Speaker: Jennifer Bonnell, History, York U Title: “Place and People at the Margins: A History of Toronto’s Don River Valley” Abstract: In this richly illustrated talk, environmental historian Jennifer Bonnell will walk us through the history of the Don Valley as a “place at the edges” of the evolving city. Moving from the straightening of […]
Speaker: Nick Terpstra, History, U of T; Provost, Trinity College. Title: “Moving Targets: Young People in the Early Modern World” Abstract: Where do we find youths in the early modern world? Where did they find themselves? Often it was on the road or on the seas, in motion from home to some other place or […]
April 6, 2026, 2-4 pm – Fellows and External Fellows Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times that Made Handel’s “Messiah” by Charles King (2024) Discussion Leaders: Linda Hutcheon and Michael Hutcheon George Frideric Handel’s (1741) Messiah is an oratorio that has been called “the greatest piece of participatory art ever created.” Choirs and orchestras perform […]
May 4, 2026, 2-4 pm – Fellows and External Fellows Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962) Discussion Leader: Sara Shettleworth Published only 64 years ago, Silent Spring already qualifies as a classic. As an accessible popular account of the damage being done to the environment by substances such as the then-common pesticide DDT, it was […]
