David Adams Richards
Threatened Identity: what do we lose when we lose the sense of place?
Monday, May 30, 2021
7:45 to 8:55
Edmund Casey Hall, Ted Daigle Auditorium
As our consumer culture takes an increasing interest in locally-produced goods, global communication networks are breaking down the importance of location in business, employment and consumption. Our communities are both larger and less geographic, but at the same time increasingly specific and stratified.
In his Big Thinking lecture at the 2011 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, David Adams Richards will explore the meaning of “local” in a globalized world, asking if place and communities are worth preserving.
David Adams Richards is one of Canada’s greatest place-based writers. Set against the backdrop of the Miramichi River Valley of New Brunswick, many of his novels deal with family histories and struggles. His critically acclaimed novel Mercy Among the Children was co-winner of the Giller Prize in 2000. He is also one of only a few Canadians to win a Governor General’s Award for both non-fiction and fiction. He is a member of both the Order of Canada and the Order of New Brunswick.
