Why We All Need to Be Thinking about Technoscience and Society

University of Toronto Press is delighted to announce a brand new book series called Technoscience and Society, with the first books due to publish next year. The series encourages shorter, punchier scholarly books providing a cross-over forum in which both established researchers and new and emerging scholars can present their assessments on the changing relationship between technoscience and society. In this post, series editor Kean Birch discusses what we can expect from the new series.

Semiotics: The Study of Meaning (Part 1)

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be featuring a new three-part blog series called “Semiotics: The Study of Meaning” from Marcel Danesi, author of The Quest for Meaning: A Guide to Semiotic Theory and Practice, Second Edition. Since the initial publication of the first edition back in 2007, the world has changed dramatically with the advent of online culture, new technologies, and new ways of making signs and symbols. In this series, Danesi will explore what semiotics is all about, why it is so important for gaining insights into our elusive and mysterious human nature, and how semiotics is applied today.

History and Biography in Harbin

Harbin: A Cross-Cultural Biography offers an intimate portrait of early-twentieth-century Harbin, a city in Manchuria where Russian colonialists, and later refugees from the Revolution, met with Chinese migrants. In this post, author Mark Gamsa gives us a behind-the-scenes look into how his book came to life and tells us the personal story of Baron Roger Budberg, a physician who, being neither Russian nor Chinese, nevertheless stood at the very centre of the cross-cultural divide in Harbin. 

From Exclusivity to Inclusivity: Making Archaeology an Equitable Profession

Now in its third edition, Introducing Archaeology continues to be a thoughtful and engaging textbook for introductory-level students. In this post, co-author Stacey L. Camp talks us through some of the updates to the third edition and shares an excerpt from chapter five of the book on inclusivity within archaeology.

“Seen but Not Seen”

Donald B. Smith, professor emeritus of history at the University of Calgary, is one of Canada’s most renowned historians, having written extensively on Aboriginal Canada, Quebec, and the history of Calgary and Southern Alberta. His final book to be published in a distinguished career, Seen but Not Seen explores the history of Indigenous marginalization and why non-Indigenous Canadians failed to recognize Indigenous societies and cultures as worthy of respect. In this post, Smith discusses what we can expect from his final book which covers fresh ground in the history of settler-Indigenous relations.