MONTREAL/November 2, 2004—
Participation in this conference is by invitation only for the public. The media is welcome to attend.
Thursday, November 4, 2004 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Concordia University
Room H-767 ñ 7th floor ñ Henry F. Hall Building
1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West
In partnership with the Concordia section of the joint Concordia/UQAM Chair in Ethnic Studies and le Centre de recherche sur l'immigration, l'ethnicitÈ et la citoyennetÈ (CRIEC) at UQAM, and in collaboration with the Institut du Monde Arabe (Paris), UNESCO, and the Quebec ministers of Culture and International Relations, the Salon de la culture du FMA will explore the topic of safeguarding cultural diversity in a conference featuring politicians, writers, intellectuals, artists and journalists from the Arab world and from Quebec. The conference will close with a word from Line Beauchamp, Quebec Minister of Culture and Communications.
Participants include: Robert SolÈ, former editor-in-chief and news editor of the newspaper Le Monde (Paris); Rachid Boudjedra, writer and thinker (Algeria); Pierre Curzi, President of the Coalition canadienne pour la diversitÈ culturelle; AndrÈ Dorval, Director-General of International Affairs and Cultural Diversity, Quebec Ministry of Culture and Communications; Aziza Bennani, Ambassador of Morocco to UNESCO; FranÁois Zabbal, editor-in-chief of Qantara, of the Institut du Monde Arabe (Paris); NaÔm Kattan, writer and associate professor at UQAM (Montreal); Ivan Bernier, professor of law at UniversitÈ Laval (Quebec); Arianne Emond, Director of Culture Montrèal (City of Montreal); and numerous other personalities.
The conference, titled Vers une nÈcessaire protection de la diversitÈ culturelle, will bring the following perspectives to the forefront, through the conference and ensuing workshops:
ï Cultural diversity, as balanced between the universality of free trade and the dangers of uniformity
ï The blossoming of Arab culture in the face of cultural or political hegemony: Is the overlapping of identity the only foreseeable solution?
ï Cultural and global resistance: divergence and convergence among Arab, Quebec and Canadian experiences. http://pulicaffairs.concordia.ca
www.festivalarabe.com
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