Bishop’s University provides many week-long events throughout the school year for students to get engaged in a variety of ways. So far during this academic year, Bishop’s has held events for Sustainable Transportation Week and National Week of Truth and Reconciliation. Such events are great for students in every program to learn more about areas they may be interested in or to explore opportunities within the school. The week of Oct. 4-7 was the first annual Humanities Week, giving students a chance to get involved in humanities courses, hear from speakers with experience working in the humanities, and meet staff members in the humanities departments. 

Humanities Week offered multiple events for students, faculty, staff, and community members to participate in. Throughout the entire week, students were welcome to sit in on different humanities classes offered by the school, including courses in English literature, classics, arts, religion, film, music, and philosophy. The open classes admitted students from across departments, as well as Lennoxville community members. 

On Wednesday, Oct. 5, the school offered the first Donald Lecture of the academic year. Elisapie, an Inuk singer-songwriter, actress, activist, director, and producer, came to Bishop’s from Montreal to speak about her experiences as a performer and performed two songs for the attendees. Earlier the same day, faculty and staff members in the humanities departments gave out free hot chocolate to all students in the Quad. This gave students an opportunity to meet humanities faculty and staff and talk more about humanities courses. 

An event called “Inspired by the Humanities: Good News from Recent Grads” was held on Thursday, Oct. 6. This event brought back five BU alumni to share how their humanities courses made a meaningful difference in their personal and professional lives. The speakers, successful graduates of Bishop’s humanities department, spoke to current students about the importance of humanities in the workplace and how best to utilize their degrees. The event also offered refreshments, and music students performed live jazz for the attendees to enjoy. 

Humanities courses provide a great opportunity to students in any program to learn about interesting topics and explore artistic outlets within the school, such as music and arts. Humanities courses are open to all students and are a great elective option for students in any program. Humanities week provided a great opportunity for students to experience humanities courses, talk to alumni and current students, and meet faculty and staff in the humanities departments. This event will be held annually going forward, and all students are encouraged to participate in the years to come.