Celebrating a decade of Last Lecture events

For over a decade the Last Lecture has become a popular UCalgary campus tradition, bringing students, their instructors and the community together for informal storytelling  about life, politics, identity, self-actualization and a host of other compelling topics.

For each event, an instructor is approached to present on a topic of their choosing, and engage questions and discussion with attendees following the lecture.

The concept for the Last Lecture Series was borne out of one man’s experience as he navigated through the final months of his life.

After receiving the devastating news that he had pancreatic cancer, Professor Randy Pausch delivered what he titled his "Last Lecture" to a packed auditorium of his peers, students and community at Carnegie Mellon university.

Unlike a traditional university lecture to a classroom of students, Randy’s would not be discussing computer science, but the chosen topic of “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” – a talk that blended personal experience and insight, living generously, and overcoming obstacles.

In the spirit of Randy’s journey, the University of Calgary’s Leadership and Student Engagement office began a Last Lecture program of it’s own in the late 2000’s.

Now organized and facilitated by an arm of the department responsible for student social events, the UCalgary Last Lecture Series invites well-known instructors from all faculties to deliver a lecture on a subject that is important to them.

Since then, the insightful, passionate and personal messages of this campus’ faculty have graced The Hunter Hub and that Empty Space twice each semester.

If you are interested in learning when the next Last Lecture Series event is taking place, be sure to follow the events calendar, the Leadership and Student Engagement‘s Instagram channel or the LSE newsletter for more details.

• 2013 – Dawn Johnston: “How Really Bad TV Makes for a Good Educational Tool”
• 2013 – Reed Ferber: “Lessons Learned From Masking Tape”
• 2014 – Isabelle Barrette-Ng: “From Pastries to Petri Dishes”
• 2014 – Houston Peschl: “The Sustainable Distance: an absurd journey”
• 2014 – Nicholas Zekulin: “My Ideal University”
• 2014 – Mike Czuba: “(A)rt - A Philosophy For Everyone, Not an Object for the Few”
• 2015 – Andrew Szeto: “Life, Love, Food and Hockey”
• 2015 – Justin Weinhart: “A Terror Way Beyond Balling”
• 2015 – Benoit Beauchamp: “The Many Chapters of Life”
• 2016 – Patrick Finn: “How you Flourish”
• 2016 – Andrew Szeto: “How Four Colours Changed My Life”
• 2016 – Patricia Doyle-Barker: “The Three C’s in a Career and an Oreo Cookie”
• 2016 – Micheal Pawliuk: “Don't Talk to Strangers: The Ancient Ritual of Storytelling”
• 2017 – Linda McKay-Panos: “Humour: Resilience and the ability to laugh at yourself”
• 2017 – Kiara Mikita: “Challenging Rules and Changing Words: Meaning What We Say About Sexual Violence
• 2017 – Darrin Ambrose: “Even Accounts Make Mistakes”
• 2018 – Dawn Johnston: “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Thinking about the Power of Media and Pop Culture”
• 2018 – Leighton Wilks: “A Win-Win Life”
• 2018 – Dr. Fiona Clement: “An Unexpected Opportunity: Shaping Canada's Changing Cannabis Landscape”
• 2018 – Melanee Thomas:“Where are Women in Politics? Gender gaps in democratic participation.”
• 2019 – Rebecca Sullivan: “Activism and Resiliency in the Classroom”
• 2019 – Michael Hart: “Shape Shifting for the Academy; or Wîsahkecâhk, nîmihitowina, êkwa âcimowinisa”
• 2019 – Rita Yembilah: “Finding your identity in the world of work”
• 2020 – Samantha Thrift: “Critical Media Literacy FTW”
• 2020 – Darin Flynn: “A Sacred Trust: Indigenous Languages in Canada”
• 2021 – Maureen Hiebert: “Genocide: Understanding the Crime of Crimes”
• 2021 – Joshua Goldstein: “Blueprints, Bucket Lists and Being at Home in the World”
• 2021 – Michael Kehler: “The Courage to Change: Masculinity, Misogyny and Bro Culture”
• 2022 – Shelley Alexander: "Way Finding with Wild Dogs. "
• 2022 – Mark Machacek: "Establishing Anti-Establishment: Exploring the Politics & Academia Parallels of Punk Rock".