Events

March 12, 2026

Sexual Pleasure as Thought: Erotics in Pre-Modern South Asia

Shubham Arora’s talk argues that South Asia’s long tradition of writing about pleasure is a sophisticated intellectual discourse on desire, relationships, and human fulfillment that deserves to be understood in its full historical depth.

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March 19, 2026

Distinguished Lecture in Islam with Zufikar Hirji

Zulfikar Hirji is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at York University. His research explores the creative production of knowledge by Muslims in historical and contemporary contexts with a focus on East Africa and the Indian Ocean.

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March 26, 2026

Artist in Residence 2026 Gala with Neil Griffin and Melanie Siebert

Neil Griffin is a writer and former wildlife biologist.
He's the author of many essays on wilderness and
nature, two poetry chapbooks, and a forthcoming
memoir--Endings: Encounters with Extinction. His
Artist-in-Residence project looks at roadtrips as a
form of pilgrimage.

Melanie Siebert is the author of two award-winning
poetry collections: Signal Infinities and Deepwater Vee.
Drawing on decades as a guide on remote northern
rivers, her new work explores testaments of deep
time: single-celled creatures and their chemical
records; bubbles of ancient air stored in ice cores; and
moraines and chatter marks left by glaciers in retreat.

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Past Special Events

Can We Talk

MEICON-BC events

The Middle East and Islamic Consortium of British Columbia (MEICON-BC) is a collaborative project of Simon Fraser University (Centre for the Comparative Study of Muslim Societies and Cultures), the University of Victoria, and the University of British Columbia. The University of Victoria hosts UVic MEICON, a sub-group of the larger MEICON-BC collective.

• 14th Annual MEICON-BC Student Conference on the Middle East and the Islamic World (March, 2024)

Distinguished Lecture in Islam

The CSRS presents lectures from an eminent scholar working in fields related to Islamic studies. A fund supporting this lecture series was established in 2007 by an anonymous donor who wished to increase the community's understanding of Islam.

Other Events

March 15th, 2019 -- "Religion and its Others: Power, Sovereignty, and Politics in Indian Religions Past and Present" Sponsored by the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute. Please click here for the symposium agenda.

The CSRS Lecture Schedule: January to April 2026

Held in an intimate venue with a maximum in-person audience of 20 people, these 20-minute lectures are followed by a 20 minute conversation with an expert on related to the speaker’s topic. The final 20 minutes of the event are reserved for questions from the audience--the “Square” in this format refers to the public square--the general public is welcome to join us online.

All past lectures are recored and available on YouTube, UVic's SoundCloud site (audio only), and Vimeo page. 

These CSRS lectures feature our fellows and special guests. They are held from 5:00-6:00 pm Pacific Time on Thursdays throughout the academic year.

See our full schedule below (*indicates a different time: see poster for details)

The CSRS Weekly Lecture Series - September-December 2025

These CSRS lectures feature our fellows and special guests. They are held from 5:00-6:00 pm Pacific Time on Thursdays throughout the academic year, with the exception of some special lectures (see dates below with an asterisk* for exceptions). 

Video/audio recordings of our past lectures are available on YouTube, UVic's SoundCloud site (audio only), and Vimeo page. 

The CSRS Weekly Lecture Series - April-May 2025

These CSRS lectures feature our fellows and special guests. They are held from 12:00-1:00 pm Pacific Time on Wednesdays (unless otherwise noted). The location of the lecture is available upon registration for limited in-person audience. The general public is welcome to join us online without registration. Simply click the lecture attendance button on top of this events page to do so. Please sign in at least five minutes prior to the lecture. Click lecturers' names to see more details.

Scholars in the Square (SITS): Our Public Lecture Format