Christine Chisholm, Tom Laqueur, Susanne Klausen, Shannon Lectures
The fourth and final lecture of the 2016 Shannon Lecture Series was given on Friday, December 2 by Thomas Laqueur, the Helen Fawcett Professor of History at the University of California-Berkeley. Professor Laqueur has written a number of path-breaking and award winning books on the history of sexuality and the body, and his most recent, The Work of the Dead, won the 2016 Cundill Prize, the 2016 PROSE Award in European & World History (Association of American Publishers), and was the 2016 Gold Medal Winner in World History (Independent Publisher Book Awards). Friday’s lecture, “A Cultural History of Caring for The Dead Body,” was derived from his new book and it was an erudite and entertaining account of the origins and meaning of cremation in modern European history. There was a large turn-out to his lecture, including students from the University of Ottawa and members of the public, the latter because they heard Laqueur’s interview on CBC Radio that morning. The co-organizers of the 2016 Shannon Lecture Series, Christine Chisholm and Susanne M. Klausen, were thrilled by Laqueur’s lecture and the warm response by members of the Carleton community and the public to his visit to Carleton University.