Events Calendar

Phil Hall, the English Department’s Writer in Residence (Fall Term 2012) gives his inaugural reading. Phil Hall has recently been honoured with two major poetry prizes, the Governor General’s Award for Poetry in 2011 and the Trillium Book Prize in 2012, both for his latest collection, Killdeer. There is more information about the author on our Writer in Residence page.

There will be a reception following the reading. All are welcome.

When: Friday, 21 September 2012, 2:30–4:00 pm

Where: Watson 517

Bart Beaty (University of Calgary), “What If Comics Were Literature? Why Comics Weren’t Art, and Why They Might Be Now.” Presented as part of the Department’s Research Forum.

When: Tuesday, 25 September 2012, 2:30–4:00 pm

Where: Watson 517

The Medieval Seminar presents Laura Carlton (postdoctoral fellow, Department of History), “Charlemagne’s Word Games: Language and Legitimacy in the Early Medieval Mediterranean.” Dr Carlton’s abstract:

The Carolingian Empire was built by both the sword and the quill. As Charlemagne fought his way to dominion over Western Europe on the battlefield, his court scholars argued for Carolingian intellectual supremacy on the page, routinely engaging in spiritual and linguistic disputes with their eastern and western neighbors. Boasting a mastery of the classical arts of grammar and rhetoric, Carolingian scholars augmented Charlemagne’s quest for recognition as the leader of a renewed Christian Roman Empire. In this paper, I will discuss how the Carolingians first promoted a program of education and literacy within their borders and then used this program as an impetus for imperial expansion throughout the early medieval Mediterranean.

For more information, contact wehlaur@queensu.ca.

When: Thursday, 4 October 2012, 11:30–1:00 pm

Where: Watson 517

The Medieval Seminar presents Adnan Husain (Department of History) and Margaret Pappano (Department of English), “The One Kingdom Solution?: Marriage, Diplomacy and Sovereignty in the Third Crusade, ” an investigation of the proposal from Richard I to marry his sister Joan of Sicily to Salah al-Din’s brother al-Adil as part of a peace arrangement. Presented for the Muslim Societies, Global Perspectives initiative; there will be a reception provided by the Muslim Societies immediately after the talk (4:30–5:30).

For more information, contact wehlaur@queensu.ca.

When: Friday, 12 October 2012, 3:00–4:30 pm

Where: Robert Sutherland Hall (formerly Policy Studies) 202

The Queen’s Alumni Review presents Andrew Westoll (ArtSci ’00) reading and in conversation with Carolyn Smart (Department of English). Andrew Westoll is an eco-journalist whose 2011 bestseller The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary won the $25 000 Charles Taylor Prize for Non-fiction. This is the first event in the Queen’s Alumni Review’s “Write Thinking” series, which celebrates the literary excellence of Queen’s alumni and faculty authors. Admission is free.

When: Tuesday, 16 October 2012, 7:30 pm

Where: Red Room, 1st Floor of Kingston Hall

Andrew Piper (German and European Literature, McGill University), “Reading’s Refrain: From Bibliography to Topology.” Andrew Piper is Associate Professor of German and European Literature and an associate member of the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University. His work focuses on the intersection of literary and bibliographic communication from the eighteenth century to the present. His new book, Book Was There: Reading in Electronic Times, was recently published by University of Chicago Press. Presented as part of the Department’s Research Forum.

When: Tuesday, 23 October 2012, 2:30–4:00 pm

Where: Watson 517

The Departments of Drama and English, the Four Directions Aboriginal Student Centre, and Professor Sam McKegney present Tomson Highway. Acclaimed Cree playwright/novelist/composer Tomson Highway is the author of the landmark plays The Rez Sisters and Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, and of the best-selling novel Kiss of the Fur Queen. His newest play, Zesty Gopher s’est fait éraser par un frigo, runs at the National Arts Centre French Theatre in Ottawa from 17’20 October 2012.

The reading will be followed by a meet and greet, 12:00–1:00 pm at the Four Directions Aboriginal Student Centre, 146 Barrie Street.

When: Thursday, 18 October 2012, 11:00 am

Where: The Rotunda Theatre, Theological Hall

The Medieval Seminar presents Richard Greenfield (Department of History), “Spinning Sanctity in 11th-Century Byzantium: Niketas Stethatos as Producer in the Life and Works of Symeon the Theologian.” Coffee will be available from the History departmental office, but as this takes a little time, we are asking those hoping for coffee (and cookies) to come five or ten minutes early, if possible, so that we can start the talk on time. For more information, contact wehlaur@queensu.ca.

When: Thursday, 25 October 2012, 4:00–5:30 pm

Where: Watson 217

Indigenous Film Night: Apache 8 (2011, dir. Sande Zeig) and Qapirangajuq: Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change (2010, dir. Zacharias Kunuk). Moderated by Professor Sam McKegney (Department of English) and Professor Petra Fachinger (Department of English). Admission is free.

When: Thursday, 4 October 2012, 7:30–9:30 pm

Where: Ontario Hall 209

Indigenous Film Night presents two films:

Imprint (2007, dir. Chris Eyre): This supernatural thriller tells the story of Shayla Stonefeather (Tonantzin Carmelo), an attorney who once shunned the spiritual practices of her ancestors. After prosecuting a Lakota boy in a difficult murder trial, Shayla returns to the South Dakota reservation to tend to her dying father. Events take a dark and eerie turn when she is greeting by spirits that present foreboding and unwanted visions, forcing Shayla to reconsider her tribe's lifeways.

It Starts with a Whisper (1993, dir. Shelley Niro): Shanna Sabbath, who has grown up on a reserve, feels all alone, yet she is watched over by ancestral spirits—three “matriarchal clowns” who sometimes appear in the form of her outrageous aunts, Emily, Molly and Pauline. Her aunts take Shanna on a mythic journey in which the waters that whispered along the banks of the Grand River become the thundering torrents of Niagara Falls, as native people around the world celebrate their cultures and gain empowerment.

Moderated by Professor Sam McKegney (Department of English) and Professor Petra Fachinger (Department of English). Admission is free.

When: Thursday, 25 October 2012, 7:30–9:30 pm

Where: Ontario Hall 209

The English Department Student Council is holding its annual Tea with Profs. Come to Watson 517 and spend some time with your professors!

When: Tuesday, 30 October 2012, 2:30–4:00 pm

Where: Watson 517

The Agnes Etherington Art Centre presents Diane Schoemperlen, “Drawn to Words.” Sharpen your creative writing skills with one of Canada’s leading authors. Kingston-based Diane Schoemperlen leads a two-part workshop that uses the works of art in our exhibitions as jumping-off points for your writing. In the first session, she will lead an informal discussion of works in all our current exhibitions, accompanied by Pat Sullivan, the Art Centre’s Public Programs Officer. After selecting a work or works upon on which to focus, participants will write a text at home, with email feedback provided by Schoemperlen. In the second session, all will reconvene to read works in the exhibitions and discuss.

Born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Diane Schoemperlen has published several collections of short fiction and three novels: In the Language of Love (1994), Our Lady of the Lost and Found (2001), and At A Loss For Words (2008). Her 1990 collection The Man of My Dreams was shortlisted for both the Governor General’s Award and the Trillium Book Award. Her collection Forms of Devotion: Stories and Pictures won the 1998 Governor General’s Award for English Fiction. In 2008, she received the Marian Engel Award from the Writers’ Trust of Canada. In 2012, she was Writer in Residence at the Department of English, Queen’s University. Her latest project, By the Book, is a collection of stories illustrated with her own collages.

Fee: $25, $20 for students and GA members. Please call 613-533-2190 to register. Space is limited.

When: Thursday, 1 November 2012, 6:00–8:00 pm and Thursday, 22 November 2012, 6:00–9:00 pm

Where: Agnes Etherington Art Centre

Nicole Dixon offers a reading and question and answer session. Dixon’s first collection of short fiction, High-Water Mark (Porcupine’s Quill, 2012), follows the title story’s appearance in The Journey Prize Stories 19 anthology. She won the Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers in 2005. Nicole lives in New Waterford, Nova Scotia, where she works as an electronic resources librarian at Cape Breton University.

When: Monday, 5 November 2012, 1:00 pm

Where: Watson 517

Patrick Friesen offers a reading and question and answer session. Friesen is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry and essays. A Broken Bowl (1997) was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award, and he won the Manitoba Book Award for Blasphemer’s Wheel. His most recent publication is Jumping in the Asylum (Quattro Books, 2012). He lives on Vancouver Island.

When: Wednesday, 7 November 2012, 1:00 pm

Where: Watson 517

Indigenous Film Night: A Windigo Tale (2010, dir. Armand Garnet Ruffo), followed by a question and answer session with writer/director Armand Garnet Ruffo. Moderated by Professor Sam McKegney (Department of English) and Professor Petra Fachinger (Department of English). Admission is free.

When: Thursday, 8 November 2012, 7:30–9:30 pm

Where: Ontario Hall 209

A film screening and readings featuring Sheila Heti, Ryan Kamstra, and Margaux Williamson.

Sheila Heti is the author of The Middle Stories, Ticknor and How Should A Person Be? She is the creator of Trampoline Hall, a lecture series, and is Interviews Editor at The Believer. She appears in the 2006 film Teenager Hamlet by Margaux Williamson. For more and detailed information on Sheila, see the recent articles in The New Yorker and The New York Times.

Margaux Williamson is a public artist, exhibiting her paintings widely across North America. She was artist in residence at the AGO in the winter of 2011. Margaux appears as a character in Sheila Heti’s novel How Should A Person Be? She has a BFA from Queen’s University.

Ryan Kamstra is the author of late capitalist sublime and into the drowned world. He is the lead singer of the Toronto-based band Tomboyfriend, and appears as a character in Margaux Williamson’s film Teenager Hamlet. Ryan won the Campbell Prize for Creative Writing while studying at Queen’s University.

When: Monday, 12 November 2012, 7:30 pm

Where: Convocation Hall, Theological Hall

Phil Hall, the English Department’s Writer in Residence, delivers the inaugural lecture in honour of Joanne Page.

When: Wednesday, 14 November 2012, 4:00–6:00 pm

Where: Watson 517

The Agnes Etherington Art Centre presents Diane Schoemperlen, “Drawn to Words.” Sharpen your creative writing skills with one of Canada’s leading authors. Kingston-based Diane Schoemperlen leads a two-part workshop that uses the works of art in our exhibitions as jumping-off points for your writing. In the first session, she will lead an informal discussion of works in all our current exhibitions, accompanied by Pat Sullivan, the Art Centre’s Public Programs Officer. After selecting a work or works upon on which to focus, participants will write a text at home, with email feedback provided by Schoemperlen. In the second session, all will reconvene to read works in the exhibitions and discuss.

Born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Diane Schoemperlen has published several collections of short fiction and three novels: In the Language of Love (1994), Our Lady of the Lost and Found (2001), and At A Loss For Words (2008). Her 1990 collection The Man of My Dreams was shortlisted for both the Governor General’s Award and the Trillium Book Award. Her collection Forms of Devotion: Stories and Pictures won the 1998 Governor General’s Award for English Fiction. In 2008, she received the Marian Engel Award from the Writers’ Trust of Canada. In 2012, she was Writer in Residence at the Department of English, Queen’s University. Her latest project, By the Book, is a collection of stories illustrated with her own collages.

Fee: $25, $20 for students and GA members. Please call 613-533-2190 to register. Space is limited.

When: Thursday, 1 November 2012, 6:00–8:00 pm and Thursday, 22 November 2012, 6:00–9:00 pm

Where: Agnes Etherington Art Centre

Margaret Pappano (Department of English, Queen’s University), “In Pursuit of Illiterate Literature: Artisan Drama in Premodern England.” Presented as part of the Department’s Research Forum.

When: Tuesday, 13 November 2012, 2:30–4:00 pm

Where: Watson 517

“Behind the Scenes: Examining the Theoretical Grounds of Literary Studies,” a round-table discussion featuring the following presenters:

• Glenn Willmott: Marxism
• Scott Straker: periodization
• Shannon Minifie: post-secularism
• Holly McIndoe: post-colonialism
• Ian Maness: book history
• Molly Wallace: eco-criticism
• Julia Gingerich: animality theory
• Sam McKegney: indigenous or masculinity theory

Organized by Andrew Bingham and Dale Tracy, and presented as part of the Department’s Research Forum.

When: Friday, 23 November 2012, 2:30–4:00 pm

Where: Watson 517

The English Department presents Works in Progress, featuring the following presenters:

• Drew MacDonald, “Mary Wollstonecraft’s Original Stories from Real Life: Language and Style, and the Burkean Sublime and Beautiful”
• Irene Mangoutas, “ ‘Dreaming of the lost America of love’: The Road Narrative and Modernist American Poetry”
• Alana Fletcher, “Post-Racial Identities?: Experiential Impediments to Deracialized Female Solidarity in Alice Walker’s Meridian”
• Rupayan Roy, “The Quiet Violence of Dreams and its Opposition to Lesbian and Female-Bisexual Voices”

All are welcome to attend.

When: Monday, 3 December 2012, 2:30–4:30 pm

Where: Watson 517

Darren Wershler (Concordia University), “Thoroughly Unprofessional.” Darren Wershler, a poet, digital humanities scholar, and Research Chair in Media and Contemporary Literature, will argue that literary studies needs to pay more attention to issues of materiality, circulation, and cultural policy. In a context of dwindling jobs inside the academy, “professionalization” for graduate students usually amounts to fidelity to a particular established discipline and its practices. Dr. Wershler will explore what it might mean to champion rigorous and yet “unprofessional” methodologies. Dr. Wershler is the author or co-author of 12 books, most recently Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg (U of Toronto), and Update (Snare), with Bill Kennedy. Presented as part of the Department’s Research Forum.

When: Friday, 18 January 2013, 1:00–2:30 pm

Where: Watson 517

Creative Writing at Queen’s presents Clearly, Three Lives, a poetry reading featuring three award-winning poets:

• Moez Surani (Queen’s BAH 2002), author of Reticent Bodies and Floating Life and winner of the Antigonish Review’s Great Blue Heron Poetry Prize (2010)
• Nora Gould, author of I see my love more clearly from a distance and winner of the Banff Centre Bliss Carman Poetry Award (2009)
• Sadiqa de Meijer, winner of the CBC Canada Reads poetry contest (2012)

When: Tuesday, 29 January 2013, 7:30–9:30 pm

Where: Grad Club, 162 Barrie Street

Indigenous Film Night: Frozen River (2008, dir. Courtney Hunt). Moderated by Professor Sam McKegney (Department of English) and Professor Petra Fachinger (Department of English). Admission is free.

When: Thursday, 31 January 2013, 7:30–9:30 pm

Where: Ontario Hall 209

Indigenous Film Night: Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner) (2002, dir. Zacharias Kunuk). Moderated by Professor Sam McKegney (Department of English) and Professor Petra Fachinger (Department of English). Admission is free.

When: Thursday, 28 February 2013, 7:30–9:30 pm

Where: Ontario Hall 209

Keavy Martin (University of Alberta), “The Importance of Having Isuma: Integrating Literary Criticism into Inuit ‘Traditional Knowledge.’ ” Keavy Martin’s research interests revolve around Indigenous literatures and literary theory, with a focus on Inuit literature and the Canadian context. She works with graduate students interested in any aspect of Indigenous literatures and/or intellectual traditions, including (but not limited to) oral histories and oral traditions, Aboriginal rights in Canada, studies of nation, locality, and literary history; and Indigenous politics, aesthetics, and languages.

Her first book, entitled Stories in a New Skin: Approaches to Inuit Literature in Canada, has just been published by University of Manitoba Press, and she is also involved in a collaborative project to re-edit the prison writings of Anthony Apakark Thrasher. She has recently written articles on the idea of reconciliation in Robert Arthur Alexie’s Porcupines and China Dolls, and on the politics of French- and English-language translations of Inuit literature.

This talk is presented as part of the Department’s Research Forum.

When: Tuesday, 26 February 2013, 2:30–4:00 pm

Where: Watson 517

The Department of English and the Graduate English Society present Works in Progress 2013, featuring presentations of current research by graduate students and faculty. The presenters include:

• Shadi Ghazimoradi, “Work and the Immigrant Woman in Monica Ali’s Brick Lane and Zadie Smith’s White Teeth”
• Ian Maness, “Riche’s Pike and Pen: The Connection between Military and Literary Profession”
• Gwynn Dujardin, “Foreign Language Requirement: Vernacular Education and the Lessons of Estrangement in The Tempest”

All are welcome. Come out for coffee, snacks, and the exchange of ideas!

When: Friday, 1 March 2013, 2:30–4:30 pm

Where: Watson 517

The Medieval Seminar presents Amanie Antar, “Resilience in Between the Lines: An Analysis of Sixteenth-Century Morisco Texts.” Coffee and refreshments will be served.

When: Wednesday, 13 March 2013, 4:00–5:30 pm

Where: Watson 517

Len Findlay (University of Saskatchewan), “What Does an ‘Indian’ Want? Sampling the Interplay of Deficiency and Desire.” In this paper, Dr Findlay uses materials from the archive of early modern encounter, the Chrétien White Paper, Harold Cardinal’s response, and #idlenomore to expose the continuities and morphing of missionary literacies and Indigenous critique, and to show students how applying what they know of literary studies is always in part political work.

Dr Findlay became seriously committed to the Indigenous Humanities through co-operating with Marie Battiste and Sakej Henderson on the SSHRC Summer Institute at the University of Saskatchewan on The Cultural Restoration of Oppressed Indigenous Peoples. He has since come to realize that a renewed Canadian humanities community has much to learn (in its ongoing Eurocentricity and sense of victimhood) from Aboriginal scholars and elders whose allegiance to language and the arts as the lynchpins of community is undiminished and unapologetic, despite the damage caused by colonization. In his collaboration as humanities scholar and administrator with the Canadian Centre for Native Law, University of Saskatchewan International, and the international Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes, and as senior policy analyst with the Universities Branch of the Saskatchewan Department of Postsecondary Education and Skills Training, Findlay has begun to theorize and exploit new conjunctures, convergences, and possible partnerships. He sees this project as a much needed regrounding in Canadian distinctiveness of the humanities and visual arts, so that they can become engines of transformation and sources of leadership rather than academic “poor cousins” and sites of self-pity and complaint. Some of his recent work on Indigenizing the Canadian humanities has stimulated a good deal of discussion. This year he will pursue this theme and the postolonial Canadian university as Northrop Frye Professor of Literary Theory at the University of Toronto.

This talk is presented as part of the Department’s Research Forum.

When: Thursday, 7 March 2013, 1:00–2:30 pm note change in time

Where: Watson 517

Stuart Sherman (Fordham University), “News, Plays, Days: Rhythms of Performance and Report from Sophocles to Stoppard.” Stuart Sherman is the author of Telling Time: Clocks, Diaries and English Diurnal Form, 1660–1785 (Chicago, 1996), as well as numerous essays on such topics as Ben Jonson, John Dryden, and the diary and autobiography. His forthcoming book, News and Plays: Evanescences of Page and Stage, 1620–1779, tracks the vexed, complex relations between the playhouse and periodical print once the news industry got under way, four years after Shakespeare’s death. He is also at work on several new projects: a book on time and the novel in the 17th and 18th centuries, a book on the textures and tactics of lyric, melody, harmony, and song structure, and a book on teaching in time.

When: Tuesday, 12 March 2013, 2:30–4:00 pm

Where: Watson 517

Final round table: participants and topic to be announced. Presented as part of the Department’s Research Forum.

When: Tuesday, 26 March 2013, 2:30–4:00 pm

Where: Watson 517

Indigenous Film Night: Frozen River (2008, dir. Courtney Hunt). Moderated by Professor Sam McKegney (Department of English) and Professor Petra Fachinger (Department of English). A desperate single mother living in upstate New York resorts to smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States across the frozen St Lawrence River through Mohawk Territory as a means of making ends meet in first-time feature director/ screenwriter Courtney Hunt’s emotionally wrenching drama, winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Dramatic Feature at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

Admission is free.

When: Wednesday, 13 March 2013, 7:30–9:30 pm

Where: Watson 517

Indigenous Film Night: Edge of America (2004, dir. Chris Eyre). Having relocated from Texas to fill a mid-semester job opening at Three Nations High School, English teacher Kenny Williams (James McDaniel) isn’t like anything the locals have seen before. For starters, he’s black, which causes even the school’s seemingly unflappable white principal (Michael Flynn) to do a double-take at their first meeting. Beyond that, he’s completely ignorant of—and, at first, more than a bit insensitive to—local customs.

Moderated by Professor Sam McKegney (Department of English) and Professor Petra Fachinger (Department of English). Admission is free.

When: Wednesday, 27 March 2013, 7:30–9:30 pm

Where: 201 Kingston Hall

Grace O’Connell, author of Magnified World, offers a reading and question and answer session.

When: Monday, 20 March 2013, 4:00–5:30 pm

Where: Watson 517

Lake Effect 6 is an anthology of creative writing produced by the students of CWRI 296. This is the sixth such anthology to be published. Please come to The Renaissance on Wednesday, 3 April to celebrate this event and congratulate the authors. There will be a cash bar and a book sale.

When: Wednesday, 3 April 2013. Doors open at 7:00 pm, reading at 7:30 pm.

Where: The Renaissance, 285 Queen Street