Winter Courses Starting Soon!

WELCOME!

With the following introduction to the Thomas More Institute we extend a hearty word of welcome to all students, both those returning after an absence and others totally new to our format. The Institute's reading-discussion method really needs to be experienced to get its true flavour, but a few words of explanation may be helpful. continued...

B.A. DEGREE OFFERED

The Thomas More Institute offers a program of study whereby individuals may obtain a university degree in the liberal arts. Instead of lectures, we offer discussions guided by trained leaders. Students are invited to participate in a shared process of inquiry and are encouraged to view themselves as actively involved in an adventure of intellectual discovery. Our university-level courses are based upon carefully chosen and sequenced texts representing different perspectives on the questions each group has come together to explore. continued...

COURSE OFFERINGS FOR 2011-2012 ARE HERE!

PHILOSOPHY
Cherishing the Truth and Embracing the Good (W)
Coming Alive—Parts 1 and 2 (F/W)
Depicting Virtue: Literature as Philosophy (F)
Exploring Lonergan’s Insight (F/W)
The Pre-Socratics—The Birth of Philosophy (S)
The Spirit of Irony (W)
Yearning for Presence, Returning to Things (W)

LITERATURE
L’attention au monde: Le regard de Bernard Émond (F)
Gertrude and Alice: The Fiction of Autobiography (F)
How Poems Work (S)
Irish Fiction: Where is it Today? (S)
Language and Identity: A Century of Hebrew Literature (S)
Nordic Noir: Scandinavian Sleuths (F)
Who Was William Shakespeare? (F)
Mockingbird and Harper Lee—Yesterday and Today (W)
Le silence et les ombres (W)

CLASSICAL CULTURE
Ancient Rome Through Opera (F)
Herodotus and Thucydides (F/W)

HISTORY
The Crusades and their Legacy (F & S)
The Ornament of the World (W)
Romanticism, Reform, Revolution, and Repression (W)

SCIENCES/NATURAL AND SOCIAL
Blurred Boundaries and Potential Spaces (F)
Coming Alive—Part 3 (S)
Democracy in Danger? (F)
Memory, Footprints of the Spirit (F/W)
Which Way, America? (F/W)
World Capitalism (W)

RELIGIOUS STUDIES/THEOLOGY
Faith and Reason (F)

THE ARTS
Canada on Screen (W)
The Rest is Noise—Listening to the 20th Century (F/W)
Saturday Afternoon at the Opera (F/W)
Théâtre Montréal Theatre (F/W)

CONTINUING EACH YEAR
Basic Essay Writing (F)
Conquering Fear/Speaking Confidently (S)
Workshop On Writing Skills (F/W)

We also offer courses in Ottawa & Pointe-Claire- please see our courses section for a complete list, or download a PDF of our 2011-2012 Prospectus!

NEWS AND EVENTS AT TMI

Institut
THOMAS MORE
Institute
Discovery Café presents

savours of the season & holiday treasures

Please join us for food, wine, music, and conversation.

SUNDAY, December 4
3:00 to 6:00 PM
free admission

3405 Atwater
514-935-9585

THE MORE NEWS- DOWNLOAD THE LATEST TMI NEWSLETTER!

Download your copy of the November 2011 edition of The More News (PDF)

ACTIVITIES AND EVENTS FOR LEADERS

The Institute is offering the following 2011-2012 activities and events for discussion leaders.

1. To launch the 2011-2012 year, TMI President Warren Allmand will welcome all current leaders to a meeting which will be held on Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 6:30 pm. A light repast will be provided at 6 pm.

2. The Introductory workshop on the Theory and Practice of the TMI Discussion Method will be held Friday, September 16 at 7 pm, and Saturday, September 17, 2011 from 10 am to 4 pm.

3. The Senior Program’s leaders meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 27 at 2:00 pm to discuss and share ideas around this year’s course Happiness?.

4. Practical Workshops: A series of informal get-togethers for leaders seeking to improve leaders’ skills for interpreting and questioning different kinds of texts encountered in course discussions. Leaders are strongly encouraged to join in these workshops to refresh their skills and learn best practices from other leaders. Workshops begin in October and run until March, occurring at lunch and in the evening. Dates and times to be announced.

CHARLOTTE HUNTER TANSEY

The THOMAS MORE INSTITUTE of Montreal mourns the death and celebrates the life of one of its founding members and past Presidents, Dr. Charlotte Tansey. Over the course of more than fifty years, Charlotte dedicated herself to creating a setting where adults, in the company of others, could passionately pursue their own curiosity and discover what it might mean to give priority to the life of the mind, to an existence committed to open-ended and ongoing inquiry.

At the age of 23, Charlotte joined with other young visionaries and established that extraordinary community for adult learning and development still known, 65 years later, as the Thomas More Institute. Over the years, Charlotte served as Secretary, Registrar, and Academic Vice-President and, for 18 years following the death of Father Eric O’Connor, as President and Director of Studies.

It was, however, as a course designer and course leader that Charlotte came to contribute so much to the lives of so many. She designed hundreds of courses which, from year to year, offered countless groups of adult learners opportunities to explore questions that were pressing for articulation and reflection, both personally and culturally. Each course reflected Charlotte’s deeply held conviction that genuine learning moves only gradually toward the level of theory. She understood that understanding must grow out of personal experience and, therefore, she included in all courses works of the creative imagination to serve as grounding touchstones between the concrete and the abstract.

As a course leader, Charlotte deeply understood the importance of developing a mind and a voice of one’s own. Inspired by the work of philosopher Bernard Lonergan, Charlotte sought to create in each of her classes a climate of trust and acceptance so as to enable her students to take seriously their own emerging responses to and tentative formulations of the texts being considered. In this way, she allowed her students to discover and enact their native capacities as knowers and inquirers. Charlotte inspired something very precious in cultivating openness and the asking of further questions for richer understanding.

Charlotte received honorary doctorates from Concordia University, Bishop’s University, and Burlington College. She was an editor and contributor to several publications including Informed Dialogue: Facets of group-reading discussions, and Caring About Meaning: Patterns in the Life of Bernard Lonergan.

“The learned will shine as brightly as the vault of heaven. And those who have instructed many in virtue will be as bright as stars for all eternity.”
Book of Daniel

Charlotte Tansey Sermon 30.08.10

THOMAS MORE INSTITUTE NAMES WARREN ALLMAND AS NEW PRESIDENT

MONTREAL, Quebec (May 5, 2010) - Warren Allmand has been appointed President of the Thomas More Institute. The former Member of Parliament and human rights advocate will assume the post on June 1, 2010, succeeding Jim Cullen, who has been President since 2006.

“Mr. Allmand’s experience as a cabinet minister and as a leader of organisations concerned with human rights and democracy will bring a broad range of contemporary questions and issues to course content and activities of the Institute,” says Clare Hallward, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Institute. “Mr. Allmand has been a model of adult learning throughout his life. His presence at the Institute will be most appreciated by the students, course designers, discussion leaders and the volunteer board and committee members.”

Warren Allmand was educated at Loyola High School (1948), St Francis Xavier University (1954), McGill University Law School (1957), and l’Université de Paris (1958). After working as a lawyer, Allmand served as a Member of Parliament (1965-1997), a Minister in the Trudeau cabinet (1972-1979), and as President of Rights and Democracy (1997-2002). He taught at McGill University (2002-2005), and previously at the University of Ottawa, Marianopolis College and O’Sullivan College.

Recently retired from municipal politics, after serving four years as a Montreal City Councillor, Allmand continues to work with the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, the Social Justice Committee, the Kairos Indigenous Rights Committee and Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East.

“The values of continuing, life-long education are essential to the functioning of a successful/healthy democracy. These goals were always part of my work as an M.P., Minister, City Councillor, teacher and human rights advocate,” says Allmand. “I welcome the opportunity to work with the staff and community of Thomas More Institute in furthering this agenda.”

ABOUT THOMAS MORE INSTITUTE
Thomas More Institute offers a program of interactive learning through reading and discussion. The Institute, founded in Montreal 65 years ago, provides courses in liberal arts, which may be taken for university credit or for pleasure. Lifelong learning is promoted with freshly-designed courses every year based on readings that offer different perspectives on the questions or the themes of the courses. Students, whose ages range from 20 to 90, learn through reading, debate, and discussion. The Institute values curiosity, the spirit of inquiry, asking questions of authority and critical thinking.

TMI PARTICIPATES IN NATIONAL VOLUNTEER WEEK
Click here to visit the Volunteer Canada Facebook page

April 17-24, 2010: Thank you to all the volunteers who moved from compassion to action, the theme of this year’s celebration of the contribution of volunteers in Canada. See the list of members of the TMI working Community who have made Thomas More Institute such a compassionate and active centre for learning.

PARKING YOUR CAR WHILE ATTENDING TMI COURSES

There are several options for parking. The choice of parking spots is limited during the daytime. Meters are $3 per hour.

• Option 1, during TMI class times
  Parking for Thomas More Institute students
  Grand Séminaire de Montréal
  2065 Sherbrooke West
  Parking lot entrance on Sherbrooke Street, east of Atwater
  Rate: $7.00
• Option 2 for mid-afternoon after 3PM, in addition to Grand Séminaire
  Fixed rate of $5.00 after 3pm in the parking lot on the south side of Tupper Street. Tupper Street is one block south of St. Catherine. Turn west onto Tupper from Atwater, and the lot is on the left as you drive past the YMCA residence.
• Evening parking should be available on Atwater or the first block of Barat west of Atwater. Fixed-rate parking is available at the Grand Séminaire lot ($7) and the parking garages at Alexis Nihon ($5) and the AMC Forum ($6)

STATIONNEMENT ET TMI

Nombre de places limitées. Parcomètres $3 par heure.

• Option 1, Durant les heures de cours
  Stationnement pour étudiants de l’Institut Thomas More
  Grand Séminaire de Montréal – Stationnement
  2065, Rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montréal
  Taux : $7.00
• Option 2 – Après 15h00, en plus du Grand Séminaire
  Taux fixe $5 après 15h00, rue Tupper, côté sud, pas loin de la résidence YMCA.
• En soirée, devant TMI ou Stationnement du Grand Séminaire ($7) ou stationnement intérieur Alexis Nihon ($5) ou AMC Forum ($6).

RECENT TMI PUBLICATIONS

-Charlotte Tansey and Patrick Dias, Informed Dialogue, Facets of Group Reading-Discussion (2004)
- Moira T. Carley, Creative Learning & Living. The Human Element. (2005)

Both publications are available from TMI

Your enquiries are always welcome.