Gladiators of Pompeii, the planet’s artistic inspiration and the invisible history of radioactive mice will be highlighted by Brock experts during an upcoming public lecture series.

Brock Talks returns to the St. Catharines Public Library on Tuesday, Jan. 15. The free series connects scholars in Brock’s Faculty of Humanities with the local community.

The January talk, “Invisible Animals,” features Associate Professor Donna Szoke, whose work examines the human relationship to animals through prints, videos, art installations and media artwork. Szoke contributed to a Toronto exhibition on Digital Animalities this past November.

Her work includes a free app mapping nuclear waste at a Niagara Falls, N.Y., storage site, where more than 270,000 mice used in radioactive experiments have been buried. Her most recent piece, Midst, uses video projectors and fog machines to create animations of large animals on a wall of fog to explore issues of encroachment of cities into wild space.

Szoke will talk about her work as “research-creation” and explore how making art is a form of doing research and creating new knowledge.

The Second Brock Talks session of the year will take place Feb. 27 and feature Earth Sciences Professor Francine McCarthy. In her presentation, “Scientific Insights from Poets, Painters and Philosophers,” McCarthy will explore research as a creative endeavour and look at how artists interpret and draw inspiration from the natural world.

The final Brock Talks event this season takes place March 12, when Classics Instructor Nadine Brundrett will speak on “Spectacular Games in Ancient Pompeii.” Brundrett will share how the destruction and preservation of the city of Pompeii in 79 CE by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius offers insight into the daily lives of ancient Romans, including diverse spectacles used to provide entertainment. In addition to gladiatorial combat, bull fighting, boxing, Greek athletics and even pantomime acting were common practice.

Brock Talks is a collaboration between the Faculty of Humanities and the St. Catharines Public Library. The series connects community members with current Humanities scholarship at Brock.

All talks are held at 7 p.m. in the Mills Room, Central Library and are free.

What: Brock Talks, a free public lecture series
When: Jan. 15, Feb. 27 and March 12
Where: St. Catharines Public Library, Central Branch, 54 Church St., St. Catharines

Source: https://brocku.ca/brock-news/2019/01/new-year-brings-brock-talks-back-to-st-catharines-library/