Upcoming Events
The Renaissance of Roman Ruins & Their
Lessons for Today
Date: Thursday 11 December,2025
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Location:
Room 1200 (Salon Event Rooms),
SFU Segal Building
500 Granville Street (at Pender)
Vancouver
Orario: 18.30 - 20.30 (Pacific Time)
In English
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Participation​
This is a free event – Donations &
memberships are most welcome!
​
Please send your suggested $10 donation
via Interac email transfer at info@dantesocietybc.ca
or become a Member!
​
The yearly membership costs $40
and offers free access to all our paying
events and a 5% discount on all the Italian
language courses at our Dante Italian
Language School in Vancouver
​
​​​For info and donations email: info@dantesocietybc.ca
About the Event
In the 15th and 16th centuries, Rome’s ancient ruins were excavated, examined, and elevated as symbols of a past to be both honoured and understood. Yet while some Roman ruins were protected and preserved, others were torn down, stripped of their marble, and reduced to rubble. TheRenaissance fascination with antiquity was fraught with tensions, which surfaced most sharply when respect for the past collided with contemporary needs. From PresidentTrump’s demolition of the White House’s East Wing to the rise of Vancouver’s new towers, the same question persists: how can we reconcile respect for history with the demands of the modern world?
About the Speaker
Dr. Emily O’Brien, Associate Professor in the History Department and in the Global Humanities Department at Simon Fraser University, specializes in the Italian Renaissance, focusing on 15th-century humanism, politics & the papacy. Author of The “Commentaries” of Pope Pius II (1458-1464) and the Crisis of the Fifteenth-Century Papacy (UTP), she considers Italy her intellectual home.
Canada, In Person.
Meeting the People Who Make a Country
Date: Thursday 29 January, 2026
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Location:
Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue
3300-515 West Hastings Street
Vancouver
Orario: 18.30 - 20.30 (Pacific Time)
In English
​
Participation​
This is a free event – Donations &
memberships are most welcome!
​
Please send your suggested $10 donation
via Interac email transfer at info@dantesocietybc.ca
or become a Member!
​
The yearly membership costs $40
and offers free access to all our paying
events and a 5% discount on all the Italian
language courses at our Dante Italian
Language School in Vancouver
​
​​​For info and donations email: info@dantesocietybc.ca
About the Event
In this illustrated talk, Dr. Arianna Dagnino and Dr. Stefano
Gulmanelli present insights from their 75-day, 21,000-
kilometre journey across Canada — a coast-to-coast
field-study captured in their bilingual (EN/IT) Substack
newsletter Canadiensis. Letters from Canada. Through
encounters with artists, farmers, newcomers, elders,
thinkers, and community leaders, they offer a mosaic of
contemporary Canada and the people who shape its
present and future – https://canadiensis.substack.com
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Event organised by the Dante Alighieri Society of BC in Vancouver, SFU’s Graduate Liberal Studies &
the Consulate General of Italy in Vancouver.
About the Speakers
Arianna Dagnino was born in Genoa, Italy and studied Russian in Russia, wrote her Master’s thesis in the United States, authored a novel inspired by her years as an international reporter in South Africa, and completed a PhD in Comparative Literature in
Australia. She is a writer, professional journalist, and researcher at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver
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Stefano Gulmanelli holds a degree in Economics and a PhD in Sociology. He has lived many lives – as a corporate manager, start-up entrepreneur, journalist, photographer and academic – in many countries, including the Middle East, Albania, South Africa, Australia
and Canada. Today, all these experiences inform the stories he tells through words and images – www.stefanogulmanelli.com
Venice and
its secrets
Date: TBA
12.00 pm-1.00 pm (PST)
In English – On Zoom
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Free for Members and Students
$10 donation for Non-Members*
​
Please send your $10 donation via Interac email transfer at info@dantesocietybc.ca or Become a Member!
The yearly membership costs $40 and offers free access to all our paid events and a 5% discount on all the Italian language courses at our Dante Italian Language School in Vancouver.
​
​​​For info and donations, email at: info@dantesocietybc.ca
About the Event
Join us for a historical tour of Venice and its hidden treasures with Dr. Luisa Canuto, teacher in the Italian Studies program at the University of British Columbia.
About the Speaker
Dr. Luisa Canuto is teaching full-time at the French, Hispanic and Italian Studies Department. She has acquired graduate degrees in disciplines ranging from History to publishing to second language acquisition and teaching. Each degree reflects her diverse passions and learning interests — Italian and Venetian Medieval and Renaissance history, journalism and teaching and learning theories and best practices.
Con stile.Perché le donne vestono come i romani e gli uomini come i barbari
Date: TBA
12.00 pm-1.00 pm (PST)
In Italian – On Zoom
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Free for Members and Students
$10 donation for Non-Members*
Please RSVP and send your donation to receive the Zoom link. If you are a Member, you will receive the link a day prior to the event!
Participation
Please send your $10 donation via Interac email transfer at info@dantesocietybc.ca or Become a Member!
The yearly membership costs $40 and offers free access to all our paying events and a 5% discount on all the Italian language courses at our Dante Italian Language School in Vancouver
​
​​​For info and donations email: info@dantesocietybc.ca
About the Event
La Dante Alighieri Society of BC, in collaborazione con l' Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Toronto, invita alla conferenzatenuta dalla storico Alessandro Marzo Magno, il quale racconterà l’influenza italiana sulla storia dell’abbigliamento.
About the Speaker
Alessandro Marzo Magno, giornalista e veneziano itinerante ora di stanza a Milano, da tempo si dedica alla divulgazione storica. Ha scritto o curato diciassette libri, tra i quali L’invenzione dei soldi. Quando la finanza parlava italiano (Garzanti) e Con Stile. Come l'Italia ha vestito (e svestito) il mondo (Garzanti).
To know more about our cultural program,
check our past events here.
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If you would like to propose an event, please contact our Cultural Events Coordinator, Dr. Arianna Dagnino at aridag@me.com