The JHI is celebrating nearly four years of organizing strategic programming and events for the tri-campus humanities and social sciences community. Our priority areas are to generate meaningful supports for publication, knowledge mobilization and securing research funding.
Participation and engagement have steadily increased, reflecting the impact of our initiatives. The annual JHI Writing Retreat, now in its third year, has helped advance faculty writing projects—many to completion—including journal articles, book proposals, book chapters, and final revisions to major monographs. The retreat offers dedicated time for both deep focus and peer engagement through curated prompts and goal setting, often rekindling excitement and enthusiasm for long-form writing. As the JHI supports divisions across multiple disciplines, we are also able to foster lasting connections between tri-campus colleagues leading to substantive potential for cross-disciplinary collaborations and a wider support network for researchers. This year, we have enhanced the program to support more faculty members to bring their projects to fruition.
The JHI SSHRC Grant Writing Bootcamp, our flagship event, is a cornerstone for faculty members navigating the complexities of composing a grant application. Designed to support the SSHRC Insight and Insight Development competitions, the program offers expert guidance from faculty members with successful applications, divisional research support, and structured writing sessions. The bootcamp’s uniquely collaborative format organizes participants in small groups to review each other’s’ materials, culminating in a fulsome final peer review. We are pleased that the bootcamp has improved funding award rates across the tri-campus humanities and social sciences divisions – more than half of the participants in both the 2022 and 2023 bootcamps were consistently successful in their competitions, with 2024’s results still pending.
The JHI SSHRC Grant Writing Bootcamp and the JHI Writing Retreat provide structured support and have built vibrant faculty communities – we hope that you can join us this year!