Past Speakers
Sustainability Lecture Series
Launched in 2019-20, this lecture series brings together local expertise and global innovation across all fields of sustainability. Meet scholars from the University of Alberta and beyond in fields ranging from engineering to ecology, public health to poetry, native studies to nanotechnology.
2022-23 Speakers
| Speakers | Talk Title | Other info |
|---|---|---|
| Jason Syxivay | Building Equity in Planning Practice | --- |
| Maria D'Orsogna | Saving Italy from Big Oil | --- |
| John Robinson | Normalizing Sustainability: beyond behaviour change | Watch Recording |
| Paul Galpern | Precision agriculture meets precision sustainability: the merits of making fields messy | Watch Recording |
| Greg King | The Stories That Trees Tell: Insights into urban environments and beyond from tree-rings | Watch Recording |
| Aamir Jamal | The Gate Keepers: Engaging Men in Gender Justice and Girls Education in Northwest Pakistan and Afghanistan | Watch Recording |
| Daniel Rainham | Healthcare in a Climate Crisis: The Need for Sustainable Health Systems | |
| Madiha Nawaz, David Crosby | Does Coffee have a future? | Recording not available |
| Sean Stepchuk | Municipal Grassroots Environmental Activism with Waste Free Edmonton | Watch Recording |
| Gopal Dayaneni | Beyond Counting Carbon: Universities, communities and the climate crisis | Watch Recording |
2021-22 Speakers
| Speakers | Talk Title | Other info |
|---|---|---|
| Ashlee Cunsolo | Hidden Waste: Lean construction for sustainability | Watch Recording |
| Jude Kong | Estimating and predicting greenhouse gas emissions from tailing ponds | Watch Recording |
| Sherilee Harper |
Climate Change and Public Health (new IPCC report)
|
Watch Recording |
| Stephanie Chute - Ibsen | Dishing the Dirt on Soil Invertebrates and Sustainability | Watch Recording |
| Theresa May (not former UK PM) | ------- | Recording not available |
| Stephanie Kelton | How can we afford the future we must build together? | Watch Recording |
| Val Napoleon | Indigenous Law and Public Legal Education | Watch Recording |
| Kate Raworth | Doughnut Economics for Thriving Communities with Ben Geselbrecht | Recording not available |
| Climate Change Theatre Action | Climate Change Theatre Action - UAlberta | Recording not available |
| Peter Victor | Managing without Growth: Slower by Design, not Disaster | Watch Recording |
| Aditi Mayer | Decolonial Approaches to Land, Labor, & Fashion with Aditi Mayer | Recording not available |
| Steven Hoffman, Sherilee Harper | Intersections of COVID-19 and the climate emergency | Watch Recording
|
| Jessica Vandenberghe , Ginger Gibson | Engineering community benefits: local engagement in practice | Watch Recording |
| Edmonton Mayoral Candidate Climate Debate | ------- | Watch Recording |
| Catherine Potvin | Visit an ancient tropical forest | Watch Recording |
2020-21 Speakers
| Speakers | Talk Title | Other info |
|---|---|---|
| Carrie Armstrong | Indigenous Healing Plants | Watch Recording |
| Fahrook Hamzeh | Hidden Waste: Lean construction for sustainability | Recording not available |
| Kira Hunt | Biomimicry: Design inspired by nature | Watch Recording |
| Tanya Kalmanovitch | Tar Sands Songbook | Watch Recording |
| Michael Robidoux | Land-based Food Security in Northern Indigenous Communities | Watch Recording |
| Geeta Belas | Bridging the Gender Gap with Design | Watch Recording |
| Kari Marie Norgaard | Salmon and Acorns Feed Our People | Recording not available |
| PearlAnn Reichwein | The Banff School of Fine Arts and the Public University | Watch Recording |
| Ashley Dawson | Green Capitalist Realism, CO2lonialism, and the Urban Climate Insurgency | Watch Recording |
| Kristof Van Assche | The Route to Reinvention | Watch Recording |
| Joëlle Saey-Volckrick and Nick von Andrian | Degrowth in the Time of COVID-19 | Watch Recording |
| Corey Trepanier | Into the Arctic | Recording not available |
| Soorayan Mookerjea and Malaika Collette | COP Hack: Student Engagement | |
| Tang Lee | Synergy and Creativity in a Pandemic World | Watch Recording |
| Chelsea Miya, Oliver Rossier and Geoffrey Rockwell (moderators) | Right Research book launch | Recording not available |
| Aneri Garg and Justine Karst | Ecosystem restoration in coral reefs and boreal forests | Watch Recording |
2019-20 Speakers
| Speaker | Talk Title | Other info |
|---|---|---|
| Mél Hogan | Genomic Media / Sustainable DNA | Recording not available |
| Sheikh Abdul Aziz | The Green Sheikh | Recording not available |
| Patrick Mahon | Perilous Voyages: Art, environment and the search for a global commons | Recording not available |
| Debra Marquart | Beautiful Trouble: Imagining sustainable energy futures | Recording not available |
| Selena Couture & Stefano Muneroni | Climate Change Theatre Action | Recording not available |
| Lars Hallstrom | No Canary, No Coal Mine: Understanding sustainability for rural communities in Alberta | Recording not available |
| Tiffany Higgins | Infrastructure, Fish and Indigenous & Traditional Peoples in Brazil's Amazon | Recording not available |
| Victor Lieffers | Forest Sustainability: Policy, social values and climate change | Watch Recording |
| Dwayne Donald | Homo Economics and Forgetful Curriculum | Watch Recording |
| Mary Beckie | Moving Beyond Organic? Ecological farming and local food trends in Alberta | Watch Recording |
| Diana Leong | Anchoring the Climate Commons - Slave Ship Earth | Recording not available |
| Brent Swallow, Juanita Gnanapragasam, Aaron Paquette | Green Drinks: Food and Climate Change | Recording not available |
| Sourayan Mookerjea, Kerry Constabile, Angele Alook, Carrie Karsgaard, Mike Bonanno | COP 101: Understanding the UN Climate Talks | Recording not available |
| Sheena Wilson, Natalie Loveless, Kirby Calvert |
Energy In/Out of Place | Recording not available |
Sustainability Speaker Series
"An innovative speaker can revolutionize how we see the world." The University of Alberta's Sustainability Speaker Series brings renowned leaders from all over the world to speak on sustainability issues such as climate change, just development, clean tech and pollution. Lectures are free and open to the public, including alumni and community members.
| Year | Speakers | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021–22 | Stephanie Kelton | ||||
| 2020–21 | Lizzie O'Shea | ||||
| 2019–20 | Ian Mauro | Vien Truong | |||
| 2018–19 | Bea Johnson | Tom Murphy | Amy Luers | James Balog | |
| 2017–18 | Shalini Kantayya | George Kourounis | |||
| 2016–17 | Laurence C. Smith | Manulani Aluli-Meyer | |||
| 2015–16 | Majora Carter | Sheila Watt-Cloutier | |||
| 2014–15 | Tzeporah Berman | Edward Burtynsky | |||
| 2013–14 | Paul Hawken | Severn Cullis-Suzuki | |||
| 2012–13 | Thomas Homer Dixon | Raj Patel | Adria Vasil | ||
| 2011–12 | Bill McKibben | Annie Leonard | Winona LaDuke | Maude Barlow | |