Established in 1983, the Davidson Dunton Research Lecture enables distinguished Carleton University faculty scholars to share their research findings with the academic community and the general public.
This lecture is named for Carleton's fourth and longest-serving president, A. Davidson Dunton, who led the University from 1958 to 1972.
The selection committee, chaired by the Vice-President (Research and International), includes the Dean of Graduate Studies and Research, and the Deans of Arts and Social Sciences, Engineering and Design, Public Affairs, the Sprott School of Business, and Science.
Past Davidson Dunton Research Lecturers have been:
| Year | Name | Title |
| 2007 | N. Papadopoulos | A brand named Canada? Nations in a world of competing images |
| 2006 | M. Forbes | Parasite design: manipulation, distortion, and indiscrimination |
| 2005 | J. Vickers | In Search of Women-Friendly Democracy: Gender/Nation Relations in Modern Nation-States |
| 2004 | A.B. McKillop | Engaging History: Historians, Storytelling, and Self |
| 2003 | A. Hunt | Worrying About Our Children: Shifting Anxieties |
| 2002 | D. Sinclair | Scientific Breakthroughs at the Sudbury Neutrino Observator |
| 2001 | H. Anisman | Stress: A Natural History |
| 2000 | P. R. Mahon | No Small Matter: Child Policy Research |
| 1999 | G. Haider | In Search of a North American Mosque: Timeless Spaces in a Changing World |
| 1998 | J. Humar | Engineering for Earthquakes |
| 1997 | D. Dawson | Living with Change and Uncertainty: Atoms, Options, Genes and the Internet |
| 1996 | V. Mosco | Myth-ing Links: Power and Community on the Information Highway |
| 1995 | D.C.S. Roberts | Neurobiology of Cocaine Addiction |
| 1994 | J. Healy | White Fellas, Aborigines and the Angel of Post Colonial History: Australia 1994 |
| 1993 | P. Weatherhead | Sex, Lies and Autoradiographs: New Insights in Sexual Selection in Birds |
| 1992 | J. Shepherd | Art, Culture and Interdisciplinarity: Reflections on Relationships |
| 1991 | R.M. Phillips | Consuming Identities: Curiosity, Souvenir and Indianness in 19th-Century Canada |
| 1990 | K. Storey | Natural Freeze Tolerance in Vertebrates: Life in the Frozen State |
| 1989 | W. Clement | The 'Hidden' Research Process: Developing the Habit of Research |
| 1988 | M.E. McCully | Explorations in the Underworld of Plants |
| 1987 | A.P.S. Selvadurai | The Technologies for the Disposal of Long-Lived and Highly Radioactive Wastes |
| 1986 | R.K. Carnegie | High Energy Physics: International Science Exploring the Microcosm |
| 1985 | R.C. Blockley | Rome and Persia: International Relations in Late Antiquity |
| 1984 | J.A. Goldak | The Computerization of Engineering in Design, Analysis, and Manufacturing |
| 1983 | G.B. Doern | In Defense of Politics: Ideas, Research and the Study of the Public Theory |