Get Involved

Collaborate with us!

Grassroots communities are at the heart of our project. Our partners range from community-based practitioners and organizations, to emerging researchers and senior scholars in an array of disciplines which together make up the transdisciplinary lens of ICH and sustainable livelihoods. 

We have representation from east to west in Canada and we will learn from our international colleagues while also mobilizing knowledge abroad from Canada.

Our partners

If you would like to learn more about some of the ICH work in Canada, check out some of these organizations and their work:
Become a partner!

Student Opportunities

Are you a graduate student interested in the topic of cultural heritage?

Our UNESCO Chair network welcomes students interested in any area of research pertaining to intangible cultural heritage and sustainable livelihoods. Although we are engaged in multiple projects, we also welcome students to join us and research diverse issues in intangible cultural heritage in Canada and internationally, including:

  • Researching on ICH definitions, interpretations, and policymaking, domains, among other things, the application of the 2003 UNESCO Convention,

  • Examining ICH as it relates to access and ownership, intellectual property, ethics, safeguarding & transmission, inventorying/documentation, and rights

  • Exploring the role of ICH in memory, cultural landscapes, war & peacekeeping, identity & well-being, land-based traditions, and in other contexts

  • Examining avenues for safeguarding particular or specific foodways, musics, performances & fine arts, knowledges, folklore, and cultural traditions and practices

  • Investigating at-risk heritage and the role of museums, NGOs, and governments in safeguarding ICH

  • Assessing the role of valuation and payments for ecosystem services as they relate to land-based heritage, environmental assessments, sustainable livelihoods

  • Supporting Indigenous cultural heritages through community-based research and responding to the TRC’s Calls to Action

  • Strengthening languages: engaging in language revitalization, language acquisition, language transmission, and linguistic education as well as analyze linguicide and bilingualism and official language policies (we are also interested in French-speaking students to assist with francophone research)

  • Enhancing ICH education through creative pedagogies, storytelling, the role of non-formal education, etc.

Are you a graduate student interested in the topic of cultural heritage?

Community Collaborations

Since communities create ICH and keep it alive, they have a privileged place in our work.
Communities are at the heart of our work, and we are ready to connect with organizations, grassroots initiatives, and individuals from communities across Canada and beyond.

If you would like to share success stories, need help finding relevant resources, or are seeking guidance turning an idea into a project on cultural heritage and sustainable livelihoods, please be in touch! 

We have experience working with diverse and multi-faceted communities – from tiny, rural, and remote to large urban centres, and from grassroots to institutional levels, as well as with communities of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. 

We can offer:

  • Assistance on project planning in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage through documentation, celebrations and events, facilitating transmission, and linking living heritage with community development

  • Advice and guidance on language revitalization, language learning, language tools

  • Networking with communities who are successfully safeguarding living heritage

  • Connections to relevant organizations, funders, and resources working on heritage management and at-risk heritages

  • Potential to formally collaborate on mentor-apprenticeship pilot projects

  • Ability to formally collaborate on research projects, provide student interns, direct capacity-building opportunities

Get involved today!