Events - 2020

“Ill Schooled in Bolted Language”: Shakespeare’s Tragic Flaw

Houman Mehrabian

Textbooks of rhetoric emphasize the significance of taking into account the values and interests of the particular audience when designing and delivering a speech. And the breach of this requirement is grouped among the greatest “vices” of the art of rhetoric.

Public Writing – Turning an Academic Paper into a Blogpost 

The Centre for Career Action has confirmed their spring 2020 workshop listing to support graduate students. All workshops will be run online and those who register will receive information or a link to attend depending on the platform being used. 

All up-to-date workshop information can be found on our website which will be updated throughout the term.

An English Undergraduate Event

The Wilfrid Laurier Department of Communication Studies presents a talk by Dr. Ghislain Thibault: Look Up! A Media History of Aerial Communication.

In 2019, the Barbie doll turned 60.  Plasticity in body and persona allowed the Mattel toy company to position and reposition their high-achieving money-maker as relevant by exploiting social trend, political movements and historical shifts. As a complex international celebrity and feminist bête noir, Barbie is a mirror helping us to reflect on ourselves. 

This lecture is based on my book, Plastic’s Republic, a poem collection centering on the Barbie doll as an enduring cultural icon. I will examine her creation, her impact on female beauty and discuss how her mouldable nature made her a “capital doll” and free market diva. Following the book’s themes, I will elaborate the philosophical, feminist and social issues she engenders and discuss how Barbie became plastic surgery’s prophet by spawning “plastic positive” humans. Finally, plastic’s reach extends to the dollification of romantic relationships via silicone sex dolls and ends (un)naturally in our plastic infused lives and smothered oceans.

I will follow the lecture by reading from Plastic’s Republic.