Dr. Jessica Riddell Jarislowsky Chair of Undergraduate Teaching Excellence
Hope Circuits: Rewiring Universities and Other Organizations for Human Flourishing
Out Now With McGill-Queen's University Press
Hope Circuits is a higher-education call-for-action as the sector undergoes an unprecedented paradigm shift. Drawing upon experience in governance, senior administration, and scholarship, the book helps readers develop the conceptual tools that will engender local, embodied, and embedded solutions to some of the academy's most pressing issues.
Hope Circuits invites all higher education stakeholders to expose, name, and reflect upon the complex problems ailing universities in Canada in the following areas: learning, teaching, mentorship, leadership, governance, research, valuing, measuring, and funding. The book does so through provocative stand-alone chapters that bring fresh eyes to longstanding higher-education challenges.
Hope Circuits Institute
A New Way to Experience Hope Circuits
Hope Circuits Institute is a think tank dedicated to systems re-wiring and renewal in the post-secondary sector. It provides specialized "one-size-fits-one" support for organizations in the following areas:
1. Campus engagement
2. Strategic visioning and planning processes
3. Institutional recovery and renewal
4. Capacity building and professional development
5. Board and senate retreats
Why Work with Hope Circuits Institute?
Higher education is undergoing a significant paradigm shift, revealing that systems are both broken and functioning as designed. However, a new paradigm is emerging, and shaping it requires civic engagement with diverse perspectives. The Hope Circuits Institute encourages a systems-level approach with the question: “How do we re-wire universities for human flourishing?”
During this disruptive time, we need practical tools and theoretical frameworks to manage the discomfort of change. HCI can provide your organization with these tools.
How We Help
HCI offers a wide range of programming, from university-wide talks to strategic visioning with boards and senates, hope summits with diverse thought partners from across campus and the sector, book clubs, workshops with faculty, co-creative focussed on student engagement, and systems change management.
Please visit this page for a full menu of our offerings – or contact us to start building customized programming that's right for your organization!
Hope Summits
Discover Hope Circuits in Your Own Context
Purpose
Luminaries – thought leaders, change agents, and innovative thinkers – from across the Canadian post-secondary sector gather for Hope Summits – on campuses, in cities, in rural retreats – to engage in systems-level design thinking to re-wire universities for human flourishing. We gather with the shared belief that we can engage in systems change best when we are collaborating with others, illuminated by the fundamental guiding values of equity, justice, democracy, civic action, and empathy.
Products and Output:
One of the major aims of this gathering is to equip luminaries with the tools and resources necessary for them to go back to their own contexts – campuses, academic adjacent organizations, associations – to re-wire systems in real time: this week, this month, this year. By the end of each Hope Summit, participants will have generated “blueprints” (e.g. white papers, to do lists, actionable plans, commitments to action, curriculum maps, open letters to government, etc.) in their working groups; while the expectations of “product” are purposefully vague, working groups are encouraged to think about one or a set of actionable interventions at a systems level (policies, statutes, strategic management, curriculum, evaluation procedures) that can be implemented at diverse and multiple institutions that will have direct impact on human and ecological flourishing in its various forms.
Past and Upcoming Summits:
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November 3-4, 2023: Toronto, ON – Hope Summit at the Hyatt Regency Hotel with 30 thought leaders from Canadian PSE sector
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December 1-3, 2023: Orford, QC – Student “Generativity is Hope” Summit at Jouvence
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February 21, 2024: University Presidents Virtual Hope Summit
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April 4-6, 2024: Happy Valley-Goose Bay, NL – Hope Summit of the North at MUN Labrador, in partnership with Yukon University, and colleges in the North
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April 16-17, 2024: Ottawa, ON – University Hope Summits at Carleton University and St Paul's University
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May 3-4, 2024: London, ON – King’s College at Western Hope Summit
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May 6, 2024: Montréal, QC – Jarislowsky Advisory Council Hope Summit
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May 8-10, 2024: Kelowna, BC – UBCO Hope Summit
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June 3-10, 2024: Nairobi, Kenya (attending virtually) – three talks on Hope Circuits
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June 10-14, 2024: Niagara Falls, ON – STLHE Hope Summit
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June 17, 2024: Montréal, QC – Hope Circuits book launch at Congress
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July 2024: Charlottetown, PEI – UPEI Hope Summit
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Fall 2024: North Carolina, USA – Credo and AAC&U Leadership Institutes for Women and Gender-Diverse Leaders + Hope Summits at Elon University, Duke University, and UNC Chapel Hill
Visit this page for more information on how you or your organization can get involved with HCI Hope Summits!
