Director's Message

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There is no other program like the School for Advanced Studies in Arts and Humanities.
As Director, I anticipate the excitement of recruiting each year’s new cohort of engaged, diverse, and accomplished students. It is a delight to watch them learn and grow alongside each other, and to see them develop into creative, discerning, and ethical graduates. SASAH equips them with the critical, creative, and professional skills they need for responding to the evolving needs of their many communities, and ready for the next steps in whatever path they choose.

I am deeply committed to SASAH’s interdisciplinarity, to the synergistic possibilities of the whole range of Arts & Humanities perspectives. This diversity of approaches helps each student to develop their own creative, inclusive and informed responses to complex questions and challenges as they arise. As a part of this, language learning is an important element in strengthening our students’ self-awareness, intercultural competence, and readiness for global engagement.

I am proud of the fact that our small interactive classes are led by the finest instructors in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities. They encourage creativity, critical thinking, and the application of diverse forms of knowledge to students’ understanding of human experience.

I support SASAH’s experiential learning as a foundational element of our program. Students develop professionalism and ethical reflection through internships and community-engaged learning with a variety of community partners both locally and internationally.

I am deeply conscious of my good fortune in benefitting from the work of SASAH’s past Directors, Joel Faflak and Patrick Mahon, two outstanding and dedicated human beings who have built SASAH into a strong and thriving learning environment. I am so honoured to be part of the extended SASAH community, including students, faculty, staff, community partners, and our Advisory Council of dedicated and accomplished Arts & Humanities alumni.

At SASAH, we all learn together to meet the world with a well-honed skill set and a great range of knowledge, but most of all with humility, generosity, and humanity.

Dr. Aara Suksi, SASAH Director 

 

Learn about our past SASAH Directors here.