September 8, 2026, (Tuesday) 2-4 pm - Fellows and External Fellows Please note: Because Monday, September 7 is Labour Day, this meeting will occur on the following day. Permanent Astonishment: Growing Up Cree in the Land of Snow and Sky by Tomson Highway (2021) Discussion Leaders: Giuliana Katz & Meg Fox Shortlisted for the Hilary […]
Speaker: Domenico Pietropaolo, Drama and Italian, U of T Title: “The Colours of Harlequin: Costumes, Cultural Adaptability, and Popular Culture” Abstract: Harlequin is by far the most famous character of the Italian commedia dell'arte tradition. His most distinctive features are his polychromatic costume and his ability to adapt to diverse social, ideological and economic contexts. […]
Speaker: Brian Levine, Senior Scientist, Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Health Sciences; Professor of Psychology and Medicine (Neurology), U of T Title: “Beyond the Average Mind: Individual Differences in Memory and Imagery” Abstract: The science of memory and cognition has illuminated principles of how the mind works in general, but it's the variations from one individual to the next […]
Speaker: Andrés Jiménez Monge, Executive Director, Ontario Nature Title: “Environmental Problem Solving: A Wicked Thing” Abstract: Environmental problems are people problems. This presentation traces two decades of conservation work — Costa Rica to Canada — across fisheries, wildlife corridors, and protected areas. The central argument: failure in environmental problem solving is not technical. It is […]
Speaker: Bruce Kidd, Sports Policy, Kinesiology, U of T Title: “The Challenges of Sports Betting” Abstract: Canada legalized sports betting in 2021, but did so without guardrails, despite the abundant international evidence of predictable harms and the warnings of critical MPs. With the creation of an open market for gambling in Ontario, competition between the […]
October 5, 2026, 2-4 pm - Fellows and External Fellows Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism by Sebastian Smee (2024) Discussion Leader: Lisa Steele From the summer of 1870 to the spring of 1871, famously dubbed the “Terrible Year” by Victor Hugo, Paris and its people were besieged, starved, and forced […]
Speaker: Jim Phillips, Law, U of T Title: “’I Did Not Commit Adultery’: A Unique (Parliamentary) Divorce from in the 1870s” Abstract: An analysis of the marital breakdown of Robert and Eliza Campbell of Whitby in 1873, which centered on Robert’s claim that Eliza had committed adultery. In 1876 Robert petitioned the Parliament of Canada […]
Speaker: Jacalyn Duffin, Hannah Chair of History of Medicine, Queen’s U Title: “Canada on Easter Island: The Secret History of a Blockbuster Drug” Abstract: In 1964 Canada led an international scientific expedition of 38 scientists to Easter Island, the most isolated community in the world. The team was concerned about the risks of greater contact […]
Speaker: Reuben Gaetani, Strategic Management, Rotman Title: "Location and Innovation: Why Geography Still Matters" Abstract: Innovation does not happen uniformly across space. Some places consistently produce ideas that open entirely new technological paths, while others specialize in the steady, incremental improvements that keep existing products competitive. The difference comes down to a particular kind of […]
Speaker: Karina Vernon, English, U of T Title: “Cowboy Songs and the ‘Alternate Archives’ of the Black Atlantic” Abstract: In this talk, I draw methodologically from musicology, agrarian studies, and ecological and genomic science to consider the repertoire of Black cowboy songs as "alternative archives" which offer more about Black life, and, indeed the Canadian prairies, […]
November 2, 2026, 2-4 pm - Fellows and External Fellows The Gene Machine: The Race to Decipher the Secrets of the Ribosome by Venki Ramakrishnan (2018) Discussion Leader: Eaton Lattman The Gene Machine is part scientific memoir, part history of molecular biology, and part insider account of a fierce scientific race. It has an almost […]
Speaker: Helmut Reichenbächer, English, OCAD U Title: “Mendelssohn, Shakespeare, and the Politics of Race: Cultural Programming in the Third Reich” Abstract: This lecture explores how Nazi racial ideology reshaped cultural life through the suppression of Felix Mendelssohn’s music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Drawing on extensive archival research, it traces the final performances of Mendelssohn’s score […]
Speaker: Roberto Verdecchia, TV director, writer, producer Title: “The Real World of Science Communication” Abstract: Theoretical models of science communication certainly have their place, but what are the “real world” influences at play in the making of, for example, a science, nature, or environmental documentary? What about a podcast or radio broadcast? How are complex […]
Speaker: J.D.M. Stewart, historian, author Title: Prime Ministers and the Presidents Abstract: J.D.M. Stewart will talk about his book, The Prime Ministers: Canada's Leaders and the Nation They Shaped. In this presentation he will emphasize the relationship between Canadian prime ministers and American Presidents. Signed copies will be available for purchase after the talk. Bio: J.D.M. STEWART […]
Speaker: Daniel Bender, CRC in Food and Culture, U of T Title: "Typicity’s End: Tasting Wine in the Anthropocene” Abstract: Even taste has a climate change tipping point. Legal regulations around geographical indications and the expectations of wine connoisseurs and professionals mean that producers make wines to match a traditional ‘typicity.’ However, climate change is […]
December 7, 2026, 2-4 pm - Fellows and External Fellows Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History by Moudhy Al-Rashid (2025) Discussion Leader: Martin Klein This is a wonderful, engaging book that takes a thematic not simply chronological approach to Mesopotamian history. The author begins with objects found in what may have […]
January 4, 2026, 2-4 pm - Fellows and External Fellows Garbage by A. R. Ammons (1993) Discussion Leader: Malcolm Woodland At last, a selection that allows you to say without offense that your book club is making you read garbage! Widely acknowledged as one of the masters of the modern (or postmodern?) long poem, the […]
February 1, 2027, 2-4 pm - Fellows and External Fellows The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt (2024) Discussion Leader: John Yeomans In The Anxious Generation, NYU social psychologist Jonathan Haidt describes the epidemic of teen anxiety, depression, and self-harm that hit many […]
March 1, 2027, 2-4 pm - Fellows and External Fellows The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt (1958) Discussion Leader: David Milne As the title suggests, this book looks at what constitutes our lives– our work, laboring, and free activities – and the values we have attached to these over the centuries. The story in the […]
April 5, 2027, 2-4 pm - Fellows and External Fellows There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak (2024) Discussion Leader: Mary O’Connor This beautifully written novel, with inventively interwoven narrative strands, begins in the ancient city of Ninevah on the Tigris River in 640 BCE. There it introduces us to a legendary library, […]
May 3, 2027, 2-4 pm - Fellows and External Fellows Strata: Stories from Deep Time by Laura Poppick (2025) Discussion Leader: William Logan Why is Earth not like other bodies in our solar system? Or is it? Has it always been this way? What has influenced its evolution from a fiery sphere to its present […]
June 7, 2027, 2-4 pm - Fellows and External Fellows The Highest Exam: How the Gaokao Shapes China by Ruixue Jia and Hongbin Li (2025) Discussion Leader: Peter Alberti The Gaokao is a tournament, set up by the centralized Chinese government to make educational competition the basis for social and economic advancement. The results of […]
July 5, 2027, 2-4 pm - Fellows and External Fellows Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century by Charles King (2019) Discussion Leader: Susan Pfeiffer No discipline is ever likely to have as entrancing an introduction as Charles King provides here for […]
