Spend your summer on beautiful Manitoulin Island
thinking through the challenges of our times, getting
hands-on work experience, and creating a community of
likeminded scholar-workers.
This is a unique
opportunity to push yourself intellectually, physically,
and personally.
EHSI is a full-time, three-week, in-person program combining
rigorous intellectual study with hands-on permaculture work.
It is co-hosted by the Great Lakes Institute and Manitoulin
Permaculture and is taking place near Little Current on
Manitoulin Island.
Participants will assist in the operation of a permaculture
training centre, getting experience in various aspects of
permaculture theory and practice. Meanwhile, participants
will undertake an environmental humanities course based on
this year’s theme. They will follow a reading list, attend
seminars, and submit written responses to readings.
Additionally, guest lecturers will present on special topics
throughout the summer and these events will be open to the
wider community. Field trips will bring participants to
local community organizations and natural highlights for
hiking, art-making, and work-exchange opportunities.
This program is for those who feel that academia is too
often cut off from real life, but also know that the
humanities have a critical role to play in the challenges
our world is currently facing. Become part of a growing
movement of people committed to building new institutions
and a new ethic of lucid, constructive, and collaborative
thinking. The course will be led by GLI organizers Philippe
Mesly and Julia Henderson (see “About Us” in side menu), and
Manitoulin Permaculture’s Justin Tilson.
This year's course theme is "Work, Land, Voice." We will
draw on select texts to illuminate the ways in which our
working relationship with the land influences the range of
communication avenues between ourselves, the nonhuman world,
and the communities of the past and future. How do we give
voice in our political economy to those not yet living, or
to those who do not speak human languages? How is our
intellectual work related to our spiritual, political, and
ecological existence? In particular, we will examine the
history of land use in the Great Lakes area, in order to ask
how can we live rightly here, in this place, and
now, after what has gone before and in view of what
is coming?
Readings will include: Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil, Édouard
Glissant, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, adrienne maree brown,
Bruno Latour, Ivan Illich, Marguerite Porete, and Winona
Laduke.
We are pleased to announce guest lecturers will include
internationally renowned poet-philosophers
Jan Zwicky and Tim Lilburn. Jan and Tim have
each written a number of books of poetry which examine the
meaning of place, Canadian landscapes and colonial
histories, and the intricacies of our politico-spiritual
existence in relation to the nonhuman world. Jan Zwicky's
most recent collection of essays is
Once Upon a Time in the West, and she previously co-authored
Learning to Die
with poet and typographer Robert Bringhurst. Tim Lilburn
formerly taught at University of Victoria; his most recent
work is a book of poetry,
Harmonia Mundi
and a selection of essays,
Numinous Seditions: Interiority and Climate
Change.
Participants will contribute around 25 hours of work per
week to permaculture tasks. Participants will get experience
in each of these areas:
Vegetable gardening, greenhouse production, composting,
carpentry and building, food preparation and preservation,
design principles, and alternative technology.
Tasks will be assigned based on present needs at Manitoulin
Permaculture and participants' interest. Additionally,
participants will occasionally have the chance to work on
some nearby farming operations, learning various methods and
skills associated with each farm.
Dates
July 8 - 26, 2024
Eligibility
The intended audience for this program is young adults, with
no hard upper limit. However, we are unable to accept
participants below the age of 18, due to the additional
liability involved. International applicants are welcome,
but must make their own arrangements to enter the country.
Participants will be accepted on the basis of their
demonstrated maturity and ability to complete the program,
as determined in the application and an interview. No
participant will be turned away on the basis of physical
disability—accommodations will be made to engage everyone in
agricultural or other kinds of work. Between 6-8
participants will be selected.
Cost
We are offering this program on a sliding scale. Our
recommended program fee is $750. However, we have
scholarships available for those unable to afford this fee
and we invite those who are able to contribute more to help
offset the costs of the program. This will include the
course fee, reading materials, accommodations, meals, and
transportation to and from Toronto or nearby areas, if
required.
Schedule
The program will run on a tight work/study rhythm.
Participants are expected to commit to around 25 hours of
permaculture work per week and 15 hours to the study
program, including quiet study hours, scheduled seminars,
presentations, and field trips. Lunch and dinner will be
prepared and eaten together. Phones and computers will be
off-limits during the daytime. Evenings and weekends are
free for leisure.
Accommodations and Meals
Participants will be accommodated in one of several kinds of
tiny home, including prospector tents, geodesic dome, or
mini-cabin. Food will be sourced mainly from the Manitoulin
Permaculture vegetable gardens, with supplementary
ingredients coming from local, sustainable, organic
producers, as much as possible.
Academic Credits
EHSI does not confer any credit, diploma, credential, or
qualification. If you are currently enrolled in an
accredited college or university, we would be happy to work
with your institution to secure independent study,
internship, or study abroad credits if that is a
possibility.
Thank you for your interest in the program. Applications are now closed. For a recap of the 2024 program, including participant testimonials, click here. To receive updates about EHSI 2025, subscribe to our newsletter below.