Past Lectures

Dr. Paul J. Quirk is a distinguished scholar in American politics, writing on topics such as Congress, the presidency, presidential elections, and public opinion. Dr. Quirk’s latest book, The United States and Canada: How Two Democracies Differ, and Why It Matters (2019), offers a comparative analysis of democratic practices.

Note: This lecture will be held at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on Thursday, September 26 at 6 pm. THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT.
Dal Grauer Memorial Lecture
Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling collection of essays Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (2020 and 2022).

Mr. Anthony Kiendl is an award-winning curator, writer, arts administrator and educator. Prior to joining the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2020, Mr. Kiendl was the Executive Director and CEO of the Mackenzie Gallery in Regina; the Executive and Artistic Director of Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art in Winnipeg; and the Director of Visual Arts at the Walter Phillips Gallery and Banff International Curatorial Institute at the Banff Centre.

Dr. Zulfiqar Bhutta is a champion of integrated maternal, newborn, and childhood health globally. His work with community health workers and outreach services has influenced outreach programs for marginalized populations around the world. Among his multiple distinguished posts, Dr. Bhutta was a member of the UN Secretary General’s Independent Expert Review Group for monitoring global progress in maternal and child health.

Note: To be held in the Old Auditorium at UBC — 6344 Memorial Road, Vancouver. Doors at 7:20 pm. Professor Nancy Hermiston is a distinguished opera singer, stage director and educator. Her operatic career has taken her throughout Canada, the United States and Europe. She has held numerous appointments as a voice teacher, and as stage director at the Meistersinger Konservatorium, Nürnberg, and the University of Toronto Opera and Performance Divisions.

Dr. Emily Cranston is a leading innovator and scholar at UBC. With her research group, she investigates nanocellulose and hybrid bio-based materials that can be used in a broad range of applications including packaging, electrical components, and cosmetics to replace non-renewable resources. Among her multiple honours, she is an NSERC E.W.R. Steacie Fellow, and a member of the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada.

Dr. Steven Narod leads an internationally renowned research program in cancer genetics, greatly enhancing our understanding of the factors that shape women’s risk of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. He and his team advocate for genetic testing for women who do not have access to current public programs, and they recently launched The Screen Project, a national initiative to make genetic screening available to all Canadians at an accessible price.

Seth Klein is a public policy researcher and writer based in Vancouver. He was the founding director of the BC office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), former co-chair of the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition, and founder of the Metro Vancouver Living Wage for Families. He is the author of A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency (2020).

A conversation between Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Professor Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii), moderated by Dr. Tricia Logan. Mr. Sniderman is a writer, lawyer and Rhodes Scholar. Prof. Sanderson is Beaver Clan, from the Opaskwayak Cree Nation, and is deeply engaged in Aboriginal issues from a policy perspective. Mr. Sniderman and Prof. Sanderson wrote the award winning book Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation (2022).

Mr. Max Wyman, OC is one of Canada’s foremost cultural commentators. For more than three decades he wrote arts criticism for The Vancouver Sun and CBC Radio. Mr. Wyman is the author of a number of books, among them Dance Canada: An Illustrated History (1989), The Defiant Imagination: Why Culture Matters (2009), and its sequel The Compassionate Imagination: How the Arts Are Central to a Functioning Democracy (2023).

Dr. Jan Zwicky, C.M. is one of Canada’s most respected artists and intellectuals, known equally for her original work in philosophy and her poetry, and translated into a number of European languages. Her writing has covered issues in music, poetry, philosophy, and the environment.

Dr. Kevin Leyton-Brown’s research addresses issues in computational game theory; also in market design, analysis and clearing, as well as the application of machine learning to the automated design and analysis of algorithms for solving hard computational problems. He is a Fellow of  the Royal Society of Canada, the Association of Computing Machinery, and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.

Dr. Anthony Shelton was Director of MOA for seventeen years. A researcher, curator, teacher and administrator, Dr. Shelton’s interests include Latin American, Iberian and African visual cultures, Surrealism, the history of collecting, and critical museology.

Harold Munro studied journalism at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, then took a job at a newspaper in Terrace BC, before returning to the coast in 1986 to join the Vancouver Sun as a general assignment reporter. He is now Editor-in-Chief of both the Vancouver Sun and Province newspapers.

Dr. Tricia Logan is a Métis scholar with more than 20 years of experience working with elders and leaders in First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities in Canada. Prior to her time at UBC, Dr. Logan was the Manager of Research at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba.

Dr. Thomas Davidoff’s research on public policies related to insurance, housing, mortgages, and retirement finance have been published in leading journals in finance, real estate, and economics, and presented at a variety of academic institutions and international conferences around the world.

Dr. William (Bill) Murray’s interests include all aspects of ancient seafaring from ships and their designs to trade, ancient harbours, naval warfare and weaponry. His research has been featured on the History and National Geographic channels. Over the past 40 years, he has worked at a number of archaeological sites, both under water and on land, in Greece, Israel, Turkey, France and Italy.

Ms. Leslie Weir is the first woman to serve as Librarian and Archivist of Canada. She has played important roles in many transformative moments at the Canadian Research Knowledge Network and in research libraries and archives in Canada.

Dr. Barbara Sherwood Lollar has revolutionized the development of innovative mechanisms for groundwater remediation. In 2013 Canadian Geographic magazine listed her among the Ten Canadians “Changing the World” for her discovery of the “billion-year-old water” and its implications for life on other planets.

Dr. Cécile Fabre is a political philosopher whose research interests include theories of distributive and reparative justice, the philosophy of democracy, and the moral and political philosophy of cultural heritage. Her works have been published in journals such as the British Journal of Political Science, International Affairs, and the Journal of Political Philosophy.

As head of PEN Canada for over a decade, Mr. Brendan de Caires defends freedom of expression, and helps exiled writers to establish in Canada. In this capacity Mr. de Caires has edited and co-authored country studies of Mexico, Honduras, India and Guatemala. He is the author of The Winter of a Hundred Books (2010), and A Country Worth Living In (2010)

Dr. Pieter Cullis is globally known for his contributions to the field of lipid nanoparticles. His research has contributed to the development of nanomedicines employing lipid nanoparticle delivery technology leading to five clinically approved drugs for cancer therapies, gene therapies, and vaccines, including BNT162b2, the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine marketed by Pfizer/BioNTech.

Dr. Stephen Poloz is a distinguished economist with four decades of experience in financial markets, forecasting, and economic policy. He is the author of The Next Age of Uncertainty: How the World Can Adapt to a Riskier Future (2022). Dr. Poloz was the ninth Governor of the Bank of Canada until June 2020. Prior to that appointment, he served as Chief Executive Officer at Export Development Canada.

Dr. Clare Haru Crowston’s research interests lie in the early modern history of women and gender, and of working people in early modern France. She has authored the books Credit, Fashion, Sex: Economies of Regard in Old Regime France (2013) and Fabricating Women: The Seamstresses of Old Regime France, 1675-1791 (2001); the latter was awarded the Berkshire Prize for the best first book in history by a woman in North America and the Hagley Prize in business history.

Dr. Michael Byers’s work focuses on Outer Space, Arctic sovereignty, climate change, the law of the sea, the laws of war, and Canadian foreign and defence policy. Dr. Aaron Boley seeks to put the solar system in context with the many other planetary systems we know exist. His research seeks to answer the question of whether there is life elsewhere in the galaxy.

Dr. Jessica Grahn was the first researcher to establish the neural link between hearing musical rhythm and spontaneous activation of the brain’s motor control system by asking the question why do humans move to rhythm? Currently, Dr. Grahn hopes to advance her work in cross-species comparisons to guide training interventions for Parkinson’s patients.

Dr. Barbara Perry has written extensively about inequality, justice and the motivations behind hate crimes. Her publications include Silent Victims: Hate Crime Against Native Americans (2008), Policing Race and Place: Under- and Over-policing in Indian Country (2009), Hate Crimes (2009), Diversity, Crime and Justice in Canada (2011) and Right-wing Extremism in Canada (co-authored 2019).

Mr. Don Gillmor’s prolific production includes the two-volume Canada: A People’s History (2002) that appeared as a companion to the CBC series of that name, and his first novel, the critically acclaimed Kanata (2009). He has won eleven National Magazine awards as well as two Governor General’s awards.

Mr. John Doyle has appeared on numerous TV and radio programs to talk about popular culture, television, soccer, and Ireland. His essays have appeared in the Review section of the G&M since 1997, as well as the journal TV Quarterly. His writing has also appeared in Report on Business magazine, Elle Canada, Flare, En Route, Books in Canada, The Irish Times, and the Toronto Star.

Dr. Paul Evans’ research and public diplomacy focus on relations between Canada and China, and on security issues and processes in the Asia Pacific region, and the emergence of techno-nationalism as a defining force in regional affairs.

An expert on the native plant life of British Columbia, Shona Ellis has restructured UBC’s Biology program, the largest undergraduate science program offered at UBC, by shifting instructional strategies to improve teaching and student advising, as well as integrating sustainability into the curriculum so students become informed global citizens.

Professor Dolph Schluter is the world’s foremost authority on the role that ecology plays in the origin and divergence of new species. His work has fundamentally changed our understanding of evolution, revealing the ecological mechanisms driving speciation and probing the factors generating and maintaining biodiversity. His work has appeared in Evolution, Nature, Science, and Trends in Ecology and Evolution.

Dr. Judy Illes’ research, teaching and outreach initiatives are devoted to ethical, legal, social and policy challenges at the intersection of the brain sciences and biomedical ethics. She writes frequently for the Vancouver Sun and The Conversation Canada, and hosts community outreach activities covering challenging ethical problems related to biomedicine and the brain.

Dal Grauer Memorial Lecture | Ms. Souvankham Thammavongsa’s fiction pieces have appeared in outlets such as The New Yorker, Harper’s, Granta, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, The Walrus, and The New York Times Book Review. Her debut book of fiction, How to Pronounce Knife, won the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize.Photo by Sarah Bodri

Join us for a free special lecture from the Outer Space Institute at UBC. The speaker will be Johann-Dietrich Wörner, President of Germany’s Academy of Science and Engineering, and former Director-General of the European Space Agency. The lecture will be held at the Roy Barnett Recital Hall in the School of Music at UBC.

Dr. Serhy Yekelchyk is a prolific scholar with expertise in the social and political history of Russia, Ukraine, and the Soviet Union. Media outlets such as The Washington Post, Politico, and The New York Times have published his political analysis.

Dr. Jeannette Armstrong is Syilx Okanagan. As an award-winning writer and activist, novelist, and poet, she is committed to address deeply biased misconceptions relating to Indigenous people. Her research in Indigenous philosophies and Okanagan Syilx thought and environmental ethics coded into Syilx oral literatures has been recognized locally and globally.

Four-time Olympian and Olympic rowing silver medalist, Ms. Tricia Smith, O.C., O.B.C., has been the president of the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) since 2015 and was elected as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2016. A practicing lawyer and UBC alumna, Ms. Smith is also a member of the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame and the BC Sports Hall of Fame.

Dr. Andrew Weaver, O.B.C., has served on numerous national and international committees, including being a Lead Author in the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Dr. Weaver is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Amanda Vincent was the first person to study seahorses underwater, to document the extensive trade in these fishes, and to initiate a seahorse conservation project. She is very active in marine management and policy issues.

Ivan Coyote performing spoken word has contributed to depicting the complexities of gender, sexuality, and identity in the representation of queerness in Canadian literature, collaborating with musicians to combine storytelling and music. They have written eleven books that have been awarded or shortlisted for literary awards.

Professor Benjamin Perrin’s research covers issues related to victims of crime, and the opioid crisis. He is an advocate for compassionate, evidence-based approaches to pressing criminal justice and societal issues.

Dr. Joy Johnson has led several initiatives to mobilize research and influence policy. Prior to her appointment as president, she was SFU’s vice-president, research and international. She was also the Scientific Director for the Institute of Gender and Health at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research; in this capacity she is credited for ensuring gender is considered in health research.

Dr. Gregory Mackie specializes in Victorian and Modernist literature, drama, and book history. His monograph Beautiful Untrue Things: Forging Oscar Wilde’s Extraordinary Afterlife (2019) examines a lost archive of Wilde forgeries that flooded the rare book market in the 1920s.

A conversation with photojournalist Ali Arkady about the ethics, risks and costs of bearing witness to war crimes. Moderated by Andrea Crossan. Free and online via Zoom.

Dr. Penny Ballem is a clinical professor Emeritus of medicine at the University of British Columbia and a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. She has been the recipient of several awards for her dedicated work in medicine and public service.

Dr. Rashid Sumaila’s research focuses on bioeconomics, marine ecosystem valuation and the analysis of global issues such as fisheries subsidies, marine protected areas, illegal fishing, climate change, marine plastic pollution, and oil spills.

Jonathan Manthorpe has been a foreign correspondent and international affairs columnist for then Southam News, the Toronto Star, and the Vancouver Sun. He is a founding columnist with Facts and Opinions, and contributor to iPolitics.

Dr. Sherrill Grace is a prolific scholar specializing in the study of Canadian literature and culture. She is the author of Canada and the Idea of North (2001, 2007), Making Theatre: The Life of Sharon Pollock (2008), On the Art of Being Canadian (2009), the co-edited volume Bearing Witness: Perspectives on War and Peace from the Arts and Humanities (2012), Landscapes of Memory: Representations of the Two World Wars in Canadian Literature and the Arts (2014), and Tiff: A Life of Timothy Findley (2020).

Lynden MacIntyre was the host of The Fifth Estate for twenty-four years. He has written and reported for numerous award-winning projects and received awards for writing and journalistic excellence, including ten Gemini Awards, an International Emmy, three Gordon Sinclair Awards for best broadcast journalist, and the Michener award for meritorious public service in journalism.

Dal Grauer Memorial Lecture | Jen Sookfong Lee is a novelist, poet, and food writer. She co-hosts the literary podcast, Can’t Lit, and previously, was a columnist for CBC Radio One’s On the Coast, All Points West, and The Next Chapter, and a frequent co-host of the Studio One Book Club.

Dr. Mark Jaccard researches the design and application of energy-economy models for assessing climate policies. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and an author with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Marsha Lederman covers the film and television industry, visual arts, literature, music, theatre, dance, and cultural policy as Western Arts Correspondent for The Globe and Mail in Vancouver. Prior to this appointment, she worked for CBC Radio as National Arts Reporter, morning news editor, and founding senior producer on Q.

Brett Finlay’s research is at the forefront of the field of cellular microbiology, making several fundamental discoveries in this area that have made him recipient of numerous prestigious awards. Jessica M. Finlay specializes in environmental gerontology and clinical geography. She has authored publications in leading health, geography, and gerontology journals.

Professor Hermiston is a distinguished opera singer, stage director and educator. She debuted in New York at Carnegie Hall, and her European début led to a permanent engagement with the prestigious Nürnberg Opera. She has held numerous appointments as voice teacher and as stage director at the Meistersinger Konservatorium, Nürnberg, and the University of Toronto Opera and Performance Divisions.

Dr. Deanna Reder’s research focuses on Indigenous literature and literary history. A Cree-Métis scholar, she is a founding member of the Indigenous Literary Studies Association (ILSA), co-chair of the Indigenous Voices Awards, and the Editor for the Indigenous Studies Series at Wilfrid Laurier University Press. She also helped found, in 2020, the Indigenous Editors Association. In 2018, Dr. Reder was inducted into the College of New Scholars, Artist, and Scientists in the Royal Society of Canada.

Robert Bilott gained international prominence by raising awareness and exposing the global environmental contamination produced by highly toxic fluorinated chemicals (“forever chemicals”) associated with the production of Teflon. His book Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont (2019) is a personal account of the litigation process leading to DuPont ceasing production and use of “forever chemicals” in 2013, and was also the inspiration for the feature film, Dark Waters (2019) and the documentary, The Devil We Know (2018).

Dr. Paul Evans’ research and public diplomacy focuses on relations between Canada and China, and security issues and processes in the Asia Pacific region. Recently his writings and media commentaries have also focused on the emergence of techno-nationalism as a defining force in regional affairs. Dr. Evans was a co-founder of the Council for Security Cooperation in Asia Pacific, the Canadian Consortium on Human Security, and the Canada-Korea Forum, and was appointed by the Government of Canada to the ASEAN Regional Forum’s Experts and Eminent Persons (2012).

Mr. Jonathan Manthorpe was programmed to speak this Saturday, but illness has forced him to withdraw. We hope to reschedule his appearance in the near future.

Dr. Janet Rossant’s contributions have shaped the way we understand the human genome, congenital abnormalities, and the use of cancer drugs. Her innovation in manipulating the mouse genome led to the mouse becoming the dominant model in understanding the function of the human genome sequence.

Dr. Lara Boyd is a Neuroscientist and Physical Therapist. At the Brain Behaviour Lab at UBC, she performs research designed to advance theoretical conceptualizations of how brain function relates to behaviour during learning. She is an expert in mapping how behaviours, environments and experiences affect brain health and learning, using techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging and non-invasive brain stimulation.

Dr. Maryanne Wolf has dedicated her professional career to children with learning challenges. Her research focuses on dyslexia, literacy in digital culture, and the reading brain circuit. She designed the RAVE-O reading intervention for children with dyslexia. Dr. Wolf is the author of Proust and the Squid (2007), translated into 13 languages, Tales of Literacy for the 21st Century (2016), and Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World (2018).

Dr. Richard D. Hansen has identified some of the largest and earliest ancient cities of the Mayan civilization in Central America with a major international archaeological research team with scholars from around the globe. His work has been featured in 36 film documentaries.

Dr. Michael Geist is an award winning legal scholar specializing in internet and copyright issues. He has edited several books including “Law, Privacy and Surveillance in Canada in the Post-Snowden Era” (2015), “The Copyright Pentalogy: How the Supreme Court of Canada Shook the Foundations of Canadian Copyright Law” (2013), “From “Radical Extremism” to “Balanced Copyright”: Canadian Copyright and the Digital Agenda” (2010) and “In the Public Interest: The Future of Canadian Copyright Law” (2005).

Ms. Sarah Milroy is a distinguished independent art critic, curator and essayist, as well as a vocal champion of Canadian art and artists. She is co-founder of the Canadian Art Foundation, and served as editor and publisher of Canadian Art magazine.

The coronavirus has exposed deadly weaknesses in global medical supply chains. Join the reporters and researchers behind the high-profile PBS Frontline documentary and Associated Press series that has been exploring the collapse of the fragile medical supply chains amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr. Catherine Johnson’s expertise is in comparative planetary geophysics. She seeks to understand the internal structure and the long-term evolution of our solar system bodies.

A free press is essential to democracy, but disinformation and attacks on reporters’ credibility undermine media freedom. Join us for a discussion about these attacks and the impacts they have on press freedom.

Dr. Josef Penninger’s findings on angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and its role in Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) infections have contributed to the rapid identification of a potential drug molecule that entered Phase II clinical trials for the treatment of COVID-19 infection in April 2020.

Dr. Joel Bakan is an internationally renowned legal scholar and commentator. He has worked on landmark legal cases and government policy. He is the Director of the documentary “The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel.”

Dr. Réka Gustafson is involved in surveillance, prevention, and control of communicable diseases, such as HIV and Tuberculosis, and outbreak response. She is responsible for the delegated functions of the BC Centre for Disease Control under the Public Health Act.

Dr. Thomas Homer-Dixon was founding director of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation. His interdisciplinary research focuses on threats to global security in the 21st century, including economic instability, climate change, and energy scarcity.

Join Mary Kay Magistad for a conversation about the making of the new GRC podcast, “On China’s New Silk Road.”

Dr. Homer-Dixon’s interdisciplinary research focuses on threats to global security in the 21st century, including economic instability, climate change, and energy scarcity.

Brett and Jessica Finlay have coauthored The Whole-Body Microbiome: How to Harness Microbes— Inside and Out—for Lifelong Health.

Don Gillmor prolific production includes the two-volume Canada: A People’s History (2002) that appeared as a companion to the CBC series of that name, and his first novel, the critically acclaimed Kanata

Hayter-Menzies’ biographic work focuses on the lives of extraordinary women, like Emily Carr and the story of the Javanese monkey Woo, a companion of BC artist Emily Carr.

Ian Weir is the writer and executive producer of the acclaimed crime thriller Dragon Boys, a CBC miniseries. He was also creator and executive producer of the long-running CBC teen drama Edgemont.

Dr. Daniel Kalla has published a number of novels in the thriller and historical fiction genres drawing from his experience as an emergency-room physician at St. Paul’s Hospital.

Dr. Gary Hinshaw is a cosmologist and physicist who was a recipient of the 2018 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for his work on mapping the early universe.

Catherine Porter is the Canada bureau chief for The New York Times. Her international reporting includes countries such as Senegal, Guatemala, Cuba and, most notably, Haiti.

Daniel J. Levitin’s research on the cognitive neuroscience of music perception, cognition and performance has been published in leading journals and media outlets. He is also an award-winning author of a number of international bestsellers.

Pulitzer Prize winner Ian Urbina discusses his new book, The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier

Dr. Lisa Cooper’s research interests include the history of archaeological exploration and archaeological practice in “Greater Mesopotamia” (ancient Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey), particularly in the early 20th century. She is currently part of the Central Zagros Archaeology Project in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Dr. Robert Butler’s research interests include the social behaviour of crows, ecology of herons, and migration of birds. He has delivered public lectures at scientific conferences in Canada and around the world.

Dr. Javier Corrales’ research focuses on democratization, presidential powers, foreign policy, and sexuality. He has published extensively on Venezuela, Cuba, and Argentina for academic outlets as well as The New York Times.

For over 40 years Dr. Scott McIntyre has been an active promoter of the Canadian cultural industry. He was a founding partner of Douglas & McIntyre Publishers, which during his tenure published some 2000 books.

André Picard has written extensively on Canadian public health issues. His most recent books include A Matter of Life and Death: Public Health Issues in Canada, and The Path to Health Care Reform: Policies and Politics.

A special cello and piano performance by Dr. Santa J. Ono, the President and Vice-Chancellor of UBC, and his brother Dr. Momoro Ono, an Adjunct Professor of Fine and Performing Arts at Creighton University. Special location only for this lecture: UBC’s Old Auditorium.

Tanya Talaga is an investigative reporter for the Toronto Star, and has been nominated five times for the Michener Award in public service journalism. Her book Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death and Hard Truths in a Northern City won the 2017 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize for non-fiction, and the First Nation Communities Read: Young Adult/Adult Award.

Dr. Mark Tyndall is a Professor of Medicine at the School of Population and Public Health at UBC. Dr. Tyndall has fostered a number of community-based collaborations that have led to change to health policies, and has advocated for enhanced harm-reduction interventions and the de-criminalization of drug use.

The Honourable Louise Arbour, O.C., G.O.Q., L.L.D., Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and former Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, has published extensively on criminal law and given innumerable addresses on both national and international forums.

Dr. Oliver is a prolific scholar writing on a variety of feminist themes such as the ethics of surrogate motherhood, reproductive technologies, affirmative action, adoption, family values, and war.

Dr. Kelsey conducts research into emotional responses to the culture of “doom and gloom” that permeates environmental issues. Her work has appeared in New Scientist, BBC Wildlife, Conservation Magazine, and numerous online sites.

Ms. Off is a renowned reporter covering Canadian and international current affairs. She wrote the best-selling book The Lion, The Fox, and the Eagle: A Story of Generals and Justice in Yugoslavia and Rwanda (2000), The Ghosts of Medak Pocket: the Story of Canada’s Secret War (2005) and Bitter Chocolate (2006).

Dr. Owen is the founder of the international affairs media platform OpenCanada.org. Prior to his appointment at McGill, Dr. Owen was Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Global Affairs at UBC, and Research Director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University.

Dr. Cameron co-founded the Institute for Future Legislators at UBC, the world’s first school for politicians. His most recent book, Political Institutions and Practical Wisdom (2018), explores how to cultivate the character and judgment necessary to become a wise practitioner.

Dr. Tolstoy is a prolific researcher. Her findings have been published in distinguished peer-reviewed scientific publications, such as Science and Nature magazines.

Prof. Silverman’s career spans more than five decades. A former director of UBC’s School of music, he has played with the Chicago, Sydney and BBC (London) Symphonies, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as every major orchestra in Canada.

Before joining Science Magazine in 2016, Dr. Wadman was a freelance reporter covering biomedical research — including gene therapy, Alzheimer disease and autism — for Nature, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Dr. Khan is a prolific author and community activist. Her first crime novel, The Unquiet Dead (2015), won a Barry Award and the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel.

What happens when police are charged with breaking the law?

Speaker: Professor Andrzej Weber, Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta Dr. Weber is the director of the Baikal-Hokkaido Archaeology Project, an international multidisciplinary team of scholars focusing on the bio-archaeology of individual life histories to understand hunter-gatherer cultural, biological and ecological interactions, as well as evolutionary trajectories in Northeast Asia. His research interests include archaeology of […]

Dr. Foster is a Canada Research Chair in Quantitative Proteomics, and recipient of the 2017 Genome BC Award for Scientific Excellence. His research identifies disease resistance genes in bees and covers such topics as pathogen invasion, infection and the mapping of protein interactions.

The Honourable Steven Point (Xwĕ lī qwĕl tĕl) is a member of the Skowkale First Nation. He was first elected Chief at age 23 in 1975. Since then, he has served as chief for a total of 15 years.

Professor Wade Davis is an award-winning anthropologist, ethnographer, writer, photographer, and filmmaker.

CANCELLED – Dr. Fabrizio Zilibotti’s research interests include economic growth and development, political economy, macroeconomics, and the economic development of China.

At this talk, hosted by the Global Reporting Centre, Dr. Akhavan discusses the challenge the rise of populism poses to the international justice system. The United Nations and International Criminal Court are increasingly viewed as elitist and a threat to national sovereignty. Are these concerns legitimate? How can they be addressed?

Professor Kay Dickersin is a zoologist and epidemiologist by training. She has conducted studies in a number of important subject areas, including women’s health, eyes and vision, and surgery.

Town Hall on Rare Diseases brings together a diverse panel of speakers to discuss the challenges of providing costly drugs for Canadians suffering from rare diseases. The public town hall, hosted by Paul Kennedy of CBC Ideas, will take place on October 23rd, 2018, at the BMO Theatre in Vancouver’s Olympic Village at 6:30 p.m. […]

Professor Steven Levitsky writings on political parties, informal institutions, and competitive authoritarianism are agenda setting works in the discipline of political science. His most recent work on partisan polarization, the 2018 New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, with Daniel Ziblatt, has made him a central figure in contemporary debates regarding American democracy.

Anna Porter is among Canada’s most respected book publishers (founder of Key Porter Books in 1982) and novelist covering a broad range of topics and published internationally in several languages. Her latest work is her memoir In Other Words: How I Fell in Love with Canada One Book at a Time.

Dr. Santa J. Ono is the President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of British Columbia. Dr. Ono, an avid cello player, studied at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. Dr. Ono will be accompanied this evening by Mr. Oskar Falta on the cello and Ms. Emily Logan on the piano.

Investigative journalist Niranjan Takle will be in Vancouver to discuss his seminal investigation of the murder of a judge, which highlighted corruption and the country’s political decline.

Join the GRC and director Boris Ivanov for a free screening featuring “On Putin’s Blacklist.” On Putin’s Blacklist presents the reality of how an adoption ban of Russian orphans to US citizens came about and how it was the first step in Russia’s new Cold War with America. Soon enough this adoption ban was expanded […]

Bill Browder will be in Vancouver on June 15th for a banquet fundraiser for the GRC, reflecting on the state of Russia and the world and sharing his stories of what it’s like to be Putin’s number one enemy.

Join us for a Q&A with author of “TRUMPOCRACY: The Corruption of the American Republic,” David Frum.

An event with Ali Velshi examines the current phenomenon and spread of culture wars, and culture’s role in both curbing and spreading populist ideals.

UBC ARTS ONE 50TH ANNIVERSARY LECTURE Speaker: Professor Sander Gilman, Institute for the Liberal Arts, Emory College of Arts and Sciences, Atlanta, Georgia Dr. Sander Gilman is a prominent cultural and literary historian and author or editor of over ninety books. He wrote the basic study of the visual stereotyping of the mentally ill, Seeing […]

DAL GRAUER MEMORIAL LECTURE Speaker: Professor Sylvia Nasar, Knight Professor Emerita, Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University Dr. Sylvia Nasar is the recipient of many honours, including the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography (1998) as the author of A Beautiful Mind (1998), a biography of mathematician John Forbes Nash, published in 30 languages […]

Sylvia Nasar, author of “A Beautiful Mind,” will be in Vancouver speaking on Russian collusion.

Eric Cline is an active field archaeologist with extensive excavation and survey experience in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, Greece, Crete, and the United States. 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (2014) was considered for a Pulitzer Prize.

Americans ask, Can we ever put things right? The answer just might be “No.”

Ann Jones’ talk will feature current research about the conditions essential to maintaining democracy. Jones is asking what makes some democracies successful and able to maintain that success.

David McDonald teaches and conducts research in the history of the Russian Empire and the politics of contemporary Russia. He is the author of United Government and Russian Foreign Policy, 1900-1914 (1992), and has contributed to several edited books and published on academic journals about slavic history.

Peter Klein is an Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist. He run the Global Reporting Centre, and is a regular contributor to The New York Times, The Globe & Mail and CBS News 60 Minutes.

Samuel Aparicio’s discusses his recent work on the molecular taxonomy of breast cancer, which led to identification of new genes that could change the way breast cancer is diagnosed, and form the basis of next-generation treatments.

Janet Tobias is a multiple award-winning director/producer with 20 years experience working in television for all three American networks. The feature length documentary Unseen Enemy (2017) and the animated documentary Memory Games (2017) are her latest films.

Ruhullah Khapalwak has been a correspondent for The New York Times, CNN and Al Jazeera in Afghanistan. His investigative work has focused on cases of civilian casualties, violation of human rights, Afghans imprisoned in Bagram and Guantanamo Bay detention facilities, and the Taliban insurgency.

This event will host a discussion the killing of journalists who dared to expose the authoritarian government as well as the larger threat to democracy in India.

GRC’s Shayna Plaut will be presenting on “Strangers at Home” at the 10th annual “Strangers in New Homelands” conference.

The Price of Sex is a series of exhibitions based on award-winning photography by Mimi Chakarova.

Fixers are a fixture of foreign correspondence. Results of a recent GRC study on the role of fixers will be announced at this panel discussion on fixers and their crucial role in journalism.

The Global Reporting Centre will co-host a workshop in Vancouver for investigative reporters from across the continent, to discuss cross-border reporting and explore ways of developing international collaborations.

This talk with Dr. Shayna Plaut – Research Manager at the GRC – explores the findings of the Fixer’s study as well as its implications for the rise of Islamophobia in western media and policy. This presentation is a post-colonial analysis involving 450 people in 85 countries, mapping the relationship between foreign journalists, local “fixers” […]

At times, media messages can be contradictory. How do news outlets make sense of it all and help or hurt the way in which we consume the news? Join us for a talk with MSNBC’s Ali Velshi.

Hidden Costs is a workshop focused on studying and reporting on global supply chains.

Pietra Rivoli a Professor at Georgetown University, who specializes in international business and social justice, discusses her best-selling academic book “The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy,” which was the basis of the successful NPR Planet Money documentary “Planet Money Makes a T-shirt.”

Frank Koughan, senior producer of numerous PBS FRONTLINE documentaries and head of the documentary unit at Left/Right, will be talking about reporting and producing public affairs documentaries.

Jennifer LaFleur the senior editor for data journalism for Center for Investigative Reporting/Reveal will be sharing her expertise on the importance of data journalism.

Longtime Associated Press reporter Martha Mendoza will talk about “Seafood From Slaves,” her Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation of slavery in fishing.

Join us for an exclusive advance screening of National Geographic’s award-winning climate change documentary series Years of Living Dangerously.

War stories from Afghanistan, Iraq and other conflict zones told by foreign correspondents, combat veterans and scholars. Award-winning Iraqi-Canadian photojournalist Farah Nosh and writer/photographer Ann Jones will share images and stories of the impact of war on civilians. Wall Distinguished Professor and geographer Derek Gregory will discuss changes in the evacuation of war casualties from battlefields over the past century. Contact! Unload, a […]

Re-Imagining Global Reporting is workshop focused on: identifying challenges within global reporting, exploring innovations and solutions, and brainstorming on how these changes could be implemented.

The Global Reporting Centre is pleased to co-sponsor a talk by Alberto J. Mora, Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.