Public Lectures

‍Lecture Series, School of International Studies, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, July 4-14, 2023.

‍“Curious Minds: Writers of the CanLit Boom.” Ted Rogers Hot Docs Theatre, Sep. 26 – Nov. 7, 2018. Six lectures.

“Arrival & Its Critics,” Trinity Title Talks, George Ignatieff Theatre, Trinity College, Jan. 30, 2018.

‍The Writers of the CanLit Boom. Series of ten lectures at Innis College Town Hall, Sep.-Dec. 2017. These lectures—on Alice Munro, Leonard Cohen, Margaret Laurence, Dennis Lee, bp Nichol, Margaret Atwood, Al Purdy, Marie-Claire Blais, Mavis Gallant, and Mordecai Richler were filmed and are available on Youtube.

“Locus Classicus: What We Talk About When We Talk About ‘Local’ Literature.” Ernest Buckler Literary Event Society, Bridgetown, NS, June 3, 2017.

“García Márquez: Vendor of Miracles.” ProfTalks, Toronto Convention Centre, May 4, 2014.

“High Art, Street Art, & Vandals;  An Illustrated Talk from Duchamp to Banksy.” Toronto Public Library, March 5, 2012; University of King’s College, Halifax, Nov. 14, 2012.

‍“Lana Del Rey, Meet Your Boyfriend.” Ryeberg Live. Drake Hotel, Toronto, March 19, 2012.

“The CanLit Boom of the 1960s.” Leon Katz Memorial Lecture, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, Mar. 4, 2010; Toronto Arts & Letters Club, May 16, 2017; Toronto Public Reference Library, June 6, 2017.

“Keeping It Real: The Education of Anne Shirley.” Innis Town Hall, Innis College, University of Toronto, Jan. 28, 2010.

Literature for Our Time. Lectures on Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, Samuel Becket’s Waiting for Godot, Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, Sylvia Plath’s Ariel, Seth’s It’s a Good Life, If You Don’t Weaken, and Sam Lipstye’s Home Land filmed for TVO’s Big Ideas, 2006-09, available on Youtube.

“The Renaissance of Cute.” Friends of the Library, Trinity College, University of Toronto, Sep. 23, 2008.

“The Return of the Beautiful in Art and Letters.” Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto, ON, Oct. 6, 2006; Arts & Letters Club of Toronto, Mar. 25, 2008.