Lecture

Barbara Kopple (1994-1995)

Jan 20, 1995

“Shades of Grey: The Power and Passion of Documentary Film” Barbara Kopple is a two-time Academy Award winning filmmaker. She directs documentaries, as well as narrative television and film. Her recent work includes the film Running from Crazy (2013), about the life of [...]

Edward W. Said (1993-1994)

Nov 03, 1993

“Historical Experience and Multiculturalism” Edward Said was a Palestinian-American academic, political activist, and literary critic who was a founder of postcolonial studies. After receiving a BA at Princeton, he attended Harvard, where he specialized in English [...]

Richard Lewontin (1992-1993)

Feb 09, 1993

“Genetic Determinism and the Problem of Human Equality” Richard Lewontin is Emeritus Professor of Biology and Emeritus Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology in the Museum of Comparative Zoology in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. [...]

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (1991-1992)

Mar 26, 1992

“Art War with the State: The Writer and Politics in Africa” Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is an exiled and widely respected Kenyan playwright, critic and novelist who wrote the novel Matigari ma Njiruungi. He has been at the front of the struggle for democracy and social justice in [...]

Ariel Dorfmann (1991-1992)

Jan 20, 1992

“The Authoritarian State” Ariel Dorfman is a Chilean-Argentinian-American novelist, playwright, academic, and human rights activist. He is an exile from the Pinochet regime in Chile and the child of Holocaust refugees. At Duke University, Dorfman is the Walter Hines Page [...]

Anton Shammas (1991-1992)

Nov 07, 1991

“Muffled Voices, Shifting Grounds: To Story-Tell the Middle East” Anton Shammas is a noted Palestinian editor, TV producer, freelance journalist, author and poet. His book, Arabesques, was selected by the New York Times Book Review as one of the seven best novels of 1988 [...]

Douglas Cardinal (1989-1990)

Mar 12, 1990

“The Museum of Civilization: From Vision to Reality” Douglas Cardinal is an Indigenous Canadian architect best known for his designs for the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau and the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC. He also designed the [...]

Moshe Safdie (1989-1990)

Mar 05, 1990

“Architecture vs. the Arts” Moshe Safdie is an architect, urban planner, educator, theorist, and author. He designed the National Gallery of Canada, as well as the Musee de la Civilisation in Quebec City, the Toronto Ballet Opera House, and Expo ’67’s Habitat. He was born [...]

Angela Davis (1988-1989)

Feb 09, 1989

“Race, Class, and Gender in the Reagan-Bush Era” Angela Davis was a prolific American professor and Black activist. During this time, she co-founded Sisters Inside and Critical Resistance. She first gained prominence as a Black nationalist activist during the 1960s, when she beca

Stephen Jay Gould (1987-1988)

Nov 18, 1987

“Human Equality is a Contingent Fact of History” Stephen J. Gould was an evolutionary scientist, a professor at Harvard, and a leading opponent of scientific creationism. He was also a prominent author. His award-winning book, The Mismeasure of Man, examined the racist [...]

Frank Kermode (1986-1987)

Jan 20, 1987

“Are We Moderns or Post-Moderns? The Present State of the Arts” Frank Kermode was an eminent literary critic and King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at Cambridge. At the time of his talk, he had written and edited 25 books of literary criticism, including books [...]

Mel Hurtig (1985-1986)

Feb 10, 1986

“1986: The Most Crucial Year in Modern Canadian History” Mel Hurtig was a publisher, an author, and a well-known Canadian nationalist. During the 1972 federal election, he ran as a Liberal in West Edmonton, finishing second. In 1973, he left the Library party and co-founded [...]