President's Lecture Series
The President's Lecture Series (PLS) is a faculty initiative of the School of Liberal Arts & Sciences that is sponsored by the Office of the President. The lecture series is planned, organized, and administered by a committee of faculty volunteers who are guided by the PLS Mission Statement.
Mission Statement
PLS Mission Statement: By welcoming public intellectuals to a dynamic educational environment, The President's Lecture Series strives to provide a forum for critical discourse that is responsive to the interests of the Humber community. In fulfilling this goal, we commit to the values of free speech, diversity, and academic and social engagement.
Explore our archive!
We have a video archive of speakers going back to 2006 available as a resource to faculty, staff and students.
Get Involved!
Come to one of our upcoming talks. Here are the speakers for the Winter 2022 term:
Melanie Goodchild
Niigani Miinigowiziiwin (We Give These Gifts to the Future)
Tues, Jan 31st, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m., Q&A to Follow
Online virtual event, accessible from this page
Melanie Goodchild is an Anishinaabekwe (Ojibway woman) systems thinking and complexity science scholar who is a PhD candidate in Social & Ecological Sustainability at the University of Waterloo. She is also on faculty with the Wolf Willow Institute for Systems Learning, the Academy for Systems Change, the Presencing Institute and teaches part time at the University of Vermont.
Dr. Samira Kiani
A Proposal for Conscious and Reflective Innovation in the Field of Gene Editing
Wed, March 29th, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m., Q&A + Reception to Follow
North Campus, B101 Boardroom
Dr. Samira Kiani is an Associate Professor of Pathology and Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh where she uses CRISPR technology to cut and splice DNA. She worked alongside director Cody Sheehy to produce the film Make People Better, which documents the covert events surrounding the controversial experiment to engineer the world's first genetically enhanced human babies.
Suggest a Speaker
The PLS Committee strives to be responsive to the entire college community. To generate as much interest as possible, the committee looks for speakers who will have broad appeal among the great diversity of students who attend the college. We actively seek feedback and suggestions from faculty, staff, and students.
PLS speakers are chosen on the basis of five criteria. PLS speakers must be 1) high profile 2) intellectually accessible 3) thought-provoking 4) Canadian- and/or internationally-focused, and 5) must not be sitting or campaigning elected politicians nor have already appeared at the college within the past three years. Do you know of a suitable speaker? If so, please forward your suggestion(s) to pls@humber.ca. Be sure to let us know what topics the speaker could address, their areas of academic specialization, their publications, and especially send us any links to interviews or talks available online.