ICCS Biennial Conference: Cultural Challenges of Migration in Canada, Ottawa, May 22-24, 2012

ICCS Biennial Conference: Cultural Challenges of Migration in Canada, Ottawa, May 22-24, 2012


The International Council for Canadian Studies (ICCS) is pleased to announce that its next conference, entitled Cultural Challenges of Migration in Canada, will be held in Ottawa from May 22 to 24, 2012, in collaboration with the Universities of Ottawa and Carleton.

Migration is a factor, which has played a central role in the construction of a Canadian identity. Concepts such as multiculturalism, interculturalism and transculturalism are inextricably linked with phenomena pertaining to migration, and the effects of these phenomena have made themselves felt in Canada’s cultural dynamics. The question therefore arises as to which processes and channels of communication have been instrumental in transmitting these migratory dynamics, and in which form they have manifested themselves in Canadian everyday life and culture. What are the cultural challenges of migration in Canada in the context of “globalization”? Which are the areas where a specific cultural dimension has arisen which, in its turn, has acquired a model character within the global sphere linked to the knowledge-based society? Papers to be read at the symposium should address these questions with regard not only to scientific and popular media and communication, language and literature, music and the visual arts, but also to social and political sciences.

Sessions

1.The 21st Century Migration of Aboriginal Peoples: Identity Formation and Cultural Retention.
2.Latino Migration and its Influence in Canadian Multiculturalism.
3.Migration and Narrative – Narratives of Migration.
4.Migrants’ Views of and Reflections on their Life-Projects: Canadian Identity or Identities in a Pluralist Canada?
5.Migration, Partnership and Social Cohesion.
6.Cross-cultural exchange and interaction: their nature, limits and challenges for the immigrant and Canada as host society
7.The Migrant Spirit.
8.New Local Spaces of Intercultural Dialogue in Canada.
9.Language Challenges in the Immigration Process.
10.Cultural Challenges in the Migration Process on Canada’s East Coast.
11.Multiculturalisms in the Americas.
12.For a Love of the Hunt-Mobility, Family Networks and Social Cohesion in a Plains Metis Transnational Brigade, 1840-1890.

Click here to see abstracts of sessions.