For a Change: WPI Author Series 2026 Winter and Spring Events

Department(s):

George C. Gordon Library

The Gordon Library is pleased to announce the next event in For a Change - our series of conversations with WPI authors featuring books that challenge us to change how we think, and the choices we make.

  • Just added to our winter schedule on Friday, January 30 at 11am in the Gordon Library Conference Room (303) is perhaps the perfect winter book: Matter of North:  Essays on Glenn Gould and The Idea of North (2025, SUNY Press), edited by WPI Professor Brent Wetters, who will be joined in conversation by HUA Prof. Daniel DiMassa, and by musicologist and co-editor Anthony Cushing (joining via Teams from Canada). 

    Preview

    Matter of North bookcover (small)

    The publisher writes: "Matter of North collects essays and source material related to Glenn Gould's landmark 1967 radio documentary The Idea of North." About the original CBC radio documentary, the CBC writes, "An anthropologist, sociologist, a nurse, and a surveyor discuss the subjective 'idea' and the reality of the North. Montage and voice counterpoint are used to express the antagonism and scope of the country, the loneliness and isolation, the warmth of community living, personal reasons for living there, the fear that human nature will gradually take over from the elements as common enemy number one, and the challenge involved in any decision to live there. During the last eight minutes the voices are heard over music.”

    For those not familiar with Gould's The Idea of North, you are invited to watch the official video version of Gould's radio production on your own on YouTube, or join a group viewing immediately before the author event, from 10-11am.  For details please see this event announcement.

    Please note that the Gordon Library’s elevator remains out of service; visitors who wish to avoid using the stairs are welcome to let us know at library@wpi.edu so that we can invite you to join us via Teams. 

Additional events are planned for the remainder of the 2025-2026 academic year, with dates, times and places to be announced here. Future authors and events are planned to include: 

  • In March: Those Who Travail & are Heavy Laden:  Memoir of a Labor Lawyer (WPI Press, 2025), William B. Gould IV.  This WPI Press author, William B. Gould IV, Charles A. Beardsley Professor of Law, Emeritus, at Stanford Law School and formerly Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board under President Bill Clinton, is a prolific scholar of labor and discrimination law and an influential voice in worker-management relations for more than fifty years. He is the recipient of five honorary doctorates for his significant contributions to the fields of labor law and labor relations.  In this remarkable memoir, Gould ties his career in labor law and civil rights to his heritage, his upbringing, and his inspirations. Those Who Travail & are Heavy Laden also carries on the tradition of his great grandfather, the first William B. Gould, whose Civil War diary telling of his daring escape from slavery and service in the Union Navy he and his father William B. Gould III ’25 discovered and published as Diary of a Contraband.
     
  • In April: Olive Higgins Prouty Poetry Celebration (anticipated date April 2). In collaboration with Prof. Jim Cocola, the Gordon Library is planning our second annual Olive Higgins Prouty Poetry Celebration at WPI. This year’s program is being developed in partnership with the Worcester County Poetry Association and the Clemente Program in the Humanities.  Featured poet to be announced.

Please mark your calendars now for our winter and spring events, and join us for explorations and conversations that celebrate and share the powerful role of books in making change.

Past events in this year's author series have included: