News & Events
Application Period is now open for the 2026-2027 academic year.
2025-2026 Speakers' Series
The annual, interdisciplinary SASAH Speakers' Series invites nationally and internationally renowned leaders across the arts and humanities 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.
Check this page regularly for updates as we organize an exciting calendar for the coming year, or follow our feed on the Western Events Calendar!
The 2026 Duncanson Lecture presents Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Theory of Water
Save the date! Thursday, March 12, 2026
5PM, Conron Hall
Thinking alongside lakes, snow and ice, this lecture uses story to create a decolonial space for us to come together and imagine futures beyond our present moment. Theory of water draws on the natural world as a map, a theorist and a teacher and draws the audience into a communal space of dreaming and remembering to refuse our colonial present and collaborate to reworld with systems of care.
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a renowned Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg musician, writer and academic. She is the author of eight books, including A Short History of the Blockade and the novel Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies which was short listed for the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction and the Dublin Literary Prize. Her collaboration with Robyn Maynard, Rehearsals for Living, is a National Best Seller and was short listed for the Governor General’s Literary Award for non-fiction. Leanne’s new work, Theory of Water is a national best seller and was shortlisted for the Writers Trust prize for non-fiction. Leanne has lectured and taught extensively at universities across Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Europe and has over twenty years experience with Indigenous land based education. Leanne is also a musician. Her latest release Live Like the Sky is out now from You’ve Changed Records. Leanne holds a PhD from the University of Manitoba and is a member of Alderville First Nation.
Please stay tuned for more details and forthcoming registration information!
Makram Ayache, "WHY ARE WE STILL DOING SHAKESPEARE? Reflections on writing about Gaza through Shakespeare’s The Tempest"
Thursday, January 22, 3:30 PM, FNB 2220
SASAH Salon Reception to follow in the Creative Commons (second floor, FNB TA.202)
Kristen Case, "Thoreau's Temporal Imagination"
Tuesday, November 18, 3-4PM, UC 2110.
Kristen Case will discuss her recently published transcriptions of Henry David Thoreau's late-life natural history charts in her book Thoreau's Kalendar. The talk will foreground the ways that Thoreau's temporal creativity can help us reimagine our increasingly time-famished lives.
Kristen Case is a poet and scholar. In addition to Thoreau's Kalendar, she is the author of American Pragmatism and Poetic Practice: Crosscurrents from Emerson to Susan Howe and three books of poetry, most recently, Daphne. She lives in Maine, where she is executive director of The Monson Seminar, a residential program for Pell-eligible and first-generation college students.
Kristen is a guest of Professor Kate Stanley's first-year class, "Climate Conversations: Finding Common Ground for the 21st Century."
Heather George, "Sharing Difficult Truths and Supporting Cultural Vibrancy at the Site of the Longest Running Residential School in Canada"
Tuesday, October 28, 12-1:30 PM, UC 1405.
Museology is a fundamentally colonial discipline, however since 1972 Woodland Cultural Centre has been engaging in story-telling, caring for belongings and asserting Indigenous sovereignty. Behind every exhibition, program and policy we seek to undo the harms of Residential School and demonstrate the continuity and vibrancy of our nations.
Heather George, (Kanienʼkehá:ka, Akwesasne and Euro-Canadian) is the Executive Director and Chief Curator at Woodland Cultural Centre. As a UWO alumni from the Public History M.A. Program she brings two decades of community based, Indigenous practices to her work. As a mother, beader, gardener and curator Heather's PhD research through University of Waterloo is examining the historical and philosophical underpinnings of contemporary museum practice specifically grounded in Haudenosaunee (Six Nations / Iroquois) philosophies. She seeks to challenge the colonial basis of cultural preservation methods and museology and better understand how we engage with material culture to heal trauma and engage in cross-cultural dialogues. In 2022 Heather served as the President of the Candain Museums Association supporting the release of the Moved to Action Report responding to TRC #67 and as a current board member of the Indigenous Heritage Circle she advocates for better legal and funding mechanisms to support the implementation of UNDRIP in the museum sector.
Heather George is a guest of Professor Sarah Bassnett's second-year SASAH course, "Photography and Social Justice."
Sam Maggs, "Writing for novels, comics and video games"
Monday, September 15th at 2:30 in FNB 2220.
Sam Maggs is a New York Times Bestselling and Eisner-nominated author of books, comics, and video games. Her novels include Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars and The Unstoppable Wasp: Built on Hope; she’s written for games like Call of Duty: Vanguard, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, and Marvel’s Spider-Man; and her comics and graphic novels include Marvel Action: Captain Marvel, Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins, and Tell No Tales: Pirates of the Southern Seas. She is also on-air talent for networks like Dropout and the Nerdist. A Canadian in Los Angeles, she misses Coffee Crisp and bagged milk.
