In May 2018, York University hosted the first Greek Canadian studies conference. Academics, writers, and film producers gathered in Toronto to inaugurate this new field of study and consider its spatial and conceptual boundaries.
In the intervening years, scholars from this field have committed to eschewing assumptions of Greek Canadian insularity and triumphalist histories of Greek migrants’ integration into Canada. A focus on mobilities, mappings, and materialities has proven fruitful, broadening researchers’ gaze, revealing novel insights, and prompting new questions. Among these are questions about Greek Canadians’ engagement with First Nations peoples. Specifically: where can we locate sites of sustained interaction and exchange; how was identity enacted, and how did race operate within these settings; and to what degree did migrants accept, endorse, or contest the power dynamics of settler colonialism?
“The Greeks of Turtle Island” considers these questions and explores the conceptual terrain opened through comparisons of Greek and Indigenous approaches to indigeneity and decolonial pedagogy.
If you are interested in participating in this project, please email us at hhfgca@yorku.ca