Finding Solace in Dark Times

Consolation is the process by which we face disappointment, despair and loss and manage to find the hope and meaning we need in order to go on. Our times are dark, but they are not hopeless. Writer and historian Michael Ignatieff looks back at the ways we have found hope and meaning in the past and how we might find it, for ourselves and for our communities, in the future. For his most recent book On Consolation: Finding Solace in Dark Times (2021), Ignatieff made a personal choice from literature, art and music that have brought him comfort in his life. And he wondered: what does that really mean, finding comfort?

Michael Ignatieff is a university professor, writer and former politician. Between 2006 and 2011, Ignatieff 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. Until recently he was the Rector and President of Central European University in Budapest. He stepped down at the end of July 2021, to stay as a Professor in the History Department.

After the lecture, you can buy Ignatieff's book On Consolation at the Van der Velde book stand.

In collaboration with Centre Religion, Health and Wellbeing.