News & Events
Application Period is now closed for the 2025-2026 academic year.
Past Speakers
The annual, interdisciplinary SASAH Speakers' Series was previously titled "Public Matters." It invites nationally and internationally renowned leaders across arts and humanities' disciplines to discuss leading topics of concern.
The Robert and Patricia Duncanson Lecture Series supports an annual lecture in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities offered through the School for Advanced Studies in the Arts and Humanities. While the lecture is open to the entire University community, it is a key component of the SASAH Speakers’ Series and a vital part of our program’s curriculum.
Scroll through, or navigate using the links below to access descriptions and recordings of previous SASAH Speakers' Series and Duncanson Lectures Series presentations.
2023-2024: Britt Wray; Joe Goodkin; Maryam Golafshani
2022-2023: Natalie Álvarez and Jennifer Lavoil; Julie Bevan; Petra Kuppers and Stephanie Heit; John Borrows
2021-2022: Spy Dénommé-Welch; Dr. Erell Hubert; David Usher; Summer Bressette; Dr. Min Song
2020-2021: Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas; Dr. Jillian Horton; Gu Xiong and Yu Gu; Jeff Thomas and Bear Witness; David Simmonds
2019-2020: Timothy Caulfield; Peter Meineck; Naomi Oreskes; Kent Monkman
2018-2019: Matthew Teitelbaum; Dr. Tracy Isaacs and Dr. Samantha Brennan; Shelley Niro; Maryn McKenna; Nino Ricci; Sam Thomas
2023-2024
Britt Wray, "Generation Dread: How to Cope with Climate Change"
The Robert and Patricia Duncanson Lecture
Britt Wray is a ground-breaking researcher and storyteller, and a growing voice around the mental health effects of climate change.
In “How to Cope with Climate Anxiety,” Britt demonstrates the emotional and existential effects of living in a warming world—and how we can get through them together. Although anxieties surrounding the climate crisis can cause us to burn out, give up, and question deeply personal decisions like whether to have children, working through these anxieties can unlock a deep capacity to care for and act on climate issues.
We need to look at the climate crisis as a whole—not just the political or technological issues, but the mental health consequences as well. These effects can be severe, even leading people affected by climate events to experience PTSD and a loss of identity. To combat this, Britt presents practical tips and strategies for healthily and productively dealing with our emotions, living with climate trauma, and strengthening our communities so we can combat climate change together.
Britt has a PhD in Science Communication from the University of Copenhagen, and she is an advisor to the Good Energy Project for climate storytelling and the Climate Mental Health Network. She’s the Director of the Chair’s Special Initiative on Climate Change and Mental Health in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of Stanford Medicine. Britt’s acclaimed book Generation Dread, about finding purpose during the climate crisis, was named a finalist for the 2022 Governor General’s Literary Awards. Presented 29 Februrary 2024.
Joe Goodkin, The Blues of Achilles
Joe Goodkin is a Chicago-based singer/songwriter with a BA in Classics from UW-Madison. He has performed his original song retellings of Homer's Odyssey and Iliad over 450 times in all 50 US States, Canada, Greece, Italy, and The Netherlands.
The Blues of Achilles is a set of original songs composed by Joe Goodkin for guitar and vocals that tell the story of the Iliad through the eyes of the characters: Achilles, Patroklus, Briseis, Helen, Priam, and more. The performance evokes the original oral tradition of epic bards that stretches back millennia and frames the poem in an accessible way (both musically and narratively) for modern audiences. Presented 27 February 2024.
Maryam Golafshani, "Literary Lessons on Doctoring: Reflections on Madness and Medicine Through Feminist Literature and Theory"
Maryam Golafshani is a senior medical student at the University of Toronto. She was part of the first cohort to graduate from Western University’s School for Advanced Studies in the Arts and Humanities (with a second Major in English), and then stayed at Western to complete her Master’s at Western in Theory and Criticism. Drawing upon her interdisciplinary education, Maryam has significantly contributed to developing the health humanities in Canada through research, education, and public engagement. Presented 7 November 2023.
2022-2023
This year's SASAH Speakers’ Series focuses on creative ways of knowing, seeking to make room for a range of voices and Arts & Humanities perspectives.
Natalie Álvarez and Jennifer Lavoie, "Leveraging the Performance Paradigm and Community Co-Design to Improve Police Response to Mental Health Crisis"
Jennifer Lavoie is cross-appointed to the Departments of Criminology and Psychology at Wilfred Laurier University, and her academic background is primarily based in training as an experimental forensic psychologist. She conducts nationally and provincially funded research focused on police interactions with people in mental health crisis. Her program of work investigates the effectiveness of police de-escalation and crisis response training models, the use of co-response models, and police decision-making during encounters with citizens in mental health crises. She is currently leading and working in partnership on a number of research initiatives to develop, produce and test de-escalation and crisis intervention training for frontline police officers using high fidelity, immersive virtual reality simulations. Presented on March 14, 2023.
Julie Bevan, "Honouring & Amplifying Interconnections: How Museum London Will Meet This Moment"
Julie Bevan is a passionate leader and a believer in museums as places of belonging, imagination, and transformation. In 2022 she joined Museum London as Executive Director. Before coming to London, ON, Julie spent over a decade in Nanaimo, BC, on Snuneymuxw territory, where she served in roles at the City of Nanaimo and Nanaimo Art Gallery, collaborating with artists and creative teams to realize contemporary art projects and learning programs, revitalizing cultural spaces, and building organizational capacity and community. She has served in positions at Glenbow Museum (Calgary), Belkin Art Gallery (Vancouver), and the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), and has been involved with Canadian Art Museums Director's Organization, BC Museums Association, and others, as part of a commitment to learning, mentorship, and contributing to a thriving sector. Julie holds a BA Honours from Carleton University in Art History (2004) and a MA in Critical and Curatorial Studies from the University of British Columbia (2006) and was a fellow at the Getty Leadership Institute (2017). She is raising two children with her partner Chad.
Presented at Western University, March 9, 2023.
An Afternoon with Cameron Bailey
The Robert and Patricia Duncanson Lecture
In this talk, Cameron will use unique perspective to tie the importance of humanities scholarship and cultural engagement to a meaningful search for ways to exert a positive influence.
Petra Kuppers and Stephanie Heit, "Disability Culture Perspectives: Pain and Joy on the Land"
Dr. Petra Kuppers, a writer, artist, and Anita Gonzalez Collegiate Professor of Performance Studies and Disability Culture at the University of Michigan, and Stephanie Heit, a queer disabled poet, dancer, teacher, and codirector of Turtle Disco, a somatic writing space on Anishinaabe land in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
In their presentation, "Disability Culture Perspectives: Pain and Joy on the Land," they will tell us about disability culture engagements with material creative practices on land and water. Presented on November 18, 2022.
John Borrows, "Finding Life’s Patterns: Storytelling’s Role in Anishinaabe Law"
The School for Advanced Studies in the Arts & Humanities at Western and the Words Festival are pleased to present an evening visit with John Borrows, the inaugural Loveland Chair in Indigenous Law at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law. "Anishinaabe law draws from stories. These stories contain standards, principles, processes, criteria, indicia, benchmarks, guides, and precedents to make decisions and facilitate order. In other words, law (in part) measures conduct in relation to patterns found in stories. In this event, I will tell Anishinaabe stories drawn from my own experience to illustrate this point." Presented on November 9, 2022.
2021-2022
Spy Dénommé-Welch, "Reflections on Composing from the Land"
Dr. Spy Dénommé-Welch (Algonquin-Anishnaabe) is an interdisciplinary scholar, composer, librettist/playwright, and educator. His work focuses on Indigenous arts, music creation, performance practice, and education. As an artist, Spy has written, composed, produced and directed works for theatre, opera, and orchestra including the full-length opera Giiwedin (2010); Bike Rage (2013); Bottlenecked (2017); Contraries: A Chamber Requiem (2018); RADAR (2019); Transpositions (forthcoming). His work also examines collaborative methods and approaches in arts practice and education, and he is currently co-leading research on Land-based composition and sonic archival methods. Spy recently joined Western University as an Associate Professor and CRC (Tier II) in Indigenous Arts, Knowledge Systems and Education in the Faculty of Education. Presented on March 31, 2022.
David Usher, "The Power of Human Creativity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence"
The Robert and Patricia Duncanson Lecture
Drawing from his unique experiences --- as the lead singer of Moist; a multi-platinum, four-time Juno-award winning musician; a bestselling author, and as the founder of the artificial intelligence creative studio Reimagine AI --- David Usher revealed why now, more than ever, creativity and innovation are the only way forward.Dr. Erell Hubert, "Being an Archaeologist in a Fine Arts Museum: Scientific and Ethical Challenges of Working with Unproveninced Collections"
Dr. Erell Hubert is curator of pre-Columbian art at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. She holds a Ph.D in Archaeology from the University of Cambridge. Her fieldwork-based research explores the role of material culture in processes of identity negotiation in pre-Hispanic colonial contexts along the north coast of Peru. At the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, she was associate curator of the exhibition Peru: Kingdoms of the Sun and the Moon presented in 2013 and was co-curator of the Arts of One World new permanent galleries which opened in November 2019, overseeing, among others, the galleries devoted to the arts of Latin America. Presented on February 15, 2022.
Summer Bressette, "Land-based Storytelling"
Summer Bressette is Anishinaabe from Kettle and Stony Point First Nation – She is strongly rooted in her family and community stories and has worked as an artist/storyteller for nearly ten years. Summer completed her Masters degree in Indigenous Education at Western University in 2013 and in 2015. She was an invited presenter to the 7th Annual Healing Our Spirit Worldwide Conference in New Zealand.
Summer is an educator, curator and new playwright. Her first play, “Love Song for the Thunderbirds,” debuted at the Grand Theatre in October 2021. Summer currently works for the London Arts Council and also co-curated an exhibit for Museum London and the Lambton Heritage Museum called “Nnigiiwemin – We Are Going Home” to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the Ipperwash Crisis.
Summer is excited to share her love of storytelling and inspire others to follow their curiosity. For Summer, storytelling is a way to connect with community and build kinship, to decolonize education, and to centre Indigenous ways of doing and seeing. Presented on December 2, 2021.
Dr. Min Song, "The Practice of Sustaining Attention to Climate Change"
Dr. Min Hyoung Song is professor of English at Boston College, where he is also the director of the Asian American Studies Program and a steering committee member of the Environmental Studies Program. Among his publications is the forthcoming book Climate Lyricism (Duke University Press, 2022) and the four-volume series he general co-edited entitled Asian American Literature in Transition (Cambridge University Press, 2021), as well as shorter pieces in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Public Books, and The Chicago Review of Books. Presented on October 4, 2021.
2020-2021
Our 2020-21 SASAH Speakers' Series is titled Creativity, Innovation, Justice: Mentors & Storytellers. We continue to explore the role of the humanities in culture and discern how social and economic justice, creative expression, and innovative problem solving will be increasingly important to our futures.
Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, "We Have Always Dreamed of (Afro)Futures: The Brownies' Book and the Black Fantastic Storytelling Tradition"
Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas is Associate Professor in the Literacy, Culture, and International Educational Division at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. A former Detroit Public Schools teacher and National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, she is a former chair of the NCTE Standing Committee on Research, and served on the 2020 National Book Awards Young People’s Literature judges’ panel. Currently, she is co-editor of the journal Research of the Teaching of English. Her most recent book is The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games (NYU Press, 2019).
Presented with SASAH’s Curriculum Project Course: “Spaces of Their Own: Space, Place, and Power for Children and Young Adults”. Co-sponsored by the Department of English & Writing Studies. Presented on March 25, 2021.
Dr. Jillian Horton, "We Are All Perfectly Fine"
The Robert and Patricia Duncanson Lecture
In partnership with the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, the Schulich Medical School, the School for Advanced Studies in the Arts & Humanities, the Department of English and Writing Studies at Western, and the Words Festival.
Dr. Horton discussed her new book We Are All Perfectly Fine: A Memoir of Love, Medicine and Healing. Dr. Horton is an award-winning medical educator, writer, musician and podcaster. After graduating from English at Western, she completed a residency and a fellowship in internal medicine at the University of Toronto and has held posts as an associate dean and associate head of internal medicine. As a teacher of mindfulness, she is sought after by doctors at all stages of their careers.
After her lecture, Dr. Horton is joined by Dr. Andrea Lum (Vice Dean of Faculty Affairs at Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry) for a Question & Answer period.
Gu Xiong and Yu Gu, "Two Rivers: Artistic Practice Across Generations"
Gu Xiong is from China and now lives in Canada. He has exhibited nationally and internationally, in 70 solo exhibitions; three public art commissions; over 130 prominent national and international group exhibitions, including Every.Now.Then: Reframing Nationhood (Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada, 2017); the 55th Venice Biennale Parallel Exhibition, Voice of the Unseen, Chinese Independent Art 1979–Today (Venice, 2013); and the ground-breaking exhibition, “China Avant-Garde,” at the China National Museum of Fine Arts (Beijing, 1989). His work is represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the China National Museum of Fine Arts, and the Vancouver Art Gallery, among many other museums and private collections.
Yu Gu’s award-winning flms explore the clash between individuals and systems of power. Her latest feature documentary, A Woman’s Work: The NFL’s Cheerleader Problem, world-premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival in competition. Yu co-directed the feature documentary, Who is Arthur Chu? (Slamdance 2017, Hot Docs 2017, CAAMfest 2017 Centerpiece). Presented on February 24, 2021.
Jeff Thomas and Bear Witness, "Conversations: Past/Present/and Future"
Jeff Thomas is an urban-based Iroquois, self-taught photo-based storyteller, writer, pubic speaker, and curator, living in Ottawa, Ontario. Jeff has works in major collections in Canada, the United States, and Europe. In 1998, he was awarded the Canada Council’s Duke and Duchess of York Award in Photography, Royal Canadian Academy of Art (2008), and The Karsh Award in photography (2008). He is a recipient of the REVAL Indigenous Art Award (2017), and the Canada Council Governor General Award in the Visual and Digital Arts (2019).
DJ Bear Witness (Ehren Thomas), along with DJ 2oolman (Tim Hill), make up the internationally acclaimed electronic group, The Halluci Nation, formerly known as A Tribe Called Red. The group emerged from an Ottawa club party called, Electric Pow Wow, which began in 2007. ATCR has described its “powwow step” music as “the soundtrack to a contemporary evolution of the powwow.” The group was nominated for the Polaris Music Prize in 2013 and 2017, and has won three Juno Awards, including Breakthrough Group of the Year in 2014, and Group of the Year in 2018. Presented on February 3, 2021.
David Simmonds, “Building Brand. Exercising Purpose. The Role of Communication in Driving Change"
David Simmonds is a member of the expert panel at the Canadian Centre for the Purpose of the Corporation. Most recently, David was Senior Vice President, Communications and Public Affairs for McKesson Canada. A member of the company’s executive leadership team, David was responsible for internal communications, external affairs, media relations, government relations, corporate and event marketing, corporate social responsibility and strategic partnerships for McKesson’s business units in Canada. His quests included, Evan Dell'Aquilla, Zach Stafford, Del Ray McKesson, Jamie Watt, Helen Kennedy, and Sam Andrey. Presented on October 15, 2020.
2019-2020
The theme for the 2019-2020 SASAH Speakers' Series is "Evidence for the Future."
Timothy Caulfield, "Saving Science in the Age of Pop Culture Spin"
Timothy Caulfied is a Professor in the Faculty of Law and School of Public Health at the University of Alberta, and a Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy. He is the author of The Vaccination Picture; The Cure For Everything: Untangling Twisted Messages about Fitness, Health and Happiness; and Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything? When Celebrity Culture and Science Clash, and is also the stsasah ar of Netflix’s A User’s Guide to Cheating Death. Presented on March 9, 2020
Peter Meineck, "The Future of Ancient Greece: Activating the Classics Today for Tomorrow"
In this illustrated talk, Professor Peter Meineck will explore how ancient Greek literature can be newly enacted and placed powerfully into service for society today. This talk will focus on Professor Meineck’s work with the American veteran community and the immigrants and refugees. This work uses ancient works to highlight and contextualize important issues facing marginalized communities. In turn, we learn much more about the ancient works from people who have experienced similar kinds of events to those described in the texts. Professor Meineck will suggest that activating classical works in this way can help us to envision alternate and even better futures for our societies. Presented on February 25, 2020.
Naomi Oreskes, "Why Trust Science"
The Robert and Patricia Duncanson Lecture
Naomi Oreskes is Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. She is an internationally renowned geologist, science historian, and author of both scholarly and popular books and articles on the history of earth and environmental science, including The Rejection of Continental Drift, Plate Tectonics: An Insider’s History of the Modern Theory of the Earth, and in recent decades has been a leading voice on the issue of anthropogenic climate change. Her research focuses on the earth and environmental sciences, with a particular interest in understanding scientific consensus and dissent. Her 2004 essay “The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change” (Science 306: 1686) has been widely cited, both in the United States and abroad, including in the Royal Society’s publication, “A Guide to Facts and Fictions about Climate Change,” in the Academy-award winning film, An Inconvenient Truth. She is a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow. Presented on 14 November 2019.
Kent Monkman, "Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience"
Kent Monkman discusses his Shame and Prejudice exhibition, currently on view at Museum London, beginning with a brief background summary of his painting practice, followed by a description of his research and curation of museum objects in relation to his own artworks. Shame and Prejudice is a solo exhibition of Monkman’s paintings and installation works that examines the impact of genocidal Canadian policies on Indigenous people since Confederation.
This is a Public Matters and the Museum lecture in partnership with the School for Advanced Studies in the Arts & Humanities and the London Public Library. Thank you to Streaming Inc. for sponsoring the live feed video being streamed into the overflow seating area.
Image: Kent Monkman, "Nativity Scene", 2017. Mixed Media Installation. Collection of Museum London.
2018-2019
The theme for the 2019-2020 SASAH Speakers' Series is "Humanize the Future."
Matthew Teitelbaum, "The Future of the Museum: Imagining a New World"
The Inaugural Robert and Patricia Duncanson Lecture
Matthew Teitelbaum is an international leader in the world of art museums and galleries. His lecture will address the subject of the future of museums in the twenty-first century with reference to his experiences leading art institutions in the United States and Canada.
Matthew Teitelbaum is the Ann and Graham Gund Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, and the former Michael and Sonja Koerner Director and CEO of the Art Gallery of Ontario. He is actively involved in national and international visual arts organizations and is a past president of the Association of Art Museum Directors, as well as a member of the Canadian Art Museum Director’s Organization and the Bizot Group of International Directors. A scholar of contemporary, European and Canadian art, Teitelbaum holds a Bachelor of Arts with honors in Canadian history from Carleton University; a Master of Philosophy in modern European painting and sculpture from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London; and an honorary Doctor of Laws from Queen’s University. Presented 4 March 2019.
Dr. Tracy Isaacs and Dr. Samantha Brennan, "Why Fitness is a Feminist Issue"
Tracy Isaacs is Associate Dean (Academic) in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Western University, and a Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies and Feminist Research at Western. She is also the author of Moral Responsibility in Collective Contexts. Samantha Brennan, Dean of the College of Arts and a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Guelph. She is also the co-founder and co-editor of Feminist Philosophy Quarterly, which is an online, open access journal, and the co-author of Philosophy and Death. Tracy and Samantha are the co-founders of the Fit is a Feminist Issue blog and the co-authors of Fit at Mid-Life: A Feminist Fitness Journey. Presented on 22 January 2019.
Shelley Niro, "In the Present"
Shelley Niro is this year's SASAH Research Fellow teaching the Fourth Year Capstone Course. She presents the talk "In The Present".
Shelley Niro is from the Six Nations Reserve. She is Bay of Quinte Mohawk, Turtle Clan. Niro has been an artist for many years. She works in painting, sculpture, beadwork, film and photography. In her lecture she will show work that best demonstrates her reflection on the world in which she lives. Her viewpoint is a critical comment on how she sees this world as an Indigenous woman. Often that reflection is truthful with humorous inflections. Presented on 13 November 2018.
Maryn McKenna, "Cheap Meat: Antibiotic Abuse and the Future of Farming"
Maryn McKenna is an independent journalist and author who specializes in public health, global health and food policy. She is the author of the 2017 bestseller Big Chicken: The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats (National Geographic Books, Sept. 2017), named a Best Book of 2017 by Amazon, Science News, Smithsonian Magazine, Civil Eats, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Toronto Globe and Mail, as well as an Essential Science Read by Wired. Her 2015 TED Talk, “What do we do when antibiotics don’t work any more?”, has been viewed more than 1.5 million times and translated into 33 languages. Presented on 23 October 2018.
Nino Ricci, "Between the Conception and the Creation: The Art of Muddling Through"
Nino Ricci is the author of Testament, The Origin of Species, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and his most recent novel, Sleep, published in 2015. A recipient of the Alistair MacLeod Award for Literary Achievement, Nino is also a recipient of York University's Pinnacle Achievement Award, the Engel/Findley Award for a Writer in Mid-Career, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Windsor. In 2011 he was appointed a member of the Order of Canada. Nino is also past president of PEN Canada. Presented on 2 October 2018.
Sam Thomas
Sam Thomas was invited to present on his beadwork as part of the Capstone Seminar with Shelley Niro.
Sam presents a lecture on the history of Iroquois Beadwork. His in-depth research has resulted in discoveries of ancient symbolism and technique. He was the 2016 Ontario Arts Council Aboriginal Awards winner. Presented on 20 September 2018.
Samuel Thomas is a member of the Lower Cayuga Band of the Iroquois Nation. He lives in Niagara Falls, Ontario. For over forty years, Sam has worked to resurrect beadwork styles from the 18th and 19th centuries. He has recovered several “lost” techniques, and in the process, has garnered international respect for Iroquois beadwork. He is largely self-taught, informed by extensive study of museum/collector pieces, books and illustrations. Thomas received additional training with tanner Juliette Meness-Ferguson, beadworker Faith DuBuc, and Royal Ontario Museum curator Dr. Trudy Nicks. Sam’s work can be found in the permanent collections of the British Museum, the Canadian Museum of History, the National Gallery of Canada, the Royal Ontario Museum and the Smithsonian Institution, along with museum, gallery and private collections in the Netherlands, Germany and Australia.
