The annual President's Speakers Series brings noted speakers from across Canada and around the globe to campus to address issues of current interest or importance.
2022-23 Academic Year
Dr. James Makokis and Anthony Johnson
Wednesday, Mar. 1, 2023, 7 p.m.
Crabtree Auditorium
You can also join us on Microsoft Teams
Day in the Life of a Modern Day Warrior
Dr. Makokis is a proud Cree, Two-spirit physician from Saddle Lake First Nation, AB and known as one of Canada’s most progressive doctors and experts in numerous topics. Recently named to The Medical Post’s 2021 Power List, Dr. Makokis believes that power should be shared, especially with those who have been disempowered.
Anthony Johnson is a Two-spirit, LGBTQ2S+ and Indigenous advocate originally from the Navajo Nation located in North Phoenix, AZ. Currently he is a project consultant and project coordinator at Kehewin Health Services, northeast of Edmonton, where his partner Dr. James Makokis currently operates his medical practice.
In 2019, the pair completed Season 7 of the Amazing Race Canada, becoming the first Two-spirit Indigenous, married couple in the world to be crowned winners. Their team was known as The Amazing Couple — Team Ahkameyimok (pronounced Ah-ka-may- mook), which means never give up in the Cree language. The Amazing Couple used the media coverage and platform on the show to confront stereotypes and raise awareness of issues faced by Indigenous Peoples in Canada, the United States, and around the world. Their team motto was “Ahkameyimok!” which is a phrase used by their elders to encourage others to do their best and keep going no matter what the challenge one is faced with or how difficult of a situation.
This is a hybrid event with in-person and online access via Microsoft Teams. All welcome, masks are required to attend in-person.
Supported by the Josiah Wood Lecture Fund
Desmond Cole
Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023, 7 p.m.
Crabtree Auditorium
You can also join us on Microsoft Teams
How much EDIA do we need? What do we mean when we use the language of EDIA? Are we assuming everyone means the same thing, or do we have concrete definitions? Is there such a thing as asking for too much accessibility, equity, inclusion, and diversity? How much is enough?
Desmond Cole is a journalist, activist and author based in Toronto. His work focuses on the struggle against state violence, particularly local policing. Cole’s work includes live broadcast radio, podcasts, local reporting, a newspaper column, magazine features, and consultation on a documentary film. His best-selling book, The Skin We’re In, A Year of Black Resistance and Power, won the 2020 Toronto Book Award and the OLA Evergreen Award.
This is a hybrid event with in-person and online access via Microsoft Teams. All welcome, masks are required to attend in-person.
Presented with support of the Bronfman Lecture Fund.
El Jones
Wednesday, Nov. 23, 7 p.m.
Crabtree Auditorium
You can also join us on Microsoft Teams
Abolitionist Intimacies
El Jones is a poet, journalist, professor, and activist living in Halifax, NS where she was the city’s Poet Laureate from 2013 to 2015. She is the author of Live from the Afrikan Resistance! and the forthcoming Abolitionist Intimacies. Her work focuses on social justice issues, such as feminism, prison abolition, anti-racism, and decolonization.
This is a hybrid event with in-person and online access via Microsoft Teams. All welcome, masks are required to attend in-person.
Supported by the Botsford-Westmorland Fund
Tareq Hadhad
Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022, 7 p.m.
Crabtree Auditorium
You can also join us on Microsoft Teams
Resiliency through Adversity
Tareq Hadhad, founder and CEO, Peace by Chocolate
Tareq Hadhad was a Syrian refugee and is now living his new life in Canada’s east coast as the founder and CEO of Peace by Chocolate. Passionate about peace and entrepreneurship, his family relaunched the family business to recreate the chocolates they once exported across the Middle East. In 2020 he received his Canadian Citizenship which garnered international attention. The Hadhad’s story has been shared in a best-selling book by Jon Tattrie and feature film, Peace by Chocolate, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and won several awards.
This is a hybrid event with in-person and online access via Microsoft Teams. All welcome, masks are required to attend in-person.
Supported by the Josiah Wood Lecture Fund
2022-23 President's Speaker Series Committee members
- Dr. Jennifer Tomes, Dean of Science (Committee Chair)
- Dr. Andrea Beverley, English and Canadian Studies
- Suhjung Chun, MASU VP Academic & University Affairs
- Laura Dillman, Marketing and Communications
- Dr. Krista Johnston, Canadian Studies, Women's and Gender Studies
- Dr. Mitchell Lapointe, Psychology
- Guylaine Roy, Financial Services