Our university is a kind of universe. It has such breadth of interests and activities.
2025 Capilano Universe free lectures
Most presentations will be offered both in-person and on Zoom, maintaining spontaneous and interactive engagement and allowing the talks to easily integrate into the programming of our valued host libraries.
A few presentations are available only in person, or only on Zoom. Please check each event listing for more information.
About the Series
Capilano Universe was initiated by retired faculty member Leonard George 15 years ago. The idea was that through volunteer faculty connecting with the community over topics of interest, the vast universe of knowledge housed by the University could be expanded beyond campus boundaries.
Every spring, a series of talks is put together in collaboration with nearby public libraries — this year, the series brings on board libraries from the Sea to Sky region, in both Squamish and Whistler.
For general inquiries, please contact the organizer at capilanouniverse@capilanou.ca.
2025 Lecture Schedule
We are fortunate to have outstanding members of the CapU community ready to share their knowledge in these thought-provoking discussions. Take a look at this season's lectures in the menus below.
North Vancouver City Library
7 - 8:45 p.m.
In-person and over Zoom
This talk will highlight the need for disinformation literacy at all ages to promote civil discourse, civic engagement and voter literacy. We are constantly consuming what reinforces our world views, so training ourselves to look for or at least tolerate other world views might be a good start to deal with or reduce the polarization and rage culture that we see online. We will talk about how to improve our online environments through critical enquiry and free online fact-checking tools to avoid spreading the disinformation that algorithms feed us.
About Alaa
Dr. Alaa Al-Musalli teaches Disinformation and Media, Civil Discourse and Democracy, Conflict and Communication, Intercultural Communication and Business Communication at Capilano University, Vancouver, BC. She holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from Bangor University, UK, 2008. She has over 24 years of teaching experience at universities in the Middle East and Canada, and she has published papers and articles in the fields of Media Studies, Disinformation Literacy, and Education. Dr. Alaa received a Teaching Excellence Award at Capilano University in 2022.
Sechelt Public Library
7 - 8:45 p.m.
Zoom only
This talk draws inspiration from the work of Capilano Universe lecture series founder Dr. Leonard George and his groundbreaking 1995 book Alternative Realities: The Paranormal, The Mystic and the Transcendent in Human Experience, a meticulously researched compendium that reveals how so-called “anomalous” phenomena shape our worldviews and intersect with almost every aspect of culture and society. Promoting an even-handed and sympathetic approach to topics often marginalized or pathologized within academia, Alternative Realities helped pave the way for scholars in the humanities and social sciences to treat anomalous phenomena—including UFOs, precognition, poltergeists, near-death experiences, and countless other mysteries—as worthy of serious study.
Recent years have seen a major growth of interest in anomalous studies, notably through the work of historian of religion Dr. Jeffrey Kripal, whose Archives of the Impossible at Rice University has begun to institutionalize and popularize research into the paranormal to a degree not seen before. Dr. Kripal’s concept of the “superhumanities,” in particular, invites us to consider how the “supernatural” challenges and expands traditional Western-academic boundaries and offers new ways of thinking about history, power, politics, and the imagination. Blending scholarship, field research, and an intriguing constellation of personal and family stories, Andrea’s talk will provide an engaging overview of this emergent field and will help audience members deepen their understanding of how anomalous phenomena impact our personal and collective narratives.
About Andrea
Andrea Actis (PhD) has taught literature and creative writing in the English Department at Capilano University since 2017 and is a former editor of The Capilano Review. Her teaching, research, and creative interests emerge from an ongoing commitment to the study of how, in a range of different contexts, some things are taken seriously while others aren’t (but maybe should be). Andrea’s poetry, criticism, and art writing have been published in Fence, The Rumpus, World Picture Journal, Pelt, and elsewhere. Her book Grey All Over, an experimental memoir about traumatic grief and anomalous experience, was published by Brick Books in 2021 and was longlisted for the 2022 ReLit Award. With her collaborator Trevor Shikaze she operates the small press and research entity WAWI (What Are We In?).
*Please note that as per the library's request, this event will now be fully online.
Whistler Public Library
7 - 8:45 p.m.
In-person and on Zoom
To what extent is life defined by competition versus cooperation and how did cooperative societies evolve? In this seminar, Dr Tom Flower shares his experience studying the behaviour of diverse animals around the world to illustrate how cooperative as well as competition are fundamental to interactions both within and between species. Dr Flower then explores the behavioural mechanisms that underpin complex animal societies, including our own. Finally, he addresses humanities capacity to cooperate on common resource problems and our consequently whether we can achieve a sustainable society before environmental collapse.
About Thomas
Dr Tom Flower (PhD) is an Evolutionary Ecologist and Conservation Biologist who has worked across the world on diverse organisms exploring the interface between human and other organism’s societies. Dr Flower began his research in southern Africa studying conflict and cooperation in meerkats, where he helped communicate the daily soap-opera of meerkat life through the hit series ‘Meerkat Manor’. Dr Flower expanded this work at the University of Cambridge and Cape Town, to investigate the nature of deceptive communication between organisms and the enforcement of honesty, leading to collaboration with the BBC for David Attenborough’s ‘Africa’ series and appearances on both CBC's 'Quirks and Quarks' as well as 'As It Happens'.
More recently, Dr Flower has investigated human-wildlife interactions to inform biodiversity conservation of African Penguin, Marbled Murrelet, and numerous other species, while also initiating work to balance recreational trail use with biodiversity management. To address root causes of the biodiversity crisis, Dr Flower continues to explore the evolution of cooperation, its fundamental nature, and the mechanisms that promote cooperation within human societies to solve collective action problems.
Squamish Public Library
7 - 8:45 p.m.
In-person and over Zoom
The Gaza strip is 365 square kilometers, a little bigger than Surrey B.C. It has been under blockade for 18 years with fragments of food being allowed in. The manufactured reality of hunger exceeds the scope of reason in its intent, scope and manifestations in the daily lives of Palestinians. This talk looks at Gaza’s food insecurity in dimensions less common to the public, while bringing the imposed calories diet into full light.
About Nazmi
Nazmi Kamal is an educator at the School of Tourism Management at Capilano University. He is an advocate of food and travel with academic interests in food sustainability, immigrant cuisine and food as a cultural identity. He is a food researcher, a home cook, a farm volunteer, and a responsible consumer.
West Vancouver Memorial Library
6 - 7:45 p.m.
In-person only
This 'Lecture' would involve using the environment in and around the library to construct an experience where we move through the stations of Joseph Campbell's 'Hero's Journey' - often a core part of Hollywood narrative films. During this journey, we will both embrace and critique Campbell's 'formula' and consider how we can adapt it for other forms of storytelling, particularly for Indigenous worldviews and in our personal journeys.
About David
David Geary (Taranaki Māori & Pākehā) grew up loving Māui trickster tales in Aotearoa New Zealand and is now honoured to live with the Coyote and Raven tricksters on Coast Salish lands. David teaches at CapU in the Indigenous Digital Film, Documentary, Playwriting, Communications and Interdisciplinary Studies programs. He believes in Ako – students and teachers learning from each other. His short fiction appears in Pūrākau (Penguin Random House) and Bawaajigan: Stories of Power (a story about being stuck in a North Van traffic jam). He's a dramaturg (LMDA) and script consultant for theatre, TV and film. He writes #hahaiku on X @gearsgeary and lives by the yogic mantra: Life is short, stretch it.
Gibsons Public Library
6 - 7:45 p.m.
In-person and on Zoom
Join us to learn about experience-dependent changes in brain function that can influence well-being without medications or biomedical devices. In this sion we will explore how to increase well-being by engaging in mental activity that can cause long-lasting changes in your brain!
We will explore how brain wave recordings can monitor the effects of mindfulness practices on mental state, including a live demonstration. Reading brainwaves can provide feedback to help a person modify their immediate state of consciousness.
Neuroscience research also shows that long-term spiritual practice corresponds with long-lasting and measurable changes in brain characteristics, supporting the idea that such practice can enhance overall well-being.
Prayer and meditation influence areas of the brain involved in cognitive control, emotional regulation, and attentional networks. Neuroscience research demonstrates there are changes in brain activity, connectivity, and neurochemistry following spiritual practices. The neuroscience of spirituality can inform the development of evidence-based techniques to improve well-being and mental health.
About Lesley
Lesley (PhD) is a professor in the Psychology Department and specializes in neuroscience and cognition. She became inspired to study neuroscience when she first learned in high school that personal experiences can cause changes in the biology and physical connections within the brain. Since then, her scholarship has focused on topics including learning and memory, neurophysiology, the aging brain, and animal behaviour. She also enjoys teaching classes in research methods, statistics, and neuropsychology.
Lesley lives in nature in Roberts Creek on the unceded territories of the shíshálh (Sechelt) and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) nations with her human and canine family members, and is a student of meditative practices. She aspires to bring her interests in meditation and mindfulness together with her expertise in brain function to enhance well-being.
North Vancouver District Public Library - Capilano
7 - 8:45 p.m.
In-person and over Zoom
In today’s world, education and society often emphasize individualism, fostering a culture of competition and self-reliance. Yet, we are inherently communal beings, interconnected with those around us, our environment, and the broader ecosystem of life. This workshop, rooted in the philosophy of Educating for Connection, challenges the modern conception of the 'self-made' individual by exploring the concept of the 'communal self.'
Drawing from historical, philosophical, and educational research, this interactive session will examine how the structures of neoliberalism and individualism have shaped our education systems and societal values, often at the cost of collective wellbeing. Participants will be invited to reflect on how we can build curricula and community practices that emphasize interdependence, relationality, and shared flourishing.
About Jay
Jay Manuel (PhD) is an educator, community advocate and translator with over 22 years of experience in public service and institutions across Canada, the U.S. and Brazil. Upcoming works include the essay “Educating for Connection: Unlocking the Power of the Communal Self” and “Brazilian Fantastic Tales,” a translated collection of stories by Gustavo Bernardo Krause.
North Vancouver District Library - Parkgate
7 - 8:45 p.m.
Zoom only
This talk covers the origins of what today we call “Queer Cinema” and touches on the creative contributions of the actors, writers, directors and audiences that shaped its early years. We will primarily look at films which predated the Hollywood “code”: a coercive set of rating and censorship guidelines implemented in the U.S. by government and church authorities in 1930-34. This rating code introduced a new era of repression of non-normative and non-traditional sexual identities on screen. Early “pre-code” films, therefore, offer us a glimpse into both the real-life struggles and the on-screen lives of 2SLGBTQIA+ folks from the streets to the screen.
About Brian
Brian Ganter (they/them) is a Faculty member at Capilano University. They teach in the Departments of English, Film Studies, and Women and Gender Studies. Their research is in critical theory, digital literature, 21st century literatures, Marxism and cultural studies. They are currently working on a documentary on Vancouver community and sex worker activist Jamie Lee Hamilton, the first transgender person to run for political office in Canada.
North Vancouver District Public Library - Lynn Valley
7 - 8:45 p.m.
In-person and over Zoom
Tibet has long featured in the Western imagination as a land of magic and mysticism (and yetis). In this presentation we will explore the “Roof of the World” with regard to the history of its cultures and religions, review its engagement with Western spirituality and psychology, and perhaps glimpse the real basis of its cryptic allure.
About Leonard
Leonard George (PhD) is Faculty Emeritus of Psychology, Capilano University. In his long and non-linear career as an educator, psychologist, researcher, writer and broadcaster, he has given seminars and workshops around the world, and published dozens of articles and three books on a range of topics. His most recent book is Explorations in Music and Esotericism (University of Rochester Press, 2023), co-edited by Marjorie Roth. Last year he journeyed through Tibet. He is drawn to anything that is vast, intricate or makes a mewing sound.