Sophia Series

Angela Merici Lecture of The Sophia Series

Mother, Manager, Mystic – and Marginal:

Exploring Marie of the Incarnation, Foundress of the Ursuline Order in Canada

Jean Ann Ledwell, osu

Thursday 26 January 2012, 7:00 pm

Room 202, Admission by Donation, Free Parking

What do you know about Marie Guyart – better known now as Blessed Marie de l’Incarnation - that intrepid 17th century French woman who immigrated to Canada in 1639. Join us for the Angela Merici Lecture and discover a complex woman –a contemplative nun who was also a single mother, business woman, pioneer educator, linguist, writer, and the first Ursuline sister to come to North America.

Jean Ann Ledwell, osu: Currently serving as a member of the Ursuline Leadership Team, Jean Ann has been involved in feminist, anti-poverty, disability and eco-spirituality work for many years. She has had an abiding interest in Marie de l’Incarnation, nurtured through a 25 year association with the Quebec Ursulines.

Sponsored by the Ursuline Centre at Brescia University College

Endowed by the Ursulines of the Chatham Union

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The Circle's International Women's Day Lecture

The Making of a Spice Goddess:

Education, Identity and Female Empowerment

with Bal Arneson, the Food Network's Spice Goddess

Thursday 8 March 2012, 7:30 pm

Brescia Auditorium, Admission by Donation, Free Parking

Bal Arneson's life story makes for an empowering tale of female identity, education, and the drive to succeed -- to dream -- despite enormous personal, cultural, and societal odds. Growing up in an Indian village during a time when girls were raised only to serve their eventual husbands, Arneson felt the weight of her life crushing down on her -- and decided to escape this fate. Drawing on bottomless reserves of energy, and knowing that education was key, she set out on a remarkable journey that spanned continents and decades. Landing in North America -- where she had no money, no friends, and didn't speak English -- she earned her Masters, convinced a publisher to produce her cookbook, and talked her way into bigger and bigger TV deals. All this while raising her infant daughter. With star power, candor, and grace, Bal Arneson traces the unforgettable arc of her life, and draws out pertinent lessons for any audience. She talks about her own story so that others might see themselves in it. And if you look closely, you just might.

Bal Arneson is a mother, an author, an educator and an advocate for healthy Indian cooking. In 2010 her series, Spice Goddess, was launched on the Cooking Channel; it is currently the second-highest ranked show on the network, which reaches millions, and is nominated for a 2011 James Beard Award. Both of her cookbooks, Everyday Indian and Bal's Quick and Healthy are bestsellers.

Learn more about Bal HERE and HERE

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The Circle's Jeanne Adamson Memorial Event

An Evening with Ami McKay,
author of The Birth House and The Virgin Cure

Thursday 17 May 2012, 7:30 pm

Brescia Auditorium, Admission by Donation, Free Parking

Ami McKay’s debut novel, The Birth House was a # 1 bestseller in Canada, winner of three CBA Libris Awards, nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and a book club favourite around the world. Her new novel. The Virgin Cure, is inspired by the life of her great- great grandmother, Dr. Sarah Fonda Mackintosh, a female physician in nineteenth century New York. Born and raised in Indiana, Ami now lives in Nova Scotia.

Learn more about Ami and her books HERE

The Sophia Series seeks to:

Present speakers with expertise in: leadership, the environment, activism, the arts, politics and spirituality.
Present you with women who boldly engage in our current cultural experience and bring positive transformation to our rapidly changing world.
Honour women’s historical and ongoing contribution to our local and national landscape.

Why “Sophia”?

The series derives its name from layers of meaning that align with Brescia’s mission and vision.

Sophia is the Greek word for wisdom.
Sophia is the personification of Wisdom in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Sophia is often symbolized by a dove, which is also imaged in Brescia’s logo (a tree is another of her symbols).
The feminine personification of wisdom is a cross-cultural phenomenon that can be found within other world religions and spiritualities.

Sophia Alumnae

Since 2005, The Sophia Series has provided Brescia students and the London community the opportunity to hear the wisdom of these extraordinary women

(from left to right):

Top Row: The Honourable Flora MacDonald, Dr. Margaret Wheatley, Severn Cullis-Suzuki, Jane Urquhart, Maude Barlow, Michele Landsberg, Katherine Ashenburg, Christina Baldwin, Ann Linnea, Monia Mazigh, Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Stephanie Nolen.

Second Row: Sami Jo Small, Adria Vasil, Emma Donoghue

(Please click on picture for more information)

Series Sponsors

These Brescia departments collaborate to sponsor The Sophia Series:

The Circle Women’s Centre (Ritual of Re-Membering, International Women’s Day, Jeanne Adamson Memorial Event)
iWIL - Institute for Women in Leadership (iWIL Lecture)
The Ursuline Centre (Angela Merici Lecture)