Past Events, 2009-2011
CWSE 2011/12 Women’s Wellness Series, session 1:
Facing Anger, Staying Steady: Self Care in the Thick of Things
with Shayna Hornstein, Registered Physiotherapist
When a person surprises, shouts at or insults you, it’s perfectly natural to be thrown off, or even to feel threatened. Telling ourselves to stay calm or not to take it personally often doesn’t ease the uncomfortable sensations we feel inside (dry mouth, pounding heart, shaky knees ...). What we do first, for ourselves, helps us to handle situations more effectively. This workshop will help you recognize your natural reactions to surprise and anger, and give you tools to steady yourself before you respond.
October 29, 2011, 1—4pm
$60 ($50 student/unwaged)
Shayna Hornstein has been a registered physiotherapist since 1981 and has intensive training from the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute of Colorado. She works with people who have injuries that are slow to heal and those who live with stress-related and chronic illnesses and pain. For more than eighteen years, she has worked as a consultant, therapist, and group facilitator to reduce the impact that stress has on morale, safety, and communication in organizations.
Email cwse@utoronto.ca to register
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CWSE Presents: Women's Rights are Human Rights: CEDAW for Change
One Week Institute, October 24 - 28, 2011
In cooperation with Fundacion Justicia y Genero, Costa Rica and International Women's Rights Action Watch Asia-Pacific, Malaysia
Directed by Alda Facio, LLP, with Shanthi Dairiam, MA, former CEDAW committee member, Martha Morgan, JD, and Angela Lytle, MEd
This one-week module is designed to cultivate a better understanding of the principles of non-discrimination and equality as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women and each State's obligation to respect, protect and fulfill women's human rights. During the week we will learn through activities focused around identity and interconnectedness, the complex nature of discrimination, the impact of culture and religion on human rights, examine case studies that have come before the CEDAW committee, and will explore ways in which CEDAW can be used to support local and national level activism.
Additional dates for June 2012 will be announced shortly.
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The CWSE presents a special evening performance, hosted at the Wonderworks Bookstore!
Maritime Heritage in Story & Song: Performance by Rosalee Peppard, Musical Maritime Herstorian
Based on her work in the oral traditions of the East Coast Canadian women’s herstory, Rosalee Peppard brings to life 400 years of women’s spirit through six of the founding maritime cultures: Mi’kmaq, Acadien French, Celtic, African, Germanic, and English. With powerful vocals, classical and acoustic guitars, and mountain dulcimer, Rosalee presents women’s HERitage through unique musical theatrical artistry.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
6—8pm
Free
Hosted at Wonderworks
79a Harbord St (at Spadina)
cwse@utoronto.ca for information
Rosalee Peppard is an eighth-generation Nova Scotian-Canadian whose award-winning work around “Maritime HERitage in Story and Song” has lead to three CDs, two Dr. Helen Creighton Folklore Research Awards, and the Colchester Heritage Award. She will be the featured presenter at the Canadian Women’s Studies Association (CWSA) national conference in May 2012. www.rosalee.ca.
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WIAprojects and the Centre for Women’s Studies in Education (CWSE)
present
Gender Archeology
An Exhibit by Students of Martingrove CI
Exhibit runs October 3rd through October 29th, 2011
Teacher: Christina Yarmol
WIAprojects Intern & Curatorial Assistant: Irena Radic
Centre for Women’s Studies in Education, OISE UT
2nd floor 252 Bloor St West., Toronto.
FREE & Wheelchair Accessible
Christina Yarmol, Head of Visual Arts, Photography, Graphics, Film and Video at Martingrove Collegiate Institute met and paired with Irena Radic a recent fine arts graduate from York University through the WIAprojects teaching mentoring/internship program. Through this collaboration the project “Gender Archaeology” was born. The concept of this project was to get the students thinking about gender and how it relates to work both in and out of the domestic sphere while learning the practical skills of intaglio printmaking.
The students were asked to think about how their own lived-experience and those of their families related to work both inside and outside of home. They were to represent the types of work performed using an image or images of tools used in that work. In three panels, they were to represent themselves, and their mothers and fathers or caregivers.
The students were encouraged to examine notions of both traditional and non-traditional gender roles and types of work and how this might guide their own lives and those of their families. The resulting delicate images were created on a small scale and show an immense amount of finely detailed line. This intimate format draws the viewer into the compositional space and encourages him/her to ask questions about the tool selections depicted in each print. Delicate Chine collé additions adorn several of the works adding a colorful dimension to these intaglio prints.
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CWSE and the Centre for Media and Culture In Education present:
(official denial) trade value in progress
Sewing Action Event
October 17, 2011, 3-7pm
CWSE Lounge, 2-225, second floor OISE, 252 Bloor St. W.
In June of 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper made an official ‘Statement of Apology to former students of Indian Residential Schools.’ In September of 2009, he delivered a speech to the G20 Summit in which he stated of Canada, that ‘we also have no history of Colonialism’.
‘(official denial) trade value in progress’, an ongoing interactive project initiated by artist Leah Decter and curated by Jaimie Isaac, appropriates the latter statement as a springboard for dialogue. A textile piece made up of a composite of Hudson Bay blankets with this statement machine sewn at the center acts as the platform for response and dialogue.
This project invites responses to this statement in multiple forms. In Sewing Actions participants sew collected responses onto the blanket and also have an opportunity to contribute a response for future sewing actions. No sewing experience is necessary to participate.
The project is carried out with the conviction that it is imperative for both Aboriginal and non-
Aboriginal people to be involved in these processes.
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The CWSE is proud to co-sponsor:
Sexuality and Queer Politics: The Indian Experience
A panel discussion with Gautam Bhan, Naisargi N. Dave and Nancy Nicol
with the Centre for Feminist Research at York University and Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights
Friday, October 7, 2011
1--3pm
252 Bloor St W, Room 4-442 (two floors above the CWSE)
On July 2nd, 2009, the Delhi High Court read down Sec 377, India's anti-sodomy law, in what was hailed as a historic decision that was, as a reputed public intellectual put it, "about all of us."
Gautam Bhan will reflect upon the understandings of sexuality as politics, and a queer politics in particular, that developed within the queer movement in India through the late 1990s and 2000s. Bhan is a queer rights activist and writer based in Delhi. He is the author of Because I Have a Voice: Queer Politics in India, and a member of Voices against Sec 377, a coalition of a dozen organizations that was one of the petitioners in the legal case.
Naisargi N. Dave will speak about early fault lines in the struggle against Sec 377, as well as queer theorizations of the relationship between law and society. She will examine queer activists’ debates on two legal reform measures: a judicial effort to amend S.377; and a primarily legislative effort to make sexual assault laws gender neutral. Dave is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto. Her work concerns emergent forms of politics and relationality in urban India.
Nancy Nicol will discuss “Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights,” an international research project that looks at resistance to laws introduced by British colonial rule criminalizing same-sex acts. Starting with Sec 377, these laws spread throughout the British Empire. Nicol is the Principal Investigator of the project, Associate Professor of Visual Arts at York University and a documentary filmmaker. Part of the project will be Nicol’s documentary on the struggle against Sec 377.
Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Questions? envision@yorku.ca
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"Our Journeys: Connecting Our Stories, Visions and Paths"
A Sikh Feminist Research Conference
October 1, 2011
at the CWSE, OISE building, 252 Bloor St W, Toronto
Featuring local and international speakers, including Professor Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh, author of "The Feminine Principle in the Sikh Vision of the Transcendent" and "The Birth of the Khalsa: A Feminist Re-Memory of Sikh Identity"
“Our Journeys" brings to light the high caliber of research being carried out to explore the collective past, present and future of gender equality in the context of the Sikh community. It is an opportunity for scholars and community members alike to openly connect, converse, and engage in dialogue and critical thinking about Sikhi, gender, and Sikh feminism, issues that demand to be voiced and heard, in order to be addressed.
In the spirit of sangat this conference endeavors to be inclusive and accessible to the spectrum of diversity within the Sikh and non-Sikh communities. Everyone is welcome to come learn and share insights on the process of reclaiming and rebuilding a culture of gender equality.
For full information and registration, see: http://www.sikhfeministresearch.org/ourjourneys/
SAFAR (Sikh Feminist Research Institute) is a not-for-profit organization comprising academics, educators, activists, and independent researchers who committed to promoting and sustaining Sikh feminist research. SAFAR serves as a collective to foster research concerning social, economic and political justice through Sikh feminist values and aims to create an inclusive environment encouraging free dialogue and expression to cultivate sangat.
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Border Crossings: An Erotic Affair?
An Exhibition and Presentation Series
Part 1: Sept 26, 2011, 7pm
Forum and Screening with Artist Vicky Moufawad-Paul
JHB 100, 170 St George Street, Toronto
Palestinian-Canadian curator and video artist Vicky Moufawad-Paul will provide a focus for a discussion on gender, sexuality, belonging and place, paying particular attention to the transgressive female figures of Leila Khaled and Oum Kalthoum. Videos screened may include: Half a Person (2010, 3 minutes), Radiance (2011, 5 minutes) and Birthplace Palestine (2006, 1 minute).
Co-Sponsored by: Centre for Women’s Studies in Education; WIAprojects; the Ontario Arts Council
University of Toronto Scarborough: Department of Humanities, Cultural Pluralism and the Arts and Arts & Events Programming
Project Leader and Contact: Pam Patterson, Director, WIAprojects / pam.patterson@wiaprojects.com
Download flyer for full Border Crossings series here.
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CWSE Open House & Information Fair
Stop by and get comfortable with OISE’s feminist community
September 20, 2011
4:30—6:30pm
At the CWSE, we facilitate feminist events and programs, organize exhibits and reading groups, publish papers and books, and provide a comfortable lounge space for students and the local feminist community. We are home to WIAprojects, a feminist arts-based collective, the annual Women’s Human Rights Education Institute (WHRI), the annual Institutional Ethnography course, and Resources for Feminist Research (RFR), Canada’s feminist scholarly journal, in publication since 1982.
Feminism in Action • All Students Welcome
Room 2-225 (second floor), OISE
cwse@utoronto.ca
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Institutional Ethnography, June 2011
with Dorothy E. Smith, PhD, and Susan Turner
Institutional Ethnography is a method of social inquiry that explores how institutions are put together; starts from the standpoint of people's everyday lives and real concerns; and explores the organization of power that is outside the range of people's own knowledge.
Participants are introduced to Institutional Ethnography and its relevance to the academy and in addressing problems of everyday life and activism.
Weekend Workshops offer intensive introductions to Institutional Ethnography practice, while Weeklong Workshops offer one-on-one consultation with the facilitator, group discussion, and development of individual research/publishing projects.
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2011 Wellness Series
Self-care is an essential aspect of maintaining a balanced, well-rounded lifestyle. These workshops are designed to help feminists and social justice activists remain grounded and reflective, while empowering us to make positive changes, personally and collectively.
Workshops are open to all fitness and experience levels.
Series held at the CWSE/OISE, 252 Bloor W, downtown Toronto
Five Sessions
1) Breast Health I with Julie Groulx, RMT / January 16, 1—3:30
Become proactive about your breast health by exploring stretches, breathing, hydrotherapy and massage techniques that support your body’s natural ability to heal itself. Massage therapy techniques for breast-feeding, scar tissue and edema will also be covered.
Participants will be taught tools to increase their body awareness and to empower them to be active participants in the care of their breasts.
Julie Groulx, RMT, is a compassionate and supportive registered massage therapist, educator, and yoga teacher who began her study of alternative therapies almost a decade ago. Her approach to women’s health is both integrative and holistic. She is a certified Manual Lypmphatic Therapist with the Vodder School of North America and has since focused her massage therapy practice on the care of lymphedema, breast health, family health, and palliative care. She has also studied breast massage with Debra Curties and is currently studying The Healthy Breast Program with Sat Dharam Kaur, ND. She was the creator and a teacher at The Breast Health Seminar in 2006. She believes that through education and healthy lifestyle choices, we can support our bodies’ natural ability to heal itself. Julie continues to educate women about breast anatomy, physiology and self-care in workshops taught in the Toronto area as well as in her practice at Inspired Life Health Centre. Inspiredlife.ca
2) Breast Health II With Sat Dharam Kaur, ND / January 28, 1—3:30pm
Not sure how to eat or what supplements to take to have optimum breast health? Learn the advantages of a primarily plant based diet, why organic is best, and the benefits of numerous foods that can help prevent breast cancer. Clear up any confusion you may have around phytoestrogens such as soy and flax, and learn the principles of the Healthy Breast Diet. We will also explore the 10 best supplements to promote breast and whole body health.
Sat Dharam Kaur, ND, is a naturopathic doctor, author, Kundalini Yoga teacher and mother of three, practicing in Owen Sound, Ontario. She graduated in 1989 from the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine with awards in homeopathy and psychology. Sat Dharam was awarded the Naturopathic Doctor of the Year award in Ontario in 2000 for her work in breast cancer prevention and environmental awareness. She has developed The Healthy Breast Program, a training designed to help educate women in breast cancer prevention through diet, nutrition, detoxification, Kundalini Yoga, and lifestyle change, and has also developed a curriculum in yoga and meditation for addictions. She has been a guest instructor and lecturer at the summer Kundalini Yoga Festival in France, the Toronto Yoga Show, three World Conferences on Breast Cancer, and is a regular speaker at the Toronto Whole Life Expo. Sat Dharam lectures on breast health annually at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine. She has written several best-selling books – A Call to Women: The Healthy Breast Program and Workbook, The Complete Natural Medicine Guide to Breast Cancer, and The Complete Natural Medicine Guide to Women’s Health.
Breast Health I is not required to take Breast Health II.
3) Qi Gong with Roxana Ng, PhD
February 13, 1—3:30
Qi Gong is an ancient exercise form from China that brings the breath, mind, and body into a state of balance. It is at once a healing art and a gentle martial art. This workshop introduces the basic principles and meditative and movement exercises of Qi Gong.
Roxana Ng, PhD, is a professor at OISE, where she teaches courses on embodied learning. Her research uses eastern philosophy and practice to develop modes of learning that integrate and honour the body, mind, and spirit as a form of empowerment. She is a member of the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women, Inter Pares, the Chinese Canadian National Council, and is the Head of the Centre for Women’s Studies in Education.
4) Yoga for the Busy Woman, with Angela Lytle, Med
February 18, 3—5:30pm
Are you working long days, sitting down too much, feeling stressed and out of sync from being overextended? In this workshop, we will explore yogic techniques for optimizing our energy levels and making time for self-care that can be maintained even during very busy times. Take a positive step for your own health and well-being! No yoga experience is required. In this yoga workshop, we will develop a short, simple yoga sequence that can be done daily on your own at home; practice simple techniques for decompressing the body after sitting at a desk or computer for long periods, and breathing exercises for reducing stress and calming the nervous system; and discuss daily and monthly routines for optimizing our relationship with the menstrual cycle.
Angela Lytle, MEd, is the Executive Director of the annual Women’s Human Rights Education Institute, and is a trained yoga instructor. She completed her Akhnada (holistic) Yoga training in India, and has lived and travelled extensively throughout the world. She brings her feminist and activist approach to the practice of yoga, seeking to integrate personal spiritual development with actions that help to transform our world. She is particularly passionate about yoga as a means for women to find healing and empowerment. She is a Wise Earth Ayurveda Sadhak-in-training specializing in Women’s Health & Spirituality, and is pursuing the “Yoga & Ayurveda Educator” certification through the American Institute of Vedic Studies.
5) Meditation with Sherap Andrea Winn, MEd
February 25, 1—3:30
We can do more for the world when we are tending to our own wellbeing. Meditation can help to ground, centre, and rejuvenate you. In this workshop you will learn to meditate and will be empowered with tools to bring meditation into your daily life on an on-going basis.
Sherap Andrea Winn, MEd, is a psychotherapist and meditation teacher, specializing in bringing a solution-focused, mindful approach to empowering people to make positive life changes. She is a second generation Shambhalian Buddhist, a contemporary form of Tibetan Buddhism which cultivates the qualities of fearlessness, gentleness, and intelligence, and encourages us to constantly strive to see the goodness and sense of possibility in all situations. Through completing a Women’s Studies degree and working in various abuse shelters, Sherap has sought to understand women`s place in this world. Sherap has presented her work at the Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Association’s international conference and is the Spiritual Director of the Toronto Women’s Meditation Group in Toronto, Ontario.
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Breathe! Weekly Drop-In Yoga at the Centre for Women’s Studies in Education (CWSE)
Practice yoga in a safe, nurturing environment
All experience levels welcome. Wear comfortable, loose clothing, and bring a towel or small blanket to help you get cozy. Yoga mats will be available if you wish to use them.
$7 per session
About the Instructor and Classes
Tricia Hatch is a dancer and Ryerson graduate with a passion for Yoga and healing. Her Yoga classes are designed to tend to students physically, mentally, and spiritually, in a comfortable and friendly environment. Tricia trained with Yogi Vishvaketu and Chetana Panwar of Anand Prakash Ashram in India, who teach a holistic approach to Yoga that integrates breath work, Yoga postures, and meditation. You can learn more about this style of Yoga at: www.akhandayoga.com.
When: Mondays 12:00—1:30pm / Tuesdays 5:30 – 7pm
Where: 252 Bloor St. W. / CWSE, room 2-227
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Getting Beyond History: The Controversial Legacy of Marija Gimbutas
Screening of Signs Out of Time & Brown Bag Discussion with Carol Ann Williams
Wednesday, October 13, 2010, 12—2:00pm, 2-227, OISE
Signs Out of Time is a documentary produced by Donna Read and Starhawk, and narrated by Olympia Dukakis. The film traces the life and work of the archaeologist Maria Gimbutas, whose theories of a prehistoric age of the Goddess challenge traditional views on archaeology and history. She postulated that matrifocal societies existed for centuries in undefended, unmilitarized urban settlements.
The hour-long documentary uses interviews, archival footage to explore Gimbutas’ work and the surrounding controversy.
A discussion focusing on Gimbutas' legacy will follow the film.
Carol Ann Williams spent 33 years as a professor of English and Liberal Studies at Seneca College where she developed courses on Comparative Mythology and Women's Studies (Transformations of Myth through Time and When God was a Goddess). Professor Williams is currently designing a series of workshops for women to explore the sacred feminine.
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A Series of Events Featuring the work of Lezli Rubin-Kunda
Presented by WIAprojects and the CWSE
Realms of Knowing: An exhibition of book-based works by Lezli Rubin-Kunda, curated by Pam Patterson & Leena Raudvee, curatorial assistant Sevan Injejikian
Exhibit runs Monday September 27 through October 31, 2010
Exhibit opening, Monday September 27, 5:30—7:00pm
Located at the CWSE, second floor of OISE, 252 Bloor Street West
Artist Talk with Lezli Rubin-Kunda, Wednesday, Sept. 29, 12:00 – 1:00pm, CWSE, 252 Bloor Street West, Rm. 2-227
Performing Books, Second Exhibit at Fleishman Gallery
A screening of book-related video works, accompanied by the actual ‘performed’ and ‘altered’ books. Fleishman Gallery, at Wonderworks, 79A Harbord Street, (west of Spadina) Exhibit runs from September 14 through 29, 2010
Lezli Rubin-Kunda is a multidisciplinary Canadian/Israeli artist, whose performance-based site works in Israel, Canada, and Europe explore live actions and intimate connections to spaces and materials. Her performance videos have been widely shown at festivals and symposiums. www.lezlirubinkunda.com
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CWSE Annual Open House
September 7, 2010, 5-7pm, CWSE, room 2-225 & 2-227, OISE
Stop by, get comfortable in the space, and meet the folks behind the CWSE. UofT students and local feminist researchers and encouraged to come.
The CWSE is a research centre, founded in 1983 by OISE’s feminist community. We provide lounge and study space for all UofT students, as well as opportunities for feminist networking and presenting feminist research. We are committed to promoting and supporting feminism through events and programming, and connecting scholarship and activism with local, national, and global feminist communities.
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The Unfinished Story: An exploration of the anti-sex trafficking movement in South Korea
with Jinkyeong Cho, presented by the CWSE and WHRI, with support from Toronto ALPHA and the NABI Women's Network
Tuesday, August 3, 2010, 7—9pm, room 2-214, OISE
In South Korea, a movement has gained momentum that addresses prostitution as a system based on violence and exploitation. During Japanese colonization and years of war and dictatorship, women’s bodies were used as tools of economic growth and national security, and prostitution became a booming industry that is inextricably linked to sex trafficking. Women’s bodies are treated as consumer products that flow across borders, and women’s organizations in South Korea have come together to fight the sex trafficking industry, and in the process have condemned all forms of sexual exploitation.
This seminar addresses the work of these organizations and the theoretical underpinnings of how the sex trade is addressed in South Korea.
Jinkyeong Cho has worked in South Korea with victims of sex trade violence, and is an active voice against prostitution in South Korea. She has been involved with research on the conditions of migrant women working near US military camps in South Korea, and has helped to pass Anti-Sex Trafficking legislation. In 2003 she established the Dasi Hamkke Centre to support victims of sex trade violence. She is currently in Toronto for several weeks participating in the Women’s Human Rights Education Institute (www.learnwhr.org) held at CWSE.
This talk will be presented in Korean and live translated into English by Judy Cho, Director of Toronto ALPHA and Coordinator of the NABI Women’s Network.
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Women’s Human Rights Institute (WHRI)
Six Week Institute: Building a Peaceful World in an Era of Globalization
July 19 - August 26, 2010
Limited to 20 participants, application deadline May 20, 2010
Directed by Alda Facio, LLP, with Angela Miles, PhD, Angela Lytle, MEd, and Mary Eberts, LLB, LSM, LLM
Hosted by the Centre for Women's Studies in Education, in association with Fundación Justicia y Género, Costa Rica
This unique educational institute brings feminist perspectives and an activist orientation to the inextricably related issues of peace, human rights and life-sustaining development. Participants will develop a practical understanding of the UN Human Rights system and how to apply a women’s human rights framework to a multiplicity of issues.
Human rights, peace, and emerging alternatives to globalization are examined both as interconnected elements of a socially just and sustainable world and as alternative ways of knowing, acting, being, and interacting. Women’s human rights are both the subject and the guiding framework of the institute.
One Week Institute: CEDAW for Change
August 16 - 20, 2011
Application deadline July 16, 2010
Directed by Alda Facio, LLP, and Shanthi Dairiam, MA
Hosted by the Centre for Women's Studies in Education, in association with IWRAW-AP
Directors: Alda Facio and Shanthi Dairiam
Download Six-Week Institute Flyer here.
Download One-Week CEDAW Institute Flyer here.
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Interrogating the Hijab Discourse: A Brown Bag Discussion
Wednesday October 28 2009, 12:00-1:30pm
With Dr. Manal Hamzeh, Department of Women's Studies, New Mexico State University
Dr. Hamzeh’s work draws on feminist theories to explore how the hijab discourse is central to the lives of Muslim girls. She discusses three hijabs — visual, spatial, and ethical — that construct Muslimas’ bodies by restricting their dress and limiting their movement and behaviour in public and among men. The work is a call for feminist activist researchers to critically engage with this hijab discourse.
Free
Bring your lunch!
CWSE, room 2-227, OISE (252 Bloor St. West).
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Rising from the Ashes
A Film by the Inter Pares Group
Monday, November 9, 2009, 7:00 pm
Room 2-212, OISE
Peru’s civil war, which raged from 1980 to 2000, killed more than 69,000 people, and left hundreds of survivors of sexual violence, primarily indigenous women. Hidden from view in the Andes, the brutality of the conflict shocked Peruvians when it was revealed in 2003. Evidence confirmed that during the armed conflict, rape was systematically used by the army as a weapon against civilian indigenous women. Yet while women suffered, the conflict also spurred them to take on new roles, often as community leaders.
The thirty minute film Rising from the Ashes shares the inspiring story of four indigenous women struggling to create a just a peaceful society.
Co-sponsored by Inter Pares and the Adult Education & Community Development; Curriculum, Teaching & Learning; Sociology & Equity Studies; and Theory & Policy Studies Departments at OISE
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Failed accounts of homeless/ness - A performative encounter
A Brown Bag Discussion
With Nancy Halifax, Critical Disabilities Studies, York University
Wednesday, October 14 2009, 12:00-1:30pm
In this hour Nancy invites guests to share moments in their lives as researcher/artists where incoherency is in ascendance. She will extend to guests the shuddering and raw remains of language -- leftovers from recent inquiries where loss of focus, fragmentation, and erasure work together, as a defense against linear narratives and the consumption of the subject.
Please bring knitting needles and crochet hooks, along with any bits of wool that you have, as we will be creating a representation of our moment using these modes. Don't worry if you don't know how - learning and teaching will both be honoured.
Free
Bring your lunch!
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Resisting Colonialism and Rebuilding Pathways
Monday, September 21 2009, 7pm, OISE room 212
The opening event for the exhibit Resisting Colonialism and Rebuilding Pathways, featuring a screening and discussion of Indigenous feminist activist Jessica Yee's "Highway to Hope" about the numerous disappearances and murders of Aboriginal women along Highway 1 in British Columbia.
The exhibit is a collection of art by youth, and is displayed on the second floor of OISE until October 1 2009.
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Women, Violence & Resistance film/speaker series: Broken Bones, Unbroken Spirit
Film and Testimonial by Flora Terah
Tuesday, August 25 2009, 6:30-8:00pm, OISE room 212
In 2007, Flora Terah, parliamentary candidate in Kenya, was attacked and tortured by a gang of three men near her home, as they repeatedly told her to renounce her candidacy. Hospitalized and ill, she lost her bid for election. Worse was still to come: in March 2008 her only child was murdered. In the face of her tragedy, Terah remains committed to her community work, and is the Executive Director of Terah Against Terror, a civil society organization based in Nairobi that campaigns on behalf of victims of gender based violence.
Film Series Co-sponsors: Inter Pares www.interpares.ca
Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning (CTL)
Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education (SESE)
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Institutional Ethnography as Alternative Social Analysis
Directed by Dorothy Smith Ph.D
Weekend Workshop August 14-16, 2009
Weeklong Intensive: August 14-21, Aug 24-28 2009
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Identifying and Eliminating Social Inequities in Policies, Programmes, Service Delivery and Research
Directed by Mary Anne Burke and Margrit Eichler
Weekend Workshop
June 19-June 21 2009
Click here for a workshop description.
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Mapping for Change
Evening and One Day Workshop with Susan Marie Turner, Ph.D
June 26 (evening), June 27, 2009
Click here for a workshop description.
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White Gazes, Brown Breasts: Pornotropic Desrire, Anxiety, and Regulation in Colonial Encounters (Popular Feminism Series)
Roland Sintos Coloma, Ph.D., Department of Sociology and Equity Studies, OISE
March 10, 2009 7:30pm Rm. 12-199 OISE
Born in the Philippines and raised in California, USA, Roland Sintos Coloma is Assistant Professor of Anti-Racist and Feminist Studies in Globalization and Education.
Roland completed his PhD in Cultural Studies in Education and minor in African American and African Studies from The Ohio State University. He also completed his MA in Educational Administration and BA in Liberal Studies at the University of California-Riverside. He was a tenure-stream faculty member at Miami University and Otterbein College, both located in Ohio. Prior to joining the academe, he was an urban high school teacher, a university student affairs administrator, and a community organizer in the Los Angeles area.
Roland's research and teaching interests focus on empire and diaspora, race, gender and sexuality; history and theory. He is working on two books - Subjects of Empire: Modernity and Education in American Philippines, a history of the public school system in the Philippines under United States colonial rule in the early 1900s; and Postcolonial Challenges in Education, an edited volume that brings together leading and emerging postcolonial education scholars in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
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Beauty MisRepresented: What's the Matter with Airbrusing Advertisments?
March 5, 2009 7:30pm, Rm. 5-280 OISE
Presented in partnership with Media Action and Shameless Magazine
Featurning Shairy Graydon (Media Action Media), Stacy May Fowles (Shamaeless Magazine), Tonika Morgan (Medina Collective) and Ivan Pols (Ogilvy & Mather)
Is photo-manipulation in advertising benign and irrelevant or damaging and indefensible? Join Media Action in its first public discussion
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Headaches 2
Pam Patterson and Leena Raudvee
Exhibition runs March 2-April 3 Reception and Performance March 30, 2009 6-7:30pm
2nd Floor, OISE
According to a 2002 report by the Violence Policy Center, at least 662 people died in murder-suicides in the United States over a six-month period the previous year—an average of nearly two murder-suicides each day, every day. Three-quarters of murder-suicides involved “intimate partners,” the study found, and of these, 94 percent involved men killing women and then themselves.
In 1984 ARTIFACTS performed Headaches for the Unit at the first Feminist Cabaret at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto. In the week leading up to this event, we gathered newspaper reports of violence against women and were astounded by the number. In one article we came across "headaches for the unit", a phrase used by police in speaking about domestic violence. Now over 20 years later, we are revisiting this context, this time with a focus on murder-suicide in domestic violence. With Internet access, the media reportage now is tightened into bite-sized bits, with colour images, video clips and running commentary. This has shifted our aesthetic. What has startled us, though, is the absence of any meaningful critique: we are shown the empty house, the shocked neighbours, the police lock-down of the site. This bare-bones, shocking commentary seems to speak of only a cursory consideration. Why is it, in these murder-suicides, that the reporting centres on the couple? In most cases the women and the children are shot, stabbed, beaten to death as unsuspecting victims. It's not as if it is a shoot-out between domestic partners. This and other questions framed our ongoing work with these images. We welcome your questions, critique and comments.
ARTIFACTS was formed in 1983 by Pam Patterson and Leena Raudvee to produce collaborative works which combine the sensibilities and concerns of art and theatre. Over the years this practice has become interdisciplinary performance art. While concentrating on performance, ARTIFACTS has also created sound and video works and visual exhibitions. Recent works include Pacing the Cage, Collisions 2006, Victoria, The Voyage Out for Buddies in Bad Times’ Hysteria : A Festival of Women, and Passing for 7A11D International Performance Art Festival, both in Toronto.
ARTIFACTS explores our culture, looking at the myths, assumptions, and fantasies, and places them in a new context. The core of our work is informed by feminism, and women’s issues and concerns. Performance art and installation well suit this process, and while the works may contain many personal and specific images and text, our intention is to investigate how women have been/are being formed, and to reveal our attempts to negotiate this formation. The tension is between the personal and the formal, which raises questions for us as to the nature of feminist art practices and women’s roles in society.
Special thanks to Eireann Oughton for research assistance.
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Leaky Categories: Creative Research in Walking the Table: Dramatic Teaching & gender/TROUBLING
Presented by Pam Patterson
Feb. 18, 2009, Rm. 2-227 OISE
12:00pm-1:00pm
“Despite our desperate, eternal layers to separate, contain and mend, categories always leak”
Trin Minh-ha, When the moon waxes red: Representation, gender and cultural politics.
While acting as course director for a graduate drama and arts education course, I asked the women students, all teachers themselves, if they would be interested in working with me in examining my own classroom practices and processes. They decided to integrate this into a praxis-as-research in their own classrooms to enlarge the discussion. Our locations were diverse, our practices different, our sites varied and, while my situation as instructor was influential and potentially problematic, I was able, with their ongoing input after the course was finished, edit the results of our work together in Walking the Table: Dramatic Teaching. I wrote an introduction, they wrote their own reflexive texts. Other then editing for clarity, I presented their work by and for them. But, as I was not the traditional author/researcher, it was not accepted as valid research. The political intent was to make diverse positions in arts education classrooms evident, to ask for policy change. The authors - myself included- wanted to see this work read.
Pam Patterson will give a short presentation on two projects, “Walking the Table”: Dramatic Teaching and gender/TROUBLING... both relating to arts teaching production and presentation.
Following this, she invites the group to explore strategies for rethinking research. Questions raised might include: How do we unpack the complex interrelationships and socio political conditions of research? How can we change and open spaces for fluid borders between researchers and researched which honours the knowledge that exists and is produced by each?
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Tanya Titchkosky Ph.D: Our Bodies in Social Space: “Developing the Conversation between Disability Studies and Feminism."
Feb. 5, 2009: 7pm 12-199 OISE
Tanya Titchkosky pursues research and teaching in disability Studies (DS) in SESE. She does this work from her perspective as dyslexic and with an interpretive sociological approach. In her courses and research, Tanya aims to examine how everyday life and social theory exclude and include disability within the politically charged interpretive milieu of social differences and desires, conflicts and commitments. As Principal Investigator of a standard SSHRC research grant, “Organizing Disablement: The University and Disability Experience,” with co-investigator Rod Michalko, she is examining the ways in which disability images, texts, and people are organized in and by everyday university life.
Along with being a full member of School of Graduate Studies, and part of the Women and Gender Studies Institute, U of T, she is also an Honorary Research Association of the University of New Brunswick.
Tanya also taught sociology and disability studies at St. Francis Xavier University, NS (1997- 2006).
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Reconstructing Canadian Women's Histories Strategies and Resources for Unfolding Our Past Curriculum Resources for Practicing and Student Teachers
This conference provides Ontario elementary and secondary school teachers with curriculum-relevant resources for progressive history lessons that incorporate women’s contributions to Canadian history. The conference is focused on locating women in Canadian history and is guided by an understanding of how racism, classism, and nationality/aboriginality have shaped the different experiences and contributions of women. We pay specific attention to how teachers can connect with students of multiple backgrounds.
Primary, Junior and Intermediate Session: January 31, 2009 10am-3pm
High School Session: February 1, 2009 10am-3:30pm
Fees: $50 Regular/ $20 Student (Sliding Scale Rate Available on Request)