Thomas More Institute Montreal

08/05/2026

Rethinking Fast Fashion: Ethics, Sustainability and Innovation
A social science course by the Thomas More Institute

Day: Mondays
Time: 1:30 - 3:30 PM
Location: 3405 Atwater Ave
Starting September 12, 2026
12 weeks

Register today! https://courses.thomasmore.qc.ca/product/rethinking-fast-fashion-ethics-sustainability-and-innovation/

07/30/2026

🎟📖The 2026-2027 academic year at the Thomas More Institute is underway! Join us on September first to kick off the new year, and enjoy some light refreshments while you discover our upcoming courses, mingle with the course leaders, and learn more about the Institute and our discussion method. Then, join us for a reading and Q&A with author Sarah Gilbert, who will read from her book Our Lady of Mile End, a neighbourhood of stories called a “literary gem” by The New York Times, and praised as “vibrant and intimate” by author Heather O’Neill. The stories in Gilbert’s collection explore gentrification and displacement in a once affordable area that is feeling the squeeze of social and cultural transformation.

Entry is free. Please RSVP here.
https://forms.gle/LzKnjqeUFBxPMxbG8

Sarah Gilbert is the author of the story collection Our Lady of Mile End, called a “literary gem” by The New York Times. Her fiction has appeared in a variety of literary journals and been a finalist for several prizes. Gilbert has worked as a freelance writer and a radio producer and is a faculty member at Dawson College where she teaches literature.

07/30/2026

👩‍🎨 Venetian art in the late 15th century and well into the 16th century signifies a golden age of painting. Pictures by Bellini, Giorgione, Carpaccio, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and scores of others define the era and separate Venice from the Renaissance in other Italian cities. But the paintings we now see in museums or churches were commissioned from the artist. Commercial art dealers and exhibitions were a thing of the future.

In this art history lecture course, we will look at the four main patrons of Renaissance art in Venice and their commissions: the Venetian Republic government, the Catholic church and the clergy, the various secular confraternities, and lastly, private or unknown individual Venetians. We will ask questions such as the following: How did the motivations of art patrons influence the subjects and symbolism of Venetian painting? In what ways did paintings reflect the social, political and religious values of Venice at the time?

To find out, register at thomasmore.qc.ca or follow the link in our bio.
https://courses.thomasmore.qc.ca/product/who-paid-for-the-art-patronage-in-renaissance-venice/

Day: Wednesdays
Time: 1:30 to 3:30 PM
Location: 3405 Atwater, Montreal
First session: November 4 2026
Course length: 4 weeks

Venetian art in the late 15th century and well into the 16th century represents a golden age of painting. Pictures by Bellini, Giorgione, Carpaccio, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and scores of others define the era and separate Venice from the Renaissance in other Italian cities. The paintings we no...

07/27/2026

👩‍🎨 Venetian art in the late 15th century and well into the 16th century signifies a golden age of painting. Pictures by Bellini, Giorgione, Carpaccio, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and scores of others define the era and separate Venice from the Renaissance in other Italian cities. But the paintings we now see in museums or churches were commissioned from the artist. Commercial art dealers and exhibitions were a thing of the future.

In this art history lecture course, we will look at the four main patrons of Renaissance art in Venice and their commissions: the Venetian Republic government, the Catholic church and the clergy, the various secular confraternities, and lastly, private or unknown individual Venetians. We will ask questions such as the following: How did the motivations of art patrons influence the subjects and symbolism of Venetian painting? In what ways did paintings reflect the social, political and religious values of Venice at the time?

To find out, register at thomasmore.qc.ca or follow the link in our bio.
https://courses.thomasmore.qc.ca/product/who-paid-for-the-art-patronage-in-renaissance-venice/

Day: Wednesdays
Time: 1:30 to 3:30 PM
Location: 3405 Atwater, Montreal
First session: November 4 2026
Course length: 4 weeks

07/27/2026

🇹🇷 A rising middle power, Türkiye plays a delicate game between East and West. Seen by some as imperialist due to its involvement in Syria, Libya, and even sub-Saharan Africa, the country continues to assert its regional and global ambitions. How should Türkiye’s foreign policy be interpreted—strategic necessity, regional leadership, or expansionism? What opportunities and risks come from its position between East and West? What direction might Türkiye take in the future?

After a turbulent and unstable period characterized by the interference of the military, Türkiye eventually achieved significant economic progress in recent decades under the rule of the controversial Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. How has the role of the military evolved over time, and what impact has it had on democratic development and economic growth?

In this discussion-based history course, we will survey the history of the modern Republic of Türkiye, also known as Turkey. Türkiye We will ask ourselves various questions, beginning with the following: How did this dramatic decline and collapse of the Ottoman Empire—a once formidable empire extending from Algeria to Iraq and from Hungary to Sudan—shape the foundations of modern Türkiye?

To learn more, register at thomasmore.qc.ca or follow the link in our bio.
https://courses.thomasmore.qc.ca/product/turkiye-an-empire-reborn/

Day: Thursdays
Time: 1:30 to 3:30 PM
Location: 3405 Atwater, Montreal and Zoom
First session: September 17 2026
Course length: 12 weeks
Degree credit: 3 credits (Optional)

07/23/2026

📝 Have you been wanting to try your hand at writing a memoir? An especially good one?
There are memoirs which provide us with interesting details about the author’s life, and there are those that do much more. These are the memoirs which draw us in with their precise words, their evocative metaphors, and their intriguing narratives.

The author’s distinctive voice rings true, at times as familiar as an old friend, at times extraordinary and exciting. These works of literature live with us long after we finish the last page. What elevates a personal story to something greater than a series of facts? How can memoirs educate, entertain, inspire, and promote empathy? And how can we learn to write in this way?

In this writing course, we will look at literary memoirs, memoirs which are works of art as much as they are personal stories. We will notice how sentences, paragraphs, and storylines come alive when crafted with care and expertise. We will observe what experienced writers bring to the page when they turn their attention and artistry to their own story. Using We are the Words by Beth Kephart as a guide, we will examine the craft of writing, different writing forms, what it means to become a self-aware writer, and what the writing life involves.

Register today!
https://courses.thomasmore.qc.ca/product/writing-life-the-craft-of-memoir/

Day: Mondays
Time: 6:15 to 8:15 PM
Location: 3405 Atwater, Montreal
First session: September 14 2026
Course length: 12 weeks
Degree credit: 3 credits (Optional)

There are memoirs that provide us with interesting details about the author’s life, and there are those that do much more. These are the memoirs that draw us in with their precisely chosen words, their evocative metaphors, and their intriguing narratives. The author’s distinctive voice rings tru...

07/23/2026

“Grief is as much a fundamental part of being human and developing as a human being as love is.” — Loss, Grief, and Existential Awareness by Mai-Britt Guldin and Carlo Leget

Loss comes in many forms. We can lose keys, games, jobs, homes, relationships, independence, pets, youth, mobility, potential, loved ones, innocence, and more. During our lives, we all encounter loss and be visited by its close companion, grief. In this discussion-based social science and theology course, we will explore the nature of loss in a broad sense and pursue a holistic understanding of this universal human experience.

What impact does loss have on us? How is it related to grief? Why are we so often reluctant to admit or face loss? Can we ever “get over” loss? What can we learn from experiencing it? Readings will include insights from psychologists and scholars, a brief look at cultural and religious traditions, and personal accounts of those who have navigated loss. Our guiding text will be Loss, Grief, and Existential Awareness, which addresses the physical, emotional, cognitive, social, and spiritual dimensions of loss and grief. Participants will be invited to consider how we might journey through life’s inevitable losses in a meaningful way.

To learn more, register at thomasmore.qc.ca or follow the link in our bio.

https://courses.thomasmore.qc.ca/product/the-universal-experience-of-loss/

Day: Wednesdays
Time: 6:15 to 8:15 PM
Location: 3405 Atwater, Montreal
First session: September 16 2026
Course length: 12 weeks
Degree credit: 3 credits (Optional)

07/23/2026

🎼 🎶 The birth of the modern American music industry can be traced back to “Tin Pan Alley”, an iconic group of New York music songwriters and publishers that set up shop on West 28th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in the Flower District of Manhattan. Between 1885 to 1930, thousands of songs were published every year as the publishing industry moved en masse to New York City.

In this music history lecture course featuring recordings and live song performances by the instructor, we will explore this fascinating era of American music, the styles of music that emerged, and the composers, lyricists, and performers who came to represent this flowering of original American music.

We will discuss the Tin Pan Alley ethic: a drive for popularity above all else, and a focus on melody and lyrics and ephemeral popularity. We will consider the effect of incentivizing composers and lyricists to explore a wealth of subjects and genres—from ragtime to jazz and blues—in popular songs. As well as the guerilla-style marketing of the time, including the first use of images to make people want to hear a song they had never heard—and how every possible method was exhausted to reach the ultimate goal: selling sheet music.

That is, until the growth of recorded music rendered sheet music a thing of the past. 🎹🎷

To learn more, register at thomasmore.qc.ca or follow the link in our bio.

https://courses.thomasmore.qc.ca/product/tin-pan-alley-the-birth-of-the-modern-music-industry/

Day: Tuesdays
Time: 1:30 to 3:30 PM
Location: 3405 Atwater, Montreal
First session: September 15 2026
Course length: 5 weeks

07/20/2026

🎬 🎥 When Alfred Hitchcock adapts a work, is he primarily interpreting the source material or asserting authorial control over it? In what ways is an adaptation an “original” text? How do cinematic conventions shape how narratives are transferred and expressed? In other words, how do cinematic adaptations express point of view, interiority, ambiguity, irony, and symbolism? How do issues of censorship, audience expectation, and studio production shape the final film?

Join us in this discussion-based film and literature course as we turn the page and tighten the noose by exploring several of Alfred Hitchcock’s masterful cinematic adaptations. Focusing on films such as The Lady Vanishes, Rebecca, Spellbound, Strangers on a Train, Vertigo, and The Birds, we will examine how Hitchcock transformed literary and artistic sources into cinematic experiences by comparing textual and visual storytelling techniques.

To learn more, register at thomasmore.qc.ca or follow the link in our bio.
https://courses.thomasmore.qc.ca/product/spellbound-by-story-hitchcock-and-his-sources/

Day: Wednesdays
Time: 6:15 to 8:15 PM
Location: 3405 Atwater, Montreal/Zoom
First session: September 16 2026
Course length: 12 weeks
Degree credit: 3 credits (Optional)

07/20/2026

🎼🎻This course on opera will be held in conjunction with the HD simulcast from New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Starting in the fall, we will enjoy eight operas, including works such as Mozart's Così fan tutte, Verdi's Macbeth and Puccini's La Fanciulla del West. This course will take place at the Thomas More Institute for listening and discussion in preparation for the operas shown, and at the Cineplex of your choice where the Met Opera HD is simulcast.

To join, register at thomasmore.qc.ca or follow the link in our bio.

https://courses.thomasmore.qc.ca/product/saturday-afternoons-at-the-opera-2/

Day: Saturdays
Time: 1:30 to 3:30 PM
Location: 3405 Atwater, Montreal
First session: September 26 2026
Course length: 5 weeks
Degree credit: 0 credits