2018 McGill Feminist Research Colloquium:
Identity and (In)visibility
March 1 and 2, McGill University, Montreal
*Please note that this event has been moved to SSMU Club Lounge (Rm. 401) -3480 McTavish St. (University Centre) in order to be held in an accessible space.
*Please note that this event has been moved to SSMU Club Lounge (Rm. 401) -3480 McTavish St. (University Centre) in order to be held in an accessible space.
Graduate students from the
Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies invite members of the
research community to participate in the first Annual McGill Feminist Research
Colloquium on March 1st and 2nd, 2018. This colloquium is a forum for the
scholarly community to exchange ideas and share research pertaining to gender
studies, sexuality studies, and feminism. We welcome scholars of all
disciplines. This event is open to the public and free of charge.
This colloquium is fully organized by graduate
students with the generous support of IGSF, PGSS, and the Graduate Sociology Student Association.
THURSDAY, MARCH 1 - University Centre, SSMU Club Lounge (401), 3480 McTavish St.
2:30 - 3:00 - Registration
/ coffee
3:00- 3:15 – Welcome and
introductory remarks
3:15 - 4:00 - Panel 1: Re-thinking Space
"Walking With: Reflections on creating a listening walk with a decolonizing pedagogical strategy" - Pohanna Pyne
Feinberg, Concordia University
My doctoral
research-creation explores the pedagogical potential of walking as a form of
artistic inquiry and expression. I am interested in developing pedagogical
contexts that encourage kinaesthetic and inter-sensorial experimentation with
walking. My thesis project is an audio walk that features insights from eleven
artists who have created works that emerged from their relationship with
Mooniyang (in Anisshnaabemowin), Tiohtià:ke (in Kanien'kehà:ka / Mohawk), or
Montreal (as it is called in French and English). Each of these artists
identifies as a woman. Specifying gender is a deliberate decision motivated by
my personal interest to these artists' stories, but also intended as a
political gesture to infuse the contemporary walking art discourse (which tends
to concentrate on white male artists) with voices that offer varied
perspectives. For my presentation, I will describe my research-creation
process, play some of the excerpts from the audio walk, and share some
questions around inclusion and accessibility that are informing the final
stages of my thesis project.
“Northern Lights/ Southern
Views: Depicting the Arctic Environment, Empire, and Exploration” -Chris Gismondi, Concordia University
What comes to mind when you
imagine the Arctic landscape? For many, the image is a "flat, white
nothingness". My project aims to explore the historic roots of this
perception and asks why and how explorers from the eighteenth to the early
twentieth centuries represented the Canadian Arctic as devoid of its diverse
flora. In doing so, this project is the first Arctic environmental art history,
which critiques the white, colonial male's body in the space of Inuit
territory. No scholarly inquiry has yet examined explorers' sketches, prints,
and other disseminated visual culture. Thus, we do not know why explorers
-often traveling in the blooming summer months -chose to depict the Arctic as
infertile. This shift in focus in the landscape genre coincides with artist's
rarely representing the environment without the explorer's presence. I repeat,
these "landscapes" largely illustrate the white, qallunat male
exploring. My research is interdisciplinary in scope, utilizing
settler-colonial art history, environmental history, as well as whiteness and
masculinity studies to dissect the creative processes and ideological messages
of these colonial images.
4:00-4:15 - Break 1
4:15-5:00 - Panel 2: State
Recognition and legibility
"La reconnaissance des personnes non
binaires dans le genre au Québec"- Antoine Masson-Courchesne, Université du Québec à Montréal
Au Québec, le nouveau
projet de loi 35, entré en vigueur en octobre 2015, reconnaît que l’identité de
genre ne découle pas du sexe anatomique en permettant aux personnes trans de
modifier leur mention de sexe légale indépendamment de la forme de leurs organs
génitaux et de leur corps. Malgré la plus grande liberté d’autodétermination
que cela permet, la possibilité d’exprimer une identité de genre non binaire
reste absente. Le premier objectif de ma recherche est d’identifier les
déficits de reconnaissance sociale, légale, culturelle, linguistique et
interpersonnelle vécus par les personnes non binaires dans le genre au Québec.
Le deuxième objectif est de comprendre comment ces déficits s’incarnent dans
leur vie quotidienne. Cette communication vise à présenter le plan de mon
projet de mémoire ; la problématique, la question de recherche, la méthodologie
ainsi que les résultats préliminaires si possible.
"‘Le gouvernement des
corps des indigène de la République’ ou l'agentivité décoloniale des héritières
de l'immigration maghrébine” -Sonia Alimi, Université du Québec à Montréal
C’est à partir d’un travail réalisé pour la session d’automne 2017 2 et des
réflexions issues d’expériences féministes, que je vous propose de questionner
la liminarité du changement de statut de corps colonisés à corps résistants
dans un contexte néo-colonial. Plus précisément, sur les questions liées à la
sexualité des héritières de l’immigration maghrébine (marocaine, algérienne et
tunisienne) en France. Depuis l’impérialisme français les corps des femmes
maghrébines ont été « spatialisés » ( Di Méo, 2010) comme territoire
à conquérir. Édifiant ainsi, leurs sexualités comme lieu de pouvoir ( Taraud,
2003). Or, ces rapports de force instituées par la colonisation, se déploient similairement et
insidieusement auprès des françaises-ses héritiers-tières de l’immigration de pays
anciennement colonisés. En témoigne les représentations contemporaines –largement
répandues au sein de la société française- de « l’homme maghrébin,
violent et pervers » et de la « femme maghrébine soumise, à libérer
et à émanciper sexuellement » ( Hamel,2006). De ce fait, ces corps, ces
sexualités désignés comme non conforme à ses principes et valeurs, lui ( à la société
française) permettent de faire fi des oppressions systémiques qu’elle produit (
Guénif- Souilamas, 2005). Cependant, ces corps colonisés, ou héritiers de
l’oppression coloniale, deviennent également des espaces de résistances. La
présentation tentera ainsi, de démontrer l’agentivité, par la réappropriation
d’une oppression- via la revendication de la virginité- de certaines femmes
héritières de l’immigration maghrébine (Tersigni, 2001; Hamel 2006). Il s’agira
de comprendre en quoi la revendication et la conformité à l’état de virginité
de certaines femmes héritières de l’immigration maghrébine participent t’elles
à une décolonialité des corps ?
5:00-5:15 - Break 2
5:15 - 6:15 - Panel 3:
Medical Technologies and The Body (3)
“Différents défis dans la construction du projet parental chez
les couples où l’homme trans est enceinte” - Mylène Shankland, Université du Québec à Montréal
Autant en sociologie qu’en
santé publique, les expériences et les vécus de la gestation chez les hommes
trans sont encore peu explorés (Giami, 2014). Il est possible dans plusieurs
pays de procréer à partir de ses organes reproducteurs assignés à la naissance,
tout en s’identifiant – et en étant institutionnellement reconnu – comme appartenant à un autre
genre. Ceci crée des situations où les hommes sont enceints et où les femmes
procréent avec leur sperme. Toutefois, l’invisibilité des grossesses masculines
contribue à marginaliser les expériences d’expressions transgenres de la parenté.
Avec une approche féministe post-moderne/post-structuraliste (Baril, 2015), il s’agit
de s’intéresser aux vécus des hommes trans et aux expériences habituellement réservées
aux femmes. Notamment, la qualité des relations entretenue par ses hommes avec
l’hôpital ou l’école, le regard porté sur les grossesses masculines, ainsi que
les transformations corporelles que ces hommes vivent.
“Banner the Cosplaying
Service Dog: non-visible disabilities, labour, and
discrimination in the service dog community” -Olivia Dreisinger, Independent Scholar
This talk addresses
non-visible disabilities, non-visible forms of labour, and discrimination in
the service dog community. Service dog users with non-visible disabilities (who
"pass" as non-disabled) are more likely to be questioned about the
legitimacy of their disability and their need to use a service dog compared to
visibly disabled service dog users. In my talk, I will focus specifically on
Banner the “Cosplaying Service Dog” and her handler Koyote. Koyote lives with a
variety of non-visible disabilities such as non-combative PTSD, severe anxiety,
manic depression, and chronic
migraines. As a medical and psychiatric service dog, Banner alerts Koyote to
oncoming migraines, anxiety attacks, and PTSD episodes, assists with running errands,
stops destructive behaviour, and more. Of particular interest is the additional
labour and support Banner performs through their large social media fan base as
a cosplaying service dog, often acting as a surrogate for Koyote to more
comfortably discuss what it’s like living with disability or experiencing
discrimination through their participation in fan spaces and culture.
“Visible Fetus, (In)visible
Mother: Ultrasound and Visual Knowledge” -Melodie Cardin, Carleton University
Prenatal care in Canada has
become highly reliant on technological intervention. As the use of ultrasound
has become increasingly routine, the sonogram has become an icon signifying
pregnancy. Thus, ultrasonography has become a form of “media spectacle”, with
the fetal image “fully incorporated into popular culture” (Draper, 2002). The intense cultural focus
on producing babies understood as healthy serves not only to (re)produce
ableist norms, but also to locate intense scrutiny and surveillance on the body
of the mother (Gentile, 2013). Ultrasound contributes to self-regulatory behaviours
that are framed as liberating and empowering, while simultaneously serving to erase the mother’s
identity (Lupton, 1999). Her self-care, her health care, and the discourses
that engender risk avoidance - all are fetus-directed. This presentation considers
how the visibility of mother/fetus contributes to subjectivity within the
context of ultrasound technologies, and the impacts for health care.
FRIDAY, MARCH 2 -University Centre, SSMU Club Lounge (401), 3480 McTavish St.
3:00 - 3:30 - Registration/
coffee
3:30 - 4:15 - Rachel
Zellars -Keynote Speech
Rachel Zellars is a postdoctoral fellow in History at the
University of Vermont. Her work and research explores the
“afterlife of slavery” as it relates to 3 major research areas: schooling
violence, gender violence, and disability. Her talk explores the historical relationship between
Blackness, enslavement, and disability, with a specific focus on putting in
context, recent and ongoing police killings of Black disabled peoples in light
of this history.
4:15 - 4:30 - Break 1
4:30 - 5:30 - Panel 4:
Transgressing Borders
“Bridging scientific laboratories and commercial kitchens with
inter-epistemics; or, the story of ‘a handmade cheese.’” - Maya Hey, Concordia University
Feminist
critiques of science usher in productive epistemological conversations between subjectivity
and objectivity (Harding, 1986; Knorr Cetina, 2001; Barad, 2007; Haraway, 1991).
These arguments help analyze the ways in which food knowledge is produced and reified
in places such as scientific laboratories and commercial kitchens. Fermented
foods bridge these two spaces given their microbial presence. Though invisible,
microbes can animate discourses of contamination and disgust in relation to the
eater’s body. Particularly useful are Elizabeth Grosz’s word of caution that
the body is neither unified nor universal (1994), as well as Lisa Heldke’s
understanding of “mentally-manual activities” in her articulation of foodmaking
as an epistemic endeavor (1992, p.218). In the same spirit that feminist
critiques try to breathe nuance and complexity into dominant claims, this paper
attempts to imbue new meanings in (re)mediating relationships with microbial
life.
“Représentations visuelles
par UNHCR Canada des réfugié-es syriens/syriennes réinstallé-es au pays”-
Charlotte Dahin, Université d’Ottawa
Les représentations
visuelles utilisées par les médias et les organisations internationales pour représenter
les personnes réfugiées sont de puissants outils de communication. Ces images
ont un impact important sur la manière dont le public se représente les
personnes réfugiées en général, mais aussi sur le soutien qu’il portera (ou
non) aux politiques d’immigration (Johnson, 2011, 1016). Dans cette
communication, j’étudierai les représentations visuelles (et les légendes)
utilisées par UNHCR Canada pour traiter de la réinstallation récente de
réfugié-es syriens et syriennes au sein du pays. Dans une perspective féministe
intersectionelle et postcolonialiste, et sur base de la littérature relative
aux représentations des réfugié-es en général, je proposerai une analyse des
différentes stratégies (hypervisibilité des femmes et des enfants ;
utilisation de l’iconographie chrétienne ;…) utilisées par UNHCR Canada par
rapport à l’objectif poursuivit de promouvoir la réinstallation et l’insertion
des nouveaux/nouvelles arrivant-es et leurs implications (Baines, 2004; Bleiker
et al., 2013; Kogut and Ritov, 2005; Lenette, 2016; Wright, 2002).
“The Rise of Fourth Wave
Feminism in the MENA region? Cyber-feminism and Women’s Activism at the
Crossroads of the Arab Spring” -Maha Tazi, Concordia University
This paper explores the
rise of fourth wave feminism in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
region. Fourth wave feminism finds its origins in Web 2.0 and User Generated
Content (UGC) technologies; it is characterized by a mass of tech savvy and
young feminists who harness the power of the Internet and the ICTs to advocate
for social justice and gender equality. Whereas
much of the existing literature about this new wave tends to focus on Europe
and North America, periodizing its emergence in 2008, research documenting the
rise of fourth wave feminism in the MENA region is actually limited. However,
the advent of the Internet and the ICTs has also, if not primarily, impacted the feminist movement in
the Middle East in the recent years in the context of the Arab Spring,
where the democratization of
digital technologies played a crucial role in enabling feminist activists to
work around state censorship and repression to contest both authoritarian
regimes and the ongoing gender inequalities in the region.
5:30 - 5:45 - Break 2
5:45 - 6:45 - Panel 5:
Women Doing
“Presencing Settler
Colonialism: Settler girls’ engagement with colonial violence against
Indigenous women and girls” -Stephanie Claude, University of Ottawa
I explore how current
understandings of Euro-Western girlhood are predicated on an invisible
foundation of settler colonialism that has never been interrogated. While there
has been an overrepresentation of Euro-Western girls’ voices within both
feminist and girlhood studies, virtually no attention has been given to the
complex ways that settler colonial forces mediate Settler girls’ lived
realities and identity formation. Further, while there exists an abundance of literature
related to Euro-Western girlhood and violence, there is a silence in the
literature regarding how Settler Canadian girls engage with recently emerging
discourses surrounding systemic violence towards Indigenous girls and women.
Drawing on the contributions of Indigenous feminist and girlhood scholars, I
argue that such a silence precludes a critical understanding of the ways in
which the identity formation of Settler girls is intricately linked to the
subjugation and violation of Indigenous girls. This silence further prevents an
examination of the complicity/active
participation of Settler girls in maintaining colonial systems of injustice and
violence. “Presencing” settler colonialism within girlhood and feminist
studies, I argue, is critical to exposing the ever-present dynamics of settler
colonization and their powerful effects on both Settler and Indigenous girls.
Such “presencing" also disrupts the colonial fixation on the so-called
“Indigenous problem” in order to interrogate the Settler problem — colonial ideologies
and practices that allow Settler girls to profit from the dispossession,
dehumanization and disposal of Indigenous
girls and peoples.
“Maintenance Labour,
Legacy, and the Archive: A Visit with Éléonore de Lavandeyra Schöffer” -Lindsay
Leblanc, Concordia University
While on a trip to Paris,
France this past October, I scheduled an appointment to visit the atelier of
the late artist Nicolas Schöffer—the subject of my Master’s thesis, who is best
known for introducing the scientific discourse of cybernetics to art. Today,
the artist’s widow Éléonore de Lavandeyra Schöffer maintains his estate, and
continues to manage his artistic practice after his death by routinely
collaborating with museums and scholars toward the exhibition and restoration
of his works. She was also the one to guide me through Nicolas Schöffer’s
archive the day of my visit. Speaking with her shed new light on my research
and brought considerations to the table that suddenly felt critical to my
approach; the discussions I was able to have with her raised serious questions
about my accountability as an academic researching her late husband’s work. In this
presentation, I will share my experience visiting with Éléonore, and discuss
the feminized labour that upholds the legacy of history’s great, male,
modernist artists.
“Radical Subjectivity in
Soviet Melodrama of the Khrushchev Thaw” -Meredith Slifkin, Concordia
University
The Khrushchev Thaw
(roughly 1953-1964) heralded a period of cultural renaissance in the USSR. A
new language was needed during the Thaw to understand the changing cultural
landscape and the subsequent subjectivity newly afforded to its citizens. I
argue that melodrama functions as a tool for understanding and articulating
this new subjectivity, by renegotiating identity and emotional expression
through cinematic language. Thaw melodramas respond to the need for stories
that deal with the personal, the experiential, and the emotional. This paper
will examine specifically the roles and representations of women, through
analyses of The Cranes are Flying (Kalatozov, 1957) and Spring on Zarechnaya
Street (Khutsiev, 1956), two melodramas typical of the Thaw aesthetic and
ideology. I argue that these films constitute a dramatic shift in the representation
of women in Soviet melodrama, from the heroic “new woman,” who embodies the
socialist ideal, to the radical subjectivity of the “real woman,” who emotes unprecedented
fragility, ambiguity, and desire.
6:45 - 7:00 - Break 3
7:00 - 7:45 - kimura
byol-nathalie lemoine -Keynote Speech and Presentation of Short Films
kimura byol-nathalie lemoine (나타리 르무완 * ナタリー.ルモワーヌ)
is a conceptual multimedia feminist artist
who works on identities (diaspora, ethnicity, colorism, post-colonialism,
immigration, gender), and expresses it with calligraphy, paintings, digital images, poems, videos and photography.
kimura*lemoine’s work has been exhibited, screened, published and supported
nationally and internationally. As a curator, kimura-lemoine has developed projects that give
voice and visibility to minorities and as an activist archivist, ze is
working on ACA (adoptees cultural archives)
to document the history of adoptee’s culture through media and arts. Ze
is a recipient of 2014-2015 Mentorship Program from Montreal Arts Interculturals and a
2015 Vivacité Grant from
Montreal Arts Council and the Prize PowerHouse from Gallery La
Centrale and the 2017 doc residency ‘Regard sur Montréal‘ (CAM, NFB, ACIC).
kimura*lemoine
will present a series of short films, followed by the talk on the following
subject:
when the body doesn’t fit the mind
when the language doesn’t fit the person
when the race doesn’t fit the language
when the mind doesn’t fit the person
quand le corps de correspond pas à l'esprit
quand la langue ne correspond pas avec la
personne
quand la race ne correspond pas à la langue
quand l'esprit ne correspond pas à la personne
7:45 - 8:30 -Post-colloquium snacks and wrap up in the SSMU Club Lounge
We will continue the generated discussions over drinks at Thomson House (3650 McTavish St.) afterwards, please join us.
We will continue the generated discussions over drinks at Thomson House (3650 McTavish St.) afterwards, please join us.