Margaret Lowe Benston Lecture Series on Social Justice

Dr. Margaret Benston was a founding member of the Women's Studies Department and a prominent activist for social justice issues in Vancouver and Canada. In 1991, sadly, we lost her to cancer. The Endowed Lectureship for Social Justice Issues was established in her memory.  The Maggie Benston Centre at Simon Fraser University is named in honour of her contribution to the university. 

June 23, 2022. Film Screening of “Nelly Queen : The Life and Times of Jose Sarria.” Part of Surrey Pride. Canadian premiere screening. Surrey Campus, Part of the Margaret Lowe Benston Series in Social Justice.

December 4, 2021: "Emergence: Out of the Shadows" Film Screening, Surrey Campus, Part of the Margaret Lowe Benston Series in Social Justice

February 28, 2019: Screening and Panel Discussion of "My Name was January," Metro Vancouver Premiere, Panelists: Alex Sangha, Elina Gress, Lenee Son, Velvet Steele and Natasha Adsit, Westminster Savings Lecture Theatre, SFU Surrey

September 15, 2017: Margaret Lowe Benston Lecture Series for Social Justice: Arno Kamolika: A performance of Bharata Natyam with a special segment on Nobel-laureate Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore

October 7, 2016: Margaret Lowe Benston Endowment Lecture Series proudly presents: Doudou Diene - “Deconstructing Genocide: the Urgency of the Intellectual Front Against Genocide”

March 12, 2015: Transgender Hirstory in the Making:  Screening and Talk with Chris Vargas, Margaret Lowe Benston Series

March 24, 2014: Dr. Susan Stryker -  the Transgender Turn, Margaret Lowe Benston Series

December 7, 2012: Kathleen Monk, "Women Winning: Strategies from an Insider"

March 2008: Sitara Thobani, “Indian Classical (Orissi) Dance,” SFU Harbour Centre Campus, Vancouver

March 1, 2007: Maude Barlow, “Have We Won? The Need for Canadian Women’s Stewardship in the Emerging Struggles of our Time”

February 10, 2006: Leslie Feinberg, “Transformations,” Vancouver Public Library.

September 2000: Heidi Hartmann, “Women and Poverty: From the Welfare Poor to the Working Poor” SFU Harbour Centre Campus, Vancouver

September 2000: Heidi Hartmann, “Women and the Workforce: Pay Equity or Family Equity?” Halpern Centre, Burnaby

March 16, 2000: Marilyn Waring (New Zealand), “The Environment”

1999: Linda McQuaig, “Overcoming the Cult of Impotence: How to Make Government Serve the Public Good”

February 1999: Linda McQuaig, “Globalization, Women & the Assault on Equality”

October 1997: Sharon McIver, “Building a Healing Lodge: First Nations Women and Corrections” Harbour Centre Campus

October 1997: Sharon McIver, “Matrimonial Propery Rights of First Nations Women” (Halpern Centre)

October 1996: "Light Work: A Heavy Burden for Women" Karen Messing (Harbour Centre Campus) roundtable discussion on the invisible risks of work traditional done by women

October 1996: "One-eyed Science: Occupational Health Scientists and Women Workers" (Bby Mtn) Public lecture by Karen Messing, Centre for the Study of Biological Interaction Between Health and the Environment, University de Quebec a Montreal

1995: Ursula Franklin, “Real World of Technology, BC”