Captivate is UTSC's Digital Storytelling Competition and is made possible by the Sandford Borins Award in Digital Communications. It gives UTSC students the opportunity to create a short digital story - a video, podcast, website, or another format - that tells their story, and learn key skills that every industry professional and content creator needs to know.
The UTSC Library is proud to celebrate Tamil Heritage, not just in January, but year-round through our physical and digital collections, as well as unique opportunities for students. A few Tamil initiatives in the library are celebrated below!
Social Anthropologist Prof. Brenda Beck has dedicated her career to researching the folklore of TamilNadu. She has donated the digital versions of her research archive to the UTSC Library. The archive consists of photographs, audio, animations, comics, field notes, and research publications.
Between 1964 and 1966, she lived in the village of Olappalayam (ஓலப்பாளையம்), 6 miles East of the town of Kangayam in Tamil Nadu. During this time, Dr. Beck collected a wealth of primary research materials with the assistance of K. Sundaram.
This collection, curated and described in collaboration with a postdoctoral Fellow at UTSC (Shanmugapriya) makes available images, documents, and digitized recordings describing festivals, ceremonies, and rituals. In particular, the collection of folksongs and folk tales are distinctive to the Kongu Nadu region. Together, this collection provides a window into the cultural landscape of Kongu Nadu in the mid 1960s.
Hosted by the UTSC Digital Scholarship Unit, the Digital Tamil Studies Virtual Symposium on January 21, 2023, was open to the public and attended by individuals from across the globe!
Digital Tamil Studies is a wide-ranging field of digital scholarship that engages interdisciplinary scholars, computing experts, and the public in the production of open research and resources in Tamil.
This virtual event brought together our research and collections development community to promote projects and discuss the intersection of Tamil language collections and digital research.
Presented in both Tamil and English, the symposium featured a series of speakers, as well as a workshop on Historical/Counter-Mapping QGIS.
The recorded sessions will be made available online soon!
The UTSC Library Storytelling Fellowship provides up to three students the opportunity to spend eight months immersed in the art and practice of storytelling.
Our 2022-2023 Fellows, Senthujan Senkaiahliyan and Bhargavi Arora are currently planning this year’s story, to be released late-spring 2023.
Senthujan Senkaiahliyan is a graduate student at the University of Toronto currently enrolled in the Masters of Health Administration program at the Dalla School of Public Health. He is also pursuing a masters specialization in South Asian Studies at the Asian Institute within the Munk School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. He previously completed an undergrad in human biology and socio-cultural anthropology at the University of Toronto. He works in the field of using artificial intelligence for health systems improvement and increasing access to quality and efficient health care. Furthermore he is passionate about Tamil studies exploring topics related to oral histories, generational migration patterns, and kinship relations. He hopes to promote storytelling methods to inspire Tamils in the diaspora to reconnect and preserve narratives within their own families.
Bhargavi Arora is a psychology specialist co-op student currently in her second year. Even though she is from North India, she has always had a sense of admiration for the traditional Tamil culture which led her to learn Bharatanatyam professionally. She is a voracious reader and likes to explore classical literature from different parts of the world. Interacting with people from different cultures and learning about them is one of her favourite things to do. Bhargavi shared, “I am very grateful to UTSC library for providing this opportunity to learn from esteemed anthropologist Dr. Beck and for giving me a chance to exhibit my passion for storytelling and script-writing".
Are you interested in storytelling? Applications are now open for the 2023-2024 Fellowship!
Apply for the UTSC Library Storytelling Fellowship 2023-24
Interested in more Tamil collections? Check out our digital Tamil collections.
The U of T Scarborough Office of the Vice-Principal Research and Innovation and the UTSC Library would like to encourage UTSC students from all disciplines to submit applications for the annual UTSC Undergraduate Research & Creative Forum, and the UTSC Undergraduate Research & Creative Prize.
Each initiative provides an opportunity for students who have excelled in research, scholarship and creative activities to showcase their work or win cash prizes. A third opportunity for recognition exists through the U of T Libraries System.
UTSC Undergraduate Research & Creative Forum - Application deadline: February 14, 2023, 11:59 PM EST (Midnight) Deadline extended to February 17, 2023 12:00 PM EST (Noon)
UTSC Undergraduate Research & Creative Prize - Application deadline: March 31, 2022, 12:00 PM EST (Noon)
Patricia and Peter Shannon Wilson Undergraduate Research Prize - Application deadline: April 16, 2023 11:59 PM EST
For more information, refer to the links above, contact your liaison librarian, or join us at 1 of 2 drop-in info sessions at the UTSC Library: January 31, 2023 10:30-11:30am or February 1, 2023 2:30-3:30pm.
Please join us on January 19, 2023 from 2-4pm in the Instructional Centre (IC) Atrium for the Celebration of Book Authors, featuring UTSC faculty, librarians and staff who have authored or edited a book since 2020.
As the University of Toronto Scarborough campus springs back to life, it is time to catch up on some of the many celebrations missed throughout the pandemic.
Please bring your colleagues, family and friends to help celebrate this milestone achievement. Books will be available for purchase at the event.
All are welcome to this event, hosted by the Office of the Vice-Principal Academic & Dean with the UTSC Library in collaboration with University of Toronto Press (UTP).
Please RSVP online. Questions can be directed to DeanHR@utsc.utoronto.ca.
Unable to attend the in-person celebration or interested in learning more about the books and individuals being celebrated?
Browse print and/or electronic copies of the books through the University of Toronto Libraries and read at your leisure! Links to additional information about the books and the UTSC affiliated authors and editors are also provided.
Five African start-ups championing innovative healthcare solutions were named winners of the Health Entrepreneurship Challenge 2022 following a rigorous U of T-led incubation program that supports early-stage entrepreneurs at collaborating network institutions across 20 African countries.
This UN-award winning pilot initiative of the African Impact Challenge (AIC), in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, is supported in collaboration with three University of Toronto accelerators - The BRIDGE, Health Innovation Hub (H2i), and ICUBE - as well as programming support from expert African investors, founders, and mentors.
Trans Day of Remembrance is observed annually and internationally on November 20 to honour the memory of the trans people who have lost their lives as a result of transphobic violence that year.
Trans and nonbinary people continue to face marginalization and discrimination in the form of transphobia. Transphobia can manifest as negative attitudes and beliefs about trans people, irrational fears and misunderstandings, a disbelief or discounting of a person’s pronouns or their gender identity, misgendering, derogatory language and name-calling, and bullying, abuse, and violence. Transphobia and associated stigma can also create barriers (and deterrents) for trans and nonbinary people’s access to and inclusion in services, resources, and communities. It is a collective responsibility to work to reduce these barriers. At the University of Toronto, we are committed to challenging marginalization and discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression.
Trans Day of Remembrance was first observed in 1998 by trans advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith who hosted a vigil in memory of Rita Hester, a trans woman who had been killed that year. The vigil became a commemoration of all of the trans lives lost that year to violence and has since become an annual event.
The week before November 20 is also Transgender Awareness Week, which aims to increase awareness, visibility and knowledge of trans people and the issues faced by members of trans communities. It is also an opportunity to celebrate the lives of trans and nonbinary people and the contributions they have made and continue to make. This year, Trans Awareness Week will be recognized November 13-19, 2024. –– First published by the U of T Sexual & Gender Diversity Office
UTSC Librarian Whitney Kemble assembled this list of U of T Libraries resources that aims to celebrate and educate on Trans voices and experiences, identity, rights and activism, health and care, and fiction!
Trans power: Own your gender (Roche, 2020)
All the things they said we couldn't have : stories of trans joy (Oakes-Monger, 2023)
Trans/portraits: Voices from transgender communities (Shultz, 2015)
TransNarratives: Scholarly and creative works on transgender experience (Carter and Brunton, 2021)
I’m afraid of men (Shraya, 2018)
Pageboy : a memoir (Page, 2023)
Trans youth stories: An intergenerational dialogue after the "trans tipping point" (Herriot and Fry, 2021)
Understanding trans health: Discourse, power and possibility (Pearce, 2018)
Queering nutrition and dietetics : 2SLGBTQ+ reflections on food through art (Joy and Aston, 2023)
Trans care (Malatino, 2020)
The trans guide to mental health and well-being (Lees, 2022)
The autistic trans guide to life (Purkis and Lawson, 2021)
Growing older as trans and/or non-binary : a support guide (Kermode, 2021)
Last update: November 2024
During September 15 – October 15, we recognize Hispanic Heritage Month in Ontario and Latin American Heritage Month in Canada.
These recognition include celebrating the voices, cultures, and histories of peoples with backgrounds and ancestry from Spain, Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. September 15 marks the day that El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua became independent. September 16 marks Mexico’s independence and Chile celebrates its independence on September 18. In Mexico, rather than celebrating Columbus Day, Mexico celebrates Dia de la Raza which recognizes the many Indigenous Peoples of Mexico along with their mixed European heritage.
To commemorate Hispanic and Latin Heritage Month, we collaborated with Aluna Theatre and RUTAS 2024 International Performing Arts Festival community to curate the following list of books available in the U of T Libraries (UTL) and the Toronto Public Library systems to learn more about Hispanic and Latin authors and stories.
From September 26 to October 6, RUTAS 2024 returns with an exciting lineup of theatre, dance, installations, a photo exhibition, talk backs, workshops, a cabaret, and a national gathering of Latinx theatre artists. International artists from Mexico and Chile, together with talent from our diasporas, explore stories of identity, displacement, and resistance through the theme of Personal Cartographies.
Full programming and tickets are available now at rutas.ca
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This program is designed to support Black students and young professionals in the early stages of their entrepreneurial journey by providing training on business foundations and technology tools, as well as access to skilled industry professionals. The Nobellum True Blue Accelerator Fund will be matched by the University of Toronto's True Blue Fund to support Founders as they further advance their business ideas and careers in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (S.T.E.M.) industry.
Nobellum is dedicated to collaborating with the Black business ecosystem and community partners to support aspiring entrepreneurs with the goal of assisting in the startup of 100 Black-led businesses in S.T.E.M. by 2025.
This summer the University of Toronto hosted over 60 participants in the 100 Strong Academy, a month-long summer program for Black boys between 11 to 14 years old.
"My mom told me about this and said it was for Black boys, so I chose 100 Strong," says 12-year-old Jeremiah Paradys-Taylor, who was excited to choose the Academy for summer camp. "I felt like I would be more comfortable."
The 100 Strong Academy summer program is an initiative of the 100 Strong Foundation, a group created by a collective of Black professional men "with the ultimate aim of uniting young boys with supportive mentors," according to the foundation's website.
An early-stage collaboration between The BRIDGE at the University of Toronto Scarborough and a researcher will work to ensure that Ghanian cashew farmers receive equitable wages for their valuable export: cashews.
The partnership was initiated by Edwina Apaw, manager in U of T Scarborough's Office of the Vice Principal Academic & Dean whose PhD research at the University of Reading's Henley Business School highlights how Indigenous knowledge is utilized by African entrepreneurs in various industries, specifically in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.
