Vol. 39, No.3, July 2010
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Welcome To Montréal
Bienvenue à Montréal! Founded on an island in the St. Lawrence River in 1642 by Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve, Montréal is one of Canada’s oldest cities. With a metropolitan-area population of more than 3.5 million, Montréal is the largest city in Québec, and the second-largest in Canada. It is also the Western hemisphere’s largest French-speaking city. Montréal is an academic city, with four large public universities—two that teach in French (the Université de Montréal and the Université du Québec à Montréal, UQAM), and two in English (McGill University and Concordia University). With nearly a quarter of a million enrolled in post-secondary education, Montréal has a student population to rival that of Boston.
Quick Links....
Welcome To Montréal
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Notes from the Inside
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From the HSS President
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News
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Member News
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Haskins Lecture
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“Lamarck at the Zoo”
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UTeach
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Lone Star
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Digital
Collections
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A Sampling of . . .
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Humanities Advocacy Day
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Humanities Enjoy Strong Student Demand
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Childcare Cooperative -
HSS Annual Meeting 2010
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HSS Annual Meeting 2010 Preliminary Program PDF
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University of Vienna
Announces Position
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Jobs, Conferences, Grants
Guidebooks to Montréal often describe it as one of the most “European” of North American cities. This may have something to do with its compact grid of walkable Victorian streets, but it is largely to do with the city’s unique linguistic and cultural heritage. Montréal has long been known as a place to embrace the good life. It has one of the most exciting restaurant scenes in North America, with a wide variety of cuisines and price ranges represented. The city has long boasted a thriving arts scene, too, with outdoor music festivals in the summer (the Jazz Festival being the most well-known), a strong theatre scene (especially in French), as well as the opera company, the symphony orchestra, a vibrant independent music scene, and—last but by no means least—the Cirque du Soleil.
One of the most pedestrian-friendly cities in North America, downtown Montréal is easily navigable by foot. Bring a coat and an umbrella, though, since the average high in early November is around 40 F (4.5 C). If it rains, visitors can take cover in the Underground City (RÉSO), a large system of tunnels connecting the shopping malls and subway stations below the city center. The métro (subway) and bus system is efficient and extended, and will allow HSS and PSA guests to explore the different neighborhoods of the city. Weather permitting, visitors could take a leisurely walk up Mount Royal, or take a tour of some of the city’s architecture, which spans three centuries of history, from the neo-Gothic basilica of Our Lady in the Old Port, via the downtown modernism of I. M. Pei (Place Ville-Marie) and Mies van der Rohe (Westmount Square), to Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome built for the Exposition Universelle of 1967 (now the “Biodome”), on Ile Ste-Hélène.
The conference hotel, the Hyatt Regency Montreal, is located at the heart of downtown, in an area the city is redeveloping and rebranding as the Quartier des Spectacles. This area centers on the Place des Arts complex (where the city’s opera and symphony orchestra have their homes) and the Museum of Contemporary Art, right across the street from the hotel. New restaurants and cultural venues are being opened up this summer, which will be featured in the guide to restaurants that will be posted in the early fall. The city has a range of museums (fine arts, modern art, archaeology, local history), but of particular interest to HSS and PSA guests will be the Stewart Museum on ile Ste-Hélène (for early modern scientific instruments); the Redpath Museum on McGill’s main campus (for history of natural history); the Centre des Sciences in the Old Port; and the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), which we hope will serve as host for the HSS’s off-site reception on the Friday evening. Full details will follow.
If this is your first time in Montréal, we hope you will enjoy the city as we do. For those who have already visited Montréal, we know why you are coming back! Enjoy your stay. Bonne conférence.
Margaret Carlyle, Jean-François Gauvin, and Nicholas Dew (Margaret Carlyle is a doctoral candidate, Jean-François Gauvin is a Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow, and Nicholas Dew is an associate professor, all three in the department of history at McGill University, in Montréal.)