The Critical Digital Humanities Initiative: Introducing Our Strategic Plan 

Sep 17, 2022

Strategic Plan 2021-2024

Strategic Plan Cover

A three-year, 2.9M strategic initiative based at U of T, CDHI supports interdisciplinary collaborations bringing together questions of power, social justice, and critical theory in digital humanities research.

Earlier this summer, we launched our Strategic Plan 2021-2024. Read on to learn more about the year-long process and how it helped us to define our strategic priorities, develop a framework for accountability, and inform our work ahead.


Who are we? What do we stand for? What are we working toward?

Over the past year, our team at the Critical Digital Humanities Initiative (CDHI) worked to clarify our mission and vision, and to come up with the clearly defined strategic priorities that are at the heart of what we do.  

We approached our task thoughtfully and deliberately; an extensive consultation process that experts from across the University and beyond guided the strategic priorities, goals, and indicators of our Strategic Plan. It was a collaboration that soon presented us with clear and actionable ways to support and champion accessible, anti-racist, decolonial, feminist, queer digital humanities research — and helped us develop a clear framework for evaluation and accountability.

CDHI's Vision & Mission

Our Vision & Mission  

Our vision is to forge a new paradigm of critical digital humanities scholarship, bringing together the humanities’ critique of power in historical perspective with digital tools for socially transformative research.  

Our mission is to create a large, active, and inclusive network of digital humanities researchers at U of T and to make U of T a world leader in critical digital humanities research, teaching, and training. 

Our Strategic Priorities  

Our work led us to five strategic priorities that included clearly defined, tangible outcomes — these priorities inform everything we do: 

CDHI's Strategic Priorities
  1. Building the NetworkCritical DH scholars are widely dispersed across the University; new dedicated staff, in-kind space, and programming bring cohesion to the latent synergies across U of T. 
  2. Amplifying Research and Translation Impact: We support research initiatives through focused mentorship, coordination of resources, and seed funding for new projects. We support knowledge mobilization to both university and community audiences
  3. Innovating Training Strategies: New training programs provide a key opportunity for convergence among researchers, while also developing highly qualified personnel with the expertise to extend our impact in the public and private sectors. 
  4. Establishing a Sustainability Plan: We provide the structure and fertile intellectual ground to attract external funds to support long-term sustainability and growth.
  5. Enhancing EDI in Initiative Activities: We are committed to promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) by supporting research that embodies EDI in its research questions, methodology, and focus. 

At CDHI, we serve scholars, students, artists, and the community across the Tri-Campus, and are establishing U of T as a global centre of excellence in Critical DH. We connect siloed DH research across the University; focus on issues of power and social justice in historical perspective; embrace public scholarship and community-engaged research; and we connect research networks, acting as a hub for critical DH research in Canada and internationally.   

Through consultations, workshops, fellowships, seed funding, and more, we equip humanities researchers to ask new questions, share new knowledge, and analyze power and inequality in historical perspective. What’s more, our team loves what we do — and we have plenty of fun learning and making new connections along the way! 

Read our Strategic Plan to learn more about the Critical Digital Humanities Initiative, what you’ll see in the coming months, and how the plan is guiding our work through 2024.

Recent News

CDHI Launches Indigenous Digital Practice Initiative for 2023-24 

CDHI is pleased to announce that we are launching the Indigenous Digital Practice initiative, with the goal of building strengths in Indigenous Digital Practice among university and community-based Indigenous researchers.

Dr. Jennifer Wemigwans is leading this initiative and has commenced her position as Director of Indigenous Digital Practice.

2024-25 JHI-CDHI Digital Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship

The Jackman Humanities Institute (JHI) at the University of Toronto, in partnership with the Critical Digital Humanities Initiative (CDHI), offers a twelve-month Postdoctoral Fellowship in Digital Humanities, with a project that fits the JHI’s annual theme, “Undergrounds/Underworlds”.

Call for Applications: Critical DH Co-Working Space

CDHI is now accepting applications for Research Teams in Residence in the Critical DH Co-Working Space.   As researchers make plans for returning to campus, the Critical Digital Humanities Initiative and Jackman Humanities Institute are pleased to welcome DH...
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