Date: Mar 22
6:30 pm
- 9:00 pm
Where: Theatre
Distinguished Harvard scholar David Armitage discusses how our fragile world is held together by around 70,000 different kinds of treaties. These legal agreements impact almost every aspect of our lives, from semiconductors, to the exploitation of outer space, to the terms of land settlements. Unfortunately we tend to mainly focus on these agreements when they're broken. This lecture takes a wide-angle, long-range historical view of treaties in all their forms to ask just what they do, and how they continue to be important in shaping so much of our contemporary world.
This is a free event, but a ticket is required. Please reserve your free ticket online or by calling (709) 757-8090. A reception will follow the talk.
About the Presenter:
David Armitage, MA, PhD, LittD, CorrFRSE, FRHistS, FAHA, MAE, is the Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History, Chair of the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies and former Chair of the Department of History at Harvard University, where he teaches intellectual history and international history. He is currently a Senior Scholar of the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, an Affiliated Faculty Member at Harvard Law School, an Affiliated Professor in the Harvard Department of Government, an Honorary Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, an Honorary Professor of History at Queen's University Belfast and an Honorary Professor of History at the University of Sydney.
Presented in partnership with Memorial University's Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, The Henrietta Harvey Distinguished Lecture Series brings a highly regarded scholar to Memorial University every year for a guest lecture.
Behold the Blades of the Sea: Join historian, Lee Gillis as he explores the rich history and evolution of swords featured in The Rooms permanent collection.
From Napoleonic sabers to ceremonial swords of the First World War, learn how political upheaval and global conflict shaped the advancement of sword design and technology.
Cost: $12 plus HST. Free for Rooms members. Get your tickets online or by calling (709) 757-8090.
About the Presenter:
Historian, Lee Gillis specializes in arms and armor. While his primary focus has been on the medieval period, he has worked with weapons and objects ranging from the Bronze Age to World War II.
He earned a B.A. in History from Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) and later completed a Master’s Degree in Museum and Artefact Studies at Durham University in England.
To support this research, Lee began training in sword fighting in 2012 and took up blacksmithing and blade-making to gain a comprehensive understanding on the form and function of bladed weaponry.
Since October 2024, he has been volunteering at The Rooms, where he has identified, researched, and catalogued nearly one hundred objects in the collection, including a significant number of swords and other bladed weapons.