The Ottawa Society for the Arts and Science is delighted to announce that its 2026-2027 season has been expanded and will once again be co-sponsored with the Carleton University Association for Lifelong Learning (CUALL https://www.cuall.ca/). Please see the following for details on confirmed events and check back for further information on lectures not already listed.
Please contact Gail Larose at glarose0@gmail.com for Zoom link details.
COMING IN FALL 2026
The OSFAS Ottawa Interviews: lives of distinguished Ottawans
Ottawa as the National Capital of Canada has many well-known institutions, be they political, scientific or cultural, such as the Canada Council, The National Research Council, the National. Library and Archives, as well as the National Gallery and museums of many sorts.
We of course can easily learn the names of the leaders of these institutions as well as those who command the airwaves of mass media in a society besotted by stars of popular culture.
Less well-known are many brilliant people who do not court the limelight or seek celebrity status, but are philosophers and social scientists, writers and artists, biologists and chemists, physicists and medical researchers, fascinating people with interesting lives to tell, distinguished in their own field without being household names. In The OSFAS Ottawa Interviews we hope to shed some new light on these distinguished Ottawans.
The OSFAS Ottawa Interviews I
Please contact Gail Larose at glarose0@gmail.com to requst the Zoom link.
Wednesday, September 16, 2026
7 pm ET
Douglas Moggach interviewed by Josh Beer
This season, its 15th, OSFAS is introducing a new type of presentation in which distinguished Ottawans, eminent leaders in their fields but not necessarily known to a wider public, will be interviewed about their lives. We begin on Wednesday, September 16, 2026 with a rare treat.
Dr. Douglas Moggach is one of the world’s preeminent political philosophers. You should not think, however, that he is just an ivory tower academic. Witty and charming, he is the perfect dinner companion. His laughter can be infectious. Douglas Moggach’s latest passion is for the great early Renaissance humanist Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375). Boccaccio’s racy tales The Decameron are set against the background of the Black Death. Sex has always been a good seller.
After degrees from Toronto and Princeton, Douglas’s teaching and writing have been accorded many academic accolades by universities from Ottawa to Cambridge and London in the UK, to Pisa in Italy and Sydney, Australia. He can lecture in several modern languages, although he used English in China. Moreover, when he became a lifelong visiting fellow of St Catharine’s College Cambridge, one fellow remarked that his induction speech was the best pronunciation of the classical Latin text he had ever heard. His latest honour was to be appointed a member of the Royal Society of Canada,
Born in Hamilton, Ont., of a Sicilian mother and Scottish father, Douglas Moggach’s life is a fascinating tale. He can almost be forgiven for learning to play the bagpipes in retirement.
Dr. Jill Vickers
via Zoom – Please contact Gail Larose at glarose0@gmail.com for Zoom link details.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
7 pm ET
Refugee Resettlement & Sponsorship in Canada & Ottawa.
The lecture will explore refugee resettlement and sponsorship in Canada and Ottawa in four periods. It draws both on the existing literature and insights from my participation in small groups of ordinary citizens sponsoring and resettling refugees in Ottawa.
In the first period of refugee resettlement, from the American revolution to Confederation (1776-1867), Britain transported between 30,000 and 40,000 ‘Loyalists’ to its four North American colonies. Six waves of refugees followed.
In a second period (1867- 1951), the newly minted Canada gained greater control over refugee resettlement. It resettled multiple waves of refugees, including 18,000 Jewish refugees fleeing violence and oppression in Germany and The Pale (1870- 1914). But subsequently Jewsih refugees were excluded. However, 400,000 Ukrainians fleeing violent struggles for independence from the USSR were resettled.
In the third period (1951-1977), the Canadian government resettled multiple waves of refugees. Between 1945 & 1959, the allies struggled to resettle millions of displaced persons (DPs) from a devastated Europe. The UN defined refugee status, which became embedded in international law and governed the treatment of refugees.
A fourth period (1978-2025) began with passage of the Private Refugee Sponsorship Act (1978), which lets ordinary Canadians sponsor and resettle refugees. From 1978 to 2019, private citizens sponsored and resettled 327,000 refugees, including over half of Canada’s 60,000 ‘Boat People’ and over half the 62,000 Syrian refugees. With over two million ordinary citizens involved, many Canadians have a personal stake in refugee sponsorship. However, not all refugees receive the same treatment so the lecture explores why Somali refugees were treated differently.
The lecture concludes by overviewing changes in refugee resettlement policy initiated by the Carney government in 2025 and briefly assesses Canada’s resettlement history in a global context.
Jill Vickers’s scholarship mapped new cutting-edge research in Political Science, Women’s Studies and Canadian Studies, resulting in her election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. With a PhD from the London School of Economics, she taught in all three fields at Carleton University focusing on how gender, race and nation interact with politics. The significance of her work in introducing a feminist perspective into Political Science was shown by the establishing of the Jill Vickers prize in gender and politics by the Canadian Political Science Association. She also received the Life-Long Achievement award from the American Political Science Association and the Distinguished Scholar Award from the International Association of Political Science. Since retiring as Emeritus Chancellor’s Professor, she developed the new gender and federalism subfield co-editing two special issues of Publius: the Journal of Federalism and two international volumes.
Dr. Peter Fried
In person in Room 12 of the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre
Paid parking ($5 flat fee after 6pm) and the CDCC main entrance are located at 290 Lisgar Street.
Wednesday, November 19, 2026
7 pm ET
Does your brain have a CEO?
Do you ever wonder why you strike your forehead with your hand when you have an idea or make a mistake? Perhaps, subconsciously, you are aware that it is the region of the brain – the prefrontal area, lying behind that part of the skull that is responsible for your insight. In his talk, Dr. Fried will make the argument (including audience participation) that this area of the brain operates very much like the CEO of a company in that it, among other roles, chooses among conflicting decisions, predicts future consequences of actions, works towards a defined goal and integrates past and present information. In other words, the prefrontal lobes allow us to respond, not simply react. In fact, it is that part of our brain that is the essence of our humanity. Intriguingly, frontal lobe development continues right up until young adulthood, and, as a result, behaviors that are ascribed to this part of the brain, are absent in young children and limited in teenagers. Dr. Fried will discuss the ramifications of this prolonged maturation – even its role in the consideration of the age of legalization of marihuana.
Peter Fried joined the Department of Psychology at Carleton University in 1968 and became Full Professor in 1979. He retired in July 2006. For over 45 years he has studied the effects of marijuana on pregnancy, assessing such brain functioning as cognition, perception and problem solving in the offspring of cannabis users from birth until young adulthood. This research has yielded a wealth of information that has formed the basis of several books, over 200 scientific articles and hundreds of talks. In retirement Dr. Fried has continued to pursue his lifelong passion of research and teaching. He has received several awards for both his instructive and entertaining style of teaching and his scientific investigations. He continues to speak on brain functioning to various professional and non-professional organizations.
Josh Beer and Gail Larose
via Zoom – Please contact Gail Larose at glarose0@gmail.com for Zoom link details.
Wednesday, December 16, 2026
7 pm ET
A Reading of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is one of Charles Dickens’s most famous works. The story follows Ebenezer Scrooge, a cold-hearted and greedy old man who is visited on Christmas Eve by the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley. Marley warns that Scrooge will be haunted by three spirits representing Christmas past, present, and yet to come. As they guide Scrooge through incidents from his life, they show the importance of kindness and generosity.
Never out of print since its publication on December 19, 1834, A Christmas Carol became one of Dickens most popular stories. In 1849 he undertook public readings of the novella of which he gave hundreds in the UK, the US and Canada until his death in 1870.
This reading is an abridged version of Dickens’ own “prompt-copy” published in 1853.
Josh Beer is an adjunct professor at Carleton University, after having taught there for 50 years. On his retirement he founded and is currently a co-chair of OSFAS. His book Sophocles and the Tragedy of Athenian Democracy was published in 2004. For the past three years he has written articles on tragedy for a more general audience in the magazine Argo, published by the Hellenic Society in the UK. These have included ‘A Pot of Surprises’ and ‘Plagued by Love’. For over twelve years, he directed students of the College of Humanities in dramatic readings of Greek tragedy which were highly praised, not least by His Excellency Eleftherios Anghelopoulos, the former Greek Ambassador to Canada.
Gail Larose holds a B.A. and M.A. in French from Carleton University, was President of its Alumni Association in 1994 and a member of its Board of Governors for 11 years. Before embarking on a career in international academic relations, Gail spent a number of years in theatre and television, acting in mainly leading roles in the classics (Much Ado About Nothing, The Importance of Being Earnest) as well as contemporary drama (The Glass Menagerie, Crawling Arnold). She is currently a member of the advisory council of the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre and co-chairs OSFAS with Josh Beer.
Ottawa Society for the Arts and Sciences 