Frank's Lecture Series

On any given night at Frank’s Community Pub, you might find karaoke, comedy or a packed trivia crowd. But increasingly, one of the hottest tickets is a university professor talking about things like sleep, debt, politics or culture, proof that social sciences and humanities research resonates far beyond the classroom when it’s brought into the heart of the community.

Sean Thompson, owner of Frank’s, didn’t set out to start his own lecture series, but he’d seen them growing in popularity across the hospitality sector in recent years. “It’s blowing up in the U.S. right now, but I don’t have a Rolodex of profs or specialists,” Thompson says, “and I was so busy with our current programming, I’d always put the idea on the back burner.”

Frank’s opened in late 2024 in the Strathcona neighbourhood, just a short walk from the U of A, and quickly became a hub for community events and live programming. But alongside the music, drag and comedy nights, Thompson sensed there was an appetite for something more intellectually driven. The idea gained momentum when Carrie Smith, the vice provost of access, community and belonging, and Frank’s regular, reached out with a suggestion.

“She messaged me on Instagram out of the blue and said ‘Have you heard of this thing they’re doing in the US?’” Thompson recalls. “And she sort of started the conversation there.”

Through Carrie, Sean’s “Rolodex” had begun to take shape.

“She gave me a list of profs just off the top of her head, and I started reaching out to them and explained the format. Most everybody got back to me right away and said they were interested. Cressida sort of stepped up to the plate first and said ‘Well, let’s try it.’”

Dr. Cressida Heyes had already been making waves through her podcast Sleep is the New Sex. “In a previous life, I’d wanted to be a radio journalist,” says Cressida, “and the podcast was a good opportunity to learn a new form of communication. It’s developed a life of its own, and really helped me to do popular talks.” Her talk, which focused on sleep’s role in modern society, sold out quickly.

Cressida went into the first event with an optimistic view of the potential audience: “I think in Edmonton there are lots of people who have no formal affiliation with the university, but are very interested in talking about ideas. You can’t assume any particular knowledge, but you can assume you have a smart audience. So you need to find a way into that enthusiasm without having to lecture people, you do that through jokes, sound bites, a theme rather than a thesis.”

That enthusiasm quickly became evident during the discussion that followed. “The questions after were incredibly diverse,” says Cressida, “in fact we had to shut them down after 45 minutes because I really wanted a beer!”

Dr. Katherine Binhammer, the second Arts professor to speak at the series, attended Cressida’s debut outing and came away with some tips: “I originally approached it as a lecture, but after seeing Cressida talk I realized it’s more like a class. It’s more informal, and it can be a bit of a challenge for academics to pitch their ideas in person to the general public, but it’s important.”

Katherine’s (also sold-out) talk was concerned with the history of debt in fiction and reality, and “people had lots to say about debt, and lots to say about their experience with banks, but they were most excited about the handout I gave with a list of novels. I [also] asked how many people were in debt, and almost everyone put up their hand, so I was like, ‘Look around, we are not alone.’” 

“I thought that since it was in a pub it was going to be loud, but no, people were absolutely riveted for forty minutes of the talk, and then the Q & A could have gone on all night.”

Sean appreciates the amount of input and buy-in they’ve had from the lecture series audience, saying “Events like this tap into a whole other demographic that may or may not have thought about coming down to the pub. You’re finding new audiences and entertaining your current ones.”

Collaboration has been a big part of Sean’s professional career even before opening Frank’s, as he’s also a founder of Fruit Loop, a local 2SLGBTQ+ community events/social enterprise organization. 

“We’re turning thirteen next month, and we’ve been able to work with many, many, many small non-profit organizations that needed a helping hand. The only reason we’ve made thirteen years is purely by collaboration, tapping into lots of different demographics across the city.”

What’s next for public talks at Frank’s? Sean says he’s interested in working on a podcast, to be recorded onsite. The next speaker for the lecture series, scheduled for May 31st, is Dr. Kyler Chittick, Adjunct Instructor in Political Science and Women’s and Gender Studies, talking about obscenity laws in Western Canada, followed by former University of Alberta professor Senator Kristoffer Wells and Jeff McLean of Pride Tape next month.

In an era when public conversation can feel increasingly fragmented, the success of lectures at Frank’s suggests people are still hungry to gather in person, wrestle with complex ideas and hear from experts outside the walls of the university.