Congratulations to Classics faculty member, Katherine Blouin, on receiving a 12 Month Chancellor Jackman Research Fellowship in the Humanities for 2025-26!
Katherine's Fellowship Research Project is titled Dystopian Ruins, Trusted Simulacra: Classics, Archaeology, and the Construction of Modern Alexandria and Toronto. Dystopian Ruins explores how Classics and archaeology were instrumental to the modern European colonisation of Alexandria and Toronto between 1805 and 1914. By examining the underbelly of the supposedly trustworthy stories of civilization and cosmopolitanism associated with and performed in these two cities, this project illuminates the role of Classics and archaeology in the establishment of canonical urban narratives, not only in the public imagination, but also on the Land itself. I suggest that these trusted stories have become symbols akin to Baudrillard’s notion of simulacra that, through their occlusive nature, play a foundational role in the creation of the dystopian Anthropocenic present that both cities are reckoning with.
Twelve-month Faculty Research Fellows hold an office on the 10th floor of the Jackman Humanities Building and are central members of the Circle of Fellows. They are University of Toronto tenured faculty members by the time of their fellowship, chosen for their distinction in achievements relative to their career stage, the excellence of their proposed project, and its relation to the annual theme.