Of Note
Peace and Conflict Resolution Series
Dean of Graduate Studies Elizabeth Saccá is delighted with the way the Peace and Conflict Resolution Series has gone so far, and the Rector has approved it for a third year.
Fourteen proposals involving 29 events were scheduled this year, mainly lectures and panel discussions. However, Saccá said that she noticed that submissions showed increasing confidence.
“The first ones were more cautious and traditional, but as time went on and people became accustomed to the process, the proposals became more venturesome, more diverse, with more creativity and debate. We’re looking for increasing interactivity, and tougher subjects, such as the recent lecture about the Cambodian genocide.”
The next deadline for submissions is March 30. The co-ordinator, Laurie Scholes Lamoureux, would be happy to help applicants prepare their submissions. She can be contacted at peace@alcor.concordia.ca.
South African speaker
On March 8 and 10, the Department of Communications and Media Studies will present a talk in the Peace and Conflict Resolution series by Philippe-Joseph Salazar on “The Rhetoric of Reconciliation.”
Dr. Salazar is the Distinguished Professor in Humane Letters, Life Fellow and Co-Director of the Center for Rhetoric Studies, University of Cape Town, South Africa, and UNESCO Transcultural Chair of Philosophy of Peace at the University of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
He will give two public lectures, preceded by screening of the documentary A Long Night's Journey Into Day. The screening on March 8 will be at 6 p.m. in Room H-760 of the Hall building, followed by a lecture at 7:30 called “After Apartheid: People Arguing for Justice.”
The screening on March 10 will be at 9 a.m. in CC-115, followed by a lecture at 10:30 a.m. called “The Mandela Legacy: Reconciliation Deliberation.”
The co-ordinator of the event is Professor Maurice Charland.
Globalization, all over town
The wide-ranging subject of “Transforming Globalized Conflicts” is being discussed in a “forum series” conducted by the University of the Streets Café, whose discussions are held all over Montreal in places where people normally gather and talk, such as neighborhood restaurants.
The results of these discussions can be found in a weblog run by forum rapporteur Audrey Sasson, which is linked to the peace@alcor website. The co-ordinators are Associate Professor of Political Science Peter Stoett, and Eric Abitbol, who is co-ordinator of the University of the Streets Café Program.
Imagining and Imaging Peace
The artistic and spiritual side of peace-seeking is being explored in a series that starts today with a lecture by Political Science Professor Joanna Bottenberg, in Room CC-320 on the Loyola Campus.
There are six events in all in this series, all in the evening. They include theologian Gregory Baum on March 10, Music Professor Wolfgang Bottenberg on March 12, Communication Studies Professor Marc Gervais on March 23 and Women’s Studies Professor Lillian Robinson on March 31. For the venues and other information, please contact peace@alcor.concordia.ca.
Irish republican activists stalled
Claire Delisle, who is doing an MA thesis on the subject of the prisoner community and the peace process in Northern Ireland, is anxiously awaiting news about her event. Delisle invited two speakers for March 15, but they have been refused visas by the Canadian government.
Dr. Laurence McKeown is a writer, a playwright, and a film director. He was imprisoned in Long Kesh, outside Belfast, from 1976 to1992, where he was a hunger striker in 1981 along with the late Bobby Sands, and later earned a PhD. He is the chair of the West Belfast Film Festival, the author of several books about the Irish Republican prisoner community. Dr. Ella O'Dwyer was imprisoned in England from1984 until her release in 1998 as part of the Good Friday Agreement. She also earned a PhD while in prison and has written a book, The Rising of the Moon, that discusses language and power in conflict. She is currently doing research on post-conflict healing and reconciliation.
The fact that they were refused visas doesn’t surprise Delisle, because visitors with jail terms are automatically refused. However, she has been pursuing a ministerial permit, which is sometimes granted, according to the circumstances.
News about this event will be posted on the Peace and Conflict Resolution website and on news@concordia.ca.
Lots of conferences coming up
The major research project on royal processions in 16th-century France, under the leadership of Marie-France Wagner, will hold a conference April 1 to 3 called “Political Spectacle in the Street: Events, Rituals and Stories.”
GRES stands for Groupe de recherche sur les entrées solennelles au 16e siècle. The research project was launched in 2002 with a $1.6 million SSHRC grant, one of the largest in the agency’s history, and includes collaborators in the U.S. and Europe.
The conference will focus on “the celebratory street as urban form: its plasticity, rituals, ephemeral transformations and transfiguration at the moment of the political event.” It will take place at the Bronfman Centre, 1590 av. Docteur-Penfield. For more information, please contact GRES@vax2.concordia.ca.
Hiphop culture
The third annual Symposium on Hiphop Culture is planned for March 12-14 in Rooms H-110 and H-435 of the Hall Building. This is a lively event that seeks to encourage the study of hiphop. It includes discussions, screenings and, of course, performance.
This year, the featured speakers are Marineves Alba, founder and director of Hip Hop L.E.A.D.S., a youth project based in New York, and Jorge “Fabel” Pabon, who will give a lecture titled “The Great Hip Hop Swindle,” harking back to the olden days before the popular art form was commercialized.
Panel discussions will look at the history of African-American dance in Montreal, entrepreneurship and the role of the intermediary in hiphop consumption, graffiti and archiving hiphop culture, and violence in relation to hiphop.
Fabel will teach a “popping and locking” dance workshop on Saturday, March 13, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Cat’s Corner, 486 Ste. Catherine St. W., Studio 303. The symposium will end wih a screening of Josh Miller’s documentary What is a Bboy? For more information, go to hiphop_academix.tripod.com.
Grad students on Gender and Modernity
The ninth History in the Making conference will be held at Concordia on Saturday, March 6.
This year’s edition promises to be more interdisciplinary than ever. Papers will be presented by specialists in history, art history, English, German, anthropology, the humanities, the social sciences and art, and presenters have been invited from universities across the continent.
The featured speakers are Irene Gammel, author of Baroness Elsa, and Dr. Serge Guilbaut, author of How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art.
Organized by and for graduate students, History in the Making provides a unique opportunity for those who participate. Presenters exercise their public speaking skills, communicate their research findings to an informed audience of peers, meet and exchange ideas with students from Montreal and abroad, and have their work published in the conference proceedings, often for the first time.
The organizers are James Vandenberg, an MA student, along with fellow MA students Matthew Friedman and Shera Morgan. The conference chair is PhD candidate Matthew Barlow. For details, consult www.historyinthemaking.ca.
R/Evolution 3: Pop
R/Evolution 3: Pop is the title of a conference to be held in the DeSève Cinema on March 20-21. All the organizers are graduate students at Concordia in Humanities, Communications, Media Studies and Art Therapy, and this event is in its third year.
The keynote speaker is Will Straw, who teaches communications teacher at McGill. For more, go to this article on CTR online, at ctr.concordia.ca.
Call for Nominations
Concordia Council for Student Life Awards
For work in student media, teaching, and extracurricular activity
For more information or for nomination forms, please contact the Dean of Students Office.
Deadline for nominations: Wednesday, March 17
Deputy Speaker of Senate
Senate is calling for nominations for a Deputy Speaker of Senate. The current Speaker, Dr. John O’Brien, is not stepping down, but Senate Steering Committee is looking to ensure a smooth transition.
This is an elected position, unpaid, for a one-year renewable term. The vote is expected to take place at the March 19 meeting. Students, faculty and staff, are eligible to nominate anyone who is serving or has served on Senate.
For nomination details and a list of current Senate members, please go to call for nominations.
Spring 2004 Convocation Medals and Awards
Graduating students (Fall 03 and Spring 04) may be nominated for the Concordia Medal, Malone Medal, O’Brien Medal, Lieutenant-Governor’s Award, Stanley G. French Medal
The First Graduating Class Award is for contributions, academic or extracurricular, to university life.
Forms and criteria are available from the Dean of Students Offices (SGW and LOY) and the Birks Student Service Centre (SGW).
Deadline: March 31, to the Office of the Registrar, SGW-LB-700, attention H. Albert.
Alumni Association Recognition Awards
Alumni of the Year - Benoit Pelland Distinguished Service Award
Honorary Life Membership (non-graduate) - Outstanding Student Award
Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching - MBA Alumni of the Year Award
Outstanding Faculty/Staff Award
Deadline: April 12. For more information, please call (514) 848-2424 ext. 3882 or consult http: alumni.concordia.ca.
In memoriam
Guido MolinariIt is with great sadness that we mourn the death on Feb. 22 of Guido Molinari who, for almost three decades, was a member of the Painting and Drawing Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts. Through his art and his ideas, Molinari earned a seminal place in the history of Quebec and Canadian art.
Molinari's public career began in 1953 and continued without interruption for almost 50 years. In the early 1950s, he opened L'Actuelle, the first art space in Montreal to exclusively show non-figurative art.
He changed the face of Montreal painting with the exhibition Art abstrait of 1959, taking Canadian art to a highly resolved phase of geometric abstraction. In 1965 he showed in the groundbreaking exhibition The Responsive Eye, at New York's Museum of Modern Art. With Ulysse Comtois, he represented Canada at the 1968 International Venice Biennale exhibition.
In 1976 he was given a rare retrospective exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada, and another took place in 1997 at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal. Art institutions across the country and in Europe have devoted numerous exhibitions to his work. In 1980 he received Quebec's most prestigious honour for artists, the Prix Paul-Emile Borduas.
Molinari's rigorous exploration of colour and light in non-figurative painting form the essence of his work and its pictorial achievement. He influenced generations of artists and his critical eye gave his students insight and self-knowledge.
His theoretical perspectives were documented in The Writings of Guido Molinari from 1954 to 1975, published by the National Gallery of Canada, and other publications have recorded his critical thinking. More recently, his love of music prompted him to establish the renowned Molinari String Quartet.
It is with the greatest respect that we honour the memory of Guido Molinari and his enormous contribution to our culture and our lives.
- Sandra Paikowsky, Professor, Art History Department
François TavenasMany at Concordia who worked with François Tavenas when he was rector of Université Laval, and those who admired his administrative ability and devotion to duty, will remember him with the greatest admiration.
He left Laval to become rector at the University of Luxembourg in December, 2003, and died Feb. 13 of a heart attack at the age of 61.
An engineer by training, Tavenas was originally from France, and came to Quebec in 1968, rising through the academic ranks at Laval. He was vice-principal of McGill University from 1989 to 1997, when he returned to Laval. He was president of CREPUQ, the Conférence des recteurs, from 1999 to 2001.
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