Graduate Liberal Studies Program SFU

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Graduate Liberal Studies Program SFU

The Graduate Liberal Studies Program is a part-time master's of arts program with evening classes lo

09/29/2026

Join us on October 23th @ 7:00pm for an event with Martin Puchner, prize-winning author and Byron and Anita Wien Professor at Harvard University, on the applied approach to storytelling, using climate change as the case study!

ABOUT THE SEMINAR

Stories are everywhere. Politicians looking for votes, founders looking for funding, high school students applying to college—they all know that they must tell stories to obtain their goal. Where do these stories come from? Mostly from other stories and ultimately, the store of stories humans have accumulated over their long history as a narrative species. But despite the widespread need for stories, literary studies has been hesitant to offer easy access to that history or practical advice for how to use it.

RSVP now: https://ow.ly/3X9y50ZSseE

09/24/2026

Join us on October 16th @ 6:30pm for an evening of show-and-tell about the fascinating art of Italian printmaking! Meet master Italian printer Giancarlo Busato and learn about the artisan workshop in Vicenza where centuries-old techniques and traditions continue to flourish. Discover the world of Aldus Manutius, a pioneer of printing and publishing in Renaissance Italy, and hear from SFU experts about the magnificent Wosk-McDonald Aldine Collection housed in the university’s library.

Reception and art exhibit to follow.

Italian Chamber of Commerce in Canada - West
Consulate General of Italy in Vancouver
Istituto Italiano di Cultura Toronto
SFU Publishing
SFU Department of World Languages and Literatures
SFU Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Details and registration: https://ow.ly/pl9350ZQnSA

08/26/2026

Join us on Saturday, September 19th, 6:30–8:00pm, for a public lecture on the role of monuments through the stories around the Colston Statue, by University of Bristol's Tim Cole!

ABOUT THE TALK

This lecture introduces the short history of one statue to examine the varied ways that monuments and those who interact with them tell stories in public. From the after-dinner speaker who first proposed the statue in 1893, through a graffiti-writer in 1998 and protestors in 2020, to the museum curators who displayed its toppled remains in 2024, the lecture discusses how and why monuments have been used to tell larger stories. Doing so, it asks why monuments have mattered and whether they still matter.

Please RSVP by September 14th to attend: https://ow.ly/v1Ni50ZFrrm

03/30/2026

Congratulations to our director Sasha Colby for winning the Shevchenko Foundation's 2026 Kobzar Book Award for her book: "The Matryoshka Memoirs: A Story of Ukrainian Forced Labour, the Leica Camera Factory, and N**i Resistance," a work of creative nonfiction that explores the experiences of her grandmother, a forced labourer in N**i Germany: https://ow.ly/ZXzo50YzZVr

ABOUT THE AWARD

Presented biennially, the $25,000 KOBZAR™ Book Award recognizes outstanding contributions to Canadian literary arts by authors who write on a topic with a tangible connection to the experiences of Ukrainian Canadians. Genres include literary non-fiction, fiction, poetry, young readers’ literature, play, screenplay, and musical.

02/04/2026

Join Graduate Chair Emily O'Brien in the virtual classroom on February 28th, 10:00AM–12:00PM PST, for a taste of what Graduate Liberal Studies at SFU has to offer. RSVP to [email protected] now to participate in a lively discussion of Machiavelli’s famous, satirical play, “La Mandragola” (“The Mandrake Root”), a hit comedy from the Italian Renaissance that, in surprising ways, still speaks to us today!

Learn more: https://ow.ly/w9VS50XX2aw

01/12/2026

Join GLS Program Director Sasha Colby in the virtual classroom on January 31st, 10AM–12PM PST, for a taste of what Graduate Liberal Studies at SFU has to offer. Sign-up now to participate in the lively discussion of Euripides’ "The Bacchae," a classic Greek tragedy exploring themes of reason and passion in ways that are directly relevant to our own time!

To attend the Zoom seminar, please RSVP to [email protected].

Learn more: https://ow.ly/IGZ550XSbTH

01/07/2026

Join us on January 29 @ 6:30PM PST for a public lecture by Arianna Dagnino and Stefano Gulmanelli, titled "Canada, in Person: Meeting the People Who Make a Country." Registration required. Reception to follow.

ABOUT THE TALK

In this illustrated talk, Arianna Dagnino and Stefano Gulmanelli retrace their 75-day, 21,000-kilometre journey across Canada—a coast-to-coast crossing captured in their bilingual (EN/IT) Substack newsletter "Canadiensis. Letters from Canada." Through encounters with artists, farmers, newcomers, elders, and community leaders, they offer a mosaic of contemporary Canada and the people who shape its present and future.

In partnership with The Dante Alighieri Society of British Columbia.
Organized under the patronage of the Consulate General of Italy in Vancouver.

Details and registration: https://ow.ly/H5QM50XIIN1

01/05/2026

Join us on January 24 @ 10AM PST for the next installment of our annual Babcock Lecture Series! This year’s Babcock Lecture will be by the multi-award-winning author, Jeanette Winterson. Touching on works including her breakthrough novel "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit" (1985), her memoir "Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?" (2011), and her essay collection, "Art Objects" (1995), Jeanette will discuss the nature and craft of her life-writing with Professor Jane Shaw.

The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing

Learn more and RSVP: https://ow.ly/1SRH50XRfnP

11/20/2025

Join GLS' graduate chair Emily O'Brien on Dec 11th @ 6:30pm for a talk on "The Renaissance of Roman Ruins and Their Lessons for Today." Registration required. Reception to follow.

ABOUT THE TALK

In the 15th and 16th centuries, Rome’s ancient ruins were excavated, examined, and elevated as symbols of a past to be both honoured and understood. Yet while some Roman ruins were protected and preserved, others were torn down, stripped of their marble, and reduced to rubble. The Renaissance fascination with antiquity was fraught with tensions, which surfaced most sharply when respect for the past collided with contemporary needs. From President Trump’s demolition of the White House’s East Wing to the rise of Vancouver’s new towers, the same question persists: how can we reconcile respect for history with the demands of the modern world?

The Dante Alighieri Society of British Columbia

See details and RSVP instructions: https://ow.ly/K4Un50XtIYx

05/23/2025

We’re delighted to share that GLS student Ellen Vaillancourt Obiedzińska will be unveiling her MA Creative Project, "ReWorlding: Weaving a Thread of Resistance in the Fabric of Consumer Culture," at the Slice of Life Gallery and Studios in Vancouver on Saturday, May 24th, at 1–8PM!

Explore how creative practice can disrupt the status quo, evoke joy, and transform how we value clothing—not as product, but as story, kin, ceremony, and as a revolutionary act of love and resistance.

Learn more and get free tickets: https://ow.ly/XMvQ50VY1BX

Address

2403-515 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC
V6B5K3

Website

http://www.sfu.ca/gls

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