Every year, eight University of Guelph-Humber students gather as part of the Agora Fellowship, a program where ideas and themes from the greatest books ever written are discussed as part of a regular forum.
The students gather eight times during the fall semester for discussions about society, politics, economics, psychology and culture, and before the end of the year they take an all-expenses-paid trip that ties into the theme of their discussions. Past destinations have included Washington, New York, Boston and Montreal.
Now in its fifth year, the program led by Dr. George Bragues, Assistant Vice-Provost and Program Head of Business, and Dr. Matthew LaGrone, Assistant Program Head of Electives, has announced its group of eight Agora Fellows for the 2019-20 academic year:
Mackenzie Boers (Media Studies)
Victoria Duarte (Justice Studies)
John Ducharme-Savoy (Kinesiology)
Lawrence Lee (Business)
Jordan Longboat (Family & Community Social Services)
Shirin Monga (Business)
Karisa Simon (Media Studies)
Julia Soumas (Media Studies)
“Life and Death” is the theme of this year’s discussions.
Questions explored include:
- What is the meaning of life given the reality of death?
- How should life be lived given the prospect of death?
- What are the problems posed by death while living?
- How has life and death been understood by different philosophic, religious, and literary traditions?
- How should we approach the prospect of death?
- Is there life after death?
- How can we make sense of the presence of death in the human condition?
Readings for discussion
- Phaedo by Plato
- Death and Dying by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
- Essays and Aphorisms (Selections) by Arthur Schopenhauer
- A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
- The Tibetan Book of the Dead
