“We were thrilled to learn that Professor Haideh Moghissi��was a recipient of the Trudeau Fellowship prize,” said 91��ɫ President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri. “The Trudeau Fellowship is an incredible honour bestowed upon the finest thinkers who have demonstrated outstanding research achievements, creativity and social commitment in all disciplines of the humanities and social sciences. We are proud that one of our own is a member of this esteemed group.”

Right: Haideh Moghissi (left) with 91��ɫ President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri at the Trudeau Fellowship ceremony

After a prolific career in Iran as an archivist, Moghissi became an internationally acclaimed analyst of women’s issues in the Muslim world. The Fellowship prize recognizes her work in this area.

“Even though I have had the good fortune of receiving several large research grants in the last decade or so, the Trudeau Fellowship has special significance as it reflects a recognition of my academic and community-related research in the areas that are also the focus of the Trudeau Foundation, including human rights and dignity, and responsible citizenship,” said Moghissi.

Moghissi, a professor in the Department of Equity Studies and the School of Women's Studies,��Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, was one of announced Monday at a ceremony at 91��ɫ, including��91��ɫ alumnus Ronald Rudin (MA ’73, PhD ’77) of Concordia University.

Left: Haideh Moghissi (left) with Martin Singer, dean of 91��ɫ's Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

“My academic work has always had a specific audience and specific purpose in mind, hoping to contribute, in the most modest way, to change in areas that need change, be it in my country of birth, Iran, or in Canada, the country that I now call home,” she said. “The fellowship will help me to continue my work, providing more opportunity to explore the complexities and nuances of such issues as multiculturalism, minority rights and belonging, under the present, rapidly changing political and social circumstance.”

Each prize is worth $225,000. Trudeau Fellowships are awarded to individuals who set themselves apart through research achievements, creativity and commitment to critical social issues of importance to Canada.

“The fellowship will provide more opportunity for organizing and attending academic gatherings to learn from and exchange ideas with others who work in these and similar areas, to provide support to a few more graduate students as future scholars,” Moghissi said.

Right: Guests watch as each of the Trudeau Fellowship recipients��are honoured at��a ceremony held��in the Shulich private��dining room at 91��ɫ

A Canadian institution with a national purpose, the is an independent and non-partisan charity. It was established in 2001 as a living memorial to the former prime minister by his family, friends and colleagues. In 2002, the Government of Canada endowed the foundation with a donation of $125 million following a unanimous vote in the House of Commons. In addition, the foundation benefits from private sector donations in support of specific initiatives. Through its scholarship, fellowship, mentorship and public interaction programs, the foundation supports outstanding individuals who make meaningful contributions to critical public issues.��

More about Haideh Moghissi

A professor of sociology and women's studies at 91��ɫ,��Moghissi��was a founder of the Iranian National Union of Women and member of its first executive and editorial boards, before leaving Iran in 1984.
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At 91��ɫ she has served as associate dean external relations in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies; coordinator��of the��Certificate for Anti-Racist Research and Practice; chair of the executive committee of the Centre for Feminist Research; and as a member of the executive committee of the Centre for Refugee Studies.��

Over the course of her career Moghissi��has served as a commentator on Iran and women in the Middle East on CBC, TVO, the BBC World Service, Radio France and Voice of America, and on the editorial and advisory boards of The Journal of Comparative Public Policy, the Rutledge Women and Politics Series, Resources for Feminist Research and Feminist Forum.

Her publications in English includes seven monographs and edited volumes and 35 articles in books��and journals such as Feminist Theory, Signs, Monthly Review, Humanity and Sociology, Third World Quarterly, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Socialist Register, Global Dialogue, Comparative Family Studies and International Review of Comparative Public Policy.

Her book��Feminism and Islamic Fundamentalism: The Limits of Postmodern Analysis (Oxford University Press, 2000 and Zed Press, 1999), winner of Choice Outstanding Academic Book Award, has been translated into Korean and Indonesian.

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

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On Wednesday, David Tsubouchi joins a panel discussion about the internment of Japanese and Italian Canadians in Canada during the Second World War.����

Left: David Tsubouchi

The discussion kicks off this academic��year’s Research Matters series, a monthly showcase of research in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.����

“Our first panel of the year provides us with some important reflections on Canadian internment, government redress policies and ways to move forward,” says Barbara Crow, LA&PS associate dean, research.

The two-hour panel starts at 2pm in 280N 91��ɫ Lanes.

Panelists will talk about their families’ experience, government redress, balancing state security and civil liberties, and the impact of the internment on 21st century Canada.����

Tsubouchi (BA '72, LLB '75) is a member of 91��ɫ’s Board of Governors and a��former Ontario cabinet minister. In his presentation, Bachan's Story, he��will tell what happened to his mother. She was one of 22,000 Japanese Canadians – including women, children and older people – whose property was confiscated by the government and who were interned after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1942.

Social science Professor Livy Visano will talk about otherness and refugee experience in The Refuge of Dislocation and the Conscience of Critique. Unlike immigrants, refugees are compelled by survival rather than choice. Displaced refugees face the horrendous shock of abandonment by one’s own country and people, and are haunted by rather than nostalgic about their past.����

History Professor Roberto Perin will ask what��Canada can learn from the Second World War internments. In his talk,��Wartime Internment and Government Redress: Are We Learning from Past Mistakes?, he��will look at the consequences of government policy toward “enemy aliens” – Japanese, Germans, Italians and communists – during the war, and ask: Was the right balance found between the imperatives of state security and the civil liberties of vulnerable individuals and groups?��Given the War Measures Act and the war on terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001, achieving a balance between state security and civil liberties remains a current concern today.

The panel will be moderated by Merle Jacobs, chair of Equity Studies.

Research Matters is open to all. RSVP to rirons@yorku.ca or 416-736-2100 ext. 33584.

For upcoming talks in the series, visit the Research Matters webpage.

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

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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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The dialogue sparked by the leaders mystifies 91��ɫ City Institute director Roger Keil, himself a newcomer from his native Germany in the 1990s. “I’m puzzled (that) the national debate in Central and Western Europe is a point of reference in Canada,” he said. “Those making the comments have a specific agenda. They’re right wing and are under various influences, some fascist.”

Citing France’s republic, Germany’s federation and Italy’s struggles to define itself during a wave of Tunisian immigration, Keil said Canada demonstrates vastly different policies and history.

Canada has the highest per-capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification. Multiculturalism in Canada was adopted as the official policy of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau’s government in the 1970s.

. . .

Our welcoming nature and immigration policies have created a critical mass of socio-ethno cultural groups, creating a mosaic of diversity that outweighs influences by camps and enclaves found in Europe, Dr. Keil said. “Europe has a different political spectrum,” he said. “They have outspoken nationalists pushed by fascist forces stirring up unrest. We don’t see those forces operating in 91��ɫ Region.”

Keil leads the SSHRC-funded Global Suburbanisms: Governance, Land and Infrastructure in the 21st Century project, which is the first major research project to take stock of worldwide suburban developments in a systematic way.

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

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Spotting the unexpected countries is what Seth Feldman, director of 91��ɫ’s Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies and a film professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Fine Arts, loves most about the World Cup in Canada. “You don't expect to see as many Argentine flags as you do, or flags from the African countries, or Chilean flags, for that matter,” he said. “I always like that kind of mix that comes out of this.”

In Canada's large urban centres, Feldman said, there is more of an openness to accept multiculturalism than there is in other western nations, such as the United States. “You don't feel like you're betraying Canada by cheering for Italy or Argentina or Germany.”

There's also a simple reason for the lack of Canadian flags flapping around now, Feldman said. “It's just something about Canada not qualifying for the World Cup,” he said. “If Canada ever did, you'd see an awful lot of Canadian flags out.”

The Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies promotes and supports interdisciplinary and discipline specific research pertinent to the study of Canada. Over the years the Centre has expanded to encompass a theme of "Canada in the World."

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

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