Past Event! Note: this event has already taken place.
| When: | Wednesday, March 12th, 2025 |
| Time: | 6:00 pm — 9:00 pm |
| Location: | Richcraft Hall, 2nd Floor Atrium |
| Audience: | Alumni, Anyone, Carleton Community, Current Students, Faculty, Media, Professionals, Prospective Students |
| Contact: | Jaime Sadgrove, sjcresource@carleton.ca, 613-520-2600 |
Carleton University Journalism presents the 25th Annual Kesterton Lecture:
Courage in a Time of Joy
featuring CBC Sports Senior Contributor
Shireen Ahmed
Wednesday March 12 2025 at 6:00 pm
Reception 6-7 pm
Keynote & Fireside Chat 7-8:30 pm
Richcraft Hall Atrium, Carleton University
And virtually via YouTube Livestream
Please join us on Wednesday March 12 in the Richcraft Hall Atrium for the 2025 Kesterton Lecture, “Courage in a Time of Joy,” featuring CBC Sports Senior Contributor Shireen Ahmed.
Ahmed’s lecture will focus on the growth of women’s sports, the courage to talk about wider issues that affect women’s sport globally, and the silence that has fenced those spaces.
After the keynote, Ahmed will be joined on stage for a conversation moderated by CBC journalist Emma Weller, a Carleton Journalism alum and former Ravens varsity hockey player.
Join us for a reception and light refreshments at 6:00 pm, followed by the lecture at 7:00 pm. The lecture is open to all, and we welcome you to join us in person or virtually via YouTube livestream.
Register now for the 2025 Kesterton Lecture
About the Speakers
Shireen Ahmed – Keynote
Shireen Ahmed is a multiplatform Senior Contributor with CBC Sports, a public speaker, and an award-winning Sports Activist focusing on Muslim women in Sports, and the intersections of race and gender in sports. She is an athlete, advocate, a community organizer, and works with different communities on empowerment projects.
She is a 2019 TEDxToronto Speaker and is the national ambassador to Sakeenah Canada, an organization that offers essential services to women and families who have survived violence. She has lectured and presented her work and research at a number of post-secondary institutions and organizations in Canada, the United States & Europe.
She is on the Board of Directors of Hijabi Ballers, a friend of Black Girl Hockey Club, part of the Executive Committee of the Muslim Women in Sports Network, and mentors students and budding sports journalists in official and casual capacities.
Shireen’s passion for sports, politics and women’s issues has been recognized by Sports Media for its candid discussions. Her work has been featured and discussed in The Guardian, TIME magazine, Sports Illustrated, The Walrus, Football Weekly, Racialicious, Chatelaine, The National Post, espnW, Globe and Mail, MSNBC Democracy Now! and TRT World. Shireen’s work was published in Best Canadian Sports Writing 2017. Her expertise is sought after by a host of international news outlets. In 2021, her academic work was published in Sports MediaVectors: Gender and Diversity, Reconstructing the Field.
She is part of the team of women who create the weekly Burn It All Down podcast. The first feminist sports podcast that analyzes sports culture from an intersectional feminist lens.
Shireen holds a Master of Arts degree with a specialty in Media Production. She currently teaches Journalism and Sport Media at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Emma Weller – Moderator
After spending four years completing her Bachelors of Journalism at Carleton University, Emma Weller is now a reporter at CBC Ottawa covering all things from immigration to municipal affairs on all platforms. During her time at Carleton, Emma also played for the women’s varsity hockey team, volunteered with the inaugural PWHL Ottawa team and led a social justice club on campus. Nowadays, when she isn’t in the newsroom, Emma can be found working on her charity which supports those who are homeless across the province, coaching a hockey program that breaks down barriers for youth, or found in an airport, seeking her next adventure!
The annual Kesterton Lecture honours the memory of Wilfred Kesterton – one of Carleton’s original journalism professors – and usually touches on some aspect of Canadian journalism and public affairs.