Literature Matters 2025-26
Literature Matters: Literature in the Community
Place and People in Kate Beaton’s Graphic Oil-Sands Memoir Ducks
By PhD Student Jenna Miller
Wednesday, Feb 25, 20267:30 pm
Grace-Westminster United Church Social Hall
505 10th Street East, Saskatoon
Kate Beaton’s graphic memoir Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands (2022) reveals how the industrialized setting of Alberta’s oil sands affects not only the land and local wildlife—most notably the hundreds of ducks that died in a tailings pond—but also the people who live and work there. This talk explores how space and place shape human identity, and how the graphic medium allows Beaton to convey the connection between environment and self in ways that text alone could not. Ducks reveals a truth we too often ignore: we are not separate from the world we inhabit, and the world we create inevitably shapes who we become.
Free and open to the public.
Sponsored by the University of Saskatchewan's Department of English.
Info: 306-966-1268 | english.department@usask.ca
Literature Matters: Literature in the Community Events for 2025-26
September 24: “Where’s Walmart? The Commonplace in Canadian Literature,” with faculty member Jessica McDonald
October 22: “Detours into Dread: A Short, Scary History of Travel Horror Films,” with faculty member Lindsey Banco
November 26: “Can a Robot Be a Poet?: Navigating AI in Today’s University,” panel discussion with English department members Ella Ophir, Ian Moy, Jeanette Lynes, and Tristan Taylor, chaired by Yin Liu
January 28: “Anti-apartheid Activism in Nadine Gordimer’s Burger’s Daughter, with PhD student Vijay Kachru
February 25: Place and People in Kate Beaton’s Graphic Oil-Sands Memoir Ducks,” with PhD student Jenna Miller
March 18: “Competing Visions of Ireland in the 1840 Painting A Blind Girl at a Holy Well,” with STM faculty member Kylee-Anne Hingston
April 22: “Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan: New Directions for 2026 and Beyond,” panel discussion led by faculty member Jay Rajiva
All events are at 7:30 p.m. in Grace-Westminster United Church Social Hall, 505 - 10th St. E., Saskatoon
Free and open to the public
Sponsored by the University of Saskatchewan's Department of English.
Info: 306-966-1268 | english.department@usask.ca
About
Reading, studying, and talking about literary works helps us to make sense of the world around us. Since 2012, the Department of English has sponsored its literature in the community series, Literature Matters, featuring talks about our research for the Saskatoon community. Presenters are members of the department, including professors, sessional lecturers, and graduate students. All events are held on Wednesdays between September and May at 7:30 p.m. in the social hall of Grace-Westminster United Church, 505-10th Street East, Saskatoon. Everyone is welcome.
For our upcoming lectures, please watch for our Facebook and front page event postings for more detailed day/time information or contact english.department@usask.ca.