News & Announcements
Come Together: Conference on Digital Collaboration
Posted: 17 January 2011
Come Together, an interdisciplinary conference examining digital collaboration in and out of the academy, will be held on 11–13 May in Watson 517. It features keynote speaker Diana Brydon, Canada Research Chair in Globalization and Cultural Studies and Director of the Centre for Globalization and Cultural Studies at the University of Manitoba. Attendance is free; more information is available at http://cometogether2012.wordpress.com/
The Art of Critique: Writing, Communal Differences, & Different Communities
Posted: 9 August 2011
From 23–24 September 2011, Dr Rosemary J. Jolly and PhD candidates Taryn Beukema, Jaime Denike, Kate Hallemeier, and Fraser Hawkins of the Department of English will be hosting a workshop that explores how literature and its criticism work to reimagine community in a postcolonial world, in terms that respect significant political, historical, and cultural differences. The workshop brings together members of Canadian universities with celebrated international literary figures, including Nobel Laureate J. M. Coetzee and Paul Auster, and noted international literary scholars, including Derek Attridge and Dorothy Driver. As the comparative aspect of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions forms a substantial element of the “The Art of Critique,” the program also includes acclaimed Aboriginal writers Lee Maracle and Daniel David Moses, as well as South African poet and pre-eminent journalist Antjie Krog. The workshop is closed to the public, although questions about the workshop are welcomed at writersatqueens@gmail.com. The workshop organizers gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s Aid to Research Workshops and Conferences in Canada, Kingston WritersFest, and the Principal’s Development Fund, International Visiting Scholars, without which this workshop would not be possible.
Lectures and Panels
Posted: 12 September 2011
Re-Routing Cosmopolitanism: The birth, near-death, and re-birth of the modernist South African short story in English
The Department of English is delighted to host a lecture by Dr. Dorothy Driver on Wednesday, 21 September from 4:00–5:30 pm in Watson 517. All are welcome at this event. A short reception will follow.
The topic of cosmopolitanism continues to generate critical interest, extending into cosmopolitics (nationalism and national identity, immigration and asylum, international democracy and human rights, global citizenship and globalization), and into literary study (diasporic studies, national literatures, world literature, cosmopolitan modernism and postcolonial cosmopolitanism), including genre studies (how genre crosses or adheres to national boundaries).
Prof. Driver will begin by looking at the arrival of the modernist short story in South Africa (with Nadine Gordimer, Dan Jacobson, Bloke Modisane, Es’kia Mphahlele, Alex la Guma, Bessie Head and others) and the uses that were made of generic dissonance in a world of race classification and racialised gender positions—all of which is in tension with a cosmopolitan notion of what it is to be human—and then at developments in short story tradition in the late 20th and early 21st centuries (Zoë Wicomb, Ivan Vladislavić, and others).
Women and Violence
The Department of English and the Department of Gender Studies will be co-hosting a panel entitled “Women and Violence” on Thursday, 22 Sept. 22nd from 2:30–4:00pm in Chernoff 117. The panel will feature renowned South African poet, translator, and reporter Antjie Krog, as well as award-winning author and activist Rozena Maart. The panel will be moderated by Queen's faculty member Rosemary Jolly. Students of English are welcome to attend this event. The event is made possible with the generous support of the Principal’s Development Fund for International Scholars.
Violence and the State in Canada and South Africa
On Friday, Sept. 23rd from 10:00-11:30 am in Watson 517, award-winning author and activist Rozena Maart, eminent public intellectual Njabulo Ndebele, and internationally acclaimed writer and journalist Jonny Steinberg will discuss structural violence in Canada and South Africa. The panel will be moderated by Prof. Rosemary Jolly. Students of English are encouraged to attend this event. The event is made possible with the generous support of the Principal’s Development Fund for International Scholars.
Readings in Honour of J. M. Coetzee
Posted: 9 August 2011
On Sunday, 26 September 2011, from 6:00–9:00 pm, Queen's University, in collaboration with Kingston WritersFest, will be hosting an evening of readings that will celebrate the international links of Kingston and Ontario writers, while also paying tribute to the visit of Nobel Laureate J. M. Coetzee. The truly extraordinary program of readers will include celebrated South African authors Yvette Christiansë, Antjie Krog, Anne Landsman, Rozena Maart, Njabulo S. Ndebele, Jonny Steinberg, and Ivan Vladislavić. Joining them will be Cree and Salish storyteller Lee Maracle and playwright Daniel David Moses, as well as acclaimed Kingston writer Steven Heighton. These award-winning authors will read poetry and prose that meditates on how we (re)imagine local, national, and global communities, particularly in light of ongoing histories of colonial violence and trauma.
Organizers are committed to creating an artistic performance that is accessible and accommodating to people with disabilities. We respectfully ask attendees to refrain from wearing strong scents during the event. If you have any questions about accessibility, or if you would like to request special, confidential accommodations for the event, please email writersatqueens@gmail.com.
Event Location: The Harbour Restaurant, 6:00–9:00 pm, 26 Sept 2011
Location Details: The Harbour Restaurant is located at the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour Site at 53 Yonge St in Kingston. Free shuttle from Holiday Inn at 5:00 and 5:25; from Court & Barrie at 5:05 and 5:30; the shuttle will make return trips after the event.
General Admission: $10.00
Queen's Students (with student card): $5.00
Free tickets will be made available to Queen's students on a rush-seat basis; English Department graduate student involvement will be paid for by the support of the English Department for this event. Up to 100 free tickets for currently registered Queen's English graduate students will be available at the door.
Tickets available at the door. Cash only. For more information about Kingston WritersFest, please visit http://www.kingstonwritersfest.ca/.
The event organizers gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Principal’s Development Fund, International Visiting Scholars, the George Taylor Richardson Memorial Fund, the Office of the Principal at Queen’s University, the Department of English, and the Department of Gender Studies, without which this event would not be possible.
Aaron Mauro - "Tending Your Digital Identity: Web Presence, Teaching, and Professionalism in the Era of Social Media"
Posted: 16 June 2011
Aaron Mauro has been invited by the Centre for Teaching and Learning to facilitate a session for the upcoming 2011 Teaching Development Day for Students and Post-Doctoral Fellows. The session is entitled "Tending Your Digital Identity: Web Presence, Teaching, and Professionalism in the Era of Social Media" and will be held on Friday September 9th.
Giller Prize Event: Johanna Skibsrud
Posted: 4 April 2011
The English Department’s Annual Giller Prize Event continues in 2011 with Johanna Skibsrud, winner of the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize for her novel The Sentimentalists, who visits the Department on Monday, 4 April 2011 to meet with our graduating students. At 4:30 pm in Biosciences 1102, she will read from her award-winning novel; all are welcome to attend the reading.
IMAGES
Left: Johanna Skibsrud with Tracy Ware, Right: Giller Prize Event Organizers Tracy Ware, Chris Bongie, and Glenn Willmott.
Stuart Ross wins ReLit Award
Posted: 20 October 2010
Stuart Ross, the English Department’s current writer in residence, has won the 2010 ReLit Award for short fiction. The ReLit Award is “the country’s pre-eminent literary prize recognizing literary presses” (the Globe & Mail), acknowledging the best new work by independent publishers. The Department extends its warmest congratulations to Stuart.
Writer in Residence 2010
Posted: July 2010
Stuart Ross will be the English Department’s writer in residence from September to December 2010.
Stuart Ross is a Cobourg-based writer, editor, and creative-writing instructor. He is the Fiction & Poetry Editor for This Magazine and Poetry Editor for Toronto’s Mansfield Press. For the past three decades, he has also run his own micropress and a series of small literary journals. He is the co-founder of the Toronto Small Press Book Fair and a founding member of the Meet the Presses Collective, dedicated to promoting small press books and magazines. Stuart also co-runs the Patchy Squirrel Lit-Serv, a free weekly e-listings service for the Toronto literary community.
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The English Department is very pleased to welcome Stuart Ross in the Fall Term 2010.
More about Stuart Ross on the WRITERS IN RESIDENCE PAGE »
Giller Prize Book Event
Posted: January 2010
The Department of English is delighted to announce its third annual Giller Prize Book Event, a capstone experience aimed primarily at the department’s fourth-year major and medial concentrators, but open to the whole campus community and the public.
Linden MacIntyre, winner of the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize, will visit the campus on Friday, 29 January 2010. In the afternoon he will participate in a round-table discussion entitled “The Future of Journalism,” and then at 4:30 pm he will offer a public reading from his prizewinning novel The Bishop’s Man, followed by a panel discussion.
All are welcome to attend this event. For times and places, consult the EVENTS CALENDAR »