Archive: Research and Grants
Grants Program 1996-99
The activities and programs of the Institute for the Humanities are intended to enhance interdisciplinary approaches to teaching and research, encourage community involvement in Humanities education, and demonstrate the social and historical relevance of the Humanities to critical modern problems. Each year the Institute supports a wide range of activities (including colloquia, conferences, speakers, and research), which for 1996-1999 will be linked to three specific thematic areas.
Autonomy, Authenticity, Community
The late twentieth-century seems mystified by these three ideas and their interrelationships, much as our 18th century forebears were by the intertwined concepts of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. Some of us see contradictions and choose one ideal over the other two; others celebrate the paradox and find unity in the trinity. Still others declare the contradictions illusory, the result of a blindness within Western culture. The Institute invites applications for projects that explore the personal, political or policy dimensions of this issue.
Millenialism and Apocalyptic Vision
Those living within the Christian tradition can already see signs of the arrival of another millenial era. The realities of globalization will inevitably extend phenomena, such as apocalyptic thinking, beyond the West. Along with predictions of apocalyptic events, millenialism can trigger massive bouts of reflection, prompting entire cultures to reconsider objectives, accomplishments and dreams. The Institute invites proposals that explore this issue from religious, historical and cross-cultural perspectives.
Scientific Method and the Humanities
Advances in science in areas such as neurophysiology, biochemistry and genetics raise to new stakes the debate within the academy about the nature of selves and cultures. This new knowledge is rooted in the same scientific method that powered the work of Galileo and Einstein—a methodology some say the humanities should adopt. The Institute invites applications that explore the historical links between scientific methodology and humanistic discourse and that examine current challenges posed by the new sciences.
Please note that the Institute for the Humanities is not at this time seeking applications for grants. If you are interested in the Institute and wish to apply for funding support please contact the Director as far in advance as possible as most projects are budgeted for on an annual basis.
Projects Funded for 1996–99
Common Journeys: Women Walking Together
This project consists of four inter-related components: an oral history project, a community development model, documentation and evaluation, and dissemination and evaluation. The project will bring women together who are involved in community development initiatives in Mexico and Latin America, to talk about community initiatives and shared experiences. From these collective experiences they will develop a community development model for piloting and subsequent replication. Documented information will be made accessible to other community people and non-governmental organizations that are interested in fostering and sustaining self-reliance and self-sufficiency.
Recipient: Debbie Bell, Continuing Studies at Harbour Centre ($2500). Advisory committee has been set up and has met; organization for the project is in process.
Old Minds and Bodies in New Worlds: A Darwinian Perspective on our Past, Present, and Future
This project is a visiting lecture series over a 12 month period; the lecture series will explore how we adapt and deal with the new worlds that our industrial and post industrial civilization is producing. The series will bring together researchers and scholars in Philosophy, History, Archaeology, Biology, and Psychology. The focus will be on 1) human mating and reproduction; 2) law and morality; 3) cultural change and psycho pathology; 4) family life and conflict; 5) war, nationalism and patriotism and; 6) the nature of cultural stability and change.
Recipient: Charles Crawford, Psychology Department ($4500).
Activism and Apocalypse: Politics in the Shadow of the Silent Majorities
This is a 12 week seminar series which will take the form of regular discussion groups in the Grandview-Woodlands community of Vancouver. One of the goals of the seminar series is to bring together academic theorists and community activists to discuss issues of relevance to all. The group will focus on readings related to the (im)possibilities for social change in the present context of western society; the seminars will explore relations between theory and action, academy and community.
Recipient: Richard Day (Sociology and Anthropology ($3000).
Training for What? Education for Whom?
This is a series of video productions and supplementary print material that will give adult learner a voice in the future shaping of higher education in British Columbia. A series of 5 programs will be designed in Phase I of the Project, each program featuring interviews with a wide range of adult learners from diverse setting (Adult Basic Education classrooms, computer literacy training sessions, Life Skills centres, and University Degree Programs). The programs will explore in detail the assumptions, the critiques and the proposals of the Training for What document (from the Labour Force Development Board) in the light of current learners' motivations and their perceptions of their needs in preparing for a changing work environment.
Recipients: Stephen Duguid, Graduate Liberal Studies at Harbour Centre; Wayne Knights, Graduate Liberal Studies at Harbour Centre; Mary Ann McEwen, Graduate Liberal Studies at Harbour Centre ($2000).
LifeStrains
Life Straings will focus on and critically engage with developments in biotechnology which are used to control our environment and our lives. The project encompasses four parts: 1) an information kit which will make evident the social and political links often obfuscated by scientific methods of genetic research; 2) a reader examining four topics: the human genome project and new reproductive technologies, intellectual property rights and agribusiness; 3) a resource guide and bibliography; 4) a public lecture and community workshop new developments in biotechnology.
Recipients: Scott McFarlane, English Department, and Sourayan Mookerjea, School of Communication ($4000).
Labour Studies Colloquia
This series of colloquia will seek to develop the notion of Labour Studies in Canada by examining the current trends, issues, and orthodoxies within the traditional disciplines of the university from the perspective of their impact on, or relevance to, the worlds of work and working people . Ten colloquia will be held monthly from September 1996 until June 1997. The colloquia has three principle objectives: to initiate a series of debates about the place of work and workers in Canada and the role of academia in those debates; to encourage a wider understanding of the area of Labour Studies within both Simon Fraser University and the BC labour community; to demonstrate the University's commitment to serving the British Columbia labour community, and to create further supportive links between the university and labour communities.
Recipient: Tom Nesbit, Labour Program, SFU: a Labour Studies Colloquia Fall 1996/97; planning in progress ($4,000).
Minority Rights in Politics and the Ideal of Personal Autonomy: A Talk by Will Kymlicka
Recipient: Sam Black, Department of English ($1,500).
The New Millennium: Not Everything Will Change; Not Everyone Will Notice
Photography exhibit. Recipient: Hari Sharma, Sociology and Anthropology ($3,000).
Learning From Shaugnessy: The Role of Design Guidelines in Adjudicating Community Conflicts
Recipient: Don Alexander, School of Resource and Environmental Management ($3,750)
Sabbath of the Land or Utopia of Work
Survey, seminars and communications tools. Recipients: Tom Nesbitt, Labour Studies and Tom Walker ($3,750).One-Day Seminar on Rene Girard
Recipient: Dany Lacombe, Department of French ($1,000)
Foundational Narratives
An interdisciplinary graduate student conference. Recipients: Sharon Alker and Sarah Parry, Department of English ($2,000).
To Write the Misery of Late 16th Century France
Conference, 1999. Guy Poirier, Department of French ($3,000).
