News & Events
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News & Events
The SASAH Speakers' Series presents Kristen Case, "Thoreau's Temporal Imagination"
Tuesday, November 18, 3-4PM, UC 2110.
Our final SASAH Speakers' Series guest for the Fall semester has been announced: Kristen Case will discuss her recently published transcriptions of Henry David Thoreau's late-life natural history charts in her book . The talk will foreground the ways that Thoreau's temporal creativity can help us reimagine our increasingly time-famished lives.
Kristen Case is a poet and scholar. In addition to Thoreau's Kalendar, she is the author of American Pragmatism and Poetic Practice: Crosscurrents from Emerson to Susan Howe and three books of poetry, most recently, Daphne. She lives in Maine, where she is executive director of The Monson Seminar, a residential program for Pell-eligible and first-generation college students.
Kristen is a guest of Professor Kate Stanley's first-year class, "Climate Conversations: Finding Common Ground for the 21st Century." Learn more about our Annual Speakers' Series here.
Posted October 8, 2025.
Joseph McGill Jr. public talk covered by The Gazette and CBC London
Great coverage of Joseph McGill Jr.'s first visit to Canada to discuss his public history work through The Slave Dwelling Project. Hannah Alper writes for The Gazette: "As founder of the Slave Dwelling project, McGill’s work has brought him into conversation with both descendants of enslaved people and of enslavers. He has also served as a Civil War reenactor, the executive director of the African American Museum of Iowa and a park ranger at Fort Sumter National Monument."
You can also read AND listen to CBC's recent coverage of McGill's visit: "McGill is in London to speak at 深夜福利站 on Monday morning and to visit the Fugitive Slave Chapel at Fanshawe Pioneer Village, a historic site linked to the Underground Railroad. He said coming to Canada is a chance to connect the story of American slavery to the places where many sought refuge. 'Coming up north from the south to freedom was not enough," McGill said. "There were always those attempts to re-enslave or even kidnap someone who was born free. So to be here, where that sympathy and empathy was shown, is a good opportunity for me.'"
Posted October 3, 2025.
The SASAH Speakers' Series presents: Heather George, "Sharing Difficult Truths and Supporting Cultural Vibrancy at the Site of the Longest Running Residential School in Canada"
Tuesday, October 28
12PM, UC1405
Museology is a fundamentally colonial discipline, however since 1972 has been engaging in story-telling, caring for belongings and asserting Indigenous sovereignty. Behind every exhibition, program and policy we seek to undo the harms of Residential School and demonstrate the continuity and vibrancy of our nations.
Heather George, (Kanienʼkehá:ka, Akwesasne and Euro-Canadian) is the Executive Director and Chief Curator at Woodland Cultural Centre. As a UWO alumni from the Public History M.A. Program she brings two decades of community based, Indigenous practices to her work. As a mother, beader, gardener and curator Heather's PhD research through University of Waterloo is examining the historical and philosophical underpinnings of contemporary museum practice specifically grounded in Haudenosaunee (Six Nations / Iroquois) philosophies. She seeks to challenge the colonial basis of cultural preservation methods and museology and better understand how we engage with material culture to heal trauma and engage in cross-cultural dialogues. In 2022 Heather served as the President of the Candain Museums Association supporting the release of the Moved to Action Report responding to TRC #67 and as a current board member of the Indigenous Heritage Circle she advocates for better legal and funding mechanisms to support the implementation of UNDRIP in the museum sector.
Heather George is a guest of Sarah Bassnett's second-year SASAH course, "Photography and Social Justice."
SASAH's 2025 Welcome Event; Sam Maggs visits "Digital Literacies"; student collaboration on learning outcomes; Kate Stanley's first-years are down by the river; Jason Dyck discusses digital research; Judith Rodger visits the Capstone Class.
🍂Starting the Fall with Friends🍂
We're nearly a month into the semester, and SASAH students have already been meeting professionals from across the arts and humanities! They've also been taking a collaborative role in creative curriculum and community building.
Kate Stanley’s first-year course, “Climate Conversations: Finding Common Ground for the 21st Century,” visited the river this week with guest Jules Lee. The Anishinaabemowin name for this river is Deshkan Ziibi, or “Antler River.” It’s also commonly called the Thames River. The class spent this time with Jules reading Natalie Diaz’s Art historian and author Judith Rodger visited the fourth-year Capstone course to discuss in relation to regionalism and sense of place.
Second-year students in "Digital Tools, Digital Literacies" collaborated on drafting learning outcomes related to knowledge, practical skills, and professional development. Author discussed writing approaches for novels, comics, and video games—including a look behind the scenes at how each requires specific approaches to collaboration and different platforms for organizing writing. Who would have thunk that video game scripts live on spreadsheets?? Teaching and Learning Library also visited the second-years to discuss digital research practices and how the tricky biases of analogue library catalogues continue to inform digital cataloguing systems.
Beyond the classroom, SASAH students are leading 深夜福利站 Theatre productions of this year's Fall Musical () and the Fall Play (). They're also taking leadership roles in the , the , the, , and so much more! Our recent alumni also continue to make waves. Case in point, 2025 SASAH alum Kat Henricus is working overdrive as USC President (), and if you missed it, in a recent episode of "Campus Conversations" with President Alan Shepard.
One big September highlight: we welcomed back the whole cohort! Our first-year students had a chance to meet some of their upper-year peers face-to-face. Special thanks to fourth-years Heather Stanley and Jaya Sinha, who had words of wisdom for how to navigate years first, second, and third of undergraduate life.
Posted September 30, 2025.
Guest Talk: Between Filter and Reality: Exploring the #InstagramVsReality Trend
Monday, October 6
2:30 PM in FNB 2220 or
Join us for a guest talk in "Digital Tools, Digital Humanities" with Meaghan Furlano and Dr. Kaitlynn Mendes from : "Between Filter and Reality: Exploring the #InstagramvsReality Trend."
In the mid-2010s, a new body trend emerged on social media called #InstagramVsReality. Contributors uploaded side-by-side photos: an idealized “Instagram” depiction of their bodies contrasted with a more “realistic” portrayal. Given the growing influence of social media on body image, mental health, and the spread of mis/disinformation, we asked:
1) Who participates in this trend?
2) What does #InstagramVsReality reveal about contemporary body culture?
3) What do contributors say about the trend?
4) Where does #InstagramVsReality fit in relation to broader movements such as feminism, body-positivity, and media literacy?
Our qualitative analysis of 150 posts indicates that, although the trend claims to challenge narrow and unrealistic beauty standards, it nevertheless privileges and makes visible young, slim, conventionally attractive white women at the expense of more diverse body types, ages, and non-normative beauty standards. We argue that #InstagramVsReality is more closely aligned with popular feminist campaigns that promote neoliberal media literacy and individual psychic work rather than advocating for structural transformation. We conclude by thinking through media literacy and algorithmic rankings to combat social issues, especially at a time when AI-generated imagery is becoming increasingly prevalent and misinformation campaigns are rampant.
The GEMS Research Lab brings together scholars and students interested in topics around gender, equity, media, and society.
Learn more about our speakers and this event!
Posted September 27, 2025.
Sept 30, 2025: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (non-instructional day)
Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery
Monday, September 29
11AM - 12:30PM
Weldon Community Room
Fifteen years ago, Joseph McGill began sleeping in extant slave dwellings on American South plantations to protest their lack of Black heritage interpretation. Now, an award-winning public historian, McGill will discuss his experiences as he created the Slave Dwelling Project on his first-ever Canadian visit. Learn more here!
Joseph McGill Jr is a history consultant for Magnolia Plantation, South Carolina, and a former field office for the National Trust for Historic Preservation and National Park Service Ranger at Fort Sumter National Monument, Charleston. SASAH is pleased to support this program!
Posted September 25, 2025.
From Tornadoes to Theatre: SASAH Internships in Action!
Experiential Learning Specialist, Barbara Bruce
Summer internships have wrapped, and fall-term placements are in full swing! Our students have been gaining amazing experience with the , , , , , , and local schools. One student even spent the summer chasing tornadoes with the Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory!
Experiential Learning = learning by doing. Develop your skills, connect theory with practice, grow your career readiness, and meet people who can open doors for your future.
Want to know more about SASAH’s 1.0-credit Experiential Learning requirement? Check out SASAH's Experiential Learning page and the . Not sure what to do—or when? Book a chat with Dr. Barbara Bruce, SASAH’s Experiential Learning Specialist, and start planning your EL adventure!
Posted September 17, 2025.
SASAH Welcome Picnic, hosted by AHSC SASAH Rep Khadeejah!
West Lions Park
Sunday, September 14
3PM - 6PM
Come join us to celebrate the start of the school year! Drop by between 3 and 6PM.
While we will have many refreshments provided, we also encourage to bring any food or snacks that you wish to (remember the more the merrier 😉)! We can’t wait to see you all there 🧺☀️
The first-year SASAH cohort meet at our Orientation Social.
FINDING YOU FEET! SASAH's touchstone for 2025-2026
It’s such a pleasure to welcome the SASAH community back to the new academic year. It was exciting to welcome the new cohort of first-year students in an information session on-line before classes began and in an in-person social event during Orientation. I met the fourth-year cohort in the capstone seminar this week, and I’m gradually getting to know folks in between first and fourth year. I’m looking forward to the meet-and-greet on September 19th in University College 3105 (the Jim Good Boardroom) at 4 pm. In the meantime--and going forward--please drop by my office in University College 2307 if you’re on campus and introduce yourself (if we haven’t met) or check in. Our move to University College is more-or-less complete.
I have been giving a lot of thought to identifying a theme or organizing principle for the year, as is the tradition. It’s a challenge to think in overarching terms when I’m just getting to know our students and settling into the program. “How are you doing in your new role as Director of SASAH?” I’m often asked these days. “I’m finding my feet,” I respond tentatively. I admit that some days I feel like Bambi on the slippery frozen pond, all gangly awkwardness with hooves scooting off in all directions… but like Bambi, I’m up for the adventure.
And it promises to be a tremendous adventure. So, I’m proposing that our touchstone concept for this year be FINDING YOUR FEET. SASAH’s programs provide a rich matrix for students be intellectually daring, critically expansive, creatively inspired – and to be grounded in a strong sense of themselves in community and the environment. “Finding your feet” will mean different things for different people, but it’s a metaphor that is meant to suggest that we share the ongoing process of learning with humanity, whatever our means of locomotion, bringing a sense of down-to-earth self-awareness and responsibility to the undertaking. Finding your feet means working to achieving balance but never getting too comfortable – that’s where discovery begins.
You can only truly find your feet if you know you have support when and where you need it. We continue to be deeply grateful to our alumni, our Advisory Council members, our donors, and our collaborators, who foster our mission of excellence and innovation in the Arts and Humanities. That mission of excellence is brilliantly brought to life by our SASAH Teaching Fellows, innovative instructors who teach our core courses, bringing unique insights that reimagine disciplines, media, communities, localities, and trajectories of thought.
Last thing – a reminder that you will find our Community Outreach and Engagement Coordinator, Dr. Ruth Skinner in University College 1123. Jennifer Tramble (SASAH Program Coordinator) is next door to me in UC 2308 and Dr. Barbara Bruce (Experiential Learning Coordinator for the Faculty of Arts & Humanities) is currently in UC 2401D, but she may be on the move to another office, so stay tuned. Expect to hear from Ruth, Jen, Barb, and me about all the events and activities we will be planning for you this year.
Posted September 12, 2025.
Did you catch our upcoming SASAH Speakers' Series guest, Sam Maggs,
On September 15, author Sam Maggs will discuss different approaches when writing for novels, comics, and video games on a very practical level, followed by a Q&A. Event is in FNB 2220. Email sasah@uwo.ca for a live zoom link if you're unable to join us in person.
is a New York Times Bestselling and Eisner-nominated author of books, comics, and video games. Her novels include Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars and The Unstoppable Wasp: Built on Hope; she’s written for games like Call of Duty: Vanguard, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, and Marvel’s Spider-Man; and her comics and graphic novels include Marvel Action: Captain Marvel, Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins, and Tell No Tales: Pirates of the Southern Seas. She is also on-air talent for networks like Dropout and the Nerdist. A Canadian in Los Angeles, she misses Coffee Crisp and bagged milk.
Posted September 12, 2025.
Jaya Sinha is 深夜福利站’s new Student Writer-in-Residence
SASAH celebrates fourth-year student Jaya Sinha as this year's Student Writer-in-Residence.
: "Sinha is the type of person you want as a dinner party guest – animated, articulate and a gifted storyteller. Conversations are sprinkled with amusing anecdotes and the self-deprecating humour of her generation. She thrives in diverse social settings, absorbing the everyday stories of others as deeply as she engages with literature, film and philosophy. She spends her summers writing plays with her best friend 'being each other’s dramaturgs' and figuring out how to make their work better."
Jaya will hold her inaugural reading on Sept. 24 in University Community Centre, room 56 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Student writer-in-residence office hours for the fall semester are Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Appointments can be made by email.
Posted September 5, 2025.
Former Director Joel Faflak honoured by Royal Society of Canada
SASAH's founding Director, Joel Faflak, is among seven 深夜福利站 scholars newly recognized by the Royal Society of Canada for their outstanding contributions to the arts, humanities and sciences. Joel is joined by Dr. Robert Hegele, John Meyer, Julie Aitken Schermer, Juan-Luis Suárez and Ying Zheng, all elected Fellows. Professor Angela Roberts is being inducted into the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists.
The Royal Society of Canada honours excellence across the country, empowering leaders who are building a better future in Canada and around the world.
Joel is the Robert and Ruth Lumsden Chair in the department of English. He is a sought-after lecturer and during his time at 深夜福利站. His publications are internationally recognized for their study of literature’s profound influence on theories of mind, emotion, evolution and addiction.
. Congratulations, Joel!
Posted September 4, 2025.
We're moving house!
SASAH’s new home is nestled near the Arts and Humanities Dean’s Office and the Department of Languages and Cultures. We're excited to be new neighbours to the Department of French Studies and the Department of English and Writing Studies. Our students are getting a bright and beautiful new student room. Students will also be right around the corner from the , affirming the longstanding leadership ties between our program and the AHSC.
In the words of SASAH Director, Manina Jones, “SASAH is making the move to offices in University College, with a student community space overlooking the beautiful Ivey gardens. It’s a location at the historic heart of the university and the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. I’m looking forward with excitement to working with SASAH students to make this space their home.”
Acting Dean of Arts and Humanities Ileana Paul shares the following statement: “This move brings our students and staff closer to the Dean’s Office and the Arts and Humanities Student Council (AHSC) office... We’re excited about the opportunities this new space will offer for collaboration, visibility, and community engagement.”
Posted July 31, 2025.
