PROGRAM |
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Beyond Testimony and Trauma:
Oral History in the Aftermath of Mass Violence
22-25 March 2012, Montréal, Québec, Canada
Wednesday 21 March 2012
10h00-17h00 Pre-Conference Workshop (COHDS, 1400 Maisonneuve Blvd W)
"Montreal Life Stories Core Training Day" (description)
17h30-19h30 Artist in Residence: Life Stories on Stage
(Mounument National, 1182 St-Laurent street)
This round table discussion of the Intersections series will be chaired by Ted LITTLE and will showcase the work of Montreal Life Stories Project's artists in residence.
20h00 Teesri Duniya Theatre Performance: "State of Denial"
(McCord Museum,
690 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal)
Thursday 22 March 2012
9h00-11h00 Pre-Conference Workshop:
(Mounument National, 1182 St-Laurent street)
Henry GREENSPAN, University of Michigan; Fulbright
Chair, Concordia University.
Kenneth WALTZER, James Madison College and Jewish Studies, Michigan
State University.
"Collaboration: Transcending the Division Between Memory and History in Oral History with Survivors" (description)
12h00-14h00 Pre-Conference Workshop: (Monument National)
Michele LUCHS, Head of English Language Arts programs for Quebec's
Ministry of Education.
Elizabeth MILLER, Professor of Communication Studies at Concordia University, Montreal Life Stories.
"Mapping Memories: Participatory Media, Place-Based Stories & Refugee Youth" (description)
14h30-16h30 Pre-Conference Workshop: (Monument National)
Leyla NEYZI, Sabanci University.
"Postmemory: Working with youth on intergenerational transmission (and silencing) of trauma in the context of ongoing trauma, denial, censorship and repression" (description)
17h00 Rwandan Audio Walk (Near the Berri-UQAM metro station)
19h00 PUBLIC KEYNOTES (BaNQ, 475 Boulevard de Maisonneuve Est)
Callixte Kabayiza and Lieutenant-General Roméo A. Dallaire.
Chairperson: Lisa Ndejeru, Isangano/Histoires de vie Montréal.
20h00
Teesri Duniya Theatre Performance: "State of Denial"
(McCord Museum,
690 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal)
Friday 23 March 2012
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Hall Building, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd W, 7th floor:
8h00-8h30 Registration (with light breakfast in the reception area)
8h30-9h30 Morning Keynote (Room: H-767):
Henry Greenspan, University of Michigan. “Beyond Testimony and Trauma: Why We Are Here”
Chairperson: Steven High, Montreal Life Stories.
Through a series of potentially provocative (but hopefully revealing) anecdotes, this talk will suggest why we need to move beyond conventional concepts of testimony and trauma—both in rhetoric and in associated practice. Drawing from some of this conference’s proposals, it will also suggest ways we already have.
9h30-10h30 BREAK (with food in the reception area on the 7th floor)
10h00-11h45
Session 1: The Role of Testimony in Conflict Resolution (Room: H-767)
Chairperson: Vincenza Nazzari, EQUITAS/Montreal Life Stories.
Presenters:
CHAITIN, JULIA. Sapir College.“This is my story, this is our story: Using biographical methods for
research and peace-building.”
HÉBERT, Valerie. Lakehead University in Orillia, “The Trauma of Testimony: Current Challenges in Post-Atrocity Justice.”
NEYRA, Renato. Université de Montréal . “Flor de retama: Le chant de la mémoire en temps de violence politique (Pérou 1980-2000).”
KING, Régine Uwibereyeho. CAMH, Social Aetiology of Mental Illness Post-Doctoral Fellow. “Individual and Community Healing through the Sharing of Stories between the Tutsi and the Hutu in Post-Genocide Rwanda.”
Session 2: Experiments in Collaborative Recounting (Room: H-763)
Chairperson: Steven High, COHDS/Montreal Life Stories.
Presenters:
WALTZER, Kenneth. Michigan State University. “Utilizing Survivor Testimony to Tell the Story of Rescue Inside a Concentration Camp.”
ELLIS, Carolyn. University of South Florida, and Jerry Rawicki, “Collaborative Witnessing: Narrating Tales of Jewish Luck and Agency during the Holocaust.”
PATTI, Chris J. University of South Florida. “Digging through Our Stories Together: A Holocaust Survivor and Ethnographer’s Ongoing Conversation.”
FREUND, Alexander and Mario JIMENEZ. University of Winnipeg. “Working Toward Trust and Structural Healing: Oral History as Participatory Action Research.”
11h45-13h15: Break (Free time)
13h15-15h00
Session 3: Hurt and Healing (Room: H-767)
Chairperson: Emmanuelle Sonntag, UQÀM/Montreal Life Stories
Presenters:
LIU, Sarah. University of California – Berkeley. “Resentment and the Question of Community.”
HABIMANA, Emmanuel. Université de Québec à Trois Rivières, “Le pardon sans demande de pardon”.
COHEN, Rose Lerer. University of Hull. “Interviewing and Introspection Emotions and Intellect: Shaping Research.”
MUTAGOMBWA, Gilbert. University of Kabale, “Trauma healing projects in Rwanda: Transforming Wounds into Potential Healing for Widows of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda.”
Session 4: Survivors, Perpetrators and Audiences (H-763)
Chairperson: Ry Duong, Montreal Life Stories.
Presenters:
TAKENAKA, Akiko. University of Kentucky.“Victim Narratives, Perpetrator Narratives: Reconciling divergent voices from the past for a productive future.”
FOISY, Catherine. Concordia University. “The Risky Business of Mission Storytelling from Rwanda to Canada.”
PETROVIĆ, Tanja. Documenta, Center for Dealing with the Past. “Unveiling personal memories on war and detention.”
Session 5: Testimony as Spectacle (H-769)
Chairperson: Ted Little, Concordia/Montreal Life Stories.
Presenters:
MARLIN-CURIEL, Stephanie. Independent Scholar. “Mediatized Memory: Reimagining subjectivity in Global Performance about the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission”
VARMA, Rahul. Teesri Duniya Theatre. “Personalizing Stories: State of Denial.”
PELLETIER, Marie. Concordia University. “Understanding the World through Religion? Stories of Karma, Miracles and Premonition in Life Narratives of Cambodian Refugees.”
15h00-15h30 BREAK (with food in the reception area on the 7th floor)
15h30-17h15
Session 6: Creative Expression of One’s Story (H-767)
Chairperson: Sandra Gasana, Histoires de vie Montréal.
Presenters:
MARTELLY, Stéphane. Histoires de vie Montréal, “Écrire dans / devant l’histoire : Savoirs de la violence et savoirs de la creation.”
STRAUSS, Jill. John Jay College, CUNY. “Compatible or Competing: Oral History and Conflict Transformation in an Intergenerational Visual Art Project in Northern Ireland”
KILBURN, Michael. Endicott College. “Soldiers’ Tales (Un)told: Oral history, trauma, and reconciliation.”
ROY, Lucie. Université Laval. “De l’identité narrative au principe de l’authenticité du récit de témoignages.”
Session 7: Survivorship for the Subhuman: Testimony, Narrative, and Memory in the Context of Canadian Eugenics (H-769)
Round Table Participants: Rob WILSON, Anne PASEK, Kathryn HARVEY, Moyra LANG, Nicola FAIRBROTHER et Leilani MUIR.
Session 8: Testimony in Time and Space (H-763)
Chairperson: Liz Miller, Concordia/Montreal Life Stories.
Presenters:
COLE, Tim. University of Bristol, “(Re)placing the past: Placing self and others in traumatic memory.”
SMITH, Amy. Yale University. “Changing Narrative Constructions of Traumatic Memory by Survivors: A Case Study of Leon Weliczker Wells.”
GELFAND, Rachel. Brooklyn, NY, “Framing the Past: Traumatic Memory and Transgenerational Transmission in the Case of A Collection of Holocaust Drawings.”
ROTH, Lorna and Caroline KUNZLE. Concordia/Montreal Life Stories. “About Face: A Reflection on the Technologies of Capture and the Place of the Face in the Oral History Research Process.”
19h00 Keynote (H-767):
Leyla NEYZI. Sabanci University. "When the past is never past: Postmemories of trauma in contexts of public denial and ongoing violence."
Chairperson: Frank Chalk, Director of MIGS/Montreal Life Stories
OR
20h00
Teesri Duniya Theatre Performance: "State of Denial"
(McCord Museum,
690 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal)
SATURDAY 24 MARCH 2012
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Hall Building, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd W, 7th floor:
8:30-9:30 Morning Keynotes (H-767):
Chairperson: Eve-Lyne Cayouette Ashby
Michele LUCHS and Elizabeth MILLER, "On Tour with Sensitive Stories"
(description)
9h30-10h00 BREAK (with food in the reception area on the 7th floor)
10:00-11:45
Session 9: MONTREAL LIFE STORIES (H-767)
Chairperson: Berthe Kayitesi, Université d’Ottawa.
Presenters:
HIGH, Steven. Concordia University. “Interviewing Survivors: From Testimony to Life Story.”
SHEFTEL, Anna. University Saint Paul, and Stacey ZEMBRZYCKI, Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling, “Questions are More Important than Answers”: Creating Collaborative Workshop Spaces with Holocaust Survivor-Educators in Montreal.”
VACHER, Carole et Monique MUKABALISA. Histoires de vie Montréal/Page Rwanda. “Entre le silence et la parole: exemple des survivants du génocide des Tutsi du Rwanda.”
KABAYIZA, Callixte; Sandra GASANA; Sandra ISIMBI. Page-Rwanda. “La transmission intergénérationnelle de la mémoire du genocide des Tutsi du Rwanda.”
Session 10: Archival Memories (H-769)
Chairperson: Nisha Sajnani, Creative Alternatives/Montreal Life Stories.
Presenters:
EKMEKCIOGLU, Lerna. MIT, “To Collect is to Recollect: Sexualized Violence in the First Survivor Testimonies after the 1915 Armenian Genocide.”
KOZINSKI, Emily. McGill University. “When Archival Records Documenting Mass Violence are Destroyed: How Oral Testimony Can be Used to Document the Past.”
CASTANEDA, Sue. Wyoming State Archives. “Cokeville, Wyoming Elementary School Bombing.”
BEER, Max. Montreal Life Stories, “Postwar: Holocaust Survivors and the Montreal Jewish Community.”
11h45-13h15 Break (Free time) Screening of the film “The Rwandan Genocide as told by its Historian Survivors” (H-767)
13h15-15h00
Session 11: The Ethics of Learning from Rwandan Survivor Communities: Critical Reflexivity and the Politics of Knowledge Production in Genocide Education (H-767)
Workshop Participants: Lisa TAYLOR, Bishop’s University; Sollange UMWALI, Central Neighbourhood House; Marie-Jolie RWIGEMA, University of Toronto; Jan HASKINGS-WINNER, Toronto District School Board; Natacha NSABIMANA, Columbia University, Shelly KYTE and Tracy THAM, Toronto District School Board.
Session 12: Ethics, Aesthetics and Beyond (H-763)
Chairperson: Lorna Roth, Concordia/Montreal Life Stories.
Presenters:
LITTLE, Edward. Concordia University. “Working Title: What the Hell are We Doing Here?”
TINDEMANS, Klaas and Hans-Werner KROESINGER. Brussels. “The (im)possibility of theatrical representation: Reflections about exemplary dramatizations of the Rwandan genocide.”
MULLER, Adam and and Struan SINCLAIR. University of Manitoba. "Trauma, Testimony, and Technology: Augmentive Reality in the Modern Museum."
STOCKWELL, Jill (Institute of Social Research at Swinburne University)
“Emotions, Deep Memory and Haunting – their role in sustaining entrenched ideological and political divisions in Argentina”
Session 13: Testimony in Political Contexts (H-769)
Chairperson: Warren Linds, Concordia/Montreal Life Stories.
Presenters:
COSTA, Lucy, The Empowerment Council and Jijian VORONKA, OISE, “Beyond ‘Patient Porn’: Tragedy, Testimony and the Exploitation of Stories in the Lives of the ‘Mentally Ill.’
BAKER, Catherine. University of Southampton/University College London.“‘We interpreters were the first ones to cross the lines’: dealing with oral histories of language, conflict and work in 1990s Bosnia-Herzegovina.”
STOREY, Robert. McMaster University, “‘Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will’: Engaging with the ‘Testimonies’ of Injured Workers.”
GANDSMAN, Ari. University of Ottawa. “Testimonies of Trauma, Human Rights, and the Reproduction of Conventional Knowledge.”
15h00-15h30 BREAK (with food in the reception area on the 7th floor)
15h30-17h15
Session 14: Community-Based Memory Projects (H-767)
Chairperson: Monique Mukabalisa, Page Rwanda/Histoires de vie Montréal.
Presenters:
BOOKSTEIN, Denah S. (Community Activist, Jewish Family and Children's Services/ East Bay/ Berkeley CA) and Rita G. CLANCY(Jewish Family and Children's Services of the East Bay). "Finding Their Voices: Empowered by Sharing."
MCKIRDY, Carol. Sydney Australia. “Sudanese Refugees in the Sutherland Shire – a Moving Community.”
MOISAN, Sabrina. Eszter Andor et Cornélia Strickler, Centre commemorative de l’Holocaust à Montréal, “Témoins de l’histoire: l’Holocauste comme mémoire.”
CHHEM, Rémy et Marie-Ève SAMSON, Centre Khémara/Histoires de vie Montréal,
"À l'orée de la jungle : l'agency à travers des histoires de vie de Cambodgiens de Montréal déplacés par la guerre"
Session 15: Pedagogies of Testimony (H-763)
Chairperson: Anna Sheftel, University Saint-Paul/Montreal Life Stories.
Presenters:
MORRISON, Heidi. University of Wisconsin – La Crosse. "Remembering Strength, Forgetting Fear: Interviews with Palestinians who Grew up during the Second Intifada"
LEHRER, Erica and Monica Eileen PATTERSON. University of Concordia, Centre for Ethnographic Research and Exhibition in the Aftermath of Violence (CEREV).
“Towards a Multi-layered Ethics: Teaching Testimony through Curating.”
TROFANENKO, Brenda M. Acadia University. “‘Do you always talk about the same sadness?’ The Limits of Testimony and Memory.”
LOW, BRONWEN E. (McGill University) and EMMANUELLE SONNTAG (UQAM)). “From Listening to Broadcasting our Listening: Toward a Pedagogy of Listening”
Session 16: Collective Remembering and Forgetting (H-769)
Chairperson: Audra Diptee, Carleton University.
Presenters:
FOSTER, Gavin. Concordia University. “Civil War, Exile, and Post-Memory among the Irish Diaspora: Recording an Oral History of Silence.”
MUSIKAWONG, SUDARAT. Siena College. “Violent Forgetting: Thailand’s October Massacres, 1976-2011.”
UTAKIS, SHARON. Bronx Community College, CUNY. “Selective Nostalgia and Life after Trujillo.”
ARSHADI, SHAHRZAD. Montreal Life Stories. “It Must Not Happen Again!”
19h00-21h00
EVENING GALA, “Nous Sommes Ici” EXHIBITION.
(Centre d'histoire de Montréal, 335 Place d'Youville)
20h00
Teesri Duniya Theatre Performance: "State of Denial"
(McCord Museum,
690 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal)
SUNDAY 25 MARCH 2012
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Hall Building, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd W, 7th floor:
9h00-10h45
Session 17: Testimony and the Ambiguities of Justice (H-767)
Chairperson: Michael Böss, Aarhus University.
Presenters:
POHLMAN, Annie. University of Queensland, “The Risks of Telling Stories about Torture in Indonesia.”
JESSEE, Erin. Carleton University. “Incensing the Spirits, Betraying the People: Survivor Perspectives on International Forensic Investigations in the Aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.”
KAYITESI, Berthe. Université d’Ottawa. “Apprendre le génocide : travailler AVEC et PAS SUR les rescapés.”
PARISH, ERIN. Duke University. “Remaking Home: The Politics and Practice of Return in Columbia.”
Session 18: WORKSHOP (Part 1): LIVING HISTORIES PLAYBACK THEATRE (PUBLIC, H-763)
Session 19: Oral History as Catalyst (H-769)
Chairperson: Alice Herscovitch, Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre.
Presenters:
SCAGLIOLI, Stef. Erasmus University Rotterdam. “Idolize or understand? Some critical remarks on Oral History in the Aftermath of Mass Violence.”
GUBBAY-HELFER, SHARON. Concordia University. “Report on a Palestinian Canadian Life Stories Pilot Project.”
HERD, Alexander W.G.. Historica-Dominion Institute, “ ‘We Will Remember Them’: The Oral History of Canada’s Korean War.”
10h45-11h00 Break (with food in the reception area on the 7th floor)
11h00-12h45:
Session 20: Negotiating Memory and Audience (H-767)
Chairperson: Henry Greenspan, University of Michigan.
Presenters:
KUNZLE, Caroline and Lorna ROTH. Montreal Life Stories/Concordia. “LIFE STORY, ORAL HISTORY AND RADIO or “Can you tell us your story in 15 minutes or less?”
MARCHETTI, Florencia, Matthew FOSTER, Rachel ROTRAND, Alejandro YOSHIZAWA. Concordia University. “A Storyteller’s Story.”
ASHBY, Eve-Lyne Cayouette. Community-University Research Alliance. "Nous sommes ici: le projet Histoires de vie Montréal mis en exposition."
VICE, Sue. University of Sheffield. “Claude Lanzmann's Shoah and the Question of Testimony.”
Session 21: WORKSHOP (Part II) – LIVING HISTORIES PLAYBACK THEATRE (PUBLIC, H-763)
14h00
Teesri Duniya Theatre Performance: "State of Denial"
(McCord Museum,
690 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal)
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Programme Committee: Lisa Ndejuru; Steven High; Henry Greenspan
Conference Organizer and Web Master: Ozren Stambuk
Biographies of Keynote Speakers:
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Lieutenant-General The Honorable Roméo A. Dallaire is a Canadian Senator and retired Canadian Army Lieutenant-General. Throughout his distinguished military career, LGen Dallaire served in staff, training, and command positions through North America, Europe, and Africa. Most notably, LGen Dallaire was appointed Force Commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR) prior to and during the 1994 genocide. LGen Dallaire provided the United Nations with information about the planned massacre, which ultimately took more than 800,000 lives in less than 100 days yet permission to intervene was denied and the UN withdrew its peacekeeping forces. LGen Dallaire, along with a small contingent of Ghanaian soldiers and military observers, disobeyed the command to withdraw and remained in Rwanda to fulfill their ethical obligation to protect those who sought refuge with the UN forces. He is author of two best-selling books. His harrowing experiences in Rwanda are detailed in Shake Hands with the Devil – the Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, which won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction in 2004 and the “Shaughnessy Cohen Prize” for political writing awarded by the Writers' Trust of Canada.
Henry Greenspan is a psychologist and playwright at the University of Michigan who has been interviewing Holocaust survivors' since the 1970s--now nearly four decades. He is the author of On Listening to Holocaust Survivors: Beyond Testimony (second, expanded edition) and numerous articles on survivors' retelling. His acclaimed play, REMNANTS, also grounded in survivors' accounts, was originally produced for National Public Radio in the U.S. and has since been staged worldwide. He is the Fulbright Visiting Research Chair at Concordia University during Winter, 2012.
Liz Miller is a professor in Communication Studies at Concordia University and a documentary maker interested in new approaches to community collaborations and documentary as a way to connect personal stories to larger social concerns. Her films on timely issues such as water privatization and immigration have won awards and been integrated into educational curricula and influenced decisions makers. Miller provides
training in media advocacy to educators and human rights organizations around the
world and she currently serves on the board of the International Association of Women in Television and Radio. Her latest collaborative project, Mapping Memories is being used to raise awareness about refugee youth in Montreal.
Leyla Neyzi is an anthropologist and oral historian at Sabanci University in Turkey. She is the recipient of numerous awards for her research in memory studies, nationalism and minorities in Middle Eastern and Southeast European ethnography and social history. She is the author of Who am I? Oral History, Identity and Subjectivity in Turkey as well as Self, Memory and Belonging: Studies in Oral History.
Callixte Kabayiza: Rescapé du génocide des Tutsi du Rwanda. Psychologue, membre de l'Ordre des Psychologues du Québec. Mon sujet d'intérêt comme psychologue: le
bien-être mental des rescapés du génocide des Tutsi du Rwanda et des survivants de torture et autres violences collectives intentionnelles et organisées. Président de l'Association des parents et amis des victimes du génocide au Rwanda (Page-Rwanda) et coordonnateur du groupe de travail Rwanda dans le projet Histoires de vie Montréal.