literature Archives | Research & Innovation

CanLit's rising stars come to 91��ɫ

muellerm — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 08:00:00 +0000

If you love meeting talented writers, like to listen to some of CanLit's rising stars read from their books, or just want to be a part of a dynamic and popular discussion of literature, be sure to attend the 13th edition of Canadian Writers in Person Lecture series, which debuts Tuesday at 7pm at 206 Accolade West Building on the Keele campus.

"The series is open to the 91��ɫ community, as well as members of the public, and makes for the best Tuesday night date I can think of," says 91��ɫ humanities Professor Gail Vanstone. "Where else are you going to hear some of Canada's most exciting literary figures for free other than attending the Canadian Writers in Person Lecture series."

The series features 11 Canadian authors who will present their work, respond to questions from the audience and sign books. All readings are part of a degree credit course on Canadian literary culture offered by the Culture & Expression Program in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. You don't have to enrol in the course to attend the readings.

This year features an eclectic mix of new and established writers.

Author Zoe Whittall has been called “…the cockiest, brashest, funniest, toughest, most life-affirming, elegant, scruffy, no-holds-barred writer to emerge from Montreal since Mordecai Richler…” by The Globe and Mail will kick off the reading series on Tuesday. She will read from the Lambda award-winning Holding Still For As Long As Possible. Award-winning poet Karen Solie will present her collection of poetry, Pigeon.��

Don McKay has published 10 previous works of poetry and is the winner of several awards, including the 2011 Griffin Poetry Award and two Governor General’s Literary Awards for Poetry. He will read from his newest collection, Paradoxides.��James Bartleman, a Canadian diplomat, author and the 27th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (2002 to 2007), will read from his compelling debut novel, As Long as the Rivers Flow, which explores the consequences of Canada's residential school system. 91��ɫ alumna Suzanne Desrochers returns to her alma mater to read from her bestselling novel, Bride of New France, a rich and imaginative novel about a young French woman who must survive the harsh landscape of the new world.��

Suzette Mayr is the author of four novels. She will read from Monoceros, which was long listed for the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize.��The Perfect Order of Things is the title of Canadian journalist David Gilmour's book. It speaks to a man's journey back in time to reexamine those critical moments that created him. 91��ɫ Professor and poet Patricia Keeney will read from First Woman, a collection of poetry that continues her personal journeys inward and across the world.

Renowned Canadian writer Esi Edugyan will read from her award-winning novel, Half Blood Blues, an electric, heart-breaking story about music, race, love and loyalty. It won the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize. Patrick deWitt will read from his second book, The Sisters Brothers, which was also shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize, the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the 2011 Governor General's Award for Fiction (English language).

Irish born playwright, author and literary historian Emma Donaghue will read from her bestselling novel Room, which won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. Room was shortlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize and the 2010 Governor General's Literary Awards and was the winner of the 2010 Irish Book Award.

For more details and the complete schedule of writers’ appearances, visit the Canadian Writers in Person website or contact Professor Gail Vanstone at ext. 33957.

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

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91��ɫ prof featured in COU's new Research Matters campaign

fmaquito — Thu, 24 May 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Through a new province-wide campaign, Ontario university researchers are reaching out to explain the value and benefits of university research.
The Council of Ontario Universities (COU) launched to showcase new stories and ideas emerging from the research underway at Ontario's universities. The campaign, which features a website and blog, speaks to daily issues and reflects the full diversity of university research. It will continue through 2012-2013, with public events held around the province to allow the public to engage directly with researchers.��Ontario's Minister of Economic Development & Innovation Brad Duguid announced the launch of the campaign at the Ontario Centres of Excellence Discovery Conference last week.

Among the researchers featured in the campaign is 91��ɫ humanities Professor Andrea Davis. The campaign profiles the work Davis is doing to alleviate the causes of youth violence.�� Through her research, Davis is working with community partners to help black youth in Canada and Jamaica challenge physical and systemic violence and find new paths toward social and civic engagement. Her work helps young people form new social identities through participation in the arts, social history and literature.�� to view the profile.

"This campaign provides a unique opportunity for researchers across the province to share the wide range of research they do,” says Davis.��“The project my team and I are leading is certainly only one of many amazing research projects at 91��ɫ, but it resonates specifically with Ontarians because it addresses immediate questions about youth violence. There is no doubt that the stakes are high, and the potential for change and transformation is enormous."

“The work of thousands of university researchers in Ontario affects industry, government and community life in a multitude of ways,” says Alastair Summerlee, chair of COU and president of the University of Guelph. “Those stories about how researchers help people build stronger communities, get more out of work and leisure time, and achieve a better quality of life deserve to be told.”

“This campaign will connect more Ontarians directly with researchers and their ideas,” says Bonnie Patterson, COU president and CEO. “Ontarians can rightly take pride in the fascinating and highly diverse research underway here.”

“The Research Matters campaign is highlighting the important contributions that University research makes to the lives of Ontarians through the voices of many of Ontario’s leading university researchers,” said Robert Haché, vice-president research & innovation.�� “91��ɫ is most pleased that Professor Andrea Davis and her important research is being highlighted in this initiative. Andrea’s research is making a positive difference in the lives of individuals, locally and abroad. Her project identifies youth violence prevention strategies and facilitates opportunities for youth to engage more constructively in their communities.”

Ontario university research is the common thread that ties these and hundreds of other stories together. Visit the COU's website, follow the campaign on Twitter at , or join the community on .

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

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Former 91��ɫ English Professor and acclaimed writer Barry Callaghan will read from his newest book

fmaquito — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 08:00:00 +0000

As part of the Studio Speaker Series, former 91��ɫ English professor, acclaimed writer, raconteur and provocateur Barry Callaghan will speak about his life as a literary journalist and read from newly published book Raise You Twenty: Essays and Encounters 1964 - 2011, Volume Three..

The reading will take place Wednesday, Sept. 21, from noon to 2pm, in the Paul Delaney Gallery, 320 Bethune College, Keele campus. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Considered one of Canada’s great journalists, Callaghan has received every major award in North America, including more than a dozen National Magazine Awards – seven of them gold – the inaugural W. O. Mitchell Award, the Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Letters Award for Fiction, which he won twice, the Lowell Thomas Award and the Pushcart Prize. He also won Toronto’s One Hundred Outstanding Citizens Award.

Raise You Twenty (McArthur & Company), follows the critically acclaimed Raise You Five: Essays and Encounters 1964-2004, Volume One and Raise You Ten: Essays and Encounters 1964-2004, Volume Two. The series reflects on the significance of literature to the past and to the future and Callaghan prompts readers to think about the function of literature in the digital age. It includes extended essays on Saul Bellow, basketball player Vince Carter, the city of Munich and some of the great writers of the 20th century – Mavis Gallant and John Steinbeck.

Left: Barry Callaghan

Callaghan, who , founded the literary quarterly, Exile, and imprint, Exile Editions, while he was a war correspondent in the Middle East and Africa in the 1970s. He is a novelist, poet and man of letters and his work has been much anthologized.

His works includes The Hogg Poems and Drawings (1978), The Black Queen Stories (1982), When Things Get Worst (1993), A Kiss is Still a Kiss (1995), Barrelhouse Kings: A Memoir (1998), Hogg: The Seven Last Words (2001), Between Trains (2007) and Beside Still Waters (2009).��

The Studio Speaker Series is sponsored by 91��ɫ’s Creative Writing Program in the Department of English, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

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

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Professor Hédi Bouraoui receives honourary Pugliese citizenship for building cultural bridges

fmaquito — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Departing from Sfax, a Tunisian city overlooking the Mediterranean, has travelled the world, from Europe to the United States to Canada where he lived for 30 years, teaching French and comparative literature at 91��ɫ’s Stong College, wrote :

His is a life dedicated to the study of literature and writing, but above all working towards establishing steady dialogue between various cultures that led to the creation of 91��ɫ’s Canada-Mediterranean Centre and the birth of the concept of “transculturalism”, wrote Tandem.

At 80 years of age, Bouraoui is still travelling and feels just as at home in Toronto as he does in Paris and Africa. And he recently received his honorary citizenship from Acquaviva delle Fonti – one of the cities of the Puglia [region] that have welcomed him with “open arms” during the Italian stopover of his international project from Canada to Puglia under the Sign of Dialogue, launched by Canada-Mediterranean Centre and by WIP Edizioni, and thanks also to the invaluable collaboration of Nicola D’Ambrosio, professor of francophone literature at the University of Bari.

Bouraoui is proud of being part of the “heart and soul of this new family midway between the Adriatic Sea and the Gulf of Taranto.” This is a citizenship to add to his Canadian one and that enriches his Tunisian origins and plural identity, which functions in terms “of addition, not subtraction.”

“Africa, Europe, North America – it’s all stratified within me,” he says from his Paris home shortly before departing on his fifth trip to Puglia. “And you can’t take any of it away because Hédi Bouraoui is the sum of his parts. Otherwise, I would no longer be me.”

For him, transculturalism is not an abstract concept, but something he experienced firsthand. “When I transferred from the United States to Toronto, I was eager to contribute to the great Canadian mosaic, which I saw as being the opposite of the American ‘melting pot’, which wants to cancel all cultural differences in the name of a stars-and-stripes recognition. But early on, during the early ’70s, I realized that multiculturalism doesn’t work because each community is shut off within itself, while government, then as now, was more interested in gaining votes rather than getting the various fabrics of the mosaic to truly communicate with each other. Transculturalism, instead, is the ongoing search of dialogue between the various cultures, not a monologue.”

And that is a cornerstone of Bouraoui’s works, which often focuses on the Mediterranean, “cradle of Eastern and Western civilization and of the three monotheistic religions par excellence, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.”

Posted by Elizbeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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PhD candidate Kathleen Cummins examines film and TV interpretations of Jane Eyre

fmaquito — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 10:00:00 +0000

Over 150 years after it was first published, Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel Jane Eyre remains a favourite for film and television adaptations. But what influences and interpretations are at work before it hits the screen? 91��ɫ women's studies PhD candidate Kathleen Cummins (BA Spec. Hons. ’92, MFA ’95) will talk on Thursday about “The Perils of Adapting Jane! Her Further (Mis)adventures in the Land of Film and Television".

The talk will take place on Nov. 11, from 7 to 10pm in N201 Ross Building, Keele campus.

There have been at least 26 film or television English-language adaptations of and a new adaptation is currently in the works. It would seem that both producers and audiences never tire of Brontë’s classic novel.

Cummins, a filmmaker whose doctoral work specializes in feminist film and filmmakers, will examine how the gender relations and sexual politics of Brontë’s proto-feminist text have been re-interpreted and represented in four different adaptations over a 50-year period.

Integrating adaptation studies and feminist theory, her analysis will consider the impact of paratextual factors such as history and market forces, including star personas and studio/network brands, on media producers’ fidelity to Brontë’s vision.

Cummins work has been screened and broadcast internationally. She has written for magazines about film, and her most recent publication is a peer-reviewed chapter in , published by Wilfred Laurier Press. Currently, she teaches courses in the Media Fundamentals Program at Sheridan College Institute for Advanced Learning & Technology.

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

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International symposium looks at writing of Chinese Canadians

fmaquito — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 08:00:00 +0000

An International Symposium on Chinese Canadian Literature at 91��ɫ this week will introduce Chinese Canadian writers and their works to readers, writers and researchers from China and elsewhere.

This international symposium aims to facilitate the exchange of ideas on Chinese Canadian literature, review and define the parameters of the research field and promote a robust development of studies on the subject.

The two-day event will take place starting at 1pm on Friday, July 23 and at 9am on Saturday, July 24 on the second floor of Vari Hall.��The symposium is jointly presented by 91��ɫ’s Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics (DLLL), the Chinese Pen Society of Canada and the College of Letters of Jinan University in Guangzhou, China.��Anyone is welcome to attend.

Professor Angela Pao (left) of Indiana University Bloomington’s Department of Comparative Literature will deliver the keynote speech Friday, titled “Floating Points: From Diasporic Spaces to Multiculturalism Places”, following opening remarks by Jiang Shuzhuo, vice-president academic at Jinan University in China. Jiang will also deliver the keynote address Saturday afternoon.

Several established scholars and promising young researchers in the field of Chinese Canadian literature will present their research on Chinese Canadian writers whom they have read. Some of the lectures are listed below:

Professor Chen Cai (English) of the School of Foreign Languages & Cultures at the Southwest University of Science & Technology in China will talk about “Changing Ethnic Awareness: Major Themes in Chinese Canadian Literature”.
Pu Yazhu (English), a PhD candidate at the College of Foreign Languages & Cultures at Sichuan University in China, will discuss “On the Identity Acknowledgement in Cross the Oce��”.
Ray Hsu (English), author of Anthropy and a post-doctoral fellow in the Creative Writing Program at the University of British Columbia (UBC), and Danielle Thien (English), also of UBC’s Creative Writing Program, will look at “Asian Canadian and Aboriginal Communities: Collectivities and Allies?”
Writer Michelle Tisseyre (English) will talk about “Bilingual Writing, Challenges, Rewards and the Unique Creative Process”.
Professor John Z. M. Chen (English) of Inner Mongolia University’s Canadian Studies Center in China will lecture on “Society, History and Values: A Cultural Study of Paul Yee’s Chinese Canadian Female Characters”.
Professor Qian Hong (Chinese) of the Department of Chinese Language & Literature at Tongji University in China will discuss “From Looking at the Moon to Gold Mountain Blues: Chinese Canadian Women Writer Zhang Ling’s Narrative Transitions”.
Professor Lin Danya (Chinese), chair of the Department of Chinese Language & Literature at Xiamen University in China, will look at “Examining the Emergence and Characteristics of Chinese-Canadian Literature”.
Professor Pu Ruoqian (Chinese), dean of the College of Foreign Studies at Jinan University, will lecture on “Time, Space and Cultural Construction in Zhang Ling’s Gold Mountain Blues”.
Tan Xiang (Chinese), associate chief editor at Hebei Education Press in China, will discuss “Reading Chen He’s Novel The City in the Black and White Movie”.
Professor Zhao Qingqing (Chinese) of the Centre of Canadian Studies at Nanjing University in China will look at “Chinese Canadian Literature and its Reception in China”.
Professor Daxiang Yu, director of the Centre of World Literature in Chinese at Tongji University, will discuss “The Image of Maple Forests in Overseas Chinese Prose Essays: the Uniqueness of Chinese-Canadian Writings”.

To see the full schedule of events and times, click here. For more information, contact 91��ɫ DLLL Professor Xueqing Xu, faculty associate at the 91��ɫ Centre for Asian Research and symposium organizer, at xueqingx@yorku.ca.

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

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