Each year, the Trudeau Centre hosts the Frank W. Woods Lecture Series, which bring outstanding speakers and academics to the University of Toronto community to share their work with students, faculty, and members of the general public. The guest for 2016 was Professor David A. Lake, whose long and accomplished career has set him apart as one of the most authoritative voices in political science. On Thursday, October 13th, and Friday, October 14th, Professor Lake took to the podium at the Munk School of Global Affairs to speak about his new book, The Statebuilder’s Dilemma, as well as share some new, original research with the UofT community.
Upon meeting Professor Lake, I was taken aback by his passion for his research, and his passion to share his research broadly, especially with students. Though he has more than a dozen books to his name, David Lake is perhaps best known amongst undergraduate students as a co-author of a major political science textbook, one that is required reading for PCJ students and all other students of international relations. This ability to adapt high-level research for a student audience, then, was seen in his interactions with PCJ students at a small meet and greet before his lecture. Upon re-entering the common room at Munk, where Professor Lake had been conversing with 6 PCJ students of varying years, backgrounds and interests, the tone was far more political symposium that uppity academic chatter. As one student put it later, “ I was really nervous walking into the room; I didn’t know what to expect. But Professor Lake was so friendly, he treated us like adults with intelligent opinions to add.”
Professor Lake delves into the details.
As for the lecture itself, the flagship Frank W. Woods Lecture was held later that night. Out of the common room and onto the podium, Professor Lake introduced his newest book, The Statebuilder’s Dilemma, and has he joked, attempted to do the impossible—summarize and present an entire book’s worth of research and knowledge in just one short lecture. And present he did. Throughout his 45-minute lecture, Professor Lake explained the very nuanced world that surrounds statebuilding and the limits to foreign intervention that so often fails to do its job. Using the well-known lens of the American invasion of Iraq, Lake was able to take theory and apply it to a concrete series of events the crowd is familiar with. Attracting a crowd that mixed PCJ students with professors, respected academics with interested members of the public, the Woods Lecture brought out a truly diverse audience. And it was this audience that, once the lecture was finished, asked a series of thought-provoking questions that challenged Professor Lake to delve deeper into his research.
As the lecture series was not yet over, the dawn of a new day brought a new lecture along with it: the Frank W. Woods Lunchtime Lecture, this time exploring Professor Lake’s newest research, which, as he quipped, “may or may not be the basis for [his] next book.” Sharing his new research
The Frank W. Woods Lunchtime Lecture was a chance for Professor Lake to interact one on one with UofT’s academic community.
on hegemony, Professor Lake interacted with a largely academic audience to flesh out and explore this research in an intimate, energetic setting that promoted lively discussion over his yet-to-be published findings.
All in all, the Frank W. Woods Lecture Series proved to be a hugely successful series of events that attracted audiences from many groups, and set the stage for the UofT community, more specifically that of PCJ, to be the stage upon which academics and laypeople alike could debate, present and increase their understanding of the world around us.