A Fireside Chat with Trinity Alum Michael Ignatieff
On February 12, Dr. Michael Ignatieff stopped by for a candid, intimate talk with students from the International Relations Society and the Margaret MacMillan Trinity One Program. The discussion was moderated by Prof. Michael Kessler, the Raymond Pryke Chair and Director of the Margaret MacMillan Trinity One Program, who fielded questions from our inquisitive and enthusiastic students. Dr. Ignatieff dealt with topics ranging from moral reasoning, Canada’s international presence, ethics, democracy, international politics, and the current state of international relations.
Alum Dr. Ignatieff had returned to his alma mater to deliver the 2018 Larkin-Stuart Lecture: “Religion and the Problem of Consolation.” Throughout his lecture, Dr. Ignatieff explored one of the paradoxes of our apparently secular age: the enduring power of religious monuments and devotional texts. People who think of themselves as secular, Ignatieff explained, can find consolation in religious works of art while disbelieving in the theological premises upon which these works depend. This was Dr. Ignatieff’s second time delivering the lecture; his first talk “All Shook Up” was presented in 1988.
The Larkin Stuart Lecture 2018 with Michael Ignatieff
About Michael Ignatieff
Trinity alum Michael Ignatieff was born in Canada, and educated at the University of Toronto and Harvard. He is a university professor, writer and former politician. Between 2006 and 2011, he served as an MP in the Parliament of Canada and then as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition. He is a member of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and holds eleven honorary degrees. He is currently the President and Rector of Central European University in Budapest.
About to The Larkin-Stuart Lectures
Endowed in 1969, are co-sponsored by Trinity College and St. Thomas’s Anglican Church. The lectures vary in topic, but all are based broadly on the subject of theology. The list of lecturers is long and distinguished and includes Robertson Davies, Northrop Frye, P.D. James, Michael Ignatieff, Father Owen Lee, Burton Mack, Rabbi Dow Marmur, Atom Egoyan, Charles Taylor, Mark Kingwell, David Halton, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury and The Honourable Frank Iacobucci.
Categories: Alumni; College News; Student News