Humanities at Large

How can music give voice to a history that has been denied? Pianist and composer Eve Egoyan explores this question through In Stone, a deeply personal work shaped by her family's connection to the Armenian Genocide. Blending piano, her own voice and AI-generated sound, Egoyan turns to music to confront silence, memory and denial, and to imagine nature itself as a witness to history. Eve was the JHI's 2025-2...

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 cultural identity and to her own. Tam...

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 2024-25 Distinguished Visiting Ind...

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, such as oral histories, stories, an...

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 exploration of the "weird" t...

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 spiritua...

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 for the importance of studying Sansk...

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 understanding and trust, emphasizing...