470 Conference presentations:
THE BEAVER TAILS: “Our conference will present a number of research strategies for investigating ways to keep Canadian literature rooted in a context that includes the consideration of place and location.
Intervention Dialogues: Our group is looking at the ways in which regionalism and geographical understandings of Canadian literature can be reinvented to incorporate greater diversity, modern technology, and redefine borders and identities.
BREAKING THE DIVIDE: Our research will focus primarily on understanding the way Indigenous people in Canada describe their own concept of literature, and, in turn, how this might be successfully integrated within current models across all levels of education. Our primary objective is to provide a pathway for teachers that will honour an authentic Indigenous voice without reinforcing an “Us vs. Them” dichotomy.
decolonial dreams an intervention into the future of Canadian Literature : Our research intervention is guided by Watersheds by Rita Wong, as found in Canadian Literature a Quarterly Review of Criticism and Review’s 50th anniversary edition. Guided by Wong’s work, we will seek literary sources which creatively uphold the voices of land, waters and Indigenous people, in turn breaking down colonial frameworks of thought. Being informed by history and place, and listening to and voicing lands and waters, Wong suggests, must inform how we perceive ourselves, our communities and our collective futures.
Maple Leaf Igloos: EXPLORING INTERVENTIONS: It seems as though Indigenous representation in both Canadian nation-building canon and the literary canon are dominated by two acts: an outright act of exclusion or non-Indigenous voices/authors speaking over Indigenous voices and imposes their colonizing representations upon them.
There is no way to fix colonizing representation. Instead, we must listen to new stories and champion the voices of actual Indigenous writers over the colonizing and exclusive literary canon.
VOYAGEURS : A Quest for Canadian Literature: “Canada is populated by countless diasporic cultures creating an identity unique to our own. We cherish our common humanity as much as we embrace our diversity. The Voyageurs believe in celebrating, promoting, and encouraging the diverse works of our emerging storytellers. The process won’t be simple, but we believe the first step is to inspire our readers to explore unfamiliar stories of other Canadian cultures.
CANADIAN LITERARY INQUIRER’S Our conference and area of research will be focusing on regionalism and its importance in Canadian literature. Especially in the context of First Nations and literature. As Alison Calder mentions in her piece “What Happened to Regionalism”, what happened to place and location in Canadian literary studies?
