Lecture

Political Science Scholar Spotlight: Dr. Emmett Macfarlane

Elizabeth Rogers — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 17:13:06 +0000

Political Science Scholar Spotlight: Dr. Emmett Macfarlane Elizabeth Rogers Tue, 2026-03-10 - 13:13

In this talk, Dr. Macfarlane will speak on to the relationship between specific governments and the judiciary. Extending a previous study of the records of the Mulroney, Chrétien, and Harper governments before the Supreme Court of Canada, and applying a conception of political regimes adapted from American scholarship, this paper analyzes the impact of judicial review on the Trudeau governments’ legislative agenda. The paper draws on a dataset of all Supreme Court cases involving federal legislation challenged on Charter grounds during the Trudeau era (2015-2025), as well as a handful of relevant lower court cases involving highly salient policies. In so doing, the paper also re-examines the relevance of a ‘regimes’ lens of analysis in light of criticisms that the concept does not translate to the context of a parliamentary system.

The Digital Data Divide: Speculative Futures of Technology, Care, and Society

Wendy Philpott — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 15:37:52 +0000

The Digital Data Divide: Speculative Futures of Technology, Care, and Society Wendy Philpott Wed, 2026-03-04 - 10:37

Technological innovation increasingly shapes how we live, care, decide, and relate to one another. Yet conversations about these futures often revolve around regulations, technical feasibility, or business models. What happens if we create spaces where these futures can be felt, questioned, and collectively imagined?

About the talk

Sjors Groeneveld introduces The Digital Data Divide, an immersive speculative project that invites audiences to experience contrasting futures shaped by personal data and AI. Rather than arguing for or against technology, the project creates moments for reflection on autonomy, dignity, surveillance, and solidarity.

Building on this work, Groeneveld expands the lens to other research-creation projects at the intersection of art, care, and technological change. These include Project MensWens (HumanWish), in which artists translated societal hopes and concerns about technology into new works, and a series of short films developed in collaboration with filmmakers and the In Science International Science Film Festival. Across these projects, speculation is not a way to forecast the future, but a way to make space for reflection, revealing hidden assumptions, emotional responses, and ethical tensions. The talk explores how artistic and speculative practices move us from designing technologies to collectively imagining and questioning the ways they reshape our lives and relationships.

The choice between a red and a blue pill might come sooner than you think...

About the speaker

Sjors Groeneveld is a senior lecturer at Saxion University of Applied Sciences (School of Nursing) and a PhD candidate at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. His work explores how emerging technologies, particularly AI and data-driven systems, reshape professional practice, education, and our understanding of care.

Working across research, art, and practice, he collaborates with artists, designers, filmmakers, and healthcare organizations to make technological futures tangible and discussable. Through research-creation projects and immersive speculative work, he investigates how imagination, storytelling, and collective reflection can surface the cultural and ethical dimensions of technological change.

He is involved in (inter)national initiatives on technology and healthcare education and contributes to public and academic debates on digital transformation and professional identity. Groeneveld is also a member of the Cross-Cultural Responsive and Accessible Technologies for Societal Impact (CCTS) collaboration, a partnership between Saxion University of Applied Sciences, the University of Waterloo, and the University of Alberta.

Space is limited. Please register to attend.

Register

Political Science Speaker Series: Dr. Minh Do

Elizabeth Rogers — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 20:51:01 +0000

Political Science Speaker Series: Dr. Minh Do Elizabeth Rogers Thu, 2026-02-26 - 15:51

Process as power

Dr. Do will be speaking on her book, Process as Power, published at UBC Press. The book examines how Indigenous consultation is implemented in B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Process. Drawing on analyses of judicial decisions, environmental assessment reports, and interviews, it demonstrates how the process of Indigenous consultation is a key site where state legitimacy is contested.

About the speaker

Dr. Minh Do is an Assistant Professor at the University of Guelph and her research interests lie at the intersection of Canadian law and politics, public policy, and Indigenous politics. She is particularly interested in how judicial decisions structure policy actors' behaviours, choices, and strategies. She completed her BA at the University of Victoria, MA at the University of Waterloo, and PhD at the University of Toronto.

Indigenous Speakers Series presents Kim TallBear

Olivia Vanderwal — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 18:28:29 +0000

Indigenous Speakers Series presents Kim TallBear Olivia Vanderwal Fri, 2025-12-05 - 13:28

The Indigenous Speakers Series is honoured to present Dr. Kim TallBear, professor, author, and expert in historical and ongoing roles of science and technology in the colonization of Indigenous peoples.

Flesh, Rivers, Sky, Stones: The 100s Method and Multiply Relating

This autotheory talk (autobiographical narrative informed by critical theory) is organized around a series of 100-word vignettes that describe relations with both humans and nonhumans.

Over a decade ago, Kim TallBear began a 100s writing practice to focus on human “nonmonogamous” relating. Being a traveller, her 100s soon began to consider the role of nonhumans in living a daily life connected to place—both home and away. After a decade of practicing “solo polyamory,” TallBear became what Andrea Zanin calls “post-nonmonogamous.” Or did she?

This talk, in part through 100-word poetic vignettes, attempts to break down conceptual binaries between monogamy and nonmonogamy, human and nonhuman relating, and redefines “promiscuity” as abundance, not excess. In an ongoing 100s practice, Kim TallBear works to more faithfully theorize from a Dakota social and geographic standpoint, more-than-monogamous and more-than-human relating.

Dr. TallBear's talk will be followed by a Q & A moderated by Dr. David T. Fortin, Professor in the School of Architecture.

Please note: Registration is appreciated but not required. Everyone is welcome!

Watch online: MS Teams link

About Kim TallBear

Kim TallBear (she/her) is a citizen of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, a Dakota nation in present-day South Dakota. She is a Professor in the Department of American Indian Studies, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities campus. From 2015 to 2025, she was a Professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta where she held a Tier II Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience, and Environment, and subsequently a Tier I CRC in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience, and Society.

Dr. TallBear is the author of Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science. She is the co-founder of the Summer internship for INdigenous peoples in Genomics (SING) Canada. She has advised the President of the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) on issues related to genomics and Indigenous peoples. She has also advised museums on exhibits related to race and science.

In addition to studying genome science disruptions to Indigenous governance and to Indigenous self-definitions, Dr. TallBear studies colonial disruptions to Indigenous sexualities. She is a regular panelist on the weekly Indigenous current affairs podcast, Media Indigena. She is also a regular media commentator in outlets such as CBC, CNN, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, the LA Times, APTN, and the BBC on topics pertaining to Indigenous peoples, science, and technology; on the politics of self-indigenization; and on Indigenous sexualities. She is a former Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellow (2018-2021).

You can follow her on Bluesky @kimtallbear.bsky.social and read her occasional posts on her Substack newsletter, Unsettle: Indigenous affairs, cultural politics & (de)colonization.

Registration

Watch past recordings from our Indigenous Speakers Series on YouTube.

Political Science Speaker Series: Gender, Peace, and Power Sharing

Elizabeth Rogers — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 17:55:53 +0000

Political Science Speaker Series: Gender, Peace, and Power Sharing Elizabeth Rogers Thu, 2025-11-27 - 12:55

Dr. Allison McCulloch (she/her) is a Professor of Political Science at Brandon University. Her research considers the politics of deeply divided, post-conflict societies, with a specific interest in the relationship between peacemaking, power-sharing and constitution-writing. Her work explores how power-sharing arrangements can be made more inclusive of identities beyond the ethnonational divide

Dr. McCulloch will be speaking on her upcoming book Gender, Peace, and Power-Sharing (University of Toronto Press, June 2026), coauthored with Siobhan Byrne (University of Alberta). The book explores how power-sharing and the women, peace, and security agenda intersect in peacebuilding practices. It offers a feminist “alternative telling” that captures the tensions and potential of these frameworks

Obstructed Labour: A Century of (In)action on Maternal Mortality in Canada

Elizabeth Rogers — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 15:30:15 +0000

Obstructed Labour: A Century of (In)action on Maternal Mortality in Canada Elizabeth Rogers Mon, 2025-11-03 - 10:30

Scholar Spotlight Series: Eleanor McGrath

Canada's official maternal mortality statistics are incomplete to the extent that the World Health Organization applies an amplifier of 60%. This problem has been known for at least 100 years with no lasting progress to address it at a national level. Through the lens of reproductive justice, this presentation chronicles the historical trajectory and interrogates the public policy failure to prioritize the critical issue of maternal mortality.

Poetry, Pain, and the Promise of Palestine

Wendy Philpott — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 18:11:47 +0000

Poetry, Pain, and the Promise of Palestine Wendy Philpott Fri, 2025-10-31 - 14:11

The Faculty of Arts is honoured to present guest speaker Dr. Sa'ed Atshan – scholar, Palestinian Quaker, and LGBTQ human rights advocate – on the role of poetry in capturing the realities of contemporary Palestinian life in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and beyond.

Please join us for this unique opportunity to explore how interdisciplinary scholarship can be applied to both understand and address a global crisis which has had such tragic human consequences.

About the speaker

Dr. Sa'ed Atshan is Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and Anthropology and Chair of the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at Swarthmore College. He has previously served as an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Emory University, as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Senior Research Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, and as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies. He earned a PhD in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies and MA in Social Anthropology from Harvard University, an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School, and BA from Swarthmore College. Atshan is the author of Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique (Stanford University Press, 2020), coauthor (with Katharina Galor) of The Moral Triangle: Germans, Israelis, Palestinians (Duke University Press, 2020), and co-editor (with Galor) of Reel Gender: Palestinian and Israeli Cinema (Bloomsbury, 2022).

Details and proceedings

Registration is required for in-person and online attendance. For those attending in-person, proof of registration is required at the reception area.

Doors open: 6:30 p.m.
Lecture and moderated Q & A: 7:00 to 8:20 p.m.
Reception for the in-person audience: 8:30 to 9:00 p.m.

Paid visitor parking is available in Lot M across from Federation Hall. More parking information.

This lecture is made possible through the generosity of alumni and friends. We extend sincere appreciation to the donors who contributed to the Foundation for Palestinian Studies Fund.

Watch past recordings from our Palestinian Lectures series on YouTube.

From Myth to Malice: Affective and Political Consequences of False Claims to Indigeneity

Elizabeth Rogers — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 13:53:23 +0000

From Myth to Malice: Affective and Political Consequences of False Claims to Indigeneity Elizabeth Rogers Mon, 2025-09-29 - 09:53

Scholar Spotlight Series featuring Dr. Rowland Robinson

In this talk, Rowland will interrogate the phenomenon of false Indigenous identity claims and their corrosive effects on Indigenous communities. Drawing on personal experience, historical precedents, and critical Indigenous scholarship, he situates these practices within the broader logic of settler colonialism and its drive toward self-indigenization. In particular, he will focus on the drive to consume and assume historical Indigenous suffering in the effort to cohere false claims.

Read Rowland Robinson's bio

Robots vs Reality: Responsible Science Communication in the Attention Economy

Olivia Vanderwal — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 16:23:46 +0000

Robots vs Reality: Responsible Science Communication in the Attention Economy Olivia Vanderwal Thu, 2025-09-25 - 12:23

Join the Global Engagement Seminar: The Future of Connection on Tuesday, October 21 between 4:00-5:00PM for Evan Ackermans's presentation Robots vs Reality: Responsible Science Communication in the Attention Economy.

Evan Ackerman is a senior editor at IEEE Spectrum, the award-winning flagship publication of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Evan has been writing about robots, science, and emerging technology for over 15 years. After co-founding his own robotics blog in 2007, he joined Spectrum in 2011. In addition to Spectrum, Evan’s work has appeared in a variety of other websites and print magazines, and you may have heard him talking about robots on NPR’s Science Friday or the BBC World Service if you were listening at just the right time. Evan currently lives in Oklahoma City, along with his partner and a steadily growing collection of robot vacuums. In his spare time, he enjoys scuba diving, squeezing flamingos, and playing bagpipes excellently.

How Hard Could It Be? Applying International Human Rights Law to Content Moderation

Olivia Vanderwal — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 16:17:53 +0000

How Hard Could It Be? Applying International Human Rights Law to Content Moderation Olivia Vanderwal Thu, 2025-09-25 - 12:17

Join the Global Engagement Seminar: The Future of Connection on Tuesday, September 30 between 4:00-5:00PM for Sabrina Ahmad's presentation How Hard Could It Be? Applying International Human Rights Law to Content Moderation: Lessons from Meta’s Oversight Board.

Sabrina Ahmad is a Trust & Safety professional with several years’ experience working at the intersection of content moderation, platform governance, and freedom of expression issues in our digital world. Prior to her work in this field, Sabrina served as a policy analyst at the federal Government of Canada in designing skills-based technology training programs for public servants, and in communications and stakeholder relations for Canada’s Public Policy Forum. She holds an MSc in the Social Science of the Internet from the University of Oxford, and a Joint Honours BA in Communications and Sociology (French Immersion) from the University of Ottawa.