Marjorie Ward Lecture
The Marjorie Ward Lecture was established in 1980 to honour the College's long-standing Registrar, Marjorie Ward, on her retirement. Mrs. Ward began working at St John's in 1951, was made an Honorary Fellow of the College in 1975 and retired in 1980. The focus of the lecture series has been on Canada and, in particular, Western Canada.
41st Annual Marjorie Ward Lecture
The 41st Annual Marjorie Ward Lecture featured head coach and St John's College alumni, Brian Dobie, who spoke on "Reflections on the Future of Football in Canada".
Past Marjorie Ward Lecture Speakers
2024 Dr. Marcia Anderson — "Cultural Safety and Anti-Racism in Health Care: An Evolving Theory of Change"
2023 Darrell Stranger — “Journalism: Decolonized”
2022 Jaimie Isaac — “Inherited Legacies; places of recognition and acknowledgement of Indigenous presence. Reflecting on rising with community, artistic practice and curating with care.”
2021 Brenda Child — “Ellen Red Blanket and the Origins of the Jingle Dress Dance Tradition in Ojibwe Country”
2020 Joan Sangster — “Searching for Utopia? The Canadian Women’s Movement in the 1970’s”
2019 Katherena Vermette — “Gene rations: Métis experiences in Winnipeg history”
2018 David Alexander Robertson — “Reclamation & Reconciliation: Indigenous Literary Voices Today”
2017 Stephen Lewis — “Are Human Rights Eroding in the 21st Century?”
2016 Tanya Tagaq — “Artic Origins: Perspective through Art”
2015 André Lewis — “Reaching Your Potential”
2014 Jake MacDonald — “The University of the Open Road”
2013 Andrew Nikiforuk — “Energy and the Economist’s Delusion”
2012 Gerald McMaster — Curating the 18th Biennale of Sydney: “All Our Relations”
2010 Tomson Highway — “Comparing Mythologies”
2009 Guy Maddin — “Stripper Ghosts & Sofa Traumas: The theft of Infancy’s Lucent Promise”
2007 Birk Sproxton — “J.B. Tyrrell’s 1893 Barren Lands Trek: Exploration as Love Story, with Sauce”
2006 Charlotte Gray — “Talking to the Dead: The Art of Biography”
2005 Thomas Berger — “My Idea of Canada”
2004 Norma Bailey — “Hurry Up and Wait: My Life as a Freelance Filmmaker”
2003 Denise Chong — “In Pursuit of a Canadian Narrative: Whose Memory? Whose Truth? Whose Narrative?”
2002 Ovide Mercredi — “When the Natives Return to the Red & Assiniboine Rivers: What Then?”
2001 Archbishop Michael Peers — “From Colony to Covenant: The Church’s Mission Among the First Nations”
2000 His Worship Mayor Glen Murray — “The Future of Canadian Cities”
1999 Tracy Dahl — “The Road I’ve Travelled”
1998 Etienne Gaboury — “But is it Art? A Dissertation on Beauty, Art, and Architecture”
1997 Robert Enright — “Coming Apart at the Seams: Apocalyptic Art and the Millennium”
1996 Bramwell Tovey — “Winnipeg: A Cultural Centre in the 21st Century?”
1995 Carol Shields — “Narrative Hunger and the Well-Stocked Cupboard”
1994 John Gray — “How to Make Things Worse: The Canadian Culture of Avoidance”
1993 Douglas Cardinal — “Traditional Values and the Canadian Idiom”
1991 Alex Colville — “Life and Art”
1990 Robert Kroetsch — “I Wanted to Write a Manifesto”
1989 George Swinton — “Three Thousand Years of Arctic Migrations”
1988 William D. Valgardson — “Western Canadian Identity: Integrating Diverse Voices”
1987 Rudy Wiebe — “The Skull in the Swamp: A Twenty-five Year Retrospective of Peace Shall Destroy Many”
1986 Dorothy Livesay — “Magic Voices: The Impact of Women’s Writing on Western Canadian Literature”
1985 Terence Heath — “After 1984: The Artist and the Public Institution”
1984 Joy Cohnstaedt — “Time and Space: Dimensions of Culture”
1983 Tom Symons — “The Current State of Canadian Studies in Canada”
1982 W.S.F. Pickering — “Exit the Sacred”
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