Events

Exploring World Languages and Cultures Series: Lessons from Japanese Culture

Matcha as a Global Cultural Practice

Guest speaker: Reina Sakao (Sakao Japanese Tea)
Date: February 19, 2026, 1:00–2:30 p.m.
Location: Research-Creation Space at CSLP (2nd floor, Grey Nuns Annex (GA), Room 2.221, 1211 Saint-Mathieu St., Montreal, QC H3H 2S2)

The initiative is free and open to everyone. Participation is not limited to Concordia students.
Registration: https://forms.office.com/r/vrjpZF4YMZ

This talk session explores matcha as a cultural product that has gained global popularity beyond Japan. This talk will provide an overview of matcha, its cultural and historical background, contemporary consumption in Japan and abroad, and ongoing debates surrounding authenticity, sustainability, and commercialization.

The session will feature a special guest, Reina Sakao (Madame Matcha), a tea practitioner who will share her personal and professional perspectives on the past, present, and future of matcha and tea practices. She will also offer a brief demonstration.

You will be invited to examine the familiar everyday practice of matcha through traditional, critical, and global lenses. Guided by a professional practitioner, you will engage in discussion and reflection on how matcha is practiced and understood across cultures.

This event is part of EmpowerGrad events by the CSLP in collaboration with Concordia Japanese Language and Culture Community.

Contact: ryuichi.suzuki@concordia.ca or @jlcc.official on Instagram

The Stage as a Site of Refusal

Aesthetics and Acts of Resistance

• Monday, March 2, 2026, 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
• Register now

This conversation approaches the stage as a decolonial space where refusal operates as both method and stance. Centering positionality, the session reflects on how embodied, artistic, and narrative practices are shaped by lived histories of colonialism, systemic violence, displacement, and resistance.

Rather than aspiring to neutrality or universality, the discussion affirms situated knowledge and accountability, asking who speaks, from where, and at what cost.

Through aesthetics, performance becomes a practice of refusal, refusing extraction and erasure, while opening space for counter-narratives, relational ethics, and collective re-imagining. Within the Unveiling Equity series, the stage is framed not only as a platform for representation, but as a site of struggle, care, dignity, and insurgent possibility.

Japanese Language and Cultural Exchange

During the Winter 2026 semester, the Center for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP) is inviting the Concordia and Montréal communities to take part in a Japanese Language and Cultural Exchange, led by CSLP Student Affiliates (Ryuichi Suzuki & Vitor Yano) and the Concordia Japanese Language and Culture Community.

The weekly sessions run from January 20 to April 14, taking place every Tuesday from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. at the CSLP (Grey Nuns Annex (GA), Room 1.210, 1211 Saint-Mathieu St., Montreal, QC H3H 2S2). (There will be no session on March 3.)

The initiative is open to everyone, whether participants are beginners, advanced learners, or simply curious about Japanese language and culture. Participation is not limited to Concordia students, and no registration is required.

The gatherings are designed as a welcoming and inclusive space where participants can practice Japanese, explore cultural topics, and connect with others in a friendly setting. Conversations take place in pairs or small groups. While the focus is on Japanese, the use of other languages, such as English and French, is also welcome.

Anyone with questions about the exchange is encouraged to contact the organizers at concordia.jlcc@gmail.com or follow the initiative on Instagram (@jlcc.official).

Readers are also invited to check out previous Japanese language and cultural exchange initiatives supported by CSLP.

• CSLP supports student-led Japanese language group
• New student initiative: Japanese Language & Cultural Exchange
• Fostering a sense of community and belonging for students and community members

Interrogating Our Own Work: The Art of Debating Your Research Project – Engaging with critique and building confidence in defending your ideas

• Date and Time: February 11, 2026, 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
• Sign up here: https://forms.gle/Ezy17WpyJbdtWHtL8

Organized by Britney Vu, Interrogating Our Own Work: The Art of Debating Your Research Project is designed to foster open, supportive, and critical engagement with ongoing research. Too often, students work in isolation, and while conferences and symposiums offer spaces to present ideas, meaningful feedback is frequently limited by time constraints. This event aims to fill that gap by creating a safe and constructive environment for students to share their work-in-progress, receive thoughtful critique, and practice articulating and defending their research decisions. Participants will be encouraged to reflect on their methodologies, assumptions, and findings as they learn from the perspectives of others. Whether presenting an outline or a literature review, refining a dissertation chapter, preparing for a defense, or testing a new idea, this session offers a unique opportunity to interrogate one’s work in dialogue with a supportive scholarly community.