The Massey Lectures is an annual five-part series of

lectures A lecture (from Latin ''lēctūra'' “reading” ) is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to convey critical infor ...

given in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

by distinguished writers, thinkers and scholars who explore important ideas and issues of contemporary interest. Created in 1961 in honour of

Vincent Massey Charles Vincent Massey (February 20, 1887December 30, 1967) was a Canadian lawyer and diplomat who served as Governor General of Canada, the 18th since Confederation. Massey was the first governor general of Canada who was born in Canada afte ...

, the former

Governor General of Canada The governor general of Canada (french: gouverneure générale du Canada) is the federal viceregal representative of the . The is head of state of Canada and the 14 other Commonwealth realms, but resides in oldest and most populous realm, ...

, it is widely regarded as one of the most acclaimed lecture series in the country. Some of the most notable Massey Lecturers have included

Northrop Frye Herman Northrop Frye (July 14, 1912 – January 23, 1991) was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century. Frye gained international fame with his first book, '' Fearful Symm ...

John Kenneth Galbraith John Kenneth Galbraith (October 15, 1908 – April 29, 2006), also known as Ken Galbraith, was a Canadian-American economist, diplomat, public official, and intellectual. His books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through t ...

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...

, Jean Vanier,

Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, ...

, Ursula Franklin,

George Steiner Francis George Steiner, FBA (April 23, 1929 – February 3, 2020) was a Franco-American literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist, and educator. He wrote extensively about the relationship between language, literature and society, and the ...

Claude Levi Strauss Claude may refer to: __NOTOC__ People and fictional characters * Claude (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Claude (surname), a list of people * Claude Lorrain (c. 1600–1682), French landscape painter, draughtsman and etcher ...

, and Nobel laureates Martin Luther King Jr.,

George Wald George Wald (November 18, 1906 – April 12, 1997) was an American scientist who studied pigments in the retina. He won a share of the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Haldan Keffer Hartline and Ragnar Granit. In 1970, Wald pr ...

Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ge ...

and Doris Lessing. In 2003, novelist Thomas King was the first person of Cherokee descent to be invited as a lecturer.

Sponsorship

The event is co-sponsored by

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

House of Anansi Press House of Anansi Press is a Canadian publishing company, founded in 1967 by writers Dennis Lee and Dave Godfrey. The company specializes in finding and developing new Canadian writers of literary fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. History Anansi ...

and

Massey College Massey College is a graduate residential college at the University of Toronto that was established, built and partially endowed in 1962 by the Massey Foundation and officially opened in 1963, though women were not admitted until 1974. It was mo ...

in the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institu ...

. The lectures have been broadcast by the

show '' Ideas'' since 1965. Prior to 1989, the lectures were recorded for broadcast in a CBC Radio studio in Toronto. From 1989 to 2002, the lectures were delivered before a live audience at the University of Toronto. Since 2002, the lectures have been presented and recorded for broadcast at public events in five different cities across Canada. The lectures are broadcast each November on ''Ideas'' and published simultaneously in book form by House of Anansi Press. Many of the lectures can be listened to online on the Ideas website, while others can be purchased on various sites. In addition to the print version for each individual year, several of the earlier lectures are available in compilations, including The Lost Massey Lectures.

Massey lecturers

*1961 –

Barbara Ward Barbara Mary Ward, Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth, (23 May 1914 – 31 May 1981) was a British economist and writer interested in the problems of developing countries. She urged Western governments to share their prosperity with the rest of th ...

, ''The Rich Nations and the Poor Nations'' *1962 –

, ''The Educated Imagination'' *1963 – Frank Underhill, ''The Image of Confederation'' *1964 – C. B. Macpherson, ''The Real World of Democracy'' *1965 –

, ''The Underdeveloped Country'' *1966 –

Paul Goodman Paul Goodman (1911–1972) was an American writer and public intellectual best known for his 1960s works of social criticism. Goodman was prolific across numerous literary genres and non-fiction topics, including the arts, civil rights, dece ...

, '' The Moral Ambiguity of America'' *1967 – Martin Luther King Jr., '' Conscience for Change'' *1968 – R. D. Laing, ''The Politics of the Family'' *1969 – George Grant, ''Time as History'' *1970 –

, ''Therefore Choose Life'' *1971 – James Corry, ''The Power of the Law'' *1972 – Pierre Dansereau, '' Inscape and Landscape'' *1973 –

Stafford Beer Anthony Stafford Beer (25 September 1926 – 23 August 2002) was a British theorist, consultant and professor at the Manchester Business School. He is best known for his work in the fields of operational research and management cybernetics. ...

, ''Designing Freedom'' *1974 –

, ''Nostalgia for the Absolute'' *1975 – J. Tuzo Wilson, ''Limits to Science'' *1976 – No Lecture *1977 –

Claude Lévi-Strauss Claude Lévi-Strauss (, ; 28 November 1908 – 30 October 2009) was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair of Social Anthro ...

, ''Myth and Meaning'' *1978 – Leslie Fiedler, ''The Inadvertent Epic'' *1979 –

Jane Jacobs Jane Jacobs (''née'' Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book '' The Death and Life of Great American Cities' ...

, ''Canadian Cities and Sovereignty Association'' *1980 – No Lecture *1981 –

, ''Dangers and Options: The Matter of World Survival'' *1982 – Robert Jay Lifton, ''Indefensible Weapons'' *1983 –

Eric Kierans Eric William Kierans (February 2, 1914 – May 10, 2004) was a Canadian economist and politician. Early life Born in Montreal, Kierans grew up in the working-class Saint-Henri neighbourhood. His father worked at Canadian Car and Foundry, and ...

, ''Globalism and the Nation State'' *1984 –

Carlos Fuentes Carlos Fuentes Macías (; ; November 11, 1928 – May 15, 2012) was a Mexican novelist and essayist. Among his works are '' The Death of Artemio Cruz'' (1962), ''Aura'' (1962), '' Terra Nostra'' (1975), '' The Old Gringo'' (1985) and '' Christop ...

, ''Latin America: At War with the Past'' *1985 – Doris Lessing, ''

Prisons We Choose to Live Inside ''Prisons We Choose to Live Inside'' is a collection of five essays by the British writer Doris Lessing, which were previously delivered as the 1985 Massey Lectures The Massey Lectures is an annual five-part series of lectures given in Canada ...

'' *1986 – No Lecture *1987 – Gregory Baum, ''Compassion and Solidarity: The Church for Others'' *1988 –

, '' Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies'' *1989 – Ursula Franklin, ''The Real World of Technology'' *1990 –

Richard Lewontin Richard Charles Lewontin (March 29, 1929 – July 4, 2021) was an American evolutionary biologist, mathematician, geneticist, and social commentator. A leader in developing the mathematical basis of population genetics and evolutionary theory, ...

, ''Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA'' *1991 – Charles Taylor, ''The Malaise of Modernity'' *1992 –

Robert Heilbroner Robert L. Heilbroner (March 24, 1919 – January 4, 2005) was an American economist and historian of economic thought. The author of some 20 books, Heilbroner was best known for ''The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great ...

, ''Twenty-First Century Capitalism'' *1993 –

Jean Bethke Elshtain Jean Paulette Bethke Elshtain (1941–2013) was an American ethicist, political philosopher, and public intellectual. She was the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics in the University of Chicago Divinity School ...

, ''Democracy on Trial'' *1994 –

Conor Cruise O'Brien Donal Conor David Dermot Donat Cruise O'Brien (3 November 1917 – 18 December 2008), often nicknamed "The Cruiser", was an Irish diplomat, politician, writer, historian and academic, who served as Minister for Posts and Telegraphs from 1973 ...

, ''On the Eve of the Millennium'' *1995 –

John Ralston Saul John Ralston Saul (born June 19, 1947) is a Canadian writer, political philosopher, and public intellectual. Saul is most widely known for his writings on the nature of individualism, citizenship and the public good; the failures of manager-l ...

, ''The Unconscious Civilization'' * 1996 – No Lecture (see Notes below) * 1997 –

Hugh Kenner William Hugh Kenner (January 7, 1923 – November 24, 2003) was a Canadian literary scholar, critic and professor. He published widely on Modernist literature with particular emphasis on James Joyce, Ezra Pound, and Samuel Beckett. His major ...

, ''The Elsewhere Community'' * 1998 – Jean Vanier, ''Becoming Human'' * 1999 – Robert Fulford, ''The Triumph of Narrative'' * 2000 –

Michael Ignatieff Michael Grant Ignatieff (; born May 12, 1947) is a Canadian author, academic and former politician who served as the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011. Known for his work as a histo ...

, ''The Rights Revolution'' * 2001 –

Janice Stein Janice Gross Stein (born 1943) is a Canadian political scientist and international relations expert. Stein is a specialist in Middle East area studies; negotiation theory; foreign policy decision-making; and international conflict management. S ...

, ''The Cult of Efficiency'' * 2002 –

Margaret Visser Margaret Visser (born May 11, 1940) is a writer and broadcaster who lives in Toronto, Paris, and South West France. Her subject matter is the history, anthropology, and mythology of everyday life. Biography Born in South Africa, she attended scho ...

, ''Beyond Fate'' * 2003 – Thomas King, ''The Truth About Stories'' * 2004 –

Ronald Wright Ronald Wright (born 1948, London, England) is a Canadian author who has written books of travel, history and fiction. His nonfiction includes the bestseller ''Stolen Continents'', winner of the Gordon Montador Award and chosen as a book of the ...

, ''

A Short History of Progress A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

'' * 2005 –

Stephen Lewis Stephen Henry Lewis (born November 11, 1937) is a Canadian politician, public speaker, broadcaster, and diplomat. He was the leader of the social democratic Ontario New Democratic Party for most of the 1970s. During many of those years as lead ...

, '' Race Against Time: Searching for Hope in AIDS-Ravaged Africa'' * 2006 – Margaret Somerville, ''The Ethical Imagination'' * 2007 –

Alberto Manguel Alberto Manguel (born March 13, 1948, in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine-Canadian anthologist, translator, essayist, novelist, editor, and a former Director of the National Library of Argentina. He is the author of numerous non-fiction books such ...

, ''The City of Words'' * 2008 –

, '' Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth'' * 2009 – Wade Davis, ''The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World'' * 2010 –

Douglas Coupland Douglas Coupland (born 30 December 1961) is a Canadian novelist, designer, and visual artist. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller '' Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture'', popularized the terms ''Generation X'' and '' Mc ...

, '' Player One: What is to Become of Us'' * 2011 –

Adam Gopnik Adam Gopnik (born August 24, 1956) is an American writer and essayist. He is best known as a staff writer for ''The New Yorker,'' to which he has contributed non-fiction, fiction, memoir, and criticism since 1986. He is the author of nine books ...

, '' Winter: Five Windows on the Season'' * 2012 – Neil Turok, ''The Universe Within: From Quantum to Cosmos'' * 2013 – Lawrence Hill, ''Blood: The Stuff of Life'' * 2014 –

Adrienne Clarkson Adrienne Louise Clarkson (; ; born February 10, 1939) is a Hong Kong-born Canadian journalist who served from 1999 to 2005 as Governor General of Canada, the 26th since Canadian Confederation. Clarkson arrived in Canada with her family in 19 ...

, ''Belonging: The Paradox of Citizenship'' * 2015 –

Margaret MacMillan Margaret Olwen MacMillan, (born 1943) is a Canadian historian and professor at the University of Oxford. She is former provost of Trinity College, Toronto, and professor of history at the University of Toronto and previously at Ryerson Unive ...

, ''History's People: Personalities and the Past'' * 2016 –

Jennifer Welsh Jennifer Welsh is a Canadian writer, consultant, and professor, specializing in the field of international relations. Welsh has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Economics from the University of Saskatchewan (1987). Welsh was named a Rh ...

, ''The Return of History: Conflict, Migration and Geopolitics in the Twenty-First Century'' * 2017 –

Payam Akhavan Payam Akhavan (Persian language, Persian: پیام اخوان) is an Iranian-born lawyer. He is a Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. He is a senior fellow at Massey College, Toronto, Massey College at the University o ...

, ''In Search of a Better World: A Human Rights Odyssey'' * 2018 – Tanya Talaga, '' All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward'' *2019 – Sally Armstrong, ''Power Shift: The Longest Revolution'' *2020 – Ronald J. Deibert, ''Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society'' (shortlisted for the 2020 Donner Prize) *2021 – Esi Edugyan, ''Out of the Sun: On Art, Race and the Future'' *2022 –

Tomson Highway Tomson Highway (born 6 December 1951) is an Indigenous Canadian playwright, novelist, and children's author. He is best known for his plays '' The Rez Sisters'' and ''Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing'', both of which won the Dora Mavor Mo ...

, ''Laughing with the Trickster: On Sex, Death and Accordions''

Notes

For Lawrence Hill's Massey Lectures in 2013, the CBC Radio website featured a visual narrative to accompany that year's theme ''Blood: The Stuff of Life''. The story included full-screen images of blood, animations that visually demonstrated historical attitudes towards blood and videos of people affected culturally by it. 1996 did not feature a lecture because ''Ideas'' producers and the selected Lecturer

Robert Theobald Robert Theobald (June 11, 1929 – November 27, 1999) was an American private consulting economist and futurist author. In economics, he was best known for his writings on the economics of abundance and his advocacy of a Basic Income Guarantee ...

could not agree on an appropriate

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced ...

for the programme. The theme was to have been on the future of work. Theobald later published his manuscript as ''Reworking Success: New Communities at the Millennium'' (1997).

References

External links

CBC Ideas siteCBC Massey Lectures Archive
{{CBC Radio Programs (current and upcoming) 1961 establishments in Ontario CBC Radio One programs Canadian talk radio programs University of Toronto Lecture series