In this panel, diaspora is examined as a global and digital concept, both in the past and present. One researcher undertakes a critical examination of the diaspora concept as it relates to ancient Mexican migrations, dissecting the complex movements of ancient Mexican societies and juxtaposing them with traditional diaspora attributes helping to foster a more […]
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Fictionalized film and television representations of displacement and diaspora can be powerful tools in contextualizing the stories of its subjects. 1923, the recent Paramount+ television series prequel to the immensely popular Yellowstone, attempts to reterritorialize the “deterritorialized” confederated tribes of Broken Rock in Montana that epitomize the plight of Indigenous communities across North America. Iranian […]
Fostering identity in the diaspora can be challenging and even confusing as assimilative forces often contradict the sense of belonging that displaced peoples feel for their communities. This panel tackles this issue through looking at the experiences of three different immigrant groups: professional Nigerian women in the United Kingdom, Assyrian youth across Canada, and Filipino […]
Geographic borders are a product of the colonial imaginary. Yet the act of crossing them can cause long-lasting ruptures in our identities, families, and communities. How do diasporic Canadian writers address the links between migration, displacement, trauma, and mental health? How does their work engage with language and its stumbling blocks? What experiences have they […]
Similarities and differences across various diaspora communities in Canada in general and Toronto in particular will be uncovered through the examination of three distinct groups. Assimilation, connectedness and belonging are themes revealed through an exploration of Toronto’s Ukranian/Russian Jewish community and Canada’s expansive Lebanese diaspora. Also, an analysis of sustainability initiatives in Toronto’s largely racialized […]
Through the study of the Sakhi Project, a community-building initiative in India, an examination of M.G. Vassanji’s and Abdulrazak Gurnah’s novels about East-Africa and the Indian Ocean diaspora, and an analysis of Farida Khalaf’s memoir about a displaced girl’s escape from ISIS, this panel will look at the reclamation and making of identity in various […]
This panel will take three distinct approaches to examine the intersection of nationalist mythmaking, imperialism and violence. Moving between the United States, India, and Pakistan, one presentation will look at the polarization of American culture, exploring the role of American mythmaking in creating a shared culture, values and imagination, and how that myth of unity […]
Exploring displacement in three distinct parts of the world, this panel makes the specific and personal universal. One panelist will present a study dedicated to uncovering the driving forces that push Sub-Saharan African migrants to choose dangerous, off-the-beaten-path routes, particularly in Morocco. Another examines the predicament of crime displacement in Nigeria, and its harmful consequences, […]
This plenary will focus on two art projects, both of which operate within a transnational framework. Through engagement with material culture, archival documents, and family photographs, Angela Aujla’s artistic practice creates a visual discourse that disrupts colonial narratives and reanimates the lives of those excluded from dominant histories. Dr. Prasad Bidaye is a member of […]
Billy-Ray Belcourt is a writer and academic from the Driftpile Cree Nation. He is an Assistant Professor in the School of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of four books: This Wound is a World, NDN Coping Mechanisms: Notes from the Field, A History of My Brief Body, and […]
