1980s
Angela Davis (1988-1989)
Feb 09, 1989
“Race, Class, and Gender in the Reagan-Bush Era” Angela Davis was a prolific American professor and Black activist. During this time, she co-founded Sisters Inside and Critical Resistance. She first gained prominence as a Black nationalist activist during the 1960s, when she beca
Stephen Jay Gould (1987-1988)
Nov 18, 1987
“Human Equality is a Contingent Fact of History” Stephen J. Gould was an evolutionary scientist, a professor at Harvard, and a leading opponent of scientific creationism. He was also a prominent author. His award-winning book, The Mismeasure of Man, examined the racist [...]
Frank Kermode (1986-1987)
Jan 20, 1987
“Are We Moderns or Post-Moderns? The Present State of the Arts” Frank Kermode was an eminent literary critic and King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at Cambridge. At the time of his talk, he had written and edited 25 books of literary criticism, including books [...]
Mel Hurtig (1985-1986)
Feb 10, 1986
“1986: The Most Crucial Year in Modern Canadian History” Mel Hurtig was a publisher, an author, and a well-known Canadian nationalist. During the 1972 federal election, he ran as a Liberal in West Edmonton, finishing second. In 1973, he left the Library party and co-founded [...]
Czeslaw Milosz (1985-1986)
Nov 07, 1985
“The Artist and Human Dignity” Czeslaw Milosz was a Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet. He was born in Lithuania in 1911, and lived in both Nazi and Stalinist Poland. During the Second World War, he wrote and edited resistance publications. After the war, he moved first to [...]
Mary O’Brien (1984-1985)
Feb 12, 1985
“Ethics and Ideology in Health Care: A Feminist Perspective” Mary O’Brien was a professor of the sociology of education at OISE in Toronto. After emigrating to Canada from Scotland in 1956, she worked as a nurse before completing graduate work in political philosophy. Her [...]
Richard Selzer (1984-1985)
Feb 11, 1985
“The Exact Location of the Soul” Richard Selzer was a surgeon-turned-writer. He was a professor of surgery at Yale University, an award-winning essayist, and the author of four books including Mortal Lessons, a book of essays on the art of surgery. In 1960, following a [...]
Henry Morgentaler (1984-1985)
Feb 05, 1985
“Medical, Moral, and Legal Aspects of Abortion” Henry Morgentaler was a Polish-Canadian doctor and activist. Born in 1923, his family were killed by the Nazis during the German occupation of Poland in the Second World War. Morgentaler himself spent a year in the Auschwitz [...]
Marilyn Ferguson (1983-1984)
Mar 06, 1984
“The Visionary Factor” Marilyn Ferguson was an American author, editor, and public speaker. She was best known for her 1980 book The Aquarian Conspiracy, which became a key text of the New Age movement. After attending Mesa College and the University of Colorado, she began [...]
Ivan Illich (1983-1984)
Feb 28, 1984
“Newspeak and Computer Language” Ivan Illich was a theologian, philosopher, historian, and sociologist. Forced to leave Austria during the Second World War because of his mother’s Jewish ancestry, his family moved to Italy, where he completed school and earned a PhD in [...]
John Meisel (1983-1984)
Oct 19, 1983
“Newspeak in the Information Society” John Meisel was Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University and a well-known researcher of political behaviour in Canada. From 1949 to 1979, he taught at Queen’s. Throughout his career, he studied [...]
Julian Symons (1983-1984)
Oct 18, 1983
“Freedom and Order in 1984” Julian Symons was a British crime fiction writer and poet. He founded the poetry magazine Twentieth Century Verse in 1937 and edited it for two years before turning his attention to crime novels. During his lifetime, Symons published more than 70 [...]