MCLL Lecture Program - Spring Fabulous Fridays
Term duration: April 25 – June 13, 2025
Spring registration opens April 1, 2025 at 9 a.m.
We offer a program of lectures both online and on campus, presented by MCLL members, other lifelong learning centers and guest lecturers.
The fee is $10 per lecture. Attending only lectures does not give you access to full MCLL membership benefits.
View the full lecture schedule
MCLL Spring 2025 Workshops and Lectures
Lectures will be offered with one of two types of attendance:
- In-person only - Entirely in the MCLL classroom, attendance only in person. Registration is limited to 16 attendees unless otherwise specified.
- Online only - Attendance is only by Zoom.
When registering, please note the type of attendance for the lecture you wish to attend.
Zoom Anxiety
Because all of the lectures and many of the study groups will be offered online, some of you who do not feel comfortable working with computers might be concerned about your ability to join online Zoom sessions. If you are experiencing Zoom anxiety, please be reassured that MCLL volunteers will do everything they can to help you learn how to join a Zoom study group or a Zoom lecture. If you would like someone to contact you and help you join a practice Zoom session, please send an email request to caring.mcll [at] gmail.com.
Registration and Payment Procedures
- Registration for ALL lectures is available here. Scroll down for lecture descriptions.
- Instructions on How to Register Online
- View your cart in Athena
- What to do if you have forgotten your Athena username or password
- There is a $10 fee per lecture payable by credit card ($12 fee for Cummings Centre lectures).
- If you are registered to attend a lecture online using Zoom, the link to access the lecture will be sent the day before the lecture starts. The registration for Friday lectures closes at midnight on the Wednesday before the lecture date. The registration for Wednesday lectures closes at midnight on the Monday before the lecture date.
- REFUND POLICY: You may cancel your registration in a lecture, workshop, or outing and obtain a refund until one day after the scheduled date, in case of technical problems, emergency or illness. This should be done online in your Athena account.
MCLL Spring 2025 Workshops and Lectures |
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MCLL Workshops
YCLML 866 Poetry Excursion #2 (online)
Time: Friday, June 6, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Gordon Postill
Attendance: Online
A “Poetry Excursion” primes the pump for what really matters, getting us out of our heads and into our hearts. Using an understated delivery, the presenter will recite poems of universal appeal by renowned poets such as Mary Oliver, John Updike, and Jane Kenyon with themes like awe, sadness, affection, death, hope, and longing. Each poem will be recited twice for clarity, followed by ample time for personal introspection and shared reflections.
MCLL Lectures
YCLML 889 The Power of Language vs. the Power of Speaker (online)
Time: Friday, June 6, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: Iryna Malynovska
Attendance: Online
The lecture is devoted to the impact of speech manipulation on individuals and society as a whole. At the backdrop of the substantial illustrative material, various methods and techniques of speech manipulation in advertising, business, politics as well as everyday life are considered. The discussion focuses on how to recognize and control linguistic manipulations.
YCLML 891 Catherine the Great: Empress, Visionary, Conqueror (online)
Time: Friday, June 13, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Alan Freeland
Attendance: Online
This talk throws the spotlight on a towering figure who reshaped history, Catherine the Great. Rising to power at a time women were rarely allowed to lead, Catherine became one of the most remarkable and complex rulers of all time. Her reign from 1762 to 1796 saw bold reforms, artistic flourishing and a relentless drive to expand the Russian empire, including taking in southern Ukraine. Visionary, cunning, and unapologetically ambitious, Catherine set an example undoubtedly in Vladimir Putin’s mind.
YCLML 892 McGill's Remarkable General Sir Arthur Currie (online)
Time: Friday, June 13, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Mark G. Peacock
Attendance: Online
How General Sir Arthur Currie came to be revered in Canada and Britain for his military and civilian accomplishments is the focus of this lecture. By exploring his character, mind, leadership and commitment to the ordinary soldier, we will learn about Sir Arthur’s contributions both on the battlefield and at McGill, including the Montreal Neurological Institute. Two darker chapters will also be dissected for the lessons they provide, along with his creative approaches to problem-solving.
YCLML 893 Literary Montrealers: A History (in person)
Time: Friday, June 13, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: Christopher Neal
Attendance: In person
Montreal journalist and author Christopher Neal reviews the evolution, ruptures and change that mark our city's literary history, citing the work of selected writers, poets and playwrights, in both English and French.
YCLML 894 Alexander von Humboldt and The Invention of Nature (in person) - Repeat lecture
Time: Friday, June 13, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: Wolfgang Schneider
Attendance: In person
Based on Andrea Wulf’s biography, we will explore the life of Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), a visionary German naturalist and polymath whose discoveries forever changed the way we understand the natural world. He is famous for his explorations in South America, his descriptions of nature as an interconnected web of life, and for warning of man-made climate change. His writings became the basis of ecology and climate science. He was also a global superstar, the most famous man after Napoleon, according to his contemporaries, yet his name has been all but forgotten today in the English-speaking world.
