University of Toronto Mississauga
Harriet M. Sonne de Torrens, MA, MISt, PhD (University of Copenhagen, DK), L.M.S. (post-doctoral licentiate, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of Toronto) is an established academic librarian (appointed at the University of Toronto Mississauga) and researcher in medieval art history, iconography and digital humanities (affiliated with the Centre of Medieval Studies, UofT), who has won numerous awards. She is the founder and co-director of the digital humanities project for more than 25 years, Baptisteria Sacra Index: An Iconographical Index of Baptismal Fonts (BSI, founded in 1997; 25,427 baptismal fonts documented; SQL DB), a global iconographical index of baptismal fonts and settings from the 3rd to 17th century; 122,000+ digital images; 1,750+ inscriptions (Arabic, Danish, Dutch, English, Old English, Flemish, French and Norman-French, Greek, Gaelic, Old German, Old Armenian, Italian, Latin, Runes, Spanish, Swedish, Nahuatl (Aztec) glyph); and 3,460+ bibliographical references. BSI is currently being prepared for global open release and to connect via the LOD paradigm with international DH projects for the semantic cloud. H. Sonne de Torrens has published extensively on medieval baptismal fonts, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0840-9877 and has two books be to released in 2024: Crusader Rhetoric and the Infancy Cycle On Medieval Baptismal Fonts In the Baltic Region (Brepols, Fall 2024), see https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503599380-1; and Academic Librarianship in Canada Post-COVID Perspectives in a Neoliberal Era eds Jessica E. Shiers, Harriet M. Sonne de Torrens, Joanna Szurmak, and Meaghan Valant (Litwin Books & Library Juice Press, Summer 2024), see website https://litwinbooks.com/books/academic-librarianship-in-canada/. She is a keen advocate for research in the digital humanities. More recently, she worked with international colleagues and the CDHI at UTM in the organization of the international symposium, The Future is Now: A Symposium on Collaborating for Sustainability in Digital Research (Sept. 29, 2023).