Autor: GKS

30th Annual Two Days of Canada Conference, 2 – 3 November 2017, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario (Canada)

People of Colour have already begun a body of writing and scholarship engaging with the meaning of Canada as a „queer place in Diaspora“ (Walcott 2005: 90). „Queer Canada“ will be a two-day conference of scholars, students, community members, artists, and activists at Brock University coming together to examine the various intersections between implications of nation-state identity and queerness. In 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau marched in several Pride parades across Canada. This occurred against the backdrop of the „Black Lives Matter“ protest at Toronto Pride Parade as well as the decision of several groups not to march in Pride in Vancouver. Notably, there was also the mobilization of Alternative Pride events with aims of creating „a new kind of inclusivity“. Also, in 2016, in the wake of the Syrian refugee crisis, it was announced that the Trudeau government would accept 25.000 refugees into Canada, but only if they came as whole families, lone women, or children. Excluded were unaccompanied men as part of this resettlement, except for those who were gay, bisexual, or transsexual. These events demand that we revisit and reconsider the relationship between queerness and nation at our current historical juncture.

The organizers invite proposals for critical and creative presentations. Possible themes include, but are not limited to:

• writing and rewriting the nation
• queer diasporas
• homonationalism
• queer art and literature
• queer theatre in Canada
• politics and resistance
• queer histories
• archives and representations
• queer time
• queer space
• trans-subjectivities
• trans families, groups and affiliations
• queer indigeneity
• bodily transformation
• law and the body
• embodied queer thought
• utopias and dystopias
• decolonizing time
• queerness on TV
• philosophies and queerness
• queering feminism
• international and transnational connections and activism
• future visions

Proposals for individual papers, presentations, or panels from all disciplines, covering any aspect of Queer Canada’s past, present or future are welcomed. Abstracts should be no longer than 250 words and may be sent to Natalee Caple, Department of English Language & Literature before May 1, 2017. Please attach a 50-word biography to your submission.

Hardcopy proposals should be sent to:

Professor Natalee Caple
c/o The Department of English Language & Literature
Brock University
1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way
St. Catharines, ON
L2S 3A1

Interdisciplinary Workshop, 27-28 April 2017, York University, Toronto (CA)

Organized by the Ocean Frontiers Research-Working Group of Science for Peace (Canada) in collaboration with York Centre for Asian Research, Robarts Center for Canadian Studies, and the Department of Science & Technology Studies, York University, Canada.

Ocean frontier politics is part of the earthly politics of using science, technology and international law to construct maritime boundaries. This techno-politics includes ways and means of asserting a nation’s freedom of navigation, and making national claims of exploratory rights in the global commons. Such politics also involves marine and maritime infrastructural development, and is furthermore interrelated systematically to the science and technology of how space above and below the waterways are constructe, i.e. how national airspace is understood, bordered, and governed above maritime boundaries, how national land areas below the water is understood; and how the seabed resources below waterways are envisioned and exploited as national economic resources.

The Workshop’s Objectives are:

• to share comparative analyses of heterogeneous factors, geotechnical, techno-political and techno-legal issues influencing regional and international security
• discuss pragmatic resolutions; i.e. policies and strategies that could be the subject of further research and discussion on resolving peace and security issues; and
• establish a cross-sector network (engaging academic-corporate-government sectors) to explore inter-disciplinary curricular frameworks for teaching and researching our planetary frontiers, as ‚Frontier Studies‘ with ‚Peace‘-‚Collective Peace‘ as the central focus.

The workshop papers for sessions on Day 1 (April 27, 2017) are expected to address geotechnical issues, resource developmental ideals and problems, contested governance, policy challenges, and sec urity concerns of militarized and industrialized ocean frontiers in the Canadian North and in the Indio Pacific.

Topics and thematic analyses are not limited to the following:

• politics and policies of maritime boundary delineation
• geo-spatial mapping of competitive boundary claims
• techno-political systems of ocean frontiers surveillance and governance
• politics of Ocean Space Grabbing
• politics of air defense zones and how they are linked to maritime boundaries
• geotechnical aspects of militarized frontiers that threaten human security
• socio-political and historical claims over maritime boundaries
• the efficacy/inefficacy of international law in maritime peace-making/peace-building
• UNCLOS and the legitimization of maritime expansion
• environmental politics of geo-engineering/sand-dredging and artificial islands
• corporate actors in knlowledge production/aerial and satellite imagery production
• national and international organizations effective/ineffective in ocean governance

Workshop papers for the session on Day 2 (April 28, 2017) should focus on the following:

• interdisciplinary research frameworks and pedagogy for frontier studies; particularly on peace-making and peace-building in frontier conflict zones
• constructionist/constructivist apporaches to understanding and analyzing ‚peace‘ as part of exploratory studies on planetary frontiers
• analytica approaches to frontier imaginaries
• critical approaches to the constructions of spatiality
• analytical approaches to the governance of the global commons and national maritime zones
• analytical frameworks on knowledge production about the natural vs. architected planet

Since national maritime boundaries are the basis on which national airspace is constructed above waterways, and how the land below waters are understood, ocean frontiers and disputed sea boundaries are significant points of research and starting points for broader inquiry into planetary frontiers, and critical areas of inquiry within conflict and peace studies.

Participants of this 2-day workshop come from a range of disciplines including Science & Engineering disciplines, Environmental Studies, Law, Political Science, History and Geography, and will involve representatives from the government and corporate sectors.

Submission guidelines: Please email your abstracts to this email address no later than 1 February 2017 using „Abstract – Ocean Frontiers Workshop – York U“ in the subject line. The abstract should be no more than 350 words. Authors should include name, designation and workplace below the abstract title. Authours could also indicate preference for Day 1 or Day 2 of the workshop.

Notification of accepted abstracts will be send out by 7 February 2017.

Submission of completed papers: 7 April 2017. Papers accepted for this workshop will be published as  part of an edited volume of essays.

International Cofnerence, North American Studies Department, Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands), June 15-16, 2017

From booksellers and rock artists to diplomats and the President of the United States, many people have echoed the sentiment that Canada has something important to offer to the world. The 150 anniversary of Confederation in 2017 represents an excellent occasion to consider and highlight current social, cultural and political developments and critically explore the ways in which Canada defines itself and its place in the world. Can Canada be a blueprint for the world? To what extent can Canadian policies and solutions be transferred to other continents and cultures? Does the world indeed need more Canada?

With the election of Justin Trudeau, Canada seeks to move in different political, social and economic directions from the ones initiated and implemented by former president Steven Harper. At the same time, the legacy of Harper and his predecessors, including Pierre Trudeau, needs to be (re)negotiated and adapted to the realities of the 21st century.

For this conference, the organizers call for proposals that seek to critically examine Trudeau’s emphasis on change and the promise of revision. Specifically, they seek papers that explore continuities and disconinuities in Canada’s approaches to the following subset of themes: immigrations, justice and security; issues of indigeneity; the theory and practice of Canadian multiculturalism and the ideal of the „inclusive society;“ Canada in global perspective.

Proposals may include but are not limited to the following topics:

• New (transcultural) perspectives on Canadian national identity: still “our famous problem” (Northrop Frye)? Identity and issues of language, immigration and integration.
• Canadian multiculturalism: the legacy of Pierre Trudeau, (dis)continuities in Justin Trudeau’s present-day policies, theory and practice.
• Canadian culture: revision and change in the production, reception and study of Canadian literature, film, art and music, especially as related to multiculturalism and recent developments in transnational literary and cultural studies.
• Being indigenous in Canada Canada’s relation to indigeneity: First Nations and the world; the plans and policies of Justin Trudeau to wield change and bridge continuing social, economic and cultural gaps; “Idle No More” and related activist initiatives involving visibility, land claims and the protection of the environment; outcomes of and follow-ups to the Truth and Reconciliation Committee; contemporary indigenous literature, film, art, music.
• Canada and the world: Canada’s response to the international refugee crisis; CETA: curse or blessing? The Canadian North as conflicted space; Canada and the US; Canada and Europe: partners in peace?; The legacy of WWII: memory, memorialization, and the prospect of global peace.
• Canada and (inter)national issues of security, justice and human rights.

Please send your proposals (300 words) and a brief CV to the conference organizers Prof. Dr. Hans Bak and Dr. Mathilde Roza at this email address.

Deadline for submissions: February 1, 2017.

Annual Conference of the Indigenous Literary Studies Association, June 18-20, 2017, Stó:lō Nation Teaching Longhouse, Chilliwack, B.C. (CA)

Ethics of Belonging: Protocols, Pedagogies, Land and Stories: Indigenous Literary Studies Association ’s Annual Conference this year held at the Stó:lō Nation Teaching Longhouse 7201 Vedder Road, Chilliwack on the Unceded, traditional territories of the Stó:lō peoples.

The organizers invite scholars, knowledge-keepers, artists, and community members to join them in generating new conversations about protocols, pedagogies, land, and stories from a wide variety of perspectives, including tribally-centred, inter-tribal, pan-national, urban/suburban, and trans-Indigenous, at ILSA’s third annual gathering, this time taking place on the unceded, traditional territories of the Stó:lō peoples in the Stó:lō Teaching Longhouse in Chilliwack, B.C. In a 2007 essay Stó:lō historian Dr. Albert Sonny Naxaxalhts’i McHalsie shares a Halq’emélem statement that is often interpreted as an assertion of Aboriginal rights and title: “S’ólh Téméxw te ikw’elo. Xolhmet te mekw’stam it kwelat,” which can be translated as “This is our Land. We have to take care of everything that belongs to us” (85). As McHalsie reflects on the boundaries of his territory, he follows the protocols of his community, consulting his elders to uncover teachings embedded in the Halq’emélem language and in Stó:lō stories. Through these protocols he replaces Western concepts of ownership with Stó:lō understandings of personal connection to place, sharing stories that explicate multiple ways of reading the land around him. McHalsie concludes that the statement is not merely an assertion of what belongs to Stó:lō but of belonging, insisting that as his people take care of their territory they necessarily have to take care of stories and understandings of the world embedded within wider kinship relations—between communities, nations, cultures, languages, as well as with the other-than-human.

Inspired by McHalsie’s words, Ethics of Belonging: Protocols, Pedagogies, Land and Stories asks participants to consider ways in which our scholarship, activism, and creative work cares for stories and centres Indigenous perspectives. In what ways can this care and attention honour Indigenous protocols and shape our pedagogies? How might writers or artists who live distanced or alienated from home territories practice such ethics? How might we consider Indigenous cultural production in cyberspace as linked to land? What does it mean to read texts through treaty documents, the history of colonization, or stories that emerge from land-theft and dislocation? What new traditions are Indigenous people, especially those who live in the city, creating?

The Indigenous Literary Studies Association supports diverse modes of creating and disseminating knowledge. Prospective participants are invited to propose conference papers, panels, roundtables, workshops, performances, and other formats for special sessions. Panel sessions will be 90 minutes in duration, with at least 15 minutes for questions and discussion. In keeping with the organizers‘ desire to enable dialogue and community- based learning, they welcome session proposals that utilize non-standard or alternative formats. While open to all proposals dealing with Indigenous literary arts, ILSA encourages proposals for sessions and individual presentations that engage with the following topics:

• “Taking care of everything that belongs to us,” land claims and cultural repatriation
• Stó:lō narrative arts and Stó:lō literary history, present, and future
• Politics of belonging and kinship relations
• Land, ecological responsibility, and environmental ethics
• Land-based solidarities, urban Indigenous communities, and the literary arts
• Literary methods and Indigenous protocols
• The politics of protocols—gender and surveillance
• Two-Spirit and queer Indigenous critical ecologies
• Land, stories, and narrative arts as praxis
• Autonomy and alliance in unceded traditional territories
• Community-based participatory research, pedagogies, and literary studies
• Alliances among Indigenous and diasporic artists
• Mediations of orality and Indigenous material cultures
• Collaborative creation and multi-media
• Artistic expressions of sovereignty and self-determination
• Responsibility, community, and artistic expression
• Community-specific Indigenous knowledge and ethics in scholarship or art
• methodologies and practices in Indigenous literary studies to serve the needs of Indigenous communities

The Indigenous Literary Studies Association (ILSA) was founded in 2014 to promote the scholarship and teaching of Indigenous writing and storytelling in Canada. One way to make the study of Indigenous literatures relevant to the writers who produce the stories we read, teach and study is to meet every other year at national conferences as part of Congress, and meet alternating years in Indigenous communities. In 2015 the ILSA met at Six Nations of the Grand River, near Hamilton, Ontario, and in 2016 they met at Congress, hosted that year at the University of Calgary. From June 18-20, 2017 ILSA will be meeting on the unceded, traditional territories of the Stó:lō peoples, in Chilliwack, B.C., about a half hour drive from the Abbotsford airport and about a one and a half hour drive from downtown Vancouver. This time was chosen to coincide with the annual conference of NAISA, the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association meeting, at UBC from June 22-24, 2017.

Proposals are due on Tuesday, January 31, 2017 and this year’s proposals can be submitted to  this email address. If you do not receive an acknowledgment of your proposal within 7 days, please contact the ILSA council members directly, especially in-coming ILSA President Deanna Reder or ILSA Secretary Sophie McCall. Important: Prospective participants must be members in order to present at ILSA 2017 in Chilliwack.

Membership Rates are $40 (faculty) or $20 (students, community members, or underwaged) for one year. Please visit the ILSA 2017 website  to complete your membership.