Ideas and actions

Welcome to the Faculty of Arts, a dynamic community of students, faculty and staff working in and across the humanities, social sciences and creative arts. Our ideas and actions are propelled by curiosity, creativity, and a deep commitment to contribute to a better world.

The Faculty of Arts acknowledges that we live and work on the traditional territory of ‎the Neutral, Anishinaabeg, and Haudenosaunee peoples. The University of Waterloo is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land promised to the Six Nations that includes ten kilometres on each side of the Grand River. Learn more about territorial acknowledgement.

News

  1. Nov. 12, 2019Preserving Indigenous languages: Songs in the Key of Cree artists visit campus
    Tomson Highway playing piano with Patricia Cano singing

    Indigenous languages are critically endangered throughout the world. This is more than a loss of words: Indigenous languages embody sets of relationships and ways of being in the world that are powerful, transformative, and sometimes very funny. The Songs in the Key of Cree performance highlights the global importance of Indigenous languages.

  2. Oct. 30, 2019Marginalia scholarship leads to discovery of Milton's relationship to Shakespeare
    detail of Milton's notes in Romeo and Juliet of the First Folio

    Serendipity and scholarly expertise came together this fall to solve a puzzle about two giants of the English literary canon. “It’s like if you discovered that Milton was a woman – it would be unavoidable to address that in future studies,” says Katherine Acheson, a professor of English who edited Early Modern English Marginalia, the collection that led to the discovery of how Milton met Shakespeare.

  3. Oct. 25, 2019The Working Centre's founders receive honorary doctorates
    Joseph and Stephanie Mancini in front of The Working Centre

    Stephanie and Joseph Mancini’s response to unemployment and poverty has enabled decades of community development and empowerment for people in downtown Kitchener. Recognized in 2014 with the Benemerenti Medal, a Papal honour, and in 2016 with the Order of Canada, the Mancini's will now receive the highest honour conferred by the University of Waterloo, honorary doctorates in recognition of their outstanding service to society, at the Faculty of Arts convocation ceremony on Saturday, October 26, 2019.

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Events

  1. Nov. 20, 2019In the Children's Best Interests: Unaccompanied Refugee Children in Germany, 1945-1952
    book cover with archival image of children just after World War Two

    The Waterloo Centre for German Studies invites everyone to a talk by Lynne Taylor, University of Waterloo professor of History, in a discussion about her latest book, In the Children's Best Interests: Unaccompanied Refugee Children in Germany, 1945-1952.

  2. Nov. 25, 2019Bridge: Honouring the Lives of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirit People
    Bridge with hundreds of red strips tied to it

    Since 2016, Bridge: Honouring the Lives of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirit People has become an annual installation for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence at the University of Waterloo.

  3. Nov. 26, 2019Mad Meg: remember your name in domestic violence
    Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Mad Meg painting

    As part of the University of Waterloo's 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence, Mad Meg creates a space in which community members can reflect upon their connection to domestic violence, which is often silenced due to shame, grief, and fear. The installation is not intended for disclosures, rather it's a space to witness the lives (in solidarity and as a community) of those who were or are involved in this ubiquitous battle.

All upcoming events