WMST 425B – The Forgotten: Racialization, Gendered Violence and Sexual Labours

Posted on 27 October 2010 | 2 comments

As part of the First Nations Studies Program and/or First Nations Languages mailing list (I can’t quite tell which one it is), I get access to The Post, a newsletter for Aboriginal news.

Latest news of particular interest to me is this unique new course in Term 2, on what I think is a very important issue:

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WMST 425B—The Forgotten: Racialization, Gendered Violence and Sexual Labours

Instructor: Marie-Eve Carrier-Moisan

This course is a new seminar designed to coincide with the exhibit The Forgotten: Portraits of Missing Women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside by Vancouver artist Pamela Masik, at the Museum of Anthropology from February 11 to March 20, 2011. In the last 30 years, more than 69 women have gone missing or been murdered in the Downtown Eastside alone. The exhibit, which consists of large canvas paintings of these missing and murdered women, serves as a stark reminder of the powerful structures of invisibility and violence that are operating in our society and elsewhere. The Forgotten exhibit thus provides a starting point to critically reflect upon and make visible the broader social processes that are involved in producing the conditions for these disappearances and murders. It also brings to the fore controversial issues of voice, authorship and representation, and presents us with a unique opportunity to reflect on the role of art in fostering social changes as well as on issues of power and the politics of representation.

The exhibit also provides the possibility to examine broader issues of racialization, gendered violence, and sexual labour in Canada and beyond including sexual violence and (neo) colonization; legal and moral regulation affecting sex workers; hegemonic constructions of masculinity/femininity; processes of racialization in the sex trade (including sex tourism and pornography); and finally attempts to memorialize, remember and resist. Thus although our starting point is local, our path in this course will be global and leads us away from Vancouver and the Canadian context to various locations ranging from the Andes to South East Asia. In this process, we will explore similar injustices elsewhere in the world, including in the border city of Ciudad Juárez in Mexico, where there are an estimated 90 missing women facing similar patterns of violence and forgetting.

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See, it’s courses like these that make me wish I had twice as much time as I do right now. I can’t take this course because I’ve already made a commitment to continue taking the language of the Musqueam people next term, and that class doesn’t end on the reserve until 6 pm—and since it’s my last full year in school, I don’t have another chance to take a First Nations language either, at least not in the foreseeable future.

And I haven’t even begun to tap into my ever-growing wishlist of Anthropology and Sociology courses…

Of course, after a certain point, you also realise that you can’t stay in one place soaking up knowledge forever. You want to apply it, or create something new of your own. At least, I do—I just don’t quite know what yet.

If you’re graduating soon, what do you wish you could have taken? Or, if you aren’t graduating yet, what other courses would you like to do if you have the time next term/year?

2 Comments

Posted in Academic

Secret Study Spaces

Posted on 24 October 2010 | Comments Off on Secret Study Spaces

School is getting to me. Isn’t it getting to you? I read when I’m waiting for the bus. I read when I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. I read and read and read and none of it’s for pleasure.

These days I move from class to study space to class to study space again, and find myself hovering around the same few places. In an effort to exercise my legs and to expand upon possible places to haunt, I’m going to start a list of study spaces on campus that don’t include the already overpopulated libraries (namely, Irving K. Barber and Koerner, for my purposes), where you have to hunt and fight to carve out a place for you and your books, and ask you to add places you know!

The ones below are somewhat hastily compiled, because I have too much work to get back to:

Brock Hall offers two great spots for studying: the Centre for Student Involvement, and the corridor on the second floor just outside Classroom Services. This corridor has desks and chairs going all the way down, and is not often fully occupied (at least, from what I’ve seen of it). Probably a great choice for commuter students in particular, who may want to be within close proximity to the bus loop.

The window alcoves in Buchanan Tower, particularly on the fourth and fifth floors. Small benches next to the windows make for almost perfectly undisturbed reading, except for when professors and students pass by and look at you funny, because they don’t really expect to see anywhere sitting there. No desks, though, so it’s no good if you need to write anything substantial, just if you need to read.

Departmental undergraduate rooms. I don’t know about you, but I know that English undergraduates have their own room in Buchanan Tower that is more often than not fairly empty. I don’t often go there, however, because there are no windows, and I get a little crazy if I can’t see the outside world every now and then. It’s why, if I go to Koerner, I’ll only ever take a desk by the window overlooking the court out front, and never study in the basement.

Residence commonblocks on a Sunday morning are refreshingly empty. Actually, any early morning will do, I suppose. And you don’t have to be in residence to sit in the commonsblock, which is nice. The only problem with this venture is that these commonsblocks tend to be out of the way for commuter students, unless you have a class in Swing Space.

The Beanery in Fairview is out of the way for most people, but if you’re really lazy, you can take a shuttle bus down there. A two-storey coffeehouse with all sizes of tables and chairs on both floors, it’s a quiet place that is perfect for studying in for hours. Con is that you do have to purchase something to stay there; pro is that this place offers the cheapest hot chocolate on campus that I know of (as of last year, anyway, when I was actually comparing prices). Oh, another con is that I invariably fall asleep on the sofa if I sit there, so be warned.

Do you know of any other places you can almost guarantee will have space for you to study in? Add onto the list!

Update: For even more study spaces, check out Classroom Services’ meta-list and their informal learning spaces map.

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Posted in Academic, Around Campus

Things I Love Thursday

Posted on 14 October 2010 | Comments Off on Things I Love Thursday

Hmm, I think I should try post more often so this blog isn’t clogged up with Thursday love posts.

On the other hand, even if all I only post on Thursdays, at least this blog will be one great bout of positivity!

Here goes this week:

♥ Thanksgiving last weekend was lovely. It’s the first year I’ve actually celebrated (was sick the first two years, don’t remember last year, so was probably sick then too), and I did so—twice. Once on Sunday with a giant potluck, and once on Monday with a few friends and a more traditional Thanksgiving dinner: turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, cheesy speeches—the works!

♥ I made stuffing for the first time on Monday, and it turned out well.

♥ On Saturday, three friends of mine in Toronto and Hong Kong and I had a Skype baking session. That’s right: each of us had our webcams on and were baking our own things in front of them. I made a marble cheesecake that wasn’t so marbled in the end, but fine taste-wise. I think we are awesome, and that virtual baking dates should be the norm.

♥ I discovered the ballroom in Marine Drive today. Not only does it have a piano, it has absolutely breathtaking views. I can imagine having a fantastic party there!

♥ Speaking of views, I had one to carve into memory today: the half-moon and the sunset meeting each other over the sea outside my window. My camera couldn’t capture the blending of pink and blue horizon, because it was too bright, but I will try my best to remember it always.

♥ I’m super excited to be going to San Jose this weekend to visit a friend there! The funniest part of the whole affair is that I didn’t realise San Francisco is right next to San Jose until she told me, so now I’m doubly excited.

♥ For those of you who have not yet heard the magic of Sam Tsui and Kurt Schneider, their Michael Jackson medley is one of my favourite videos of theirs:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R12QVtuB0_Q]

No, that is not an optical illusion. Those really are six singing Sams and one beatboxing Kurt.

Do also check out their versions of Glee’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing’, Owl City’s ‘Fireflies’, and their original ‘Don’t Want an Ending’. You can also find them on iTunes!

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Posted in Things I Love Thursday

Social Shopping Sites

Posted on 13 October 2010 | 4 comments

happy doughnuts

I can’t believe that anyone who uses Facebook hasn’t discovered these gems yet, but apparently this is so.

In an effort to spread knowledge, increase happiness and empty your wallet, let me share with you the half-dozen or so sites that have been popping up in the last few months.

First off, a list of all the social shopping sites that I know of at the moment, and then some FAQ.

SOCIAL SHOPPING SITES FOR VANCOUVER

I used to do email subscriptions to each of these, but my brother showed me Deal Rader, a news feed that aggregates all the deals each day (except for TownHog), and provides a quick, easy way of glancing at what’s being offered.

Social shopping sites are also available in many other North American cities. Check out your local area to see what’s on offer.

SO WHAT IS A SOCIAL SHOPPING SITE AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

Social shopping sites (or group shopping sites) are websites that offer daily deals to various local businesses.

How it works is the website solicits businesses to give a discount on their product(s), which is then offered on the site. For the deal to be activated, there must be a minimum number of purchasers before the deal is ‘on’—before the business will uphold its side of the bargain by accepting the discount. By activating the deal only when the minimum number of customers is met, this protects the business.

How it works for you, the customer: your credit card will only be charged when the minimum number of buyers is met. This means you aren’t going to lose money over deals that are never activated.

What’s in it for websites like these is that they get a percentage of what they sell to us. This they sort out with the businesses, so you (the customers) don’t have to worry about it.

Depending on the site, you can even earn credit on your account for referring your friends. Some of them only allow you to get credit when you refer a friend for the first time; some for each deal. These have more requirements that need to be met to be activated, so read carefully.

EXAMPLE, PLEASE.

Sure:

I spent $25 on a coupon from Grooster for $50 worth of food from Bistro Pastis on West 4th (incidentally, also my favourite French bistro). All I need to do is go there, produce the coupon, and I can order up to $50 worth of food for no extra charge. If I order more than that amount, I need to cover it myself. Taxes and tip are also not included.

A friend is splitting the cost of the coupon with me, which makes this an extremely sweet deal for both of us to have a seriously gourmet meal for $12.50.

THIS SOUNDS LIKE A SCAM. WHAT’S THE CATCH?

Honestly, these sites aren’t scams. I’ve used my coupons with no problems. The deals are legit.

The problem is that not everyone uses their coupons by their expiry dates. It’s easy to forget what your purchased, because the expiry dates can vary quite a bit. (Tip: check the expiry date before purchasing a coupon.)

Also, it’s very hard to get the exact value of your coupon: either you will pay less than the coupon in order not to spend another cent, or pay a little extra in order to maximise every cent of your coupon value. I tend to spend a few dollars more.

HOW EFFECTIVE ARE THESE FOR BUSINESSES IN THE LONG RUN?

Good question; no idea.

After my initial spurt of excitement and trying to get all the best deals I could find, I realised there are now so many of these sites, it won’t be long until something similar crops up again. Now I only buy when I really, really want something (like my Bistro Pastis coupon). Does this mean, in the long run, that people won’t go to expensive restaurants and go-karting unless they have a deal? That’s something yet to be seen.

After all, there are still many people (my friends included) who have told me they have been spending far more money than they used to. So maybe it’ll even out.

In the meantime, I’m definitely making use of them!

4 Comments

Posted in Recreation

Bakeries I miss

Posted on 10 October 2010 | Comments Off on Bakeries I miss

I found myself feeling peckish after waking up from my hour-long nap on a sofa in a mall (yes, I was that tired), and didn’t know what to get, having already had fast food twice that day.

It was then I recalled that I was in Metrotown, and there was a Maxim’s bakery on the floor below me. Maxim’s, a bakery chain in Hong Kong that I rarely visit because there are so many other, better-valued bakeries all over the city, and also the only Hong Kong-style bakery I knew of within the vicinity of my napping-place on Friday afternoon.

Hong Kong bakeries: what I miss most from the place I spent my childhood and adolescence in.

As I picked up a tray and a pair of tongs by the entrance, I remembered how much I loved doing the same ever since I was little. Eyeing the trays of buns and pastries in their individual cases, reading their English and Chinese names on the displayed cards, lifting the clear lids of the baked goods I’d chosen, and piling delicious morsels on my tray: two egg tarts, a pineapple bun (that has nothing to do with pineapple in terms of flavour), a sausage bun (or wiener bun, as it’s called here), and three pieces of garlic toast—all for $4.20.

The garlic toast might sound like a strange selection, since it’s not hard to make that at home. But there is something unique about the garlic rolls and toast that are sold in Hong Kong bakeries I’ve never found duplicated anywhere else, and it’s one of my favourite kinds of breads. This summer, when I was home, I went to the nearest open-space marketplace and made a mental map of all the bakeries in the area: which sold garlic toast, which sold what kind of egg tarts, and for what prices. Egg tarts and garlic toast. These are my measuring sticks.

And it is something of sheer loveliness to be able to catch the shuttle bus down to the marketplace in the morning to buy freshly baked breads, as many as I want. Even if I didn’t do it most of the time, it was the possibility of being able to do this that gave me the greatest pleasure.

I often didn’t do this—didn’t need to go down in the mornings unless I felt like walking around early—because I didn’t need to. Not when there are at least one, if not two, bakeries at every train station. On any street that conducts any kind of business, you will invariably pass by yet another bakery tucked away on one side of you. I miss this.

Of course there are other bakeries here too; Cobs and Terra Breads are among the first that come to mind. But they are not the same, and sometimes it is the familiar you yearn for the most. Not that I am still unused to the breads sold in Vancouver bakeries; indeed, I’m probably more bored than anything else, sometimes, and find myself craving something just a little bit different, just a little bit similar to what I’ve never stopped loving.

Sometimes I think I should go on a quest for all the HK-style bakeries I’ve heard or read of in Vancouver, and learn where they are. But this always gets left behind in the flurry of studies, working, volunteering and general daily business of living; I don’t often have time to go out of my way to search for the answers to longings I can usually manage by ignoring.

Tell me, is there something you miss from the past that you try to bring into your life now in some new way? How do you do this?

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Posted in International