YCLML 001 - MCLL Lectures

This workshop is no longer offered this term.

Organizer: Alain Lessard

If you want to improve your conversation skills in French, MCLL will assign you a partner from a French-language community organization for seniors who want to improve their English. The two partners arrange between themselves when they will meet up in person for one hour of conversation per week, alternating between French and English.  Many participants enjoy this activity because, in addition to practicing a second language, they find it interesting to converse with people from a different background.

A one-time fee of $10 applies to access this workshop.

Presenters: Tony Cleaver and Frank Nicholson 

Our speaker, who recently retired from teaching economics at a British university, will explain how the last fifty years have seen a trend for big businesses to “financialize” – to move away from making and selling real goods and services, to buying and selling debt. Governments have contributed to this by deregulating markets, privatizing public services and reducing taxes. The result has been recurring crises, soaring house prices, increasing social inequality and stagnated economic growth.

Presenter:  Hilliard Goldfarb 

Titian ranks as the outstanding portraitist of the Italian High Renaissance, regarded as such by his international contemporaries. Many of his portraits are relatively straightforward. This lecture will focus on four works from throughout his career, two in which the portrait allusions are subtle and significant, one that converts sacred history to self-serving ostentation through portraiture, and one of global ambition through erotic mythology. The lecturer is Emeritus Senior Curator at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Presenter:  Suzanne Charlton 

Room: 241

Canadian classical musicians are celebrated worldwide for their genius and musical skills. Join us as we listen to and discuss the work of renowned figures such as Oscar Peterson, Glenn Gould, Maureen Forrester, Measha Brueggergosman, James Ehnes, Ben Heppner, Bramwell Tovey, and more. Composers, singers, pianists, violinists, conductors... Classical Canada has it all!

Presenter: Lewis Cattarini

Room: 225

We will screen John Frankenheimer’s 1962 classic, featuring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, and Angela Lansbury. The film’s ingredients of political paranoia and psychological terror will be introduced and explored as themes of the neo-noir genre. Please note that this session will exceed two hours to allow time for the full screening (126 minutes), an introduction, and a post-screening discussion. 

Presenter: Harald von Cramon

Room: 225

In 1917, a major collection of art from the 14th through 16th century (including Botticelli, Bosch, Holbein et al) was auctioned off in Berlin. As a grandson of German jurist Richard von Kaufmann, I have always wondered where these treasures might be found today. With the help of the computer, I have been able to trace about half of the 164 paintings in the auction catalog, and I now know what they really looked like in full colour. Let me share them with you.

Presenter: Jean-François Cliche

Room: 241

Geothermal heat pumps are an elegant solution for heating and cooling homes while reducing energy needs and greenhouse gas emissions. In this lecture, I will demystify the technology by recounting my experience in installing such a system in my century-old row house in Westmount. I will discuss my motivations and constraints, the options I considered, how the system works, the available financial aid, the installation process and the performance review after a year in operation.

Presenter: John Felvinci

The Big Bang, long considered the starting point of our Universe, is now being reinterpreted in new ways. Some suggest it occurred many billions of years earlier than previously thought; others propose that cosmic inflation may have preceded it, delaying its actual “birth.” Recent measurements from the Webb Telescope and emerging ideas about dark matter point to the need for a revised understanding. This lecture will review these new developments.

Presenter: Frank Nicholson

This talk will tell the story of Federico García Lorca, Spain’s most famous literary figure of the 20th century. It will cover his roots in Granada; his friendships with Dali, Buñuel and other avant-gardistes; his sexual orientation struggles; his visit to the United States in 1929; his populist touring theatre company; his marvelous poems (e.g., Lament for a Bullfighter) and plays (e.g., Blood Wedding); and his murder by the Nationalists at the start of the Spanish Civil War.

Presenter: Hilliard Goldfarb

Celebrated for his artistry and intellect, Poussin spent most of his career in Rome, where he painted two unique series on the seven sacraments. Drawing on early Church history and Roman antiquity, these works reflect profound scholarship and personal commitment. We’ll explore their contrasts, symbolic layers, religious context, and the role of archaeology in shaping their meaning. The lecturer is Emeritus Senior Curator at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Presenter: Paul Kuai-Yu Leong

Room: 241

Thomas Edward Lawrence (1888-1935): The “tinker” and “thinker” of the Middle East. The writer of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, a book praised by W. Churchill, master of the English language. A “soldier” and “spy” for the British Empire…an enigmatic and complex figure whose sudden death at age 46 gave rise to conspiracy theories. Let’s discuss the legacies of T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia).

Presenter: Marna Muray

Lise Meitner (1878 – 1968), an Austrian and Swedish nuclear physicist, played an essential role in the discovery of nuclear fission. Her long partnership with Otto Hahn, and collaboration with her nephew Otto Robert Frisch, helped her understand the splitting of the atom. Nuclear fission led to nuclear power and the atomic bomb. Meitner was invited to participate in the Manhattan Project; however, she declined, saying, “I will have nothing to do with a bomb.” See: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/89AZmxrZs0M

Presenter: Paulette Breau

In this lecture, retired Police Sargeant Breau explores the origins, evolution and role of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in shaping Canada’s national identity. From its origins as the North-West Mounted Police to its evolution into today’s RCMP, the force’s contributions to frontier justice, law enforcement, and its international reputation will be examined. Join us for a nuanced look at Canada’s most iconic police institution.

Presenter: John Felvinci

Pamela Harriman, born in 1920 and first married to Randolph Churchill, became Winston’s most valuable daughter-in-law due to her important information-gathering activity during the Second World War. Called “the greatest courtesan of the 20th century”, she had, by the 1980s, transformed into a kingmaker of the Democratic Party, selecting future presidential candidates. She died in 1997 in Paris while serving as U.S. Ambassador.