Beyond the observation that most archives are located in cities, what would it mean to regard the city itself as an archive? Cities are transit points through which immigrant communities move, and so the people themselves are an archive of where they have been, and of course of human hopes. Both local and dislocating, cities are home to reservoirs of memories: some held in the museums, libraries, and public archives, others held in immigrant practices, religions, and cultures. The streets and buildings themselves serve as archives of changes and waves of migration, of technology, planning and public health. The 2011 CHCI Annual Meeting explored the multiple ways that cities are archives for the humanities.

Humanities (Dot) Net: Currents in the Digital Humanities. Convened with our affiliate organization centerNet, the governing question for this day of dialogue with prominent figures in the digital humanities was: what are the big emerging ideas in the humanities and how can they intersect with new technologies? In addressing this question we considered new modes of engagement between research faculty in the humanities and the digital world, and encouraged broader participation in digital research projects.

Host Organization: The Jackman Humanities Institute

The Jackman Humanities Institute advances scholarship at the University of Toronto by creating new networks – both physical and virtual – for interaction among humanities scholars, regardless of their discipline. By offering a variety of ways for students and faculty from the University of Toronto's three campuses to learn from each other, as well as from visiting scholars, the Jackman Humanities Institute is developing new interdisciplinary modes of understanding human experience. The Institute is a community of research and study. It is a portal to the Humanities at the University of Toronto, coordinating ongoing humanities activities, and hosting initiatives such as weekly seminars and international conferences. The Institute's activities provide both graduate and undergraduate students with opportunities for one on one interaction with world-renowned humanists. In its focus on collaborative scholarship across academic boundaries, the Jackman Humanities Institute is designed to stimulate interaction among scholars, providing further impetus for innovative teaching and research projects. Through its breadth and inclusiveness, the Institute promotes the University of Toronto's participation as a leader in the humanities.

Program

SUNDAY JUNE 12 - PRE-MEETING ACTIVITIES

4:00 – 6:00pm
CHCI Group Meetings: New Directors; Associate Directors & Administrators; Humanities for the Environment
Jackman Humanities Institute

6:00 – 8:00 pm
Annual Meeting Opening Reception
Metro Toronto Archives

MONDAY JUNE 13
Innis College Town Hall, University of Toronto Campus

9:00 – 10:30am
Invisible and Objectless: The Contemporary City Archive
Mirko Zardini, Director, Director, Canadian Center for Architecture

11:00 am – 12:30pm
Panel: Cities as Archives

Case Study Utopia?: Towards a Postwar Photographic Urbanism
Dianne Harris, Director, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Can We View the Ecology of Cities as an Archive for Understanding the Health of Populations?
Ross Upshur, Director, Joint Centre for Bioethics, University of Toronto

"Who No Know Go Know": African Urban Scripts
Ato Quayson, Director, Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies, University of Toronto

Chair: Daniel Herwitz, Director, Institute for the Humanities, University of Michigan

12:30 – 1:30 pm
Buffet Lunch

1:30 – 3:00 pm
Discussion Session: Lagos, a film by Bregtje van der Haak
Moderated by Ian Baucom, Director, John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke University

3:30 – 5:30 pm
Walking Tours of Toronto Neighborhoods

6:30 pm
Annual Meeting Dinner ($40US per person)
L’espresso, 321 Bloor Street West

TUESDAY JUNE 14
Innis College Town Hall and Hart House Great Hall, University of Toronto Campus

9:00 – 10:00 am
Archives of Absence
Linda Hutcheon, University Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Toronto
Innis College Town Hall

10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Panel: Religion in Urban Diaspora

Postsecular Paradoxes
Rosi Braidotti, Director, Centre for the Humanities, Utrecht University

Re-inventing Traditional Religions in Urban life in the case of Taipei
Hsien-Hao Liao Secretary General, National Taiwan University

Walking through the Clash of Civilizations
Anouar Majid, Director, Center for Global Humanities, University of New England

Chair: Wayne McCready, Director, Calgary Institute for the Humanities, University of Calgary
Innis College Town Hall

12:30 – 1:30 pm
Lunch with Breakout Discussions
Hart House

1:30 - 2:30 pm
CHCI Business/Membership meeting
Hart House

3:00 - 4:00 pm
Workshop: Collaboration
Michael Bérubé, Director, Institute of the Arts and Humanities, Penn State University
Helena Buescu, Director, Centro de Estudos Comparatistas, University of Lisbon
Gregg Lambert, Director, Syracuse University Humanities Center
Chair: Anthony Cascardi, Director, Townsend Center for the Humanities, University of California, Berkeley
Innis College Town Hall

4:15 - 6:00 pm
CHCI Futures: New Projects and Initiatives
James Chandler, Director, Franke Institute for the Humanities, University of Chicago
Debjani Ganguly, Director, Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University
Daniel Herwitz, Director, Institute for the Humanities, University of Michigan
Chair: Srinivas Aravamudan, President CHCI

After the adjournment of the Annual Meeting, we will encourage all attendees to take part in the many offerings of Luminato, Toronto's Festival of Arts and Creativity. Information on this program can be found at the Luminato website.

HUMANITIES (DOT) NET: CURRENTS IN THE DIGITAL HUMANITIES
WEDNESDAY JUNE 15
Organized by CHCI and centerNet
All sessions at the Jackman Humanities Institute

9:00 am
Welcome and Introductions by Neil Fraistat, Co-Chair, centerNet, and Srinivas Aravamudan, President, CHCI

9:10 - 10:30 am
Bridging the Digital Gap in Humanities Scholarship

Datta-Mine-Ing
John Unsworth, Illinois Informatics Institute, University of Illinois

Reference and Identity in the Online World
Brian Cantwell Smith, Canada Research Chair in the Foundations of Information, University of Toronto
Chair: Katherine Walter, Co-Director, Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and Co-Chair, centerNet
Introduced by Neil Fraistat (centerNet) and Srinivas Aravamudan (CHCI)

10:30 - 10:40 am
Short Discussions of Current Projects in the Digital Humanities

11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Panel: Digital Disciplines

Disciplines and Technologies
James Chandler, Director, Franke Institute for the Humanities, University of Chicago

Post-Archive
Tara McPherson, Associate Professor, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California

Chair: Geoffrey Rockwell, University of Alberta, Professor of Philosophy and Humanities Computing, University of Alberta

12:00 - 1:30 pm
Lunch with Breakout sessions
Chair: Stéfan Sinclair, Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Multimedia, McMaster University
- Centers for Research and the Role of Service
- Infrastructure Planning and University Funding

1:30 - 2:30 pm
Panel: Digital Publics

Challenging Digital Publics
Kathleen Woodward, Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, University of Washington

Sustaining the Humanities: Infrastructure, Partners, Publics
Susan Brown, School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph

Chair: Timothy Murray, Society for the Humanities, Cornell University

2:30 - 2:40 pm
Short Discussions of Current Projects in the Digital Humanities

3:00 - 4:30 pm
Partners Roundtable: Humanities and the Wider World
Cathy N. Davidson, co-founder, HASTAC and John Hope Franklin Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Duke University
Chad Gaffield, President, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
David Greenbaum, Co-Director, Project Bamboo
Mark Surman, Mozilla Foundation

4:30 - 5:30 pm
Closing Session: The Future of the CHCI/centerNet Alliance
Discussion of Scholarly Communications Institute 8, with Abby Rumsey
http://www.uvasci.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/SCI-8-report-final.pdf
Chair/Moderator: Robert Gibbs, Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto