Laurier Association for Lifelong Learning invites learners back to Waterloo campus for Welcome Back Lecture Series

June 15, 2022

For the first time in two years, the Laurier Association for Lifelong Learning (LALL) is bringing in-person lectures back to the Waterloo campus.

The Welcome Back Lecture Series will feature three lectures – on topics including our connections to heritage, the history of Mozart’s Requiem, and loss, grief and mourning – by some of LALL’s favourite instructors.

Tickets for each lecture cost $5 for community members, if purchased in advance, or $10 at the door, subject to availability. Discounts are available for Laurier students, staff and faculty. Please contact lall@wlu.ca for details.

Please note that Laurier’s face-covering policy remains in effect until further notice. Find out more about Laurier’s policies related to the COVID-19 pandemic on the university’s Recovery Hub.

Who Owns the Past?

• Speaker: Scott Gallimore
• June 22 from 10 a.m. to noon in Lazaridis Hall, LH 1001

What do the Elgin Marbles, New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and a Cambodian temple near the Thailand border have in common? They all provide a means of understanding our ties to the past and how heritage can have both positive and negative implications. These examples also show how heritage can be preserved, reinforced, modified and, in some cases, manipulated. Heritage is also dynamic and ever-changing, even when we talk about elements of the past. This presentation will discuss the three cases above, along with many others, to explore the complex nature of our connection to heritage.

Scott Gallimore is an associate professor in the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies at Laurier and the associate dean of arts: student affairs. His research focuses on the country of Greece during the period of the Roman Empire, with an emphasis on economic history and landscape studies. He has conducted field work on the island of Crete and in the Peloponnese region of southern Greece.

Mozart’s Requiem: Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen. How an Unfinished Masterpiece has Fared for 230 Years

• Speaker: Howard Dyck
• June 29 from 10 a.m. to noon in Lazaridis Hall, LH 1001

Although Mozart’s Requiem is a beloved iconic musical masterpiece, it was unfinished when its composer died at the age of 35. This talk explores various attempts over the past 230 years to complete the musical work in progress, which turned out to be Mozart's swan song.

Howard Dyck is the artistic director of the Nota Bene Baroque Players and Singers, artistic director emeritus of the Grand Philharmonic Choir and conductor emeritus of the Bach Elgar Choir in Hamilton. He is well known across Canada as the former program host of Choral Concert and Saturday Afternoon at the Opera on CBC Radio. In 2013, Dyck was conductor-in-residence of the Kunming Nie Er Symphony Orchestra in China.

Dyck’s international conducting career has taken him to 20 countries on three continents. He has conducted the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Arnold Schoenberg Choir of Vienna, the Mozarteum Orchestra in Austria, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra and Obretenov Choir in Bulgaria, the Bach Collegium and Gächinger Kantorei in Germany, the Taipei Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Taiwan, and the State Symphony Orchestra of St. Petersburg in Russia.

Transitions: A Journey of Transformation through Loss, Grief and Mourning

• Speaker: Martina C. Steiger
• July 6 from 10 a.m. to noon in Lazaridis Hall, LH 1001

Our lives are replete with changes that indicate a time of transition. These changes can happen suddenly and unexpectedly or slowly and over a long period of time. Every change begins with an ending that invites us to enter into a journey of transition. This often-paradoxical journey provides the opportunity to explore our losses while we evaluate, reorient and redefine our thoughts, beliefs, emotions and even our body and spirit. Grief and mourning that accompany loss are painful, yet may also be mysteriously hope filled when we move through transitions with awareness and courage.

Martina C. Steiger, a professor emeritus at Holos University Graduate Seminary, is a 2013 graduate of the Master of Science program in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University in New York. Her work as a life coach, educator and facilitator, as well as spiritual director and narrative medicine practitioner, centres on the stories that shape individual experiences and relationships. In her role as spiritual care facilitator at the Hospice of Waterloo Region, she guides reflective workshops for staff, volunteers and the public focusing on how facing our own mortality invites us to live life more fully.