In–Person (Tuesdays) and Virtual (Thursdays) Lectures Series

Part I – The Hard

October 14: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

This talk will explore the history of this conflict, including its origins, the significance of the land to Jews and to Palestinians, and the unfolding of events over the past century or so that have led the people of this region to this crisis.

October 21: Hindu-Muslim-Sikh Relations in India and Beyond

In this lecture, we will explore conflicts in India among the three religious communities of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. We will learn about India’s history and how these communities have lived both peacefully and with conflict and how that plays out in our modern times.

October 28: Pentecostalism – Creating a Godly Society

No religious movement has gained so many adherents in the last century as Pentecostalism, going from zero to perhaps 400 million – maybe outnumbering Buddhism. In recent decades, some key Pentecostal figures have created new theologies that focus on how to seize the reins of society in order to transform. We will explore this quest for power and how it is playing out.

November 4: American Exceptionalism

The United States is unique among liberal Western democracies for retaining its religiosity to a much higher degree than any of its peers. Why is the USA exceptional on this front? In this talk, we will explore the delicate interplay of American religion and politics and how the two feed off each other.

Part II – The Beautiful

November 11: Fall Religious Holidays

When religion is in the news, it is almost always for stories of violence or extremism. This can give a very one-sided perspective on religious life and on devotees. This lecture will explore something that adherents always tend to value – holidays that celebrate traditions, family, community and feasting. We will look at some of the key holidays in the fall calendar as a window to learning more about our neighbours.

November 18: Sacred Scriptures and World Religions

In this talk, we will explore the sacred texts of the world’s religions, looking not merely at their contents, but rather the role they play in their community. These books may be read, chanted, sung, venerated as objects or turned into works of art. Through exploring these texts, we will gain a window into some of our planet’s most meaningful traditions.

November 25: Sacred Spaces

Religions are often thought of as essentially about beliefs. But religions are thick cultural systems that are so much richer than mere propositions to say yes or no to. This week and next, we will look at the aesthetics of religion, focusing this week on the understanding of sacred spaces, be they natural or built.

December 2: The Religious Soundscape

We will end this lecture series by considering religion through the faculty of hearing. There is a sound to different traditions, where these sounds convey emotions, theologies, transcendent states, or remind us of stories and aspirations. Here we will consider the sound of the sacred.

Brian Carwana is the Executive Director of Encounter World Religions, a charity that promotes religious literacy. Through Encounter, Brian has spent 25 years exploring, visiting and studying the world’s religions and bringing others to visit these communities and hear their stories. He has a PhD in religion and politics from the University of Toronto. Brian continues to lecture at the university, serve as a subject-matter expert on religion for the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion, and blog about religion and politics on his personal site, ReligionsGeek (religionsgeek.com). The highlight of his year is Encounter’s annual Discovery Week, where 45 participants spend a week in Toronto learning about 11 religions through classes and almost 20 site visits. 

October 16: Early Renaissance Period (15^th-Century Italy and the North)

This lecture series will begin with a discussion of the revival of the Classical period in much of the Italian Renaissance’s cultural production. It will then examine the groundbreaking invention of mathematical perspective in painting and the new celebrity status of the artist. Some of the artists to be included are Masaccio, Botticelli, Donatello and van Eyck.

October 23 and 30: The High and Late Renaissance (15^th– and 16^th-Century Italy and the North)

These two lectures will explore the further revival of the Classical period and the preference for anatomical accuracy and emotional content within religious painting and sculpture. Featured artists will include Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Grünewald.

November 6: The Baroque Period (17^th-Century Italy, Spain and the North)

In this lecture we will examine the Baroque period’s aesthetic penchant for dramatic imagery in the form of theatrical content and stylistic devices, as well as its rise of secular subjects. Artists Caravaggio, Gentileschi, Bernini, Velázquez, Rubens, Rembrandt, Hals and Leyster will be discussed.

November 13: The Rococo and Neoclassical Periods (18^th-Century France and Britain); Romanticism and Realism (Early to Mid-19^th-Century France, Spain and Britain)

Looking at the distinction between the fanciful French Rococo style and the Neoclassical style that sought greater “seriousness” based on Reynold’s hierarchy of the arts. Artists will include Watteau, Fragonard, Hogarth, Reynolds, West and Kauffmann. This lecture will also examine Romanticism’s political and social critiques and the Realists’ focus on ennobling the rural working class. Some artists in focus will be Gericault, Goya and Turner, as well as Bonheur, Courbet, Millet and Daumier.

November 20: Impressionism and Post-Impressionism (Late 19^th-Century France)

Presented in this lecture will be the anti-establishment styles of the late 19^th century in which artists rejected the academic tradition of painting. Although many of these styles are now often described as “pretty,” their revolutionary approaches shouldn’t be underestimated. Featured artists will be Monet, Manet, Degas, Cassatt, van Gogh, Munch and Cézanne.

November 27 and December 4: The Experimental “Isms” (20^th-Century Europe and America)

These lectures will highlight the multitude of styles that emerged in the 20^th century when artists experimented with entirely new approaches. In Europe, Marcel Duchamp’s found objects (Dadaism) and Kandinsky’s abstracts (German Expressionism) and, in America, Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings (Abstract Expressionism) and Judy Chicago’s installations (sometimes labelled Conceptualism) were utterly groundbreaking. Included artists will be Matisse, Picasso, Kandinsky, Duchamp, O’Keeffe, Pollock, Rothko, Warhol and Chicago.

Sonia Halpern is an art historian who has taught at Western University in London, Ontario for more than thirty years. She has won many teaching awards and for five consecutive years was named by Maclean’s Magazine as one of Western’s most popular profs. She is also a seasoned public speaker and has delivered hundreds of lectures to organizations on a variety of art historical subjects. In addition to authoring several academic articles, Sonia has published two collections of humorous poetry, The Life and Times of Transition Girl and its revised and expanded volume, and a book of original music compositions, Klezmer Kitty. Sonia has also performed in many regional theatrical productions.