Waterloo Region Museum

TALKS Series

Waterloo Region Museum launches the 2012 TALKS Series! Tickets on sale now! This speaker series offers active and mature minds the opportunity to learn about and discuss diverse topics including various aspects of the past, present and future of Waterloo Region. This series takes place in the Christie^® Theatre in the Waterloo Region Museum.

Tickets on sale now! To purchase tickets call 519-748-1914. Single ticket price is $8 plus HST. A full series pass is $40 plus HST.

2012 TALKS Series:

Monday, Feb. 6, 1:30 p.m.
Paul Racher: 'Ganödagwёhda:' dosgёh gёhö:de - The village near the stream'
This lecture will detail the results of the partial excavation of a Neutral village that was discovered along Strasburg Creek in the Huron Natural Area. Dating to about 1500 A.D., the archaeological site has much to  tell us about the people who lived there, how they lived, and what mattered to them. Many of the findings shatter some long-held stereotypes about Aboriginal peoples.

Monday, Feb. 13, 1:30 p.m.
Cathy Wilson: 'Neighbouring in Early Ontario: Barn Risings, Quilting Bees and Other Forms of Reciprocal Work'
Professor Wilson will explore reciprocal work bees - barn raisings, quilting bees, etc. and how they were an integral part of the farm economy and a key component in the creation, operation and definition of neighbourhood in the 19th and well into the 20th century.  Through letters, diaries and settler accounts she examines the work accomplished and the fun and misadventure at these events."

Monday, Feb. 27, 1:30 p.m.
Madelaine Morrison: 'The Sweetest Sounds: The Musical Lives of Southwestern Ontario, 1870-1920'
From player pianos to brass bands, from church choirs to symphony orchestras, come and discover the rich musical lives of the late Victorians and Edwardians. This toe-tapping lecture uses audio clips, sheet music, newspapers, and family letters to evoke the aural landscape of long ago. In addition, we will be exploring music's links to wider themes such as gender, class, technology, and Canadian nation-building.

Monday, March 5, 1:30 p.m. 
Mark Yantzi: 'Restorative Justice'
Mark will outline the origins of the Restorative Justice movement, the characteristics of it, what makes it innovative in the justice system, and what effects it has had in the way that we deal with crime and punishment.  As well, Mark will discuss how the movement has spread to other countries and how it is practiced in those places.

Monday, March 12, 1:30 p.m.
Susan Mavor: 'Westmount  - The Tie that Binds the Twin Cities:  An Illustrated History of Westmount's  100 Years'
The Westmount neighbourhood in Kitchener-Waterloo celebrates 100 years  of history in 2012. This talk will outline  that history as well as  survey the many  archival resources, including   diaries, letters and photographs, that went into the production of Mavor's book.

Monday, March 19, 1:30 p.m.
John Stephenson: 'Evolution of Bridge Design in Waterloo Region'
The evolution of bridge design (efficiencies in labour and materials, performance, life spans, aesthetics, utility). Bridge designers (lineage of local bridges). Bridges as landmarks and artifacts (symbols of their time). The Region's local bridges (stone arch, truss, concrete bowstring, Hwy 85 Bridge, etc.) will be highlighted in in the talk.

Monday, March 26, 1:30 p.m.
Cynthia Commachio: 'Dancing to Perdition": Inventing the Teenager, 1920s - 1950s'
This talk explores the notion that "teenagers" are a modern invention, emerging out of the social upheaval that followed the Great War, itself a "coming of age" experience for the young Dominion of Canada. As future adult citizens, the young had to be saved from 'dancing to perdition' in order to shape a new and improved modern Canada. From the 1920s through the 1950s, as popular culture became ever more a youth culture, the "teenager" was invented. 

Monday, April 2, 1:30 p.m.
rych mills: 'Nazism in Kitchener: A Canadian Comedy or Terror Avoided?'
In a city within a county that had boasted of its German-ness until August 1914, it might have seemed to some people on both sides of the Atlantic that Fascism and or Nazism could find fertile ground in the 1930s.  Just what did happen when various attempts to begin Nazi-sympathizing organizations sprang up in Kitchener? An early episode with comic overtones gave way to potentially dangerous forces financed by Nazi Germany. 

Tickets on sale now! To purchase tickets call 519-748-1914. Single ticket price is $8 plus HST. A full series pass is $40 plus HST.