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The Laurier Lifelong Learning lecture series is open to everyone. All lectures are held at the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex Community Pavillion at 101 Father David Bauer Drive, Waterloo, Ontario. Price: $16 + HST (90-minute lecture).
Do you have an idea for a lecture topic? Reach out to lifelonglearning@wlu.ca with your thoughts and ideas for topics of interest.
HOLIDAY EVENT
Watch for more details to arrive soon!
Fall 2026 Lectures
View the course listings below for detailed course descriptions and links to register.
Thursday Sept. 24, 1:30-3:00 p.m.
Course Description
Treaties are covenant agreements that were a part of Indigenous civilizations prior to contact with the Western world. These agreements were about setting up principled ways to coexist. One such treaty is the Dish with One Spoon. This agreement was about sharing the benefits of Creation with one another in a way that respects all life. These principled agreements were extended to the Settlers that started to visit and live upon Turtle Island (North America). As we witness a world that is fraught with violence, dismissal of each other’s humanity and polarization of political realities, this keynote will explore how these ancient covenant agreements remain relevant today. Our plan is to pause and reflect upon what is most critical for us to ensure we build the necessary foundation for health and well-being for all peoples.
Instructor Bio
Dr. Darren Thomas is Bear Clan and a member of the Seneca Nation who resides at the Grand River Territory of the Haudenosaunee. Darren currently serves as the Associate Vice-President of Indigenous Initiatives and is also an Associate Professor in the Indigenous Studies Program at Wilfrid Laurier University. As a senior leader of Indigenous Initiatives at Laurier, he manages a staff team that is responsible to support Indigenous students, staff, and faculty by implementing an Indigenous strategic plan for Indigenization, decolonization, and reconciliation. Darren’s personal research interests are: Indigenous thought and philosophy, Indigenous community development, strengthening and improving Indigenous health and well-being, Indigenous law, and Indigenous rights and resource governance.
Thursday October 1, 1:30-3:00 p.m.
Course Description
In his “Postscript on Control Societies” Gilles Deleuze wrote that in disciplinary societies, you’re always starting over. Moving from one institution to another (from the school to the clinic to the barracks to the prison) the mechanisms that determine what you are in relation to the environment and the power structures around you keep shifting. He argued that in control societies, however, the goal is to produce a lineal flow of influence over people from the cradle to the grave. This tends to work best when it seems as though the mechanisms that are used to achieve this control are benign. Systems that monitor banking transactions and immigration flows are effectively universal at the moment. CCTV has been used in one form or another since the middle of the 20th century. But current conversations about facial recognition tend to approach the technology as though it is something we are only starting to come to grips with now. This talk will look at examples from the court system to demonstrate that we have been grappling with the question of facial recognition for longer than we tend to think and that we are doing so by looking for an idealized future rather than at a complicated present.
Instructor Bio
Jeff Heydon is author of Visibility and Control: Images and Certainty in Governing (Lexington, 2021), and teaches in the Communication Studies department at Wilfrid Laurier University.
Thursday October 8, 1:30-3:00 p.m.
Course Description
In October, AD 79, the city of Pompeii was destroyed and preserved by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Since 1749, excavations have revealed an entire Roman city, giving us an unparalleled view of ancient life. This talk will explore the fascinating types of evidence work at Pompeii has revealed.
Instructor Bio
Dr. Scott Gallimore is Associate Professor of Archaeology & Heritage Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. He conducts archaeological work in Greece and is currently Assistant Director of excavations at the ancient city of Sikyon in the northeast Peloponnese. His research focuses on ancient economies, the impacts of disasters, and connections to landscapes
Thursday October 22, 1:30-3:00 p.m.
Course Description
Pilgrimage has to do with searching, embarking on a quest, delving into a journey of growth or discovery, or literally walking down a pathway or road in order to embody a spiritual practice. Pilgrimage routes include the Camino (Spain), the Bruce Trail (southern Ontario), the Hajj (to Mecca), the figurative path toward healing (in the land of grief or conflict), the pursuit of physical fitness, and many more.
Some pilgrims walk for days or weeks, some ride on a bus or in an airplane, some paddle in canoes, and some proceed while sitting. Some pilgrims go alone, some go with companions. Some pilgrims know exactly where they’re going, some figure that it’s all about the process rather than the final destination.
Come to this lecture if you want to learn about some of the places and habits of pilgrimage. We will view photos of trails, roads, labyrinths, dead ends, and stunning vistas. We will encounter stories about pilgrims who experience being challenged, stumped, and rewarded. We will do some work with maps. We will explore the possibility that going on a pilgrimage doesn’t necessarily require carrying a backpack or booking a plane ticket – indeed, there might be pilgrimage routes very close to home!
Instructor Bio
Matthew Bailey-Dick worked as an educator in both academic and non-academic settings, as a pastor in three Mennonite churches, and as a hospice volunteer. He enjoys embarking on a quest through various activities such as hiking, paddling, discussing, being silent, and getting curious. Based on his graduate studies in adult education, he is pursuing trail-based pedagogy as a way of facilitating opportunities for transformative learning.
Thursday October 29, 1:30-3:00 p.m.
Course Description
“Ripperologists” have wondered if the unsolved Whitechapel murders of 1888 were committed by a doctor or a medical student since at least the 1970s. However, such speculation obscures the fact that doctors themselves played an essential role in the contemporary investigation. Specialists in the fledgling field of psychology attempted to insert themselves into the investigations in both useful and potentially troubling ways. The idea that the killer had to be a madman helped fuel this incursion. In this talk Dr. Milne-Smith will discover how the “mad doctors” became embroiled in one of the most sensational murder investigations of the nineteenth century.
Instructor Bio
Dr. Amy Milne-Smith is Professor in the Department of history at Laurier. She is a cultural historian who is currently researching military mental health and poverty in the nineteenth century. She has a long-standing interest in Jack the Ripper inspired by her students’ constant fascination with the subject.
Friday November 6, 1:30-3:00 p.m.
Course Description
When the Great War ended in 1918, nearly 60,000 Canadians lay dead on the battlefields of France and Flanders. We know plenty of their heroics and tragic deaths but far less of the over 200,000 who survived the war with wounds. This presentation will examine how these men became injured overseas and how they mobilized their war wounds into a fight for disability rights after the war.
Instructor Bio
Dr. Eric Story is Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Co-Director of the Laurier Centre for the Study of Canada at Wilfrid Laurier University. He is the author of many articles on the legacies of the Great War and is currently working on a book on how veterans diagnosed with tuberculosis navigated life with a disability and chronic illness.
Thursday November 12, 1:30-3:00 p.m.
Course Description
What is romantic love? Is it distinct from other forms of love? And why does our society privilege such love over other loving relationships like family and friends? This lecture explores romantic love in our cultural narratives, both past and present, canvassing its typical characteristics and illuminating its history. Gaining a clearer view of this discourse, we’ll interrogate not only romance’s role in our society but also how me might want to construct our own emotional lives.
Instructor Bio
Dr. Lauren Weindling is an Assistant Professor of English at Wilfrid Laurier University. Her primary research covers Renaissance drama of England, France, and Italy. A self-described “fuddy duddy Shakespearean,” she has recently made forays into the contemporary philosophy of love. Her current focus is a SSHRC-funded book project on the nature and ethics of romantic love, co-authored with her partner, Dr. Michael Milona (Associate Professor of Philosophy at Toronto Metropolitan University).
Thursday November 19, 1:30-3:00 p.m.
Course Description
People are consistent in their behavior and are different from each other; in other words, they have personalities. But personalities have also been found in a wide range of other species, from crickets to chimps. Personalities can also, however, lead to making bad decisions. This lecture will explore what we know about how personalities evolved, why they persist, and what advantages they confer. Come find out why you’re not the same as everyone else.
Instructor Bio
Dr. Noam Miller is professor of behavioral neuroscience in the psychology and biology departments. He studies social cognition and consciousness in animals. Noam is a former president of the Comparative Cognition Society.
Thursday November 26, 1:30-3:00 p.m.
Course Description
This lecture will sketch a brief history of epitaphic writing as artform and social statement, with a particular focus on the work of William Wordsworth and his insistence that epitaphs, if rightly composed, encourage local attachment, strengthen family ties, and build community. We will also consider whether Wordsworth’s lofty claims are at all compatible with modern epitaphs and obituaries. What do we expect from this kind of writing and what function, if any, does it serve for the bereaved and for the community at large?
Instructor Bio
Dr. Markus Poetzsch is Associate Professor of English at Wilfrid Laurier University and specializes in British Romantic literature, with a particular focus on the environment. He is the author of Visionary Dreariness: Readings in Romanticism’s Quotidian Sublime (Routledge, 2006) and co-editor with Cassandra Falke of Wild Romanticism (Routledge, 2021). His work considers the intersections of ecocriticism, aesthetics, and ethics.
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