March 11 WICI Talk
The Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation (WICI) is pleased to share that The Friends of the McGill Libraries and the Stratford Festival are delighted to partner once again to present the 2026 annual Shakespeare Lecture with renowned actress Lucy Peacock; along with Laurette Dubé, Scientific Director of the McGill Centre for the Convergence of Health and Economics; Maiya Geddes, an FRSQ neurologist scientist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University; and Paul Yachnin, BA'76, Tomlinson Professor of Shakespeare Studies at McGill.
In the face of social, environmental, and political upheaval, the speakers will bring Shakespeare's Macbeth forward as a lens through which to explore the convergence of art, science, technology, and human experience.
Dr. Maryam Mohiuddin Ahmed Appointed Director of the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience (WISIR)
The Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience (WISIR) is pleased to announce that Dr. Maryam Mohiuddin Ahmed has been appointed as its new Director.
Founded by Dr. Frances Westley, WISIR has long been a global leader in advancing research, teaching, and practice on social innovation and systems change. The Institute has served as a hub for scholars and practitioners committed to addressing complex societal challenges through collaboration, experimentation, and resilience-building.
In assuming this new role, Dr. Ahmed expressed deep gratitude to those who have guided WISIR’s evolution over the years.
“I am profoundly grateful to Dr. Frances Westley, whose vision and scholarship gave life to WISIR and deeply influenced the field of social innovation around the world,” she shared. “I also want to honor the thoughtful leadership of Dr. Dan McCarthy and Dr. Sean Geobey, whose stewardship has carried forward WISIR’s legacy of rigor, compassion, and collaboration. It’s an honor to continue building on their work with our remarkable community.”
As Assistant Professor (Teaching Stream) of Business at the University of Waterloo, Dr. Ahmed brings a unique blend of scholarship, practice, and relational leadership to the Institute. A social innovation scholar-practitioner, her work foregrounds decolonial and relational approaches to social entrepreneurship, finance, systems change, and knowledge co-creation. Her research and pedagogy center “dialogues of wisdoms” and plural ways of knowing, doing, and being to reimagine social innovation as a path toward more equitable, regenerative futures.
Dr. Ahmed is also a co-steward of the Transition Bridges Project (TBP), a collaborative initiative pioneering systems mediation to address the polycrisis. TBP's practice involves acting as intermediaries across actors, scales, and systems to facilitate dialogue, mutual understanding, conflict transformation, and collective action toward resilient, regenerative communities.
She completed her PhD in Sustainability Management at the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Environment, where she was named Valedictorian. She also holds an LL.M. in International Law from the University of California, Berkeley, and B.A./LL.B. degrees from LUMS University in Pakistan.
As a former co-founder of the Social Innovation Lab and Daftarkhwan, Pakistan’s largest co-working network, Dr. Ahmed has long bridged academic inquiry with lived practice through community-engaged learning, critical pedagogy, and systems-mediation experimentation.
“WISIR has always been more than an institute,” she notes. “It’s a living community of practice - an ecosystem of people who believe in reimagining systems more in tuned with justice, equity, and regeneration. I look forward to continuing this journey together.” When asked about WISIR’s future directions, Dr. Ahmed is excited to promote radical interdisciplinarity and more inter-systemic approaches to research and practice, while centering pluriversal ways of knowing, doing and being rooted in wisdoms from around the world.
We invite you to join us for the launch of the bioregion initiative, a collective effort focused on the Grand River watershed. This gathering welcomes all those who share a commitment to reimagining the future of this vital watershed.
The event marks the beginning of a shared journey to imagine an aspirational future for the Grand River region—one that honors ecological integrity, deepens social and cultural connections, and advances regenerative economic pathways. Together we will explore the opportunities and responsibilities of stewarding the watershed, while building a collective vision for resilience, wellbeing, and thriving communities.
This launch will lay the foundation for an ongoing path forward—mapping next steps, identifying leverage points, and strengthening the relationships that will guide this initiative into the future.
All are welcome.
Register for further updates and how to be involved.
The Waterloo Institute for Complexity & Innovation (WICI) is proud to launch our 2025 Speaker Series with two thought-provoking events.
Join us for two inspiring talks on complexity, governance, AI, and relational futures featuring:.
Dr. Rik Logtenburg, June 26, 2:30 pm,
and
Dr. Vanessa Andreotti, June 27, 10:30 am.
More information and registration details can be found on our events page.
Updates to leadership and staff member of WICI.
The University of Waterloo, in partnership with the Balsillie School of International Affairs, the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation, and Future Cities Institute will host an international workshop to convene and build the capacities of the global climate city data governance community. This two-day in-person workshop will be held on April 21-22, 2025 at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Canada.
WICI Speaker Series with James Shelley on Monday March 17 from 3 - 4:30
Ira Allen, Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Writing, and Digital Media Studies at Northern Arizona University, discusses how "witnessing" offers a democratic way to navigate societal collapse as the infrastructures of our lifeworld decomplexify while individual efforts to understand that world increase in complexity.
WICI Speaker Series and Social presents Jerome Warren on Cooperative Economics and Management at Together We're Bitter Cooperative Brewing (Kitchener, Ontario) on Sunday, October 27