York University Moveable Millennial Wisdom Symposium to Bring Together 18 World-Renowned Novelists, Historians, Archeologists to Answer Fundamental Questions About this Century and Next

TORONTO, June 30, 1999 -- While people across the land have been turning to technocrats to ready their organizations for the Year 2000, it is time now to turn to novelists, historians and archeologists for answers and ideas about what this century taught us and how those lessons can help guide us in the new Millennium.

Celebrated novelist and York University Professor Susan Swan has put together eight ambitious public events which collectively she is calling a moveable millennial wisdom symposium. Sponsored by York's Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, in co-operation with the Royal Ontario Museum, "Making Up the Past: The Archeology of Fiction" will feature 18 prominent novelists, historians and archeologists who will talk about the way we re-create the past in popular culture through literature, archeology and history.

"Is the past a fiction? Do we ever learn from the past, and if so, what wisdom does the past have to offer us as we enter the Twenty-First century?" asks Swan, the Robarts Millennial Chair in Canadian Studies. Swan will host the events, which run from October 1999 through to April 2000 at York University and the Royal Ontario Museum Theatre.

The symposium is an innovative, first-time collaborative effort in which major archeologists, historians and international writers such as Anne Michaels, Alberto Manguel, Ronald Wright, Guy Vanderhaeghe, Carol Christ, Rosalind Miles, Karen Connelly, Tomson Highway and Dionne Brand will focus their energies on the techniques of sensible magic they use to conjure the plurality of visions that make up our collective pasts.

Swan embraced the idea of a symposium while researching her next novel, What Casanova Told Me, whose theme deals with receiving wisdom and inspiration from the past. It traces the travels of a female Canadian archeologist who is influenced by the journals of her ancestor, a Puritan Yankee who travelled the Mediterranean with Casanova at the end of the legendary Venetian's life.

The conference findings will be published after the last public event at York University's international conference of historians, April 13 to 15, 2000. A synopsis of events follows on the next page. A full media kit with biographies, pictures and excerpts will be available in August.

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For more information, please contact:

Sine MacKinnon
Senior Advisor, Media Relations
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22087
email: sinem@yorku.ca

Prof. Susan Swan, Chair
Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies
York University
(416) 323-0870
email: sswan@yorku.ca
YU/074/99

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MILLENNIAL WISDOM SYMPOSIUM hosted by novelist, York University Professor Susan Swan sponsored by York's Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies in co-operation with the Royal Ontario Museum

I. Opening event, Monday, October 4, 1999, 7:30 p.m., Royal Ontario Museum Theatre:
Is the Past a Fiction?

Celebrated critic, anthologist, and essayist Alberto Manguel will delve into why we are haunted by the past. Canada's most celebrated and astute social commentator, Manguel will discuss the philosophical and literary implications behind our re-creation of the past and attempt to answer the question, Is the Past a Fiction? (Manguel will give a follow-up talk Tuesday, Oct. 5, 5 p.m. at York University)

Internationally acclaimed and award-winning novelist Dionne Brand will talk about writing about the dispossessed past.

Near Eastern expert Dr. Edward Keall will address the question of narrating the ancient past.

II. Tuesday, November 9, 1999, 5 p.m., York University:
Millennial Wisdom: Is the only thing we learn from history that we never learn? Speakers will discuss what wisdom the past has to offer the new century.

Acclaimed novelist and former archeologist Ronald Wright, Canada's most acclaimed travel and history writer, will discuss the implications for the future presented in his award-winning novel, A Scientific Romance.

Canadian historian Marlene Shore, co-organizer of York's Historians and their Audiences Conference, will speak on "History of the future/the future of history"

Balkan scholar, York professor and ROM archeologist Tim Kaiser will talk about "Archeology and ideology in the Balkan Killing Fields."

III. Wednesday, November 24, l999, 7:30 p.m., Royal Ontario Museum:
Excavating the Feminine Past: Do Women Make a Better World?

British historian and novelist Rosalind Miles will address "The Phallusy of History."

Feminist thealogian Carol Christ, seminal figure in the late Twentieth Century Goddess movement, will talk on "Why We Need the Goddess."

Trent University archeologist Susan Jamieson will speak on "Gender and archeology."

Toronto mystery author Lyn Hamilton, who sets her novels in ancient cultures, will look to "Mystery writing and Feminist Scholarship."

Speakers will discuss how researching the past has affected them as women and as writers.
(Follow-up reading: Thursday, November 25, 5 p.m. with women writers from the symposium such as Dionne Brand, Susan Swan and Carol Christ. Event will be co-sponsored with Robarts, The Centre For Feminist Research, and Vanier College's Annual Women's Writing Conference at the York campus.)

IV. Tuesday, January 11, 2000, 5 p.m., York University:
Excavating ๋the Other': Writing about a culture or a gender that isn't your own.

Award-winning writer Karen Connelly will speak to "Inside Out: Putting Yourself in the skin of another culture." The 30-year old, Calgary-born writer speaks five languages, and at 24, won the Governor- General's non-fiction award for her book about Thailand called Touch the Dragon.

Governor-General-Award-winner Thomson Highway, Canada's most celebrated native writer, will discuss "Writing the Female Voice." Highway will explain why women figure prominently in his play and novels about native life, on and off Canadian reserves, and the importance of women in native mythology.

V. Tuesday, February 1, 2000, 5 p.m., York University:
Big, Big Solitudes (To be confirmed)

Quebec novelist Monique Proulx

Toronto playwright Michael Hollingsworth

VI. Thursday, March 2, 2000, 7:30 p.m., Royal Ontario Museum Theatre:
Making Up Toronto: Two writers, an archeologist delve into the past to reconstruct a city.

Internationally acclaimed novelist, Anne Michaels, author of Fugitive Pieces, will speak to "The Past as Landscape."

Greg Gatenby, artistic director, Harbourfront Reading Series, poet and author of the newly released, Toronto: A Literary Guide, will speak on Toronto's literary past. Gatenby is currently working on a literary history of Toronto.

ROM archeologist Dr. Mima Kapches, will talk about her book, Before they came, which describes how Toronto looked before the arrival of white settlers.

VII. The Robarts Chair Lecture Tuesday, March 21, 2000, 5 p.m., Senate Chamber, York University:

Robarts Millennial Chair Susan Swan will discuss history and the novelist and share symposium findings.

VIII. Friday, April 14, 2000, 7:30 p.m., York University:
International conference of historians, 'Historians and their Audiences'

Governor-General award winner Guy Vanderhaeghe and acclaimed novelist and Robarts scholar Susan Swan will talk about history and the novelist. Swan will discuss the recent popularity of historical fiction and why the novelist's approach of 'mythic intent' to the creation of the past can sometimes be more reliable than traditional academic narratives. Swan is also an associate professor of Humanities at York and the Director of its Creative Writing Program.