THE ALCHEMY LECTURE is a partnership between York University and Knopf Canada, organized by Canada Research Chair in Black Studies in the Humanities at York, CHRISTINA SHARPE. She is the author of In the Wake: On Blackness and Being; Monstrous Intimacies: Making Post-Slavery Subjects; and Ordinary Notes.

GLEN COULTHARD is Yellowknives Dene, an associate professor in the First Nations and Indigenous Studies Program at the University of British Columbia, and the author of Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition. He is also a co-founder of Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning, operating on his traditional territories in Denendeh (Northwest Territories). CANISIA LUBRIN is an acclaimed poet, editor and fiction writer. Her poetry book The Dyzgraphxst won the Griffin Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award, and her fiction, Code Noir, won the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award. Lubrin is the Poetry Editor at McClelland & Stewart, and coordinator of the University of Guelph Creative Writing MFA. MADELEINE THIEN is the author of a story collection, Simple Recipes, and four novels, including Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Women's Prize for Fiction, and the Folio Prize, and won the Governor-General's Literary Award for Fiction, among other honours. She was a Cullman Fellow at The New York Public Library, and in 2024 received the Engel-Findley Award from the Writers' Trust of Canada. Born in Vancouver, Madeleine lives in Montreal. IMMANUEL WILKINS is a saxophonist, composer, and educator who burst onto the musical scene with his Blue Note debut, Omega, which was named the best jazz release of 2020 by the New York Times. In 2022, Wilkins released his sophomore album on Blue Note, The 7th Hand, which topped numerous year-end lists. In 2024 Wilkins released his third recording to date: Blues Blood, co-produced by Meshell Ndegeocello. It was nominated for best international recording of the year and Williams was named by Jazz News and Jazz Magazine as the best international jazz musician of the year.