The premise of the lecture will focus on Dr. Coleman’s theory of ‘placelessness’, a philosophy that re-imagines how people should view their relationship to the land. As ‘placelessness’ suggests, “like all relationships, belonging to a place depends upon good manners: courtesy, respect, and gratitude. Good manners are ways of attending not just to the dignity of the lives around us, but also to our need for those lives to remain distinctly separate and not be absorbed into our own, like fuel burned for our benefit.” The take away we hope to enforce is that as ambassadors for Hamilton, for McMaster, we need to belong to our backyard. By doing this, we will better ourselves and everything we interact with.

Opening remarks from President Patrick Deane and books for purchase from Bryan Prince Bookseller. Refreshments provided.