Cassiciacum on Manitoulin is a full-time, three-week, in-person program combining rigorous intellectual study with hands-on permaculture work. Taking its name from a retreat undertaken by St. Augustine and his friends in the year 386 CE, the program seeks to create an alternative space for the pursuit of humanistic study that is grounded in practice and community. Aiming to promote a new ethic of lucid, constructive, and collaborative thinking, it is hosted by the Great Lakes Institute of Public Humanities on the site of
Manitoulin Permaculture near Little Current, Ontario.
Participants will assist in the operation of a permaculture
training centre, getting experience in various aspects of
permaculture theory and practice. Meanwhile, participants
take part in a humanities seminar based on
this year’s theme. They will co-construct a reading list, attend
seminar discussions, and submit written responses to readings.
Additionally, guest lecturers will present on special topics
throughout the summer and these events will be open to the
wider community. Field trips will bring participants to
local Indigenous organizations and natural highlights for
hiking, art-making, and work-exchange opportunities that showcase
the natural and human history of the island over thousands of years.
This year’s theme examines the dynamics of friendship across multiple disciplines, tracing the term’s pre-modern philosophical and theological definitions to contemporary geo-political usage. Together we will track the term and its functions, evaluating ways in which it may open or close semantic, philosophical, and moral possibilities of relation in a time of major upheavals.
We will look at how ancient and medieval thinkers understood friendship, whether as a mirror of our mortal condition, a virtue which can be cultivated, a divine gift, or a way of participating in the order of creation. As we consider its relevance in the context of climate change, mass migration, technological revolutions, and political instability, we will situate friendship within a field of related concepts, including kinship, charity, sainthood, diplomacy, and companionship. In political discourse, for example, friend is usually understood as a synonym for ally, or defined through its opposite, the enemy. A friend may be conceived as someone on our side, set against others; yet, unlike kinship, friendship is chosen, and thus attests to a freedom in our relationships beyond the tribal. To accept another person in friendship is, in this sense, to refuse the social categories imposed on us, thus to reclaim the particular over the statistical, the generic, or the ideal. It is therefore worth asking how friendship might emerge in opposition to an “us and them” approach to politics, how it has figured in treaty relationships between Indigenous peoples and settler Canadians, and what are the possibilities of entertaining friendship as a model of relating to the non-human world.
A reading schedule will be developed collectively by organizers and participants following acceptance into the program. Some ideas for readings include: The Epic of Gilgamesh, Cicero, Augustine, Al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi, Aelred of Rievaulx, Peter Lombard, Michel de Montaigne, Ivan Illich, Simone Weil, Elena Ferrante, and Achille Mbembe.
Participants will contribute around 20 hours of work per week to permaculture tasks. They will get experience in the following areas: vegetable gardening, greenhouse production, composting, carpentry and building, food preparation and preservation, design principles, and alternative technology.
Tasks will be assigned based on present needs at Manitoulin Permaculture and participants’ interest. Additionally, participants will occasionally have the chance to work on some nearby farming operations, learning various methods and skills associated with each farm.
Dates
July 6-24, 2026
Eligibility
The program is open to all. However, we are unable to accept participants below the age of 18. International applicants are welcome, but must make their own arrangements to enter the country.
Participants will be accepted on the basis of their demonstrated maturity and ability to complete the program, as determined in the application and an interview. The site is fully accessible and no participant will be turned away on the basis of physical disability—accommodations will be made to engage everyone in agricultural or other kinds of work. Between 5-7 participants will be selected.
Cost
We are offering this program on a sliding scale. Our recommended program fee is $750. However, we have scholarships available for those unable to afford this fee and we invite those who are able to contribute more to help offset the costs of the program. The course fee covers program organization, reading materials, accommodations, meals, and transportation to and from Toronto or nearby areas, if required.
Schedule
The program will run on a tight work/study rhythm. Participants are expected to commit around 20 hours of permaculture work and 25 hours of study per week, including quiet reading hours, scheduled seminars, presentations, and field trips. Phones and computers will be off-limits during the daytime. Evenings and Sundays are free for leisure.
Accommodations and Meals
Participants will be accommodated in one of several kinds of tiny home, either prospector tents or mini-cabins. All food will be provided and sourced as much as possible from the Manitoulin Permaculture vegetable gardens, with supplementary ingredients coming from local, sustainable, organic producers. Dinners will be prepared and eaten together.
Academic Credits
GLIPH does not confer any credit, diploma, credential, or qualification. If you are currently enrolled in an accredited college or university, we would be happy to work with your institution to secure independent study, internship, or study abroad credits if that is a possibility.
Applications for the 2026 Summer Humanities Program are now closed. If you have already begun preparing an application and wish to request an extension, or for any questions, reach out to us at info@gli-ph.com.
