Distinguished Lecture Series

The various Departments in the Faculty of Social Science each represent a unique avenue of research. The Departments bring some of the most respected researchers to Western University. Lectures from prominent external researchers revitalize our research culture, establish connections with researchers from around the world, and publicize the activities of our Departments across the world.

With support from donors and alumni, we are creating a Social Science Distinguished Lecture series. The series will give our Departments, and the Faculty more generally, the capacity to host leading scholars from distant institutions on a regular basis.

Our goal is that each Department will have at least one distinguished visiting academic deliver a public lecture each year as part of the overall Social Science series. Each lecture series provides students, faculty and staff insight into research and issues in their respective disciplines.

Balakrishnan Distinguished Lecture in Population Dynamics and Inequality - Department of Sociology

Established in 2016, the goal of the Balakrishnan Distinguished Lecture in Population Dynamics and Inequality, to enhance the excellence in the Department of Sociology in Population Dynamics and Inequality and to give visibility for the University in this area in the academic world. The lecture series is made possible due to the support of Professor Emeritus T.R. Balakrishnan and Lois F. Leatham.

Past speakers were Dr. Michael Hout, Professor of Sociology at New York University and Dr. Douglas Massey, Professor at the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Princeton.

 

DAN Management Distinguished Lecture in Consumer Behavior

Established in 2018, the DAN Management Distinguished Lecture Series in Consumer Behavior is made possible through the support of Aubrey Dan.

DAN Management Distinguished Lecture in Corporate Governance

Established in 2018, the DAN Management Distinguished Lecture Series in Corporate Governance is made possible through the support of Aubrey Dan.

Joanne Goodman Lecture - Department of History

Every autumn a distinguished historian is invited to Western University to deliver three public lectures on consecutive afternoons to students, faculty and members of the London community. The lecture series was established in 1975 by the Honourable Edwin A. Goodman and his family of Toronto to perpetuate the memory of their beloved elder daughter, a second year History student who died in a highway accident in April of that year.

The theme of the series is the history of the Atlantic Triangle (Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom). The first lectures were given in 1976 by the leading Canadian military historian, Colonel Charles Stacey, on 'Mackenzie King and the Atlantic Triangle'. Occasionally there have been lectures outside the general framework. In 1995, for example, the topic was 'The Birth of the "New" South Africa', tracing the collapse of apartheid and the construction of a new political and social system since 1990, by Rodney Davenport, a South African historian and opponent of apartheid.

The endowment also supports publication so that these important lectures may be shared by a readership well beyond the immediate audience at Western University. Most of the lectures have been published as books, either in a form similar to lectures or as part of a larger work. The lectures are widely recognized as being the most important history lecture series in Canada. The invitation to deliver them and the publications that result are highly regarded in this country and around the world.

 

Regna Darnell Distinguished Lecture Series in Theory, Ethnography and Activism in Anthropology

Founded in 2018

Inaugural Regna Darnell Distinguished Lecture Series in Theory, Ethnography and Activism in Anthropology

The Talman Lecture - Department of History

Founded in 2008, The J.J. Talman Lecture Series focuses on Ontario history, Ontario regional collections and innovative uses thereof, or previously unstudied aspects of Canadian history. Reflecting the breadth of Dr. Talman’s career at Western, as a respected historian and Chief Librarian, the lectures are organized annually by a joint committee comprised of representatives from the Department of History and Western Libraries. The J.J. Talman Lecture Series was envisioned and is funded by Raj Jain, Librarian Emerita, and her brother, Dr. Sushil Jain, in gratitude for Dr. Talman’s many personal kindnesses, and to recognize his substantial contribution to Western.

Past speakers include: Carl Benn, Tim Cook, Jane Errington, Cecilia Morgan, Peter Neary

Upcoming lectures in the Distinguished Lecture Series