Overview

Increasing visibility of the humanities

Jack Shadbolt, Winter Birds (detail), 1990, silkscreen print on paper. Bau-Xi Gallery.

Jack and Doris Shadbolt exemplified a vision of the humanities and arts whereby the work of the artist was seen as integrated into the natural and social worlds the artist inhabited.

The Jack and Doris Shadbolt Fellowship in the Humanities

Jack Shadbolt was a painter, educator, lecturer, editor, poet, and organizer; Doris Shadbolt was a curator, art historian, and biographer of several important Canadian artists. Together they embraced the natural environment of the Pacific Northwest and the Indigenous cultures of the region, dedicating themselves to what art historian Scott Watson calls “an art of social engagement,” or in Jack’s words, the idea “that art can serve a useful community function.”

The Shadbolts’ legacy is instructive, both for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and for the university community as a whole. The Shadbolts worked in and through educational and cultural institutions to address wider questions in the arts and the collective human endeavour itself.

The Jack and Doris Shadbolt Endowment for the Humanities funds the Shadbolt Fellowship Program as a means of increasing the visibility of the contributions of the humanities and arts to the university community; and engaging the wider community in the work of the humanities and arts.

The Jack and Doris Shadbolt Fellowship in the Humanities Program exists to promote the practices of, and approaches to, the humanities and arts—broadly conceived—as important sites of creative and critical engagement with the major concerns of our times.

Jack and Doris Shadbolt Fellows in the Humanities will be engaged academic scholars, artists, knowledge keepers, practitioners or writers in the humanities and arts. Fellows will  help us imagine how we can make the world we live in better through acts of world-making in the creative arts and/or publicly engaged scholarship in the humanities, in alignment with the fundamental values of advancing reconciliation and equity, diversity and inclusion, communication, coordination, and collaboration.

Resident Jack and Doris Shadbolt Fellows in the Humanities

Commencing in 2019, the Jack and Doris Shadbolt Fellowships in the Humanities Program will support up to five resident Jack and Doris Shadbolt Fellows in the Humanities a year.

Fellows will be individuals who are engaged academic scholars, artists, knowledge keepers, practitioners or writers in the humanities and arts.

Note: Individuals who hold a continuing appointment or are students at SFU are ineligible.  In addition, the project proposed in application for a fellowship normally will not bear a relation to work being done in conjunction with fulfilling requirements for a degree program in which the applicant is enrolled.

Resident Jack and Doris Shadbolt Fellows in the Humanities will be hosted by a Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences academic unit (Department, School or Program) or research centre, and may also have secondary affiliation with an additional sponsoring SFU unit, including other Faculties, the Library, and non-academic units.

Length of term of appointment

Resident Fellow terms of appointment will normally be one year, but no shorter than one semester in length. Normally, the appointment of a Jack and Doris Shadbolt Fellow is non-renewable.

Meet the 2023-2024 Shadbolt Fellows

  • March 21 (Thur) 
  • 7:00-9:00pm 
  • Room 1400-1430, SFU Harbour Centre

Register Now

Applications for 2024-2025 fellowships are now closed 

The application period for the 2025-2026 fellowships will be announced in Summer 2024. 

Questions? Email clint_burnham@sfu.ca.