“Today’s talk is inspired by lids.”

Famed amongst students and colleagues for her sharp wit, Leah Knight drew smiles and laughs from Brock’s graduating class, inviting them to reflect on lids as a metaphor: an ending is a lid, and though endings are everywhere, they should be celebrated.

“Today, Convocation, is a very particular lid: it caps your time here,” the Professor of English Language and Literature said in her address on Wednesday, June 11 during Brock’s 117th Convocation.

“Seize this lid. Like a metaphor, let this day stand for and hold together the very best of your time at Brock.”

Knight, who is also a participating faculty member in the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, received the Faculty of Humanities 2025 Excellence in Teaching Award in recognition of her dedication to enlivening classrooms and engaging students.

Knight’s teaching philosophy is steeped in the immense joy and delight the learning experience can bring to people’s lives while enriching their futures.

Teaching and researching early modern Renaissance English poetry and prose, Knight brings the literary and cultural history of books, writing and reading alive.

“We are engaged with voices: voices from the past, voices who disappeared without a trace and voices we know were human. We know people thought these thoughts and wrote them down,” she said.

For Knight, the value of voices speaks volumes.

“Writers of the past valued their voices, so how do we continue to value them now? What role does our own voice play in this work? Students must ask themselves what makes their voice distinctive and how that can contribute to society,” Knight said.

For Knight, the materiality of historical texts is another transformative way students at Brock broaden their horizons, noting the significance of Brock Library’s Archives and Special Collections.

“Students can hold books and artifacts from historical periods in their hands — catching a glimpse of places and people they never before encountered, and might not again,” she said.

Tim Conley, Professor and Chair, Department of English Language and Literature, said Knight is deeply committed to her teaching and consistently brings inventive strategies to her classroom.

“Dr. Knight is all about understanding how we have arrived at this moment, how one discovery leads to another and how orienting ourselves — as thinkers, as readers, as human beings — within this series of discoveries is itself an act of discovery,” he said. “Knight invites students to think about how texts of the past have been written and disseminated and discussed: the meaning of any and every text is the often-complex history of both its composition and its reception.

“Her students locate themselves within that ongoing history.”

At its core, Knight’s teaching is all about what humans can bring to the world.

Reflecting on the future of the field, Knight said there are many ways that a humanities mindset plays out and plugs into jobs, though not always obvious.

“Students are graduating into a world awash in artificial intelligence. That only puts more value on distinctly human perspectives and voices,” she said. “A humanities mindset reminds us why those will always matter, and motivates us to make the most of what’s unique about us.”

From June 10 to 13, about 3,800 graduands from seven Faculties will receive their degrees as part of Brock’s 117th Convocation. All ceremonies take place in the Ian Beddis Gymnasium of Brock’s Walker Sports Complex and will be livestreamed online at brocku.ca/livestream. A full collection of Convocation photos by ceremony will be available on Brock University’s official Facebook page.

For more information and the full schedule of Brock’s Spring Convocation, visit brocku.ca/convocation

A gallery of images and videos of the morning and afternoon Faculties of Social Sciences and Humanities Convocation ceremonies are available below.