MCLL Winter Lecture Program
We offer a program of lectures both online and on campus, presented by MCLL members, other lifelong learning centers and faculty members who share their research on a variety of topics. The fee is $10 per lecture, and does not include MCLL membership benefits.
Winter Term Duration: January 16 - March 13, 2026
Winter registration is now open.
💡 New!
MCLL On the Road brings signature lectures to Montreal's seniors’ residences, retirement clubs, and independent-living apartment buildings.
⚠️ Important
To register for a lecture you'll need your McGill Athena login name and password, so keep them handy. If you forget or don't yet have them, get them now at the Athena Login Page.
Useful Links
Useful Notes
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Maximum in-person attendance is 17 unless otherwise specified.
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Registration closes at midnight two days before the lecture date. The Zoom link for online lectures will be sent to attendees the previous day.
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In case of technical problems, an emergency, or an illness, a refund is available through your Athena account until one day after the lecture.
📍Location
All on-campus lectures take place on the second floor of
MCLL Winter 2026 Workshops |
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MCLL Workshops
YCLML 988 French English Conversation Exchange
No Longer Offered This Term
Time: to be determined by participants
Organizer: Alain Lessard
Attendance: to be determined by participants (one-on-one partnership)
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.
MCLL Winter 2026 Lectures |
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MCLL Lectures
YCLML 975 Financialization or Strangulation?
Time: Friday, February 20, 10:00 a.m.
Presenters: Tony Cleaver
Attendance: Online
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.
YCLML 976 Titian Portraits: Intimacy, Power, Ambition
Time: Friday, February 20, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Hilliard Goldfarb
Attendance: Online
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.
YCLML 977 Celebrate Canadian Classical Musicians! (CANCELLED)
Time: Friday, February 20, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: Suzanne Charlton
Attendance: In person
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!
YCLML 978 Film Neo-noir: The Manchurian Candidate
Time: Friday, February 20, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: Lewis Cattarini
Attendance: In person
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.
YCLML 979 The Collection of Richard von Kaufmann
Time: Friday, February 27, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Harald von Cramon
Attendance: In person
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.
YCLML 980 An Urban Geothermal Heat Pump Story
Time: Friday, February 27, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: Jean-François Cliche
Attendance: In person
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.
YCLML 981 New Ideas about the Big Bang
Time: Friday, February 27, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: John Felvinci
Attendance: Online
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.
YCLML 982 LORCA: His Life, Work & Death
Time: Friday, March 6, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Frank Nicholson
Attendance: Online
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.
YCLML 964 European Renaissance
Time: Friday, March 6, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Tony Frayne
Attendance: In person
Room: 225
Between 1945 and 1960, Western Europe saw lasting transformations. In Germany, Adenauer led a long economic boom, restoring West Germany’s role as Europe’s top economy. De Gaulle brought a new constitution and optimism to France. In Britain, Attlee’s Labour government introduced the welfare state, nationalized key industries, and reduced the dominance of the elite. The era also marked the end of the British Empire and laid the groundwork for what would become the European Union.
YCLML 983 Poussin: Art & Faith in 17th-Century Rome
Time: Friday, March 6, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Hilliard Goldfarb
Attendance: Online
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.
YCLML 984 T.E. Lawrence - A Complex Legacy
Time: Friday, March 6, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: Paul Kuai-Yu Leong
Attendance: In person
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).
YCLML 985 Lise Meitner: A physicist
Time: Friday, March 13, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Marna Murray
Attendance: Online
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
YCLML 986 The History of the RCMP
Time: Friday, March 13, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Paulette Breau
Attendance: Online
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.
YCLML 987 The Fascinating Life of Pamela Harriman
Time: Friday, March 13, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: John Felvinci
Attendance: Online
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.
