To kick-off their Fall 2014 semester, University of the Streets Café is hosting a series of public conversations in conjunction with Just Watch Me at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery. For three consecutive Wednesdays, starting September 10, we will consider what it means to be a Quebecer today. Together, we will explore questions of identity on a national, individual, and local level.
Part 1 of 3 – September 10, 2014
Hybrid Identities: How is Quebec changing?
The 1970s marked an important period of transformation for Quebec society. With the Quiet Revolution came a series of reforms that would further shape Quebec’s cultural and historical references in contrast from the rest of Canada. However, 50 years, 2 referendums and 1 charter of values project later, globalization and its diversifying effect on Quebec society have changed the landscape significantly. How is Quebec’s identity constructed today? Who is included, who is excluded and what does this say about us as individuals and as a nation? This public conversation invites us to consider our collective and ever-changing identity. How do we perceive ourselves and how is this influenced by the state, the economy and the culture that surrounds us? Can stronger communities emerge from a more hybrid understanding of who we are?
Guest
Sherry Simon teaches in the French Department at Concordia and has written books and articles related to Quebec literature and film. In particular she has explored the changing culture of Montreal, inspired by the life of her neighbourhood, Mile End, in the 1980s and 1990s. She is the author of Translating Montreal, which appeared in French as Traverser Montréal. Une histoire culturelle par la traduction and a more recent book Cities in Translation (Routledge 2012) , Villes en Traduction (PUM 2013).
Moderator
Jimmy Ung is a Montreal-born second generation Quebecer and proud child of Bill 101. He has worked as a leadership facilitator for an international NGO and as a political advisor to a Member of Parliament. He currently works in Ottawa as a program officer for the Canadian Commission for UNESCO where his passion for life-long and life-wide learning has him coming back to Montreal for University of the Streets Café conversations!
When: Wednesday, September 10, 2014, from 7 to 9 p.m.
Where: Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W
