University of Toronto Press

Welcome to Typical University, where Cinderella is an adjunct, the Tortoise and the Hare share a tenure line, Bacchus runs the study abroad office, and everyone is as exhausted and beleaguered as the typical college employee. At Typical, Rumpelstiltskin will not be helpful with the tenure review process. Robin Hood may be breaking rules in the dorms, but that doesn’t mean his resident director wants to be known as the Sheriff of Nottingham Hall. Snow White has her hands full with seven unruly advisees. And that guy at the conference with more of a comment than a question? It might be Narcissus. In Bedtime Stories for Academics, beloved stories from folklore, mythology, and literature are transformed into clever, irreverent satire of university staff and faculty’s everyday challenges. With an arch tone and a biting comedic lens, this collection explores experiences and concerns, such as labour, hierarchy, and identity, shared across the entire population of higher education workers: graduate students confronted with the realities of their new academic career path; postdocs and new instructors grasping for a decent position as their non-academic friends thrive; seasoned professors who’ve seen it all; and the college staff who keep the university running. For current and former students, the stories offer a glimpse at the strife behind the scenes at every institution. For faculty and staff, the tales offer commiseration and hope: if Little Bo Peep, Prometheus, Huckleberry Finn, Pinocchio, Midas, and Ebenezer Scrooge can survive academia, maybe we can too.

Gender, Peace, and Power-Sharing examines the rise of two powerful norms in international conflict resolution and post-conflict governance: power-sharing as a model of ethnic inclusion, and the women, peace, and security (WPS) agenda, which calls for greater representation of women and gender perspectives. This book raises questions about the theoretical, discursive, and institutional space for gendering power-sharing: Given that power-sharing approaches overlook or otherwise exclude gender considerations, does it mean power-sharing is necessarily ‘bad for women’? After 25 years of implementation, has the WPS agenda made a difference for women’s inclusion in peace processes and post-conflict political institutions? To what extent can power-sharing practices and the WPS agenda work constructively together to produce more inclusive, equitable, and robust modes of conflict resolution and democratic governance in divided and/or war-torn societies? Through a feminist "alternative telling," this book captures both the tensions and transformative potential of these frameworks in shaping contemporary conflict resolution and post-conflict peacebuilding practices.

Out of the countless experiences in a lifetime, why are certain narratives chosen, repeated, and preserved by aging individuals? The Ten Stories suggests that most elderly people return to a core set of approximately ten stories as they reflect on their lives. The significance of those narratives lies not in their factual details, but in the values and meanings they convey. Most stories told are set during late adolescence and early adulthood – often eight or nine out of ten originate during this period. The stories are also audience-specific, as they are shaped by the relationship between teller and listener. The book explores how stories told by mothers are different than those told by fathers; how stories told to sons differ from those told to daughters; and how the stories of immigrant parents differ from non-immigrants. Social scientist and health policy researcher Mary Ann McColl provides insight into what older adults may be expressing through repeated stories. She shares twenty recurring themes emerging from the stories – such as overcoming obstacles, showing kindness, regrets and resentments, and standing up for what’s right – that represent an opportunity for connection and understanding, rather than a source of frustration. This book offers practical strategies for listening more effectively and appreciating those narratives as intentional, meaningful acts of communication.

Finding Your Moral Compass places enduring Jewish values in a 21st century context, offering a thoughtful and enriching guide for those seeking ethical direction and spiritual grounding through and in Jewish tradition. In this collection of 40 essays, Rabbi John L. Rosove explores foundational Jewish values and helps readers affirm their Jewish identity while drawing connections between Jewish teachings and universal moral principles. Rosove combines classic scholarship, compassion, and personal experience in his reflections upon Judaism’s age-old moral and ethical traditions and Jewish identity as they have evolved over centuries and since the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel. As a thought-leader at the forefront of social justice and liberal Israel activism in North America, Rosove draws from his personal experiences to present moral clarity and an ethical compass for liberal Jews and all who are interested in contemporary Judaism. With accessible prose and heartfelt insight, this collection of essays invites liberal Jews – and anyone interested in finding moral clarity – to consider how Jewish wisdom can serve as a compass in navigating today’s world.

Rescuing Reason tackles the pressing crisis of civic engagement and public deliberation, drawing on Canadian and international examples, with a particular emphasis on Canada’s democratic landscape. The book argues that K-12 public education has become too narrowly focused on utilitarian aims – such as financial literacy and job preparation – at the expense of the humanities, especially history. Educators Alan Sears and Carla L. Peck contend that this shift has undermined the cultivation of well-rounded citizens equipped for meaningful participation in civic life. This book proposes that a renewed emphasis on history education, taught with depth and rigour, can foster civic reason, empathy, and a shared sense of civic truth. Through detailed frameworks and practical approaches, the book outlines how history can be taught to develop students’ abilities in civic reasoning and engagement, ultimately strengthening democracy. Rescuing Reason makes a compelling case for the vital role of history education in nurturing civic competencies. The book offers a clear, actionable plan for educators, policymakers, and the public to reorient education towards preparing students not just for the workforce, but for active, thoughtful citizenship in a complex democratic society.

In Stained Glass, Flora Cassen traces a Jewish life shaped by family and history, moving between medieval Europe and the present to connect lived experience with the longer arc of Jewish history. Drawing on her upbringing in Antwerp’s Jewish community and her grandparents’ escape from Nazi-occupied Europe to the Belgian Congo, Cassen writes from within a past in which powerlessness rubbed shoulders with power. From her later life in the United States, she considers Jewish life in Europe as a mirror that reflects enduring questions about vulnerability and belonging. Stained Glass asks what it means to leave Europe behind and to encounter in American Jewish life a vitality that is strikingly beautiful yet never fully settled.

Life Lines is an ethnographic exploration of elder care as a creative and relational process, centred on the author’s journey caring for his aging father. Over five years, these shared moments opened up new understandings of his father’s inner world, revealing the social and personal forces that shaped his life, dreams, and disappointments. Blending personal narrative with ethnographic insight, Life Lines invites readers to reflect on the profound and often challenging journey of caring for an aging parent. As generations age and more families navigate the realities of advanced old age, this book offers a hopeful vision: caregiving can be more than a duty – it can become an opportunity for parents and adult children to forge deeper, more emotionally enriching relationships. Through art, conversation, and shared discovery, Life Lines shows how we can move beyond care fatigue and disconnection, transforming the later years of life into a time of renewed connection, understanding, and appreciation.

Red Missionaries explores the communication strategies of French and German Socialist parties during the inter-war period (1920-1939). With the help of eighteen newspapers – ten Bavarian and eight Breton – alongside a rich variety of both primary and secondary sources, this book examines how the Section française de l’Internationale ouvriere (SFIO) and the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) navigated political messaging in two traditionally conservative regions. Focusing on electoral campaigns and May Day-related events between 1919 and 1939, the study challenges the prevailing view of these parties as inflexible and doctrinaire. Instead, it reveals a surprising adaptability and nuance in their approaches, questioning the notion that both parties inevitably became more bureaucratic and conservative during this period. Through detailed analysis of press coverage and party activities, Red Missionaries uncovers unexpected similarities between the SFIO and SPD, suggesting that their strategies were more aligned than previously assumed. Ultimately, this book not only reconsiders established narratives but also deepens our understanding of socialist politics in inter-war Europe.

Northern Grit offers a compelling look at leadership through the lived experiences of women who have shaped government at all levels. Drawing from real interviews and years of executive coaching, the book reveals the challenges, strategies, and emotional realities of public sector jurisdiction. Structured around key career strategies and vital actionable skills, Northern Grit weaves together vivid stories and practical advice on topics like political acumen, mentorship, conflict navigation, innovation, and inclusion. Each chapter ends with a “Coach’s Corner,” offering reflective exercises to help readers apply insights to their own leadership journeys. Northern Grit is a celebration of courage, resilience, and the power of diverse voices. It challenges old assumptions and shows what it truly means to lead with integrity in today’s complex public sector. Perfect for aspiring and current public servants, educators, and allies, this book provides inspiration and practical tools for navigating public service – and for empowering the next generation of leaders.

In a remarkable tale of tragedy, war, family conflict, and imperial diplomacy, The Black Box presents a collective biography of four generations of women in an elite Nova Scotia family during the late-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century. These intelligent, educated, artistic women were pragmatic and autonomous persons who contributed to the development, maintenance, defence, and management of the Borden family's material resources. Illustrating the changing nature of the time, the book explores the adventurous and curious lives of women who moved at the highest levels of society. It examines how the synergies of their private and public lives redefined their place in society during an era when the state and religion became more active and private lives more public. It also demonstrates the role and importance of the material components of social power, such as dress, residence, clubs, and travel. Drawing on archival material retained by the family, the book reveals how the Borden family defined, secured, and sustained its status in society. The Black Box is a unique record of an elite family's response to the changing political economy of imperial Canada.

Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) was a fifteenth-century Italian Renaissance polymath, whose creative, humanist energies in art, literature, and science remain influential today. This first English translation of his short but rich dialogue Theogenius introduces readers to one of the greatest minds of the Italian Renaissance. Written in the Italian vernacular and infused with wit, philosophical depth, and humanist values, this Renaissance dialogue explores a number of questions: how to face adversity and melancholy? How to understand the role of fortune in human life? How to grow old with grace? How to cultivate the art of meaningful conversation? Ideal for classroom use and accessible to a broad readership, the book includes a detailed introduction on Alberti’s life and intellectual context that highlights his achievements across disciplines including philosophy, literature, mathematics, cartography, art theory, and architecture. Distinguished historian Timothy Kircher’s extensive notes identify many of Alberti’s classical sources for the first time, revealing his engagement with ancient texts. Theogenius’ playful, multi-voiced structure brought to life in Kircher’s unprecedented translation captures the imagination and reflects Alberti’s broader mission: to extend Renaissance humanism beyond elite circles and into wider cultural life.

Since the year 2000, Quebec’s film industry has burgeoned with a parabolic increase in the number of films released and the production of a wide array of film genres. Building on the notion of ‘Quebec national cinema’ outlined by Bill Marshall, this book analyses French-language fiction features that construct images of the past. Scholar of Quebec cultural studies, Amy J. Ransom, explains how the studied films participate in the nation’s ‘historical imaginary’, revisiting and revisioning the past for present-day audiences and constructing new ‘sites of memory’ for twenty-first-century Québécois viewers. Each chapter examines a film genre explicitly engaged in representing the past: the historical film per se, the historical fantasy, the literary adaptation, the biopic and memoir, and the period film. The Historical Imaginary offers analyses of significant films and filmmakers while also providing a broader overview of these genres’ development in Quebec. From examining rigorous historical documents like Le 15 février, 1839 (2001) to quirky fantasies like Je me souviens (2009), and from the heritage films Nouvelle France (2004) and Maria Chapdaleine (2021) to the biopics Louis Cyr, l’homme le plus fort du monde (2013) and La Bolduc (2018), Ransom’s analyses travel across time, space, and genres. In this insightful cultural investigation, three generations of filmmakers are brought together to highlight their influence upon the construction of a Québécois national identity.

After a century of warnings, the 500-year reign of the work ethic is over. The work ethic has shaped our character, given purpose to our lives, and driven civilization forward. Now, as technology replaces human labour, we are faced with a profound dilemma; this crisis will leave us in a deep civilizational malaise, profoundly bored, ethically impoverished and without direction. In The Leisure Ethic, David Edward Tabachnick challenges the moral authority of work ethic and puts forth a long forgotten ancient alternative to work that can help reform and redirect our efforts toward building lives of ethical leisure. Through a historical and philosophical exploration of work, laziness, technological unemployment, and leisure, Tabachnick seeks to free our thinking and action from the shackles of the obsolete work ethic. Far from a curse, The Leisure Ethic demonstrates that the end of work can be a turning point that frees us from drudgery and opens the door to reimagining human purpose beyond productivity.

An emphatic deep dive into the continual movement required of migrants, The Horizon Line studies a relatively recent and little-explored social and migratory phenomenon. For about a decade, the somewhat unprecedented occurrence of double migration has been observed in Italian Bangladeshis engaging in a second move to London. Told through the lens of a fictionalized ethnographer and presented in the form of accessible and captivating comics, this book traces the concept of onward migration and the lives shaped by it. Through interviews with Italian Bangladeshis who made the difficult decision to re-uproot their lives in search of better, social scientists and comic artists Francesco Della Puppa, Francesco Matteuzzi, and Francesco Saresin come together to highlight the joys and struggles of this new (e)migration. The authors offer insights on the dynamism of these “new Italian citizens.” and on the migration routes shaped by the continuous global transformations, and on the social, political, and economic situation of Italy and the Southern European countries. Moreover, by following the trajectories of Stefano the researcher, the book provides valuable insight into the modalities, processes, difficulties and turning points of conducting ethnographic research. An essential contribution to migration studies, The Horizon Line gives voice to diasporic communities and sheds light on their most current trials and tribulations.

Sport and Violence Against Women offers an incisive examination of violence against women in the world of athletics. Drawing on decades of award-winning sociological research, authors Walter S. DeKeseredy, Martin D. Schwartz, and Leah Oldham provide an accessible yet rigorous analysis that bridges empirical evidence, theoretical frameworks, and policy considerations. The book confronts urgent questions, exploring why elite, amateur, and professional sports often serve as strongholds for rape culture, misogyny, and abuse; the roles of male athletes, coaches, and authority figures in perpetuating physical, sexual, psychological, and economic violence against women and girls; and how a culture of toxic masculinity persists in sports, even as other sectors of society make strides toward greater gender equity. By exploring the political, economic, and organizational factors that sustain these harmful dynamics, the authors illuminate the broader social forces at play and challenge readers to consider what can be done to address these pressing issues. Impactful and relevant, Sport and Violence Against Women is essential reading for scholars, policymakers, journalists, athletics enthusiasts, and laypeople alike – sparking debate and demanding action in the ongoing fight against violence toward women in sport.

Democracy isn’t broken – it’s stuck. Around the world, people are growing angry and polarized – not because they’ve stopped caring, but because democracy has stopped evolving. The result isn’t apathy – it is a rising sense of political futility. In Democracy’s Second Act, Peter MacLeod and Richard Johnson argue that the first act of democracy – anchored in voting rights and representative government – achieved extraordinary gains. Free elections, near-universal suffrage, and the peaceful transfer of power reshaped societies and expanded human freedom. But these achievements represent the promise of democracy, not its completion. Their book offers a hopeful, clear-eyed vision for what comes next. Drawing on groundbreaking citizens’ assemblies in Ireland, Canada, and France – as well as democratic innovations from more than a dozen countries – MacLeod and Johnson show how we can build on the legacy of the first act by creating new institutions that tap into the talents, judgement, and capabilities of ordinary people. They make the case that the public isn’t a risk to be managed, but a powerful resource ready to be harnessed and that the future depends on giving citizens real responsibility, not just a periodic vote. Smart, story-driven, and deeply grounded in political theory and practice, Democracy’s Second Act is for changemakers ready to move beyond cynicism and rebuild democracy for a new era.