Explore Cold War perspectives at the 2025 Shannon Lecture Series

September 16, 2025 – Defence Stories

Estimated read time – 1:30

In a time of global instability, what lessons can we learn from history?

The 2025 Shannon Lecture Series, ‘Revisiting Canadian Armed Forces Experiences’, offers a look at post-1945 Canadian military history, focusing on how the Cold War shaped the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and the lives of those connected to the military. Moving beyond traditional narratives, the series highlights the often-overlooked experiences of families, civilian workers, Indigenous peoples, women, 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, scientists, and residents of Canada’s North.

The five lectures are free of charge, and take place at Woodside Hall, Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre, at Carleton University, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. (EDT) on Mondays. Streaming is also available. A bonus in-person documentary screening will be held at the Mayfair Theatre in Ottawa.

A partnership between Carleton University and the Directorate of History and Heritage, the lectures explore how militarization during the Cold War affected Canadian society, touching on issues of labour, race, gender, and community.

Topics:

1. Fighting for Their Place and Recognition: Canadian Servicewomen and Women Veterans in Post-Second World War Canada (September 22)
2. Cold War Consent? Military Experimentation and Research Ethics in Mid-Century Canada (October 6)
3. The Transnational Making of United Nations Peacekeeping (October 20)
4. This is not my story, but yours: The Russ Moses residential school memoir (November 3)
5. Bonus in-person Shannon Lecture: Screening of “The Nest” (November 19, 3:00-5:30 p.m. (EST), Mayfair Theatre, 1074 Bank Street, Ottawa)
6. Purging the Canadian military of “sexual deviants”: The war on 2SLGBTQIA+ members and their partners from the 1960s to present (November 24)

This series was organized by Jean-Michel Turcotte, historian at the Department of National Defence and Adjunct Professor in the Department of History at Carleton.

We invite you to participate in the 2025 Shannon Lecture Series and contribute to the ongoing discussion of Canada’s military history.

For more information and to register, please visit Shannon Lectures – Fall 2025 – Department of History.