Harris presents public lecture at The Canadian Canoe Museum: October 29
The Canadian Canoe Museum, Lakefield College School and Trent University will welcome 2019 Jack Matthews Fellow Kate Harris, multiple award-winning author and adventurer, for a series of events this month.
Named by Canadian Geographic one of the country’s top modern-day explorers for journeys edging the limits of nations and prudence, Harris will share the story of her first book Lands of Lost Borders. Weaving adventure and deep reflection with the history of science and exploration, this national best-seller explores the nature of limits and the wildness of a world that, like the self and like the stars, can never be fully mapped.
PUBLIC LECTURE: October 29 at 8 pm (doors open at 7:30 pm), The Canadian Canoe Museum – Lands of Lost Borders: The Meaning of Exploration in a Modern, Mapped World. Admission is free or by donation. Light refreshments will be served.
Between sneaking illegally across Tibet, studying the history of science at Oxford, and staring down a microscope for a doctorate at MIT, Kate Harris realized that she didn’t have to launch to the planet Mars to feel a sense of discovery. Weaving adventure, history, and reflections on her travels, Harris joins us to explore the meaning of “exploration” on our mapped and tamed world in this talk about her bicycle journey on the Silk Road.
Harris will also facilitate a writing workshop with Trent University students and share her stories with students and faculty members at Lakefield College School through a presentation and classroom visits.
The Jack Matthews Fellowship was created in 2008 to honour the late Jack Matthews and the pivotal role he played at The Canadian Canoe Museum, Lakefield College School and Trent University. Through this fellowship, the three partner institutions come together to bring to the Peterborough community a Matthews Fellow who embodies their values, and the legendary spirit of Canadian global citizenship behind Jack Matthews’ vision.
Past fellows include Bill Buxton (2018), Aaju Peter (2017), Dalal Al Waheidi (2016) and Wab Kinew (2015).
About Kate Harris
Kate is a writer with a knack for getting lost. Her essays and journalism have appeared in Outside, The Walrus, Canadian Geographic Travel, and The Georgia Review, among other publications, with “notable” citations in Best American Essays and Best American Travel Writing. A former Rhodes and Morehead-Cain scholar, and past student of science and the history of science, she has won multiple awards for her literary non-fiction. Canadian Geographic named her one of the country’s top modern-day explorers for journeys edging the limits of nations and prudence, such as a biking across borders on the Silk Road and skiing after Marco Polo sheep in the Pamirs, but writing remains her preferred mode of exploration.
Kate lives off-grid in a log cabin on the border of British Columbia, Alaska, and the Yukon, with stints in Ontario for family time and hot showers. Lands of Lost Borders is her first book.
