Humanities for Life presents

A public talk and discussion led by Professor Simon Haines
at The Annex, Back of the City Hall building at 541 Ruthven Street, Toowoomba City
at [6 pm, TBC] on 19 August 2026

Professor Haines will speak on your choice from one of the following topics:

• The Four Pillars of Western Civilisation
• Why Reading Matters (especially today)
• What are Universities For?

Entry fee: $10, $5 for students; free for Humanities for Life subscribers.

Humanities for Life in Toowoomba writing competition

Entry fee: $10, $5 for students; genuine entries will count as paid subscriptions to Humanities for Life for 12 months, giving free entrance to the event on 19 August.

Send in a piece of writing between 300 and 600 words, responding to classic literature, and providing some sense of your life in Toowoomba (and surrounds).

These two elements can be as separate, or as integrated, as you like. For the purposes of this competition, ‘classic literature’ was published at least 50 years ago, and has been widely regarded as excellently written (fiction or non-fiction).

Two $200 cash prizes will be awarded at the event, one to a writer under 25 years of age, another open to all residents of the region (broadly defined). The judges (three of the four founders of Humanities for Life) are looking for a sense of what it’s been like living in Toowoomba (and surrounds), and a sense of becoming, through literature, part of a wider world.

Email contact@humanitiesforlife.com by 15 July to vote for your preferred theme for Professor Haines’ presentation, and to submit entries to the writing competition. Standard conditions of entry will be emailed in reply.

Humanities for Life invites you to join us in recognising and reinvigorating the contribution made to our society by the study of the Humanities.