in Canadian scholarship and universities; the histories of indigenous studies programs: First Nations University (Saskatchewan), on-reserve extension programs, etc.
Workshop Program
Friday October 20 - Sunday October 22
Friday noon, 1:00 - 3:30
- Lunch for participants
- Welcoming remarks by Coleman / Kamboureli
- Participants meet and start dialogue
Friday afternoon, 3:30 - 5:30
- Public Forum: Retooling the Humanities
- Dr. Alan Wildeman (VP Research, U of Guelph): Brief welcoming remarks & official launching of TransCanada Institute
- Greetings from Dr. Allison Sekuler (Associate VP Research, McMaster University), and Dr. Donald Bruce (Dean, College of Arts)
- Forum Presenters (10 minutes each):
- Dr. Wendy Robbins, CAUT Executive Member
- Dr. Diana Brydon, Past ASPP President, CRC Manitoba
- Donna Pennee, Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences
- Discussion Chair: Dr. Wildeman
Friday afternoon, 5:30 - 6:30
- Reception
Friday evening, 7:00 p.m.
- Dinner for workshop and forum participants
Saturday morning, 9:00 - 10:30 a.m.
- First Workshop group: 2 concurrent sessions
Saturday morning, 10:30 - 10:45 a.m.
- Coffee break
Saturday morning, 10:45 - 12:15 a.m.
- First Workshop continued
Saturday afternoon, 12:00- 2:00 p.m.
- Lunch
Saturday afternoon, 2:00 - 3:30 p.m.
- Second Workshop group: 2 concurrent sessions
Saturday afternoon, 3:30-3:45 p.m.
- Coffee break
Saturday afternoon, 3:45 - 5:15 p.m.
- Second Workshop continued
Saturday evening, 7:00 p.m.
- Dinner (Catered at Smaro's home)
Sunday morning 10:00-12:00
- Plenary Session: Action plans and Editorial plan
Sunday afternoon, 12:00 - 2:00 p.m.
- Lunch
Workshop participants:
Diana Brydon
"Do We Need a New Humanism?" CRC, U of Manitoba
Patricia Clements"The Digitalization of the Humanities," CRKN, Director of the Orlando project and Orlando Canada, former Dean, U of Alberta
Kit Dobson
"Mining the Valley of its Making: Implicit Acceptances of Art as a Market Commodity in Humanities Research", PhD U of Toronto, TransCanada Postdoctoral fellow (2006-07), U of Guelph
Len Findlay
"Extraordinary Renditions: Translating the Humanities Now", Director, Humanities Centre, U of Saskatchewan
Ashok Mathur
"Possibilizing the Impossible", CRC in Cultural and Artistic Inquiry, Thompson Rivers University
Donna Pennee
"Liberal Arts under Illiberal Administrations: Disciplining Reports, Policies, Programs, and Plans" Vice President, Women's and Equity Issues, Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, U of Guelph
Jessica Schagerl
"Precarious Positioning(s)", PhD U of Western Ontario, postdoctoral fellow, McMaster U (2006-07)
Marjorie Stone
"The Research Matrix and the Metropolis Project: Bridging Strategies for Collaboration and Knowledge Mobilization in Arts and Text-based Disciplines"Metropolis Project, former President, ACCUTE, Dalhousie U
Cheryl Suzack
"Native Women, Equality Rights, and Indigenizing Universities" English / First Nations Studies, U of Victoria