Traces of Home

Framed as a “genocide of memory,” Traces of Home asked: what does it mean to lose not only land, but the intimate archives of belonging? How do communities grieve when the material anchors of memory are erased?

An oral history dimension grounded the discussion across three generations: a daughter remembering a father who passed before witnessing the demolition of the home he built in his village; a son carrying the memory of a his Palestinian  father; and a young man holding onto his grandparents’ call to return to Bint Jbeil as home.

The conversation also opened into an open mic, inviting participants to share their own stories of loss and grief, creating a collective space of witnessing. Through decolonial perspectives, speakers explored storytelling and remembrance as forms of resistance, and asks how dignity, identity, and connection to place can be reclaimed in the face of erasure.

The conversation featured a panel of scholars and practitioners: Diana Moukalled, a co-founder and managing editor of Daraj Media, an independent media platform founded in 2017 in Beirut focusing on covering corruption and underreported stories. Guillaume Jabbour, French Canadian Palestinian, who centers his practice around sound, research-creation and community engagement. Jad Orphée Chami, an artist-researcher and composer from Beirut, based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. Zeina Ismail Allouche, Research Coordinator at the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP) and the Associate Director of CPN-PREV, facilitated the discussion.

The Stage as a Site of Refusal: Aesthetics & Acts of Resistance

The hybrid event brought together participants for a dynamic exchange examining the stage as a decolonial space where embodied practices, storytelling, and artistic expression challenge erasure while creating space for counter-narratives, relational ethics, and collective imagination. 

The conversation featured a panel of scholars and practitioners: Safia Boufalaas, whose research explores the representation of bodies in contexts of extreme violence through documentary imagery; Rita Barotta, a scholar of gender, sexuality, and feminist epistemology whose work bridges journalism, research, and creative writing; and Chadi Ayoub, a visual artist whose sculptural and participatory work interrogates identity, visibility, and belonging. Zeina Ismail-Allouche facilitated the discussion.

Safety and the Ethics of Vulnerability

How can we share stories of pain, resistance, and survival without retraumatizing ourselves—or unintentionally inviting voyeuristic responses? This question anchored the most recent event in the Unveiling Equity workshop series, Safety and the Ethics of Vulnerability, held on Monday, November 11, 2025, at 4TH SPACE, Concordia University. The in-person session invited the participants, Catherine Richardson, Rawda Harb and kimura byol lemoine, to reflect on the power and politics of recounting personal histories. Where healing meets the risk of exposure, how vulnerability can be navigated with care, and what it means to reclaim agency in telling one’s truth. Together, attendees considered the responsibilities we hold—to ourselves and to others—when sharing stories shaped by trauma, oppression, and resilience. Read our full coverage.

Laughter as Resistance

The second session of the day, Laughter as Resistance, featured comedians Johnny El Hage (@estroubia), Saad Fennich (@saad.humoriste), and Sandy El-Bitar (@sindee_elb) in a lively, entertaining and poignant conversation with Zeina Ismail-Allouche. The conversation reframed laughter as an expression of joy and a subversive tool that challenges dominant narratives and defies oppression. Read our full coverage.

A podcast later resulted from this session, featuring Johnny El Hage. Listen on SoundCloud or Spotify.

<dis> representation: an experiment and workshop addressing pluralism in the art

In March the first round of the Unveiling Equity workshop series concluded with the interactive webinar <dis> representation: an experiment and workshop addressing pluralism in the art, organized by Veronica Mockler (CSLP Artist-in-Residence) and José Cortés (PhD student, Art Education) and featuring research-creator Kathleen Vaughan, curator and educator Daniel Fiset, socially engaged artist Florencia Sosa Rey, as well as Galerie Galerie's co-director Sophie Latouche. The online webinar delved into the intricacy of plural representation of socially engaged art online in a wide-ranging conversation about the intersection of art and social media, and the role of a curator vis-à-vis the artists curated. Read our full coverage.

Tackling Structural Racism

The first workshop was on February 7, with a morning session in English and an afternoon session in French. Vivek Venkatesh was joined by colleagues from the University of Alberta’s Department of Native Studies, Nykkie Lugosi-Schimpf and Celina Yellowbird, with the panel moderated by Kathryn Urbaniak (PhD candidate). The panelists shared strategies for sensitizing the public and building dialogic spaces to counter different forms of structural racism. They also discussed recommendations for policy makers in education, mental health, social service, public safety, and other fields. In the French session, Lugosi-Schimpf swapped out with University of Alberta’s Paul Gareau and the session was moderated by Rawda Harb (PhD candidate).