The annual Vico Lecture explores themes of city-building, urban development and cultural evolution, recognizing the ways Toronto and surrounding communities have been shaped by immigration. The series features speakers whose work addresses how immigrant and equity-deserving communities have contributed to the development of the Greater Toronto Area through culture, labour, business and other forms of civic engagement. The Vico Lecture honours the cultural and historical contributions of these communities to civil society and the growth of urban communities.
2026 Vico Lecture
The Politics of Protection: Social Democrats and the Immigration Question in Interwar Canada
Date: Wednesday, Sept. 23
Time: 7 – 8:30 p.m.
Venue: Senate Chamber, Ross North N940
Type: Hybrid: in-person and Zoom
Speaker: Edward Dunsworth, Associate Professor, McGill University
Immigration posed a difficult question for interwar Canadian socialists. On the one hand, they promoted a universalist vision of a Cooperative Commonwealth; on the other, they wished to protect Canadian workers from foreign competition. This lecture explores how social democrats like J.S. Woodsworth, Agnes Macphail and A.A. Heaps navigated these turbulent waters.
Edward Dunsworth
Edward Dunsworth is a historian of labour, migration and politics, with an interest in studying Canada in a global context. A trio of projects completed between 2022 and 2024 examine the history of migrant farm labour in Canada. His first book, Harvesting Labour: Tobacco and the Global Making of Canada’s Agricultural Workforce (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2022) uses Ontario’s tobacco sector as a case study to explore the histories of farm labour and temporary foreign worker programs in Canada. It was awarded the Henry A. Wallace Award by the Agricultural History Society, United States, was a finalist for the Wilson Book Prize (McMaster University) and received an honourable mention for the Canadian Association for Work and Labour Studies’ book prize.
Why Vico?
The Vico lecture fosters exchange between York University and the wider community, in particular the Italian-Canadian community. The settlement of Italian immigrants fundamentally shaped the nature and development of Toronto and its suburbs over that last 100 years. The Vico lecture’s themes are a nod to these contributions and aim to engage other minority groups, descendants of these groups, and the public in a conversation about space, place, culture and so much more.
In 2000, Canadian Senator Jerry Grafstein donated two rare Italian volumes of Vico’s works, initially published in 1746, to York University. Senator Grafstein garnered the support of Elvio DelZotto (LLB Osgoode and senior partner of DelZotto, Zorzi), who rallied Italian-Canadian business leaders to fund an annual lecture at York in memory of his law partner Fred Zorzi.
Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) was an Italian philosopher and author. Vico’s writings sought to understand human history and knowledge and are considered the predecessors of many Enlightenment thinkers. He has been referred to as the father of social science and the first modern historian. The Vico Lecture is organized in collaboration with the Mariano A. Elia Chair in Italian-Canadian Studies.
Past Events
The Politics of Protection: Social Democrats and the Immigration Question in Interwar Canada
October 21, 2025
Dr. Maggie Hutcheson, who directed Block by Block, will reflect on the project’s co-creative approach and the relationships between critical memory work, placekeeping and urban futures.
Photo Gallery
The Italians Build Houses: Ethnicity vs. Structural Factors in Mass Migrations History – The Case Studies of Italian Economic Niches in 1890s-1920s USA and Post-WW2 Toronto
This lecture was dedicated to the memory of Dr. Gabriele Scardellato.
October 7, 2024
Dr. Stefano Agnoletto, Project Leader of the Via Querinissima international project; Italian historian, economist and activist explored the formation of ethnic economic niches through the case studies of Italian communities in the USA and Canada during the early 20th century and the post-WW2 construction industry in Toronto.
Italy and the Black Mediterranean: Race, identity and citizenship
March 21, 2023
Dr. Angelica Pesarini's lecture explored the presence of Italy within the Black Mediterranean, considered a racialised physical and symbolic space marked by histories of colonialism and diasporic memories.
Vico & Marx: Comparing two interpretations of history
January 27, 2022
Professor Marcello Musto’s engaging talk, covered Giambattista Vico’s and Karl Marx’ personal histories and their influence on their times; it encapsulated and expanded on each philosophers’ concepts of history and society, including humanity’s role in construction of history, ideas of providence, colonization, and nation.
Amore in the City: A purpose driven approach to public life
November 7, 2019
2019's keynote address was given by Mayor of Vaughan, Maurizio Bevilacqua. During this lecture, he discussed his commitment to public service and the role of political leaders in shaping society. Over his 30-year career in politics, Bevilacqua has occupied several prominent positions at the federal level and municipal level, which gives him a unique perspective on public life, and political philosophy in action.
Matters of the Heart: Is there hope?
September 25, 2017
York University welcomed internationally renowned cardiac surgeon, Dr. Robert James “RJ” Cusimano, for his special lecture on life, death, faith and the wonders of the living, beating human heart. Dr. Cusimano’s engaging talk looks the importance of hope and compassion while engaging patients and their families. The full lecture can be viewed on YouTube.
Democratic Deficit: Universities and the Future of Democracy
February 15, 2011
Universities can play a critical role in confronting the democratic deficit pervading politics at every level, York’s George Fallis argued in the 2011 Giambattista Vico Lecture.
During his presentation, he argued that the problem must be confronted not just by political parties and parliaments but by universities. Universities are not just institutions of teaching and books, not just institutions of the economy, but institutions of democracy.
Marketization, Social Protection, Emancipation: Toward a Neo-Polanyian Conception of Capitalist Crisis
November 19, 2009
During her lecture, Nancy Fraser advocated for a reconceptualization of academic analyses of capitalist economies and how society – or, more specifically, her intellectual contemporaries – should engage in critical discussions of this subject.
As a launching-off point for her talk, she referred to the classic 1944 book by Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation, which she characterized as an account of capitalist crisis, an intricate, historical process beginning with the laws of enclosure and the Industrial Revolution in Britain that, over the course of a century, transformed the entire world.
Political Psychology, American Myth and Hollywood Westerns: Politics and Truth in John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
November 5, 2008
The 2008 Vico Lecture was delivered by Robert Pippen, the Evelyn Stefansson Nef Distinguished Service Professor of Social Thought, Philosophy, at the University of Chicago.
Pippin suggested that the deception in Ford’s classic western was necessary in order for the new order to supplant the old. He characterized the conflict in the movie as typical of great westerns, a struggle between heroic and marshal virtues, and bourgeois virtues – especially the domestic ones – of compromise, peace and security.
Vico and The New Science
November 1, 2006
The 2006 Vico Lecture was delivered by Giuseppe Mazzotta, Sterling Professor in the Humanities for Italian at Yale University. Author of groundbreaking books on Dante, Boccaccio, Vico and other literary figures of the Renaissance, Mazzotta's passion and enthusiasm were unmistakable as he delivered his presentation. Guests listened carefully as Mazzotta brought them back in time into the mind of this great 18th-century author. The lecture was followed by some engaging discussions that took place during the concluding question and answer period.