at the University of Toronto
Frances Garrett‘s work with trauma-informed teaching makes the University of Toronto News, as she works to address students’ well-being in her classroom. Read more at https://www.utoronto.ca/news/u-t-prof-puts-students-well-being-syllabus – or you can check out her YouTube channel for a few videos about and for her students, such as this one:
The Myanmar Manuscript Digital Library (MMDL) is a collection of Pali and Pali-Burmese manuscripts that are hosted at U of T’s Robarts Library. Doctoral candidates Rachelle Saruya and Andrew Dade, are working to develop a website, archive new files, and create a Burmese language site for colleagues in Myanmar. In Toronto, these digital files are overseen by Kelli Babcock, Digital Initiatives Librarian, Robarts Library, and Priya Murugaiah, a Manager of Infrastructure for Informational and Instructional Technology.
The Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library’s Tibetan pechas (Image credit: Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library)
With the University of Toronto hosting Canada’s most prominent Tibetan Studies program, and Toronto itself hosting the world’s largest Tibetan community outside of Asia, in 2013, the UTL undertook a partnership with Columbia University Libraries to develop our Tibetan Studies collection. As a result of this partnership, the University of Toronto’s Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library now holds the largest Tibetan collection in Canada, making it the country’s principal resource for knowledge about this important region.
Given the successful outcomes of the Tibetan Studies partnership since 2013, the University of Toronto Libraries has now renewed this cooperation agreement. The new collection development and service agreement is for a further three years, and includes jointly sponsored acquisition trips to enhance the Tibetan collections of both universities, a shared point of service for research consultations, original cataloguing of Tibetan materials acquired by both institutions, as well as a newly expanded addition to the agreement, original cataloguing of unique titles acquired only by the University of Toronto Libraries.
The faculties and students of both institutions will continue to enjoy the benefits of the innovative service model created by this partnership.
Libbie Mills was recently featured in an Arts & Science article on her introductory Sanskrit class, where she talks about how her interdisciplinary student body includes a lot of computer science students. You can read more at “‘It’s good coding’: Computer science students drawn to classes on Sanskrit, a 3,500-year-old language“.
Congratulations to two of our graduate students for their contributions to an edited volume published this month, Hidden Lands in Himalayan Myth and History: Transformations of sbas yul through Time, in Brill’s Tibetan Studies Library. Annie Heckman‘s chapter is on “Early Echoes of sbas yul Padma bkod in the Lifestory of Thang stong rgyal po,” and Barbara Hazelton contributed a chapter on “Padma bkod through the Lens of Two Pilgrimage Guidebooks: Walking the Body of Rdo rje phag mo” as well as two translations, “’Ja’ tshon snying po’s Guidebook to the Hidden Land of Padma bkod” and “Bdud ’joms gling pa’s Hidden Sacred Land of Padma bkod.” There’s also an article by Frances Garrett, called “Healing Mountains and Hidden Lands.” This book had its origins in the Himalayan Borderlands research project, which organized a conference several years ago, co-sponsored by the Ho Centre and Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai Yehan Numata Program in Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto.
