Archipelagos of Meaning

Marking a quarter-century of inquiry, this conference reflects on the enduring role of the humanities in interpreting, critiquing, and reimagining the human condition. Over twenty-five years, the conference has brought together scholars, educators, and practitioners to explore how meaning is formed across culture, language, knowledge, and public life. This year’s theme, Archipelagos of Meaning, takes the archipelago as a way of thinking about how humanistic inquiry moves across plural and interconnected worlds. Islands and mainland, urban centres and rural regions, institutions and everyday life form distinct yet related sites of meaning. The humanities help us read these worlds in relation: attending to their stories, symbols, tensions, and practices of sense-making.