Video and lecture notes are now available for a series of talks that took place last month at the Logic and Higher Structures workshop at CIRM-Luminy with the following abstract:

Many introductions to homotopy type theory and the univalence axiom neglect to explain what any of it means, glossing over the semantics of this new formal system in traditional set-based foundations. This series of talks will attempt to survey the state of the art, first presenting Voevodsky’s simplicial model of univalent foundations and then touring Shulman’s vast generalization, which provides an interpretation of homotopy type theory with strict univalent universes in any ∞-topos. As we will explain, this achievement was the product of a community effort to abstract and streamline the original arguments as well as develop new lines of reasoning.

This was a small portion of the activity that took place that week, which features a mini-course by Egbert Rijke on “Daily applications of the Univalence axiom” and a host of exciting talks. Thanks to the organizers for putting together such a great event!

I may continue to polish the lecture notes as time permits, so comments, corrections, and suggestions are very welcome. And if you’d like to engage in a considerably more elaborate discussion of the status of initiality, join us on the HoTT zulipchat.