Colin Ellard & the Meanings of Space

Colin Ellard is a professor of psychology at the University of Waterloo. His obsession is space … how we navigate through it and make sense of it.

“I’m fascinated by the many ways that the settings of our lives affect how we think and feel. The stories of our lives can be told using maps—maps of migrations, travel adventures, old neighbourhoods, the insides of our homes, and our social networks. Our relationships with space and place reach into every corner of our lives from the mundane (how do we find our way to the grocery store?) to the sublime (what is it about the space inside a large cathedral that takes our breath away?).”

Ellard was the keynote speaker at the 2015 OLA Annual Institute for the Library as Place. I interviewed him just before he spoke.

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Michael Ridley is the Editor-in-Chief of Open Shelf. He is a Librarian and Instructor (First Year Seminar program) at the University of Guelph.