Dear friends of the UMIH, I am very glad to reach out to you with information for the first series of events organized and supported by the UMIH, in what promises to be another year full of exciting initiatives. The first two events are related to the ongoing exhibition of ancient Greek papyrology:
-Ancient Greek Papyrology Public Exhibit "The Ancient Inbox: 2000 Years of Documents" August 17-September 30, 2026 Archives and Special Collections Room 330, Elizabeth Dafoe Library, University of Manitoba FREE
-Public talk with Dr. Mike Sampson, Department of Classics Tuesday, September 22, 2026 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Archives and Special Collections Classroom, 3rd floor Elizabeth Dafoe Library FREE
The Summer Institute of Papyrology took place at UM June 29-July 31, 2026. Offered by the American Society of Papyrologists and hosted by the Department of Classics, this institute brought together over 20 participants and guest lecturers from as far away as Egypt and Australia to Winnipeg to work with a mix of private and public documents that have not been studied before. The students and academic researchers took workshops on reading Ancient Greek cursive, transcribed the documents to English and prepared research papers for the Society.
Supported by: Connection Grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; UM Institute for the Humanities; UM Department of Classics; American Society of Papyrologists
Also, marked your calendar for the following two events (see attached posters, please circulate them):
-"Silence, Loss, Love, and the Lone Voice: the Poetry of Grief " Neil Besner (Professor Emeritus, UW)
Tuesday, October 6th 1pm 409 Tier Building
Poems writing loss depend upon invoking language within the chime of silence. Often, the silence is as eloquent as the language it begets: the voice of a grieving poem echoes within this dual vocation, which merges in a singular longing tone. A grieving poem bestows upon its readers its loving regret; as points of departure, let's begin by thinking about how Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art" and William Carlos Williams's "Danse Russe" commemorate as they celebrate related loneliness and loss.
This event is organized by the UMIH Research Cluster Poetry, Grief, and Mourning. It is the first in a series of poetry talks, writing workshops, and a book club this Fall and Winter. The series is based on the idea that reading and writing can be meaningful practices for individuals grieving the loss of a person, place, or something else that is fundamental to the individual or community's life. Through poetry talks and a book club, we will hear from and interact with established poets and scholars. Through hands-on workshops, we will deepen our own poetic writing skills. All activities in the series are open to UofM students, staff, faculty members, and members of the wider community
-Book Launch, Black Market Intimacies. The Transpacific Sexual Economy of the Korean War, with Dr. Jeongmin Kim, Department of History Wednesday, October 7 1-3pm Senior Common Room, 239 St. John's College
Black Market Intimacies (Stanford University Press, 2026) reveals how illicit exchanges of money and commodities involving sexual encounters between Korean and Japanese women and US soldiers provided the material foundations of the regional economy across Korea and Japan during the Korean War. Against the conventional view that illicit exchanges exist outside the formal economy and legal regulations, Jeongmin Kim examines how the interlinked markets for transactional sex and goods crucially constituted the transpacific formation of US military base capitalism in post-World War II East Asia
This event is supported by the Centre for Human Rights Research, the Department of History, the Faculty of Arts, and the Institute for the Humanities
Stay tuned for more events!
Jorge A. Nállim Professor, Department of History Director, Institute for the Humanities 405 Fletcher Argue Bldg. University of Manitoba Winnipeg, MB R3T 5V5 jorge.nallim@umanitoba.camailto:jorge.nallim@umanitoba.ca https://umanitoba.ca/arts/jorge-nallim
Sanda McGee Deutsch and Jorge A. Nállim (eds.), Antifascism(s) in Latin America and the Caribbean: From the Margins to the Center (Cambridge University Press, 2025). For more information, visit our blog, https://cambridgeblog.org/2025/08/antifascisms-in-latin-america-and-the-cari...