Canadiensis: Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal — A Lecture Series on Canada

Canadiensis: Meeting the People Who Make a Country

A three-city lecture series in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal

What does Canada look like when approached not through statistics or headlines, but through direct encounters with the people who inhabit its vast landscape?

This question lies at the heart of “Canadiensis: Meeting the People Who Make a Country,” a series of public talks presented by Italian writer and researcher Arianna Dagnino and Italian sociologist and photographer Stefano Gulmanelli. Drawing on a remarkable 75-day journey covering more than 21,000 kilometres across Canada, the two scholars offer a reflective and visually rich account of the country seen from the ground up.

Travelling from the Pacific to the Atlantic and back again, Dr. Dagnino and Dr. Gulmanelli crossed provinces, regions and communities, meeting artists, Indigenous elders, farmers, scholars, writers, newcomers, and common people. Their project, Canadiensis, is rooted in field notes, conversations and photographic documentation gathered along the way. Rather than presenting a single narrative of Canada, the talks explore the country as a living mosaic of stories, experiences and identities, reflecting on themes of belonging, solidarity and cultural diversity across an immense territory.

Each event will feature an illustrated lecture accompanied by a small photographic exhibition of eight images captured by Dr. Gulmanelli during the journey. The photographs offer intimate glimpses of landscapes and encounters that shaped the experience, inviting audiences to reflect on Canada through the lens of human connection.

The Canadiensis project also continues online through a dedicated newsletter published on Substack. Readers can follow the ongoing reflections, stories and images from the journey by subscribing to the newsletter for free by selecting the basic subscription option here: https://canadiensis.substack.com ✉️

The lecture series will take place in three Canadian cities:

Toronto: Saturday, 2 May 2026, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM (EDT), Villa Charities, 901 Lawrence Ave W, North York, Toronto ON M6A 1C3

Ottawa: Tuesday, 5 May 2026, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM (EDT), Room TB 360, Tory Building, Carleton University, Ottawa

Montréal: Wednesday, 6 May 2026, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM (EDT), Italian Cultural Institute/Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Montréal, 1200 Av. du Dr Penfield, Montréal

Admission to all three events is free,

The events are organized by the Italian Embassy in Ottawa in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institutes of Toronto and Montreal and Librissimi-Toronto Italian Book Festival.

Through stories, images and reflections from the road, Canadiensis invites audiences to reconsider what it means to encounter a country not as an abstract idea, but as a network of relationships—formed by the people who live, work and imagine their lives across its landscapes. 🌎📷