Research in the humanities
Pablo Restrepo-Gautier is an associate professor in the Department of Hispanic and Italian Studies. His main research areas are seventeenth-century Spanish literature and eighteenth-century Spanish exploration of the Pacific Northwest. "Language expresses the culture and the worldviews of a people," he says. "Literature is part of the legacy.”
Professor Ingrid Holmberg of Greek and Roman Studies specializes in early Greek poetry. One of her longstanding research interests is in the significance of 'metis,' or cunning intelligence, in those works. “If you’re going to go on in the humanities, having a foundation in classics can be very beneficial.”
French professor Sada Niang is fascinated by the possibilities presented by the cinema to African artists. His recent work is focused on African documentary cinema. “There’s very little work done on African documentaries."
Latin American Studies program founding director Beatriz de Alba-Koch researches the literature and art of Spanish America, particularly México, from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. "Whether you’re looking at food, at dress, at arts—it’s pulsating, it’s vital. It’s a dynamic part of the world to study.”
Hélène Cazes is a professor in the Department of French and director of the Medieval Studies program. She studies cultural legacies and literary reception, with particular interests in the Medieval and Renaissance periods. “You need to be curious and ready to grow intellectually,” she says.
Provoke. Engage. Inspire. Enrich. Research in the Humanities helps us understand who we are, where we come from and where we are going. We learn to understand the past, describe and explain the present, and influence the future.
In 2018, our faculty members have had a 90 per cent success rate in receiving Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grants. In 2017-18, 28 researchers were awarded more than $2.34 million in SSHRC funding.