The round table will take place Tuesday, Sept. 7, from 6:30 to 8pm, at the Campbell Conference Facility in the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, 1 Devonshire Place in Toronto.

Two books will provide the jumping off point for the speakers – 91ÑÇÉ« English Professor Julia Creet, 91ÑÇÉ« humanities Professor and English Professor of the University of Bologna in Italy – as they tackle the issue of memory in a global setting.

The first book is the forthcoming , edited by Creet and Kitzmann of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

In addition to the panel discussion, the event is also the launch of Memory and Migration, which is expected out in September. This international collection of essays looks at the integral part memory plays in how individuals and societies construct identity. Memory is usually considered in the context of a stable, unchanging environment, but this collection explores the effects of immigration, forced expulsions, exile, banishment and war on individual and collective memory.

The second book is , edited by Lamberti and Vita Fortunati, also of the University of Bologna. Memories and Representations of War assesses how memories of the two World Wars have been readjusted each time in relation to the evolving international historical setting and through various mediators of memory, including cinema, literature, art and monuments. The essays help unveil a cultural panorama inhabited by contrasting memories and by divided memories and acknowledge the ethical need for a truly shared act of reconciliation.

Lamberti, who teaches American and Canadian literature, will discuss reconciliation during the round table, while Creet will talk about reconceptualizing cultural memory given the displacements and mobility of people in the 20th century. Kitzmann will present a specific case study on the expulsion of ethnic Germans after the Second World War and 91ÑÇÉ« architectural history and visual culture Professor of the Faculty of Fine Arts will act as moderator.

Creet is the producer and director of MUM, a documentary drawn from her mother’s memoirs, letters and poems, and which leads to Hungary where local memory reveals the story her mother tried to forget. (See YFile, May 6, 2008.) She also teaches memory studies and literary nonfiction at 91ÑÇÉ«.

Kitzmann has written widely on the impact of communications technology on the construction and practice of identity, electronic communities, and the influence of new media on narrative conventions. He is the author of and , and co-editor of .

Lamberti is the author of several books, including . She is currently completing the forthcoming volume, Marshall McLuhan’s Critical Writing: Probing the Literary Origins of Media Studies.

Hornstein is the co-editor of and . She is currently completing the forthcoming book, Losing Site: Architecture, Memory and Place. Hornstein is was the recipient of the 2008-2009 Walter L. Gordon Fellowship.

Anyone wishing to attend the round table should RSVP before Sept. 4 to 416-921-3802 ext. 221 or iictoronto@esteri.it. Admission to the event is free.

The round table is presented by the Italian Cultural Institute in Toronto in collaboration with the European Union Centre of Excellence at the Centre for European, Russian & Eurasian Studies at the University of Toronto, the University of Bologna and the at 91ÑÇÉ«, with the support of the European Union National Institutes for Culture.

For more information, visit the Web site.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91ÑÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Here, 91ÑÇÉ« humanities Professor , English Professor and PhD student Elena Basile offer an appreciation of Prof. Godard and her tireless work:

It is with great sadness that the Department of English at 91ÑÇÉ« announces the death of Professor Emerita Barbara Godard, a professor of English, French, social & political thought and women’s studies. A pillar of the 91ÑÇÉ« community and one of Canada’s pre-eminent literary scholars, Prof. Godard broadly influenced the fields of Canadian and Quebec studies, translation studies, feminist poetics, semiotics and cultural studies.

Right: Prof. Barbara Godard

She was a generous supervisor and mentor who trained and influenced a contemporary generation of cultural workers, including academics, writers and artists. The scope of her mentorship was fully recognized in 2002 when she became the recipient of teaching awards from 91ÑÇɫ’s Faculty of Graduate Studies and the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools. Prof. Godard retired from full-time teaching in 2008, but continued a full intellectual and pedagogical life until her sudden passing.

Prof. Godard was a prolific and influential intellectual. An extraordinarily sharp and encyclopedic thinker, Prof. Godard’s interests encompassed semiotics, translation, gender, textuality and the body, as well as archives, memorials, and the history and changing politics of cultural production. With a keen eye for detail and a unique capacity for breadth of vision, she catalyzed interdisciplinary connections among culture, language, gender, politics, poetics and meaning.

After completing her doctorate at the University of Bordeaux, Prof. Godard began teaching at 91ÑÇÉ« in 1971 as a visiting assistant professor and was hired into a tenure-track position in 1976. She published eight books, 80 book chapters and 115 articles and catalogue entries. She translated the major writers of Quebec feminism, including Nicole Brossard, Yolande Villemarie and Louky Bersianik. She also served as editor or on the editorial board of no less than 22 journals. She was a founding co-editor of the feminist literary periodical , a contributing editor of and , and the book review editor for Topia: A Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies. She also made long-standing contributions to , s and ECW among others.

Prof. Godard was committed to and passionate about her graduate students across the Departments of English, French Studies, Film and Visual Arts, the School of Women’s Studies and the Program in Social & Political Thought, supervising over 35 PhD candidates. She built bridges between people and modes of inquiry because of her genuine enthusiasm for ideas. She worked between and across languages which so often divide. Prof. Godard inspired her colleagues and students through her critical creativity and her unwavering commitment to interrogating and producing the conditions for full civic engagement in the University and in the public sphere. We will miss her greatly.

Funeral arrangements

A funeral service will take place at 11am on Friday, May 21, at St. James-the-Less, 635 Parliament St., Toronto. A reception for friends and family will follow at Prof. Godard’s house at 217 Major St.,Toronto.

Prof. Godard’s family has requested no flowers; in light of her earlier struggles, donations to the Canadian Cancer Society would be greatly appreciated.

As there may be other causes to which you might wish to make a memorial donation, the agency can inform Prof. Godard’s sister Elizabeth Cox at ecox27@sympatico.ca and her son Alexis at lex_o_matic@yahoo.com.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91ÑÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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