Symposium
The Personal Is Political: International Women’s Week 2025
Monday, March 3
8:30 am-9:45 am (Auditorium, A-103
Gendered Bodies in Competitive Sports
The bodies of cisgendered women and transgendered individuals have received an extraordinary amount of scrutiny in the media and by politicians in recent years, especially when the issue of participation in competitive sports is raised. From concerns about “fairness” to defenses of objectification of female physicality, the rhetoric from certain powerful and influential voices has leaned on falsehoods and misinformation about sex and gender to push for exclusion of certain bodies and maintaining a patriarchal status quo for others, creating a transphobic, heterosexist, and misogynist environment in which hard-earned rights are constantly being assaulted. Our guests for this roundtable discussion offer their perspectives on the importance of including women and trans people in competitive sport in a variety of contexts based on their own experiences and analyses as community organizers, researchers, and athletes.
Meg Hewings was the General Manager of Les Canadiennes, Montreal’s professional hockey team in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League. She also helped establish Centre 21.02, Canada’s only high-performance hockey centre in Verdun and founded the Lovely Hockey league for adult beginners. She was a news editor at alt-weekly Hour Magazine for 8 years and now works for Pour 3 Points, a not-for-profit organisation that trains sports coaches to serve as mentors to at-risk youth. Meg played varsity hockey for McGill University and for Montreal in an earlier iteration of the professional women’s circuit. Jack-Aude Pichette is the brainchild behind the 2023 community initiative that saw La Piscine Quintal in Hochelaga-Maisonneuave start offering swimming hours specifically for trans-identified individuals. Jack is also the founder of the Community Capacity Building Initiative (CCBI), the mission of which is to offer professional services to the public while creating programming that prioritizes solutions for economic & employment wellbeing in two spirit, trans, non-binary and gender diverse communities. Quentin Vernel is an ex-competitve swimmer who is a member of the trans swim committee. He started being more involved in sport in France, where he grew up, by following his father into triathlon. His student job was being a lifeguard.Being able to access the pool and sports in a queer friendly environment helped him with his gender affirming journey. Training is good for his mental health and as a neurodivergent person, he feels safe and peaceful in water. Swimming is meditative for him. Félix Pavlenko est doctorant à l’Institut d’études féministes et de genre de l’Université d’Ottawa et mène ses recherches en sociologie du genre et des activités physiques et sportives. Il s’intéresse aux conditions de pratique du sport par les personnes trans, au militantisme trans et aux discours institutionnels produits sur les personnes trans. Co-sponsored by Vanier's SPVR Office. Counts towards 2024-2025 SVPR training for Vanier employees.
10 am-11:15 am (Auditorium, A-103)
Intersectional Identities: Dynamics of Power in My Experience of Activisms
I will discuss how the process of decolonizing the body and mind reflects and questions the dynamics of power in my different activisms, highlighting when the personal becomes the political, and vice-versa.
kimura byol lemoine is a multidisciplinary artist, exhibition curator and queer feminist and archivist based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal who advocates with different communities./ kimura byol lemoine est un.e artiste multidisciplinaire, commissaire d'exposition et archiviste queer féministe établi.e. à Tiohtià:é/Montréal qui milite auprès de différentes communautés. Sponsored by the Open Door Network.
1pm - 2:15pm (Auditorium, A-103)
Indigenous Art & Activism
Our guests discuss their respective artistic processes, practices, and productions as means of giving voice to Indigenous issues on Turtle Island.
Dayna Danger (they/them) is a Two-Spirit, Indigiqueer, Métis-Saulteaux-Polish visual artist, hide tanner, and beadworker. Danger was born in Saskatoon and raised on Treaty 1 territory. Danger explores various mediums in their artworks, including sculpture, photography, performance, and video. Danger's art is an act of reclaiming space and power over society's projections of sexualities and representation. Danger is currently doing a doctorate at Concordia University, focusing on Two-Spirit roles and responsibilities at culture and hide-tanning camps. Cedar-Eve Peters (she/her) is a visual artist currently based between Montreal and Toronto, where she was born and raised. She is Anishinaabe-Ojibway from Saugeen First Nation and Wikwemikong Unceded Territory. Since graduating from Studio Arts at Concordia University in 2012, she has painted murals in Peru, Tucson, Alberta, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, and Ottawa. Peters is a self-taught bead artist, her work often inspired by elements of nature, urban landscapes, her dream world, and the surreal. In addition to creating beaded jewellery full-time, Peters screen-prints clothing for her business, Cedar Eve Creations. Sponsored by the Indigenous Student Leader's Office in Student Services.
2:30 pm-3:45 pm (Auditorium, A-103)
Breakthroughs: Experiences of a Female Muslim Sports Journalist
Our guest will share her groundbreaking journey as an intersectional activist-journalist in a domain many people would not expect to find a Muslim woman reach the heights that she has in her field: sports journalism.
Shireen Ahmed is an award-winning, multi-platform journalist whose work interrogates the intersections of race and gender in sport. She is an industry expert on Muslim women in sports, and her academic research and contributions have been widely published. She breaks stories, opines, tells stories at the public broadcaster (CBC/Radio-Canada), and is the co-creator and co-host of the Burn It All Down feminist sports podcast team. In addition to being a seasoned investigative reporter, her commentary is featured by media outlets in Canada, the USA, Europe, and Australia. She holds an MA in Media Production from Toronto Metropolitan University, where she now teaches Sports Journalism and Sports Media. Her identity is tied to the work she loves to do. Shireen drinks coffee as a tool of resistance. Cosponsored by Vanier’s Social Science Profiles and MEES.
4 pm-5:15 pm (Auditorium, A-103)
Grappling with Masculinity and Sexuality as a Former Jehovah’s Witness
The Jehovah's Witnesses are a high-control religious cult that subjugates women, doesn't recognize the existence of queer or trans people, and teaches its members that they have no personal political agency. Author Daniel Allen Cox will talk about growing up queer in the Witnesses, the model of toxic masculinity he was expected to adopt, and the authors who lit his path as a writer once he got out.
Daniel Allen Cox is the author of four novels and I Felt the End Before It Came: Memoirs of a Queer Ex-Jehovah’s Witness, shortlisted for the Grand Prix du livre de Montréal and named one of the Best Books of 2023 by Publishers Weekly. His essays have appeared in The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, Electric Literature, The Brooklyn Rail, and The Malahat Review, and have been recognized by the National Magazine Awards, Best Canadian Essays, and The Best American Essays. Co-sponsored by the QWF’s Writers-in-Cegep program. Counts towards 2024-2025 SVPR training for Vanier employees.
Tuesday, March 4
8:30 am-9:45 am (Auditorium, A-103)
Fierté & Résilience: Histoires des Familles LGBTQ2S+ / Pride & Resilience: LGBTQ2S+ Family Stories
(En français, with some English)
Représentant la Coalition des familles LGBT+, nos invitées présentent un projet à plusieurs volets qui a recueilli les histoires de familles LGBTQ2S+ à travers le Québec et les a présentées au public via différentes formes de médias. / Representing the Coalition des familles LGBT+, our guests present a multi-pronged project that collected the stories of LGBTQ2S+ families across Quebec and showcased them to the public via different forms of media.
Marianne Chbat, PhD est sociologue, chercheuse et militante. Elle est la coordonnatrice principale de la recherche à la Clinique Mauve (Université de Montréal), un laboratoire social sur la santé des personnes LGBTQ+ migrantes et racisées vivant à Montréal. Ses recherches lient les enjeux des genres, des sexualités, des familles, du racisme et des migrations dans une perspective intersectionnelle. Elle est l’autrice de l’ouvrage Familles Queers : récits et célébrations (2024) publié aux éditions Remue-Ménage en collaboration avec Mona Greenbaum, co-directrice de la Coalition des familles LGBT+ du Québec. Mona Greenbaum est la fondatrice et la directrice générale de la Coalition des familles LGBT+, une association militant pour les familles avec parents lesbiens, gais, bisexuels et trans. La mission principale de la Coalition est de former des intervenant.e.s qui travaillent en milieu scolaire, dans les services sociaux, ainsi qu’au sein d’organismes communautaires. Entre 2004 et 2006, Mona a fait partie du Groupe de travail mixte contre l’homophobie de la Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse. Mona est aussi consultante et formatrice pour l’Institut national de santé publique du Québec (l’INSPQ). / Dr. Marianne Chbat is a sociologist, researcher, and activist. She is the lead research coordinator at the Clinique Mauve (Université de Montréal), a social labo focused on the health of LGBTQ+ migrants and racialized individuals living in Montreal. Her research addresses issues of gender, sexuality, family, racism, and migration from an intersectional perspective. She is the author of the book Familles Queers: Récits et Célébrations (2024), published by Remue-Ménage in collaboration with Mona Greenbaum, co-director of the Coalition des familles LGBT+ du Québec. Mona Greenbaum is the founder and executive director of La Coalition des familles LGBT+, an advocacy organization for families with lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans parents. The Coalition’s primary mission is to train workers who work in schools, social services, and community organizations. Between 2004 and 2006, Mona was part of Le Groupe de travail mixte contre l’homophobie de la Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse. Mona is also a consultant and trainer for l’Institut national de santé publique du Québec (l’INSPQ). Sponsored by the VCTA. Counts towards 2024-2025 SVPR training for Vanier employees.
10 am-11:15 am (Auditorium, A-103)
Advocating for Equality in Education
Our guest will talk about her experiences as a community activist, with a particular emphasis on her anti-racism work in her community and English public school sectors in Quebec.
Allison Saunders is Digital Content Strategist at Concordia University, working with university partners to amplify their voices and their work using digital tools like websites and social media spaces. She is also a Commissioner on and Vice-Chair of the Lester B. Pearson School Board as well as board member of Overture with the Arts (OWTA) and a former board member of the Black Academic Scholarship Fund (BASF). Recognizing the need for change in her community, Ms. Saunders uses her voice to work towards a diverse and inclusive community in which all people feel welcome. Sponsored by MEES.
12 pm-1:15 pm (Auditorium, A-103)
The Power and Influence of “The Personal Is Political”
“The personal is political” is one the most famous slogans to have come out of the second wave of the North American women’s movement. It was meant to denounce the separation that had been staunchly upheld between what were considered the private and public spheres of life. This division helped to maintain legal, political, economic, and social barriers to women’s enfranchisement and full emancipation. By forcing societies to face how what happens inside the home is a reflection of what is happening outside of it, and vice versa, the feminist movement of that time helped to transform social structures in significant ways. Our speaker, a pioneer of the women’s movement in Quebec and Canada, will share with us the significance of that phrase and speak about the historic significance of the events that unfolded at that time.
Greta Hofmann Nemiroff is a writer and educator and has coordinated several Women’s Studies programs. In 1970-1971, Hofmann Nemiroff co-taught the first university-level Women’s Studies course offered in Canada, “The Nature of Woman”, at Sir George Williams University. Hofmann Nemiroff was a member of the founding group that established Vanier College, teaching English and Humanities as well as serving as Chair of the English and Creative Arts Departments. She was also a founding member of the Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Concordia University, where she was President of the Assembly in 1978-1979 and an editor of the first Simone de Beauvoir Institute Bulletin in 1979. In 1973 she was one of the founders of the New School of Dawson College where she taught until her retirement in 2015. Between 1991 and 1996, she held the federally supported Joint Chair of Women’s Studies at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. Throughout her career, Hofmann Nemiroff has been a social activist, holding positions in several national and international committees and organizations, including but not limited to: the Canadian Congress for Learning Opportunities for Women; the Canadian Women Studies Association; and the Sisterhood is Global Institute, an international NGO. She has edited twelve books and published fiction in Canada and the USA as well as in the fields of Women’s Studies and education. She retired in June 2015. Sponsored by the VCTA.
2:30 pm-3:45 pm (Auditorium, A-103)
Personal Power and Agency in Times of Political Turbulence
This talk will highlight the power of Drama Therapy to intersections between individual wellbeing and systemic oppression. Drama Therapy is a form of therapy that uses theatre and drama processes to achieve therapeutic objectives. Using storytelling, metaphor, role-play and embodiment drama therapy helps people express their concerns and find their agency in difficult situations. People seek Drama Therapy to work through feelings of depression, anxiety, loneliness, illness, grief and bereavement, relationship conflict, domestic violence, trauma, asylum seeker resettlement, eco-anxiety, and more. This session will describe how Drama Therapy works and different Drama Therapy application—including how Drama Therapy can be used to help us navigate challenging times, acknowledge our feelings of powerlessness and most importantly, identify, expand, and strength our sense of agency. This session will share interactive drama therapy examples with opportunities for audience participation.
Dr. Jessica Bleuer (she/her/ella) works as an Assistant Professor at Concordia University in the MA Drama Therapy Program as well as a drama therapist in private practice. She also facilitates Theatre of the Oppressed workshops on topics of cultural oppression that include racism in higher education, homophobia, transphobia, ableism in workplaces, and barriers to employment for asylum seekers and newcomers. Sponsored by MEES. Counts towards 2024-2025 SVPR training for Vanier employees.
4 pm to 5:15 pm (Auditorium, A-103)
TRC Speakers Series Presents: Reclaiming Our Stories Through Film: The Knowing
The Knowing (24) is a four-part CBC docuseries that follows journalist Tanya Talaga and her family’s eight-decade long search for family matriarch Annie Carpenter, revealing a story deeply intertwined with Canada’s residential school system. Filmmaker Courtney Montour shares excerpts from the series and discusses the community collaboration in adapting author and journalist Tanya Talaga’s book of the same name to the screen.
Courtney Montour is a Kanien’kehá:ka writer and director from Kahnawà:ke whose works have screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and Margaret Mead. She is a recipient of the 2022 NDN Collective Changemaker Fellowship. Courtney was named Playback’s 2024 TV Directors of the Year, alongside Tanya Talaga for their series The Knowing. Presented as part of Vanier’s Truth & ReconciliACTION Speaker Series.
Wednesday, March 5
8:30 am-9:45 am (Auditorium, A-103)
Ready, Set, Draw: Feminist Ideologies in Graphic Memoir Making
Given their rising popularity and accessibility, comics have been gaining more attention in academia. While comics have been considered literature for some time now, comics making as an academic practice is relatively new. However, typically, the kind of comics being produced in academia are purely informational and simply use the comics form to share findings. But about other genres of comics, like graphic memoir? As Hillary Chute would say, women graphic memoirists like Alison Bechdel, Marjane Satrapi, and Kate Beaton demonstrate how comics can capture the “extraordinary ordinariness” of trauma in women’s lives. Indeed, comics allow women to visually divulge their traumatic experiences while challenging how patriarchal society enables these experiences to happen in the first place. Graphic memoir can be a powerful tool for feminist scholars who make the personal political. But how can we go about creating our own graphic memoirs in an academic setting? This talk will discuss the methodologies and creative process that went into making “Drawn to Trauma,” a graphic memoir about sexual violence and pursuing a doctorate.
Dr. Mélanie Proulx is an interdisciplinary academic-artist. The hyphen between these two terms highlights how they represent parts of herself that are inextricably linked. Her academic research informs her artistic practice; her artistic practice informs my academic research. Being a queer, disabled comic artist and comics scholar, she love all forms of sequential art. However, her most recent passions include Quebecois bandes dessinées and graphic medicine. She is currently undertaking a creative writing certificate at the University of Toronto. Her background in English literature and composition has seen her win such awards as two Wynne Francis Awards (2018 and 2019) as well as a Judith Yaross Lee Publication Grant in humour studies (2020). Co-sponsored by the QWF’s Writers-in-Cegep program and Vanier’s SPVR Office. Counts towards 2024-2025 SVPR training for Vanier employees.
10 am-11:15 am (Auditorium, A-103)
The Pink Triangle: The Persecution of Queers during the Holocaust…and Today!
Did you know that queer people were targets of the Holocaust? Imprisoning and often killing people who were even perceived as gay, lesbian, or bisexual was one way in which the Nazi regime sought to "purify" the Aryan race. But the end of the Holocaust did not lead to the end of the persecution of queer people in Germany. It therefore took many decades for the world to hear from queer holocaust survivors. This talk will go over the main points of this history and discuss some connections with contemporary queer oppression and liberation.
Jacky Vallée (he or they) teaches anthropology at Vanier College. He is one of the co-founders of the Open Door Network, which aims to sensitize Vanier staff to the diversity in sexual orientation and gender identity. Counts towards 2024-2025 SVPR training for Vanier employees.
12 pm-1:20 pm (Auditorium, A-103)
Backlash: Misogyny in the Digital Age, dir. by Léa Clermont-Dion and Guylaine Maroist
This documentary follows four women and one man whose lives have been particularly affected by online violence. We see in real time the waves of hate they are subjected to, their resulting fear, and how they no longer feel safe in public spaces. However, they share a common cause: to refuse to be silent. TRIGGER WARNING: Threats of gendered and sexual violence, abusive misogynistic language. (Les Productions de la ruelle, 2022, Canada, 1h 20m). Counts towards 2024-2025 SVPR training for Vanier employees.
1:30 pm-3 pm (Auditorium, A-103)
Yintah, dir. by Brenda Michell, Michael Toledano, and Jennifer Wickham
Spanning more than a decade, Yintah, meaning “land,” follows Howilhkat Freda Huson and Sleydo’ Molly Wickham as their nation reoccupies and protects their ancestral lands from the Canadian government and several of the largest fossil fuel companies on earth. TRIGGER WARNING: This film contains scenes discussing residential schools, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, suicide, and police violence. (Yintah Film, 2024, Canada, 1h 27m)
3:30 pm-5 pm (Auditorium, A-103)
From Priestdaddy to Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: The Autofictional Is Political
Within left-leaning literary spheres, memoir is often praised as a genre that most effectively shows how the personal is political. Yet, memoir can be constraining and rooted in faulty premises and promises. In turn, this talk asks: What is autofiction? How is it different from memoir or creative nonfiction? What political purposes might it serve? Drawing on recent contemporary autofiction, this presentation shows how such texts blur the boundary between truth and fiction in a way that creates the most delightful literary, personal and political chaos.
Dr. Robyn Diner teaches English Literature at Vanier College. She also gives online courses on autofiction, as well as on gender, sexuality and the ageing female body. She’s working on a collection of autofictional short stories titled BadassTeacherLady: Tales From the Classroom and Beyond. She lives in the Mile End, where she is continuously amazed at the price of cute dresses at the fripperies—nevermind the price of groceries.
Thursday, March 6
8:30 am-9:45 am (Auditorium, A-103)
Seeking Representations of Indigenous Joy
Since their initial contact with European colonizers centuries ago, Indigenous Peoples on Turtle Island have been depicted all sorts ways in Western culture, ranging from godless beasts to mere victims of colonialism, with very little to suggest that they might actually lead meaningful and fulfilling lives. In recent years, however, artists, writers, and performers from numerous Indigenous communities have taken matters into their own hands by producing images and narratives that show their home populations in all their complexity, including experiences of joy. This roundtable discussion featuring Indigenous students currently attending Vanier intends to highlight these representations of joy in media and popular culture, demonstrating to the audience that they are not the perpetually tragic figures that they have been made out to be by colonialist structures and systems.
Kathleen Gosselin is a Mixed Two-Spirit Indiqueer person with disabilities, pursuing a degree in special education techniques. Kathleen is deeply committed to community care, harm reduction, and accessibility within activism. Anik Laviolette is an Inuit artist who specializes in acrylic painting and spray paint art. She is currently pursuing a degree in Accounting within the Business Administration program, aspiring to become a Chief Financial Officer to financially support her passion of the Arts. On her free time, she may or may not be Batman. Cyrus Smoke is a 2-Spirit Kanien'kehá:ka and Haitian artist specializing in graphic art and video. They are currently completing their studies in Communications, Media Creation, and Studio Arts. (They wish to not show their face because they may or may not be Spider-Man, this information is highly confidential). Co-sponsored by the VCSA.
10 am-11:15 am (Auditorium, A-103)
Writing and Activism: An Intergenerational Conversation
Representing two different generations as authors and activists, our guests discuss how their writing intertwines with their politics, exchanging perspectives grounded in their own experiences and made distinct by the years in which their skill, artistry, and thinking have developed and evolved.
Leila Marshy is of Palestinian-Newfoundland parentage, which might explain a lot. She has worked for the Palestine Hospital in Cairo, the Palestinian Mental Health Association in Gaza, and Medical Aid for Palestine in Montreal. She’s been a baker, a chicken farmer, a mobile app designer, a film editor and a political campaigner. Her novel, The Philistine, was published in 2018, and My Thievery of the People comes out this spring. She lives in Montreal. Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch is a writer living in Tio’tia:ke. Their books include knot body (2020) and The Good Arabs (2021), the latter of which was granted the honorary mention for poetry by the Arab American Book Awards and won the Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal. Their translation of Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay’s La fille d’elle-même was published April 2023. With co-editor Samia Marshy, they edited El Ghourabaa (2024), an anthology of queer and trans writing by Arab and Arabophone writers. Their qui, while many things, is always explicitly political.
Noon-1:30 pm (Auditorium, A-103)
Queer Activism and the Question of Palestine
Political violence against Palestinians, including the most recent war in Gaza and attacks in the West Bank, is often justified as necessary to protect LGBTIQ+ people from Arab and Muslim homophobia. Critics have called this practice pinkwashing, which is the tokenistic use of sexual rights to justify the violation of other human rights. This panel will explain the history of pinkwashing and the impact of these messages on Palestinian queer communities, along with how people both within Palestine and transnationally have addressed the weaponization of sexual rights to justify war.
Dr. Nayrouz Abu Hatoum is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology at Concordia University. Her research centers on visual politics in Palestine, with a particular focus on alternative imaginations, place-making practices, and resistance within settler colonial contexts. Currently, she is working on an ethnographic project exploring how artistic production in Palestine contributes to expanding Palestinian political imagination. Dr. Natalie Kouri-Towe is an Associate Professor of feminism and sexuality at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Concordia University. Her research investigates the politics of solidarity under neoliberalism, with areas of focus ranging across responses to war in the Middle East, refugee crises, queer activism, and gender and sexuality pedagogies. She has also published on topics relating to affect theory, masculinity, queer kinship, and transnational solidarity.
2:30 pm-3:45 pm (Auditorium, A-103)
“Accepte-toi comme je suis” / “Accept Yourself as I Am", (Film & discussion, en francais & in English)
“Accepte-toi comme je suis” est un documentaire explorant la réalité intime vécue par Élise dans son cheminement d'identité de genre aux îles de la Madeleine, Québec. Les entretiens réalisés avec elle nous permettent d’aller en profondeur dans la compréhension de sa réalité, ses enjeux, ses euphories, ses valeurs, ses doutes. Il s’agit d’une rencontre intime, d’un regard étroit sur son univers qui nous rapproche de son essence, de ce qu'elle vit, aujourd’hui, de ce qui l’habite. / “Accept Yourself as I Am" is a documentary film that explores the intimate reality experienced by Élise in her journey of gender identity in the remote Magdalen Islands, Québec. The interviews conducted with her allow us to delve deep into the understanding of her reality, challenges, euphorias, values, and doubts. It is an intimate encounter, a close look at her universe that brings us closer to her essence, to what she is experiencing today, to what inhabits her.
Passionnée de culture et de société, la pratique artistique d’Emmanuelle Roberge est ancrée dans une approche sociale à caractère intimiste. Elle cherche à s’approcher de l'essence de ses sujets, de leur identité, de ce qui habite leurs gestes. Elle veut révéler leur beauté, même traversée d’ombre, car c’est elle qui inspire avant tout le changement, émeut et met en mouvement. Passionate about culture and society, Emmanuelle Roberge's artistic practice is rooted in a socially intimate approach. She seeks to delve into the essence of her subjects, their identity, and what inhabits their gestures. She aims to reveal their beauty, even when touched by shadows, as it is this beauty that primarily inspires change, moves, and evokes emotions. (Espace bleu films, 2024, Canada, 57m). Sponsored by the VCTA. Counts towards 2024-2025 SVPR training for Vanier employees.
4 pm-5:15 pm (Auditorium, A-103)
“Am I the Skinniest Person You’ve Ever Seen?”, dir. by Eisha Marjara (film & discussion w/ director)
Follows Eisha and Seema, soul-mate sisters whose shared dietary goal becomes a harrowing descent for Eisha. Years later, her auto-ethnographic narrative revisits her troubling past, addressing body image and self-acceptance.
Eisha Marjara has made several award-winning films, including Locarno’s Prix de la Semaine de Critique winner Desperately Seeking Helen. Venus (2017), a dramatic comedy, won the EDA Award for Best Feature at the Whistler Film Festival, among other accolades. Eisha also authored the young adult novel Faerie, which received rave reviews in the Canadian and American press. Her next feature, Calorie will be released later this year. Sponsored by the VCSA. WARNING: Based on the advice from mental health professionals, anyone under 18 should be accompanied by a parent or adult due to the film’s content, which addresses eating disorders in adolescence.
Friday, March 7
8:30 am-9:45 am (Auditorium, A-103)
An Unfinished Journey, dir. by Aeliya Husain and Amie Williams
Forced to flee their country after the Taliban take-over in 2021, four Afghan women leaders struggle to keep the world's attention on the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan, while coming to terms with what it means to have their power usurped and two decades of progress dismantled. No longer in positions of influence, they are forced to reinvent themselves to continue the fight for a free and just Afghanistan. (Canada & France, 2024, 75j
10 am-11:15 am (Auditorium, A-103)
Koromousso: Big Sister, dir. by Jim Donovan and Habibata Ouarme
A group of African-Canadian women challenge cultural taboos surrounding female sexuality and fight to take back ownership of their bodies. (National Film Board of Canada, 2023, Canada, 76m). Counts towards 2024-2025 SVPR training for Vanier employees.
11:30 am-12:45 pm (Auditorium, A-103)
Sons, dir. by Justin Simms
As Trump takes office in 2016, a first-time dad wrestles with traditional methods of raising boys. (National Film Board of Canada, 2024, Canada, 66m). Counts towards 2024-2025 SVPR training for Vanier employees.
1 pm-2:15 pm (Auditorium, A-103)
Demystifying Aroace Identity
Our guests will explain aromanticism/asexuality, also known as “aroace,” a sexual identity that more and more people are using as a descriptor for themselves, but yet much of the broader public knows very little about. Isabelle Stephen will first clarify the meaning of these terms—along with the many subcategories that fall under their umbrella—and then talk about how the local aroace scene and community have developed in Montreal, while Hanine El Mir will present her more specific MA thesis research on Arabs and Muslims in Lebanon who identify with asexuality and how they express this part of themselves in both public and private spheres.
Hanine El Mir is a PhD student in the department of Communication Studies at Concordia University. She co-founded the feminist club and was a pioneering member of the gender & sexuality club at her undergraduate alma mater, the American University of Beirut, where she studied English Literature and Media/Communications. In 2015, Isabelle Stephen founded the Asexual Community of Montreal and sought to educate the public about asexuality through various media, including radio interviews, podcasts, television, newspapers, and the web. Isabelle has lived in Montreal since 2009. She studied Communication at UQAM and works simultaneously in video post-production and photography. Counts towards 2024-2025 SVPR training for Vanier employees.
3:30 pm-5:30 pm (Theatre Room, B-325)
Playback Theatre Tea Room
To cap off the 2025 edition of International Women’s Week, we invite all members of the Vanier community to come to the Theatre Room to indulge in a hot cup of tea and a biscuit or two, then engage in an interactive performance with Vanier’s Playback Theatre troupe, whose members include teachers you know and love from the College. For those unfamiliar with Playback Theatre, it is a style of improvisational performance wherein the troupe solicits stories from the audience—usually in accordance with the theme or context of a particular event, and often at the event’s conclusion—which the troupe then “plays back” using sound, movement, and words. Given that this is the closing event for International Women’s Week, the theme of which has been “The Personal Is Political,” sitting in on the Playback performance will be an excellent way for you to process the sessions you attended throughout the week. So come to B-325 at 3:30 pm on March 7 to share in the refreshments offered while mingling with other members of the Vanier community, then take a seat at 4 pm for an hourlong Playback Theatre show. Sponsored by the VCSA.