Lectures by Topic
Since 2013 HTAL has been offering high quality lectures for retired citizens who espouse lifelong learning. The lectures offer diverse perspectives under the umbrella of Understanding the 21st Century and focus on defined categories supporting this theme.
The Arts and Humanities
Alvin Lee: The Humanities in the 21st Century – Fall 2013
Patrick Deane: Answering the University’s Critics – Spring 2014
Louise Dompierre: The Future of Art Galleries – Spring 2014
James Sommerville: Live Music in the 21st Century – Spring 2014
Jackie Maxwell: Theatre in the 21st Century – Fall 2014
Barry Hughson: An Innovation Agenda for the National Ballet – Spring 2015
Antonio Cimolino: Victory and After – Fall 2015
Heather Bambrick: Jazz: Music of the People – Fall 2016
Gemma New: Subject to Interpretation – Spring 2017
Don Thompson: Irrationalities, Nudges and Bubbles in the Contemporary Art Market – Fall 2018
Vivian Lewis: Putting Bertrand Russell in His Place – Spring 2019
Abigail Richardson-Schulte: From Silence to Full Orchestra: My Life & Music – Fall 2019
Gabriella Marceau: Motion Picture Censorship – Winter 2021
Adam Nayman: Contradictory Morality and Humour of the Coen Brothers’ Movies – Winter 2021
Tim Carroll: The Shaw Festival’s Next 60 Years – Fall 2021
Dr. Ellen Ryan: Late Life Creativity for Artists and Amateurs – Winter 2022
Astrid Hepner: An Instrument for Every Child – Spring 2022
Nathan Fleet: The Filmmaking Scene in the Hammer – Winter 2023
Biology, Medicine and Health Care
Dan Dunsky: Social Media Revolution – Spring 2013
Jack Pasternak: High Hopes for Personalized Medicine – Spring 2013
Sandra Witelson: Sex Differences in the Brain: Their Consequences – Spring 2013
Geoff Norman: How Doctors Think – Fall 2013
Mick Bhatia: Human Stem Cells – Spring 2014
Francesca Grosso: Navigating the Health Care System – Fall 2014
Laurel Trainor: Music and the Brain – Fall 2014
Jack Pasternak: Understanding Human Diversity in the 21st Century – Fall 2015
Mehran Anvari: Robots in Surgery – Spring 2015
Kevin Smith: The Elusive Pursuit of Integrated Care and Caring – Spring 2015
Jean Clinton: What’s the Fuss about the Early Years? – Spring 2016
John Buttars: Medical Assistance in Dying – Fall 2016
Ann Herring: The Coming Plague – Fall 2016
Norm Buckley: Patient Engagement in Chronic Pain Research – Spring 2017
John Bienenstock: Bacteria and Behaviour – Fall 2017
Ellen Ryan: Fostering Resilient Aging – Fall 2017
Richard Heinzl: From Hamilton Mountain to the Frontlines of Humanitarian Aid & the Frontiers of Medicine – Spring 2018
Alison Sekuler: Vision, Aging and the Brain – Spring 2018
Stanley Zlotkin: Solving a Global Nutritional Challenge – Fall 2018
Anne Martin-Matthews: The Future is Aging – Spring 2019
Mark Poznansky: How Synthetic Biology will Change the World – Spring 2019
Peter Beiling: The Kids are all Right? Innovations in Youth Mental Health & Services – Fall 2019
Karen Kidd: What Happens Once We Flush the Toilet? Impacts of our Drugs on Aquatic Life – Fall 2019
Dr. Greg Rutledge: Covid-19 Experience – Fall 2020
Dr. Bill Scarth: The Aging Population, the Pandemic and Fiscal Policy – Fall 2020
Dr. Gerry Wright: Are We Approaching a Post-Antibiotic Era? – Fall 2020
Sharron Johnston: Humour Your Stress; plus documentary “Laughing and Crying” – Winter 2021
Karen Mossman: Viruses: Friend or Foe- Fall 2021
Dr. Jennifer Heisz: Move the Body, Heal the Mind – Winter 2022
Dr. James McKillop: Medical Cannabis – How Effective? – Winter 2022
Kristen Parise: Sex, Chocolate and Your Pelvic Floor – Winter 2022
Zain Chagla: Coronavirus: Past, Present and Future – Spring 2022
Dr. Sheila Singh: Developing Novel Immunotherapies for Patients With Glioblastoma – Spring 2022
Sean Wharton: Managing Elevated Weight As We Age – Spring 2022
Dr. Harriet MacMillan: Recognizing and Responding to Family Violence – Fall 2022
Andre Picard: Neglected No More – Long Term Health Care – Fall 2022
Hendrik Poinar: The Causes and Consequences of the Black Death – Fall 2022
Dr. Gerry Wright: Infections and Society: The McMaster Global Nexus Initiative – Fall 2022
Dr. Norm Buckley: Coping with Chronic Pain – Winter 2023
Dr. Randi McCabe: Coping with Anxiety – Winter 2023
Dawn Bowdish: The Perils of Being Born in the Fall: How Infectious Disease and Vaccines Impact Life from Birth to Death – Fall 2023
Cities
Joe Berridge: Living in the Big City – Spring 2014
Terry Cooke: Hamilton in the 21st Century – Spring 2015
Paul Johnson: A City is not Great…Until It Is Great for Everyone – Spring 2016
Richard Harris: Hamilton on the Cusp – Spring 2017
Matti Siemiatycki: Infrastructure Decision-Making in Ontario – Fall 2017
David Crombie:Greater Golden Horseshoe (Next 25 Years) – Fall 2017
Nancy Bouchier & Ken Cruickshank: People and the Bay: Hamilton Harbour Then and Now – Spring 2018
Doug Saunders: Maximum Hamilton: The Past, Present and Future Of the Region’s Population History – Spring 2018
David Galbraith – Cultural Landscapes and Sense of Place: RBG as a Case Study – Fall 2018
Steven Buist: Code Red: What do the Vital Signs Tell Us About Our City? – Spring 2019
Ty Shattuck: Vision for MIP in the Coming Years – Spring 2022
Paul Takala: The Evolution of the Library in the 21st Century – Fall 2022
Bill Curran: The Idea of North – Contemporary Canadian Architecture – Spring 2023
Climate Change
Andrew Miall: An Earth Sciences Perspective – Fall 2013
Gordon McBean: Climate Change – Fall 2014
Savitri Jetoo: Avoiding the Ostrich Syndrome to Climate Change – Fall 2015
Bob McNutt: Fracking: Its Character and Consequences – Spring 2016
Simon Donner: Living Islands – Spring 2017
Catherine McKenna: Issues pf the Environment and Climate Change – Fall 2018
Manzoor Qadir: Looking Beyond Conventional Water Resources – Spring 2019
David Novog: Confronting Climate Change – Identifying the Pathways to Net Zero 2050 – Fall 2021
Judy Major-Girardin: A Watershed Moment: Greening McMaster’s Campus for Teaching and Research – Spring 2023
Jim Willwerth: Implications of Climate Change on Niagara’s Grape and Wine Industry – Fall 2023
General Interest
Tyson Lambert: Recipes for Valentines – Winter 2021
Paul Zammit: Gardening for the Soul – Winter 2022
Paul Zammit: Container Gardening – Winter 2023
Global and Canadian Politics and Economics
Martin Horn: Understanding the Economic Crisis – Spring 2013
Virginia Aksan: Turkey in a Dangerous Neighbourhood – Fall 2013
Atif Kubursi: The Arab Spring – Fall 3013
David Mulroney: China and Canadian Foreign Policy – Fall 2014
Bill Scarthe: Income Inequality – Spring 2015
Charlotte Yates: Sticks and Carrots: Government and Labour In the Canadian Auto Industry – Spring 2015
Matthew Mendelsohn: The 2015 Federal Election: The Stakes for Ontario – Fall 2015
Kasi Rao: India’s Rise: Implications for Canada – Spring 2016
Jennifer Clapp: Trade: Opportunity or Threat for Global Food Security – Fall 2016
Stephen Heathorn: The Ruin of the 20th Century Returns: Brexit and the Revival of European Exclusionary Nationalism – Spring 2017
Hugh Segal: Canada and the Two Freedoms – Spring 2017
Renu Mandhane: Current Issues in Human Rights – Fall 2017
Bob Rae: Moving from Truth to Reconciliation – and Making it Real – Spring 2018
George Soleas: Transformation at the LCBO & the Future of our Market – Fall 2018
Sunil Johal: The Past, Present and Future of Work -Spring 2019
Stephen Heathorn: Walking Through the Rubble of Brexit: Understanding the Exposed Social & Political Fractures – Fall 2019
Lucan Way: Can Western Democracy Survive the Loss of White Dominance – Fall 2019
Joseph Wong: Why China Needs to Democratize Sooner Rather than Later: Lessons from its Democratic Neighbours – Fall 2019
Dr. John Mighton: Extreme Equality: How to Use Math to Create a More Equitable and Prosperous Society – Fall 2020
Diana Fu: China’s Rise to Power – What This means to Canada – Fall 2021
John Veugelers: Rise of the Political Right in France – Fall 2021
Judy Fudge: Governing Forced Labour in Supply Chains: Canada in a Global Context – Spring 2022
Paul Berton: Consumerism, consumption and Capitalism – Spring 2023
Bonnie Ibhawoh: Can Human Rights Exist Without Human Duties – Spring 2023
Leo Nupolu Johnson: Foundations of the Future: What We Build Ends UP Building Us – Spring 2023
Viviana Patroni: Enduring Inequality in Latin America – the Unravelling of Democracy – Spring 2023
Rick Monture: Indigenous Education at the Mohawk Institute, McMaster University, and the Woodland Cultural Center – Fall 2023
Stephen Heathorn: Still shuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic? Britain, post Brexit – Fall 2023
Media Revolution
Dan Dunsky: Social Media Revolution – Spring 2013
Robert Harris: Where Have All the Mass Media Gone? – Fall 2013
Ron Deibert: Cybercrime – Fall 2014
John Preston: The Promise and Perils of Nanotechnology – Fall 2015
Ron Deibert: The Internet After Snowden – Fall 2015
Norm Archer: On-Line Health Management Systems – Spring 2016
Janice Neal: How The World of Journalists Is Changing – Spring 2016
Dan Dunsky: The Effects of Digital Disruptions on Society – Fall 2016
Steve Paikin: Fighting the Good Fight against ‘Alternative Facts’ – Spring 2018
Jim Magahey: How Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Is Transforming Healthcare – Fall 2018
Dr. Tim Davidson: Understanding 5G – Fall 2020
Adam Nayman: History of Toronto Cinema – Winter 2021
Religious Fundamentalism
Graham Roebuck: Religious Martyrdom – Spring 2013
Lorne Dawson: Why Have Some Canadians Become Terrorists? – Spring 2014
Liyakat Takim: Sectarianism in the Muslim World – Fall 2016
James Reilly: Religion, Nationalism and Political Polarization in the Modern Middle East – Fall 2017
Sciences
Cliff Burgess: What Is the Universe Made Of? – Spring 2013
Harvey Levenstein: Fear of Food: a History of Why We Worry About What We Eat – Fall 2014
Faizan Rehnatullah: Retrieving Samples From Mars – Fall 2021
Blake Ledger: Out of This World: Perspectives and Stories From an Astrophysicist – Winter 2023
Myriam Nafte: Forensics in Crime Solving – Fall 2023
Covid Cancellation Spring 2020
Jennifer Heisz : Physically Fit, Mentally Flexible
Ted Barris: That Others May Live: More Than a Motto Among Military Medical Personnel
Diane Saxe: Climate Changes Everything
Joe Berridge: Perfect City: Toronto, Hamilton and the World in the Age of Cities
Shannon Kyles: People or Places: Can We Have Both?
Gary Draper: Alice in Wonderland; the 21st Century Stories of Alice Munro
I wanted to take a moment and thank you and the Board for putting together this program. I am new to HTAL and had been waiting for the in person sessions to resume. It has been an engaging and thought-provoking experience, something many of us seek at various levels.
Thank you very much for all the time you and the speakers devote to making an interesting lecture series!
Very engaging speaker. Very strong ideas and messaging, He made me want to look for ways to build up the community.
Thought this was a very inspirational and informative talk. Thought provoking. Kept talking about it with friends after.
Another highly engaging session with a passionate speaker.
Absolutely fantastic. WOW! What a great speaker.
Superb and thought-provoking.
I loved this lecture. I could have listened to it for at least two more hours!
Good topic and timely-thinking about our world and local issues too.
It’s fun to go to something you’d never pick yourself because it’s part of a series.