Graduate students from across the country will come together at York to explore themes of inequality, colonialism, racism, sexism, and other social and economic disparities that exist in Canadian society during a two-day graduate student conference hosted by the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies.
The conference, titled “Transgressing the Nation-state: Constructs of Canadian Identity,takes place on April 20 and 21. It received sponsorship from York’s Department of Political Science and Faculty of Graduate Studies.
The conference features graduate student research presentations from across Canada, and many York faculty members will be participating as panel discussants.
Complementing the topic of the conference is the fifth annual Robarts Lecture in Canadian Studies, which takes place at 6:30pm on Thursday, April 20 in 519 Kaneff Tower.
Bonita Lawrence
This year, Bonita Lawrence will be delivering a powerful and challenging talk, “Canada at 150: Where is the ‘Truth’ in the Reconciliation Process?” Lawrence (Mi’kmaw) is an associate professor in the Department of Equity Studies, where she teaches Indigenous studies. Her research and publications have focused primarily on federally unrecognized Indigenous communities, urban and non-status Indigenous identities, Indigenous-African relations, and Indigenous justice.
In addition to a number of book chapters and articles, she is the author of Fractured Homeland: Federal Recognition and Algonquin Identity in Ontario (UBC Press, 2012) and “Real” Indians and Others: Mixed-Blood Urban Native People and Indigenous Nationhood, (Nebraska and UBC, 2004), and is co-editor, with Kim Anderson, of a collection of Native women’s scholarly and activist writing entitled Strong Women Stories: Native Vision and Community Survival.
All are welcome to attend a reception before the lecture in 519 Kaneff Tower at 5:30pm for refreshments, light fare and music by the Liam Stanley Trio. Registration for this event is free and open to the York community.
Visit yorkrobartsgraduateconference.org for more details.