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UPCOMING EVENTS
+ OCT 13 – (POSTPONED) Listening to the Anthropocene through the sound of plantations (Part II)
+ OCT 14 – Atelier : Introduction à l’histoire orale
+ OCT 18 – Intro to Sound Editing I With Adobe Audition
+ OCT 21 – (POSTPONED) Listening to the Anthropocene through the sound of plantations (Part III)
+ OCT 22 – Indigenous Healing Knowledges Online Gathering
+ OCT 25 – Intro to Sound Editing II With Adobe Audition
+ NOV 5 – Workshop: How can Music Contribute to the Listening of Testimonies?
+ NOV 8 – Workshop: Oral History Theory and Ethic
+ NOV 18 – Purity and Pitfalls: Ethical Issues in Multiplatform Storytelling Using Oral Histories
+ NOV 25 – Conversation: Ethics as a quest
+ DEC 10 – Prototyping a Research-Creation Project (Exhibition of work by ALLab’s PhD students)
+ DEC 16 – Sonic Sentimentality and the Unification of the Listening Space
Please note: if you have any Covid-19 symptoms of if you are not fully vaccinated we invite you to join the online version of our events. Veuillez s’il vous plaît noter: si vous présentez des symptômes de Covid-19 ou si vous n’êtes pas complètement vacciné, nous vous invitons à joindre la version en ligne de nos événements.
OCT 13, 16:00-18:00 (online)
Listening to the Anthropocene through the sound of plantations. Part II. Hosted by Daniel Ruiz-Serna, Ph.D. With María del Pilar Ramírez Gröbli. Institute of Social Anthropology, Unversität Berne. In Spanish and English.
Los sonidos de la palma de aceite: despojo y culturas de paz en el postconflicto colombiano.
Register in advance for this meeting: https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcqc-6srTMtHdXojRJQJucODRpQ82FHF6ei
OCT 14, 12:00-14:00 (in person)
Atelier : Introduction à l’histoire orale avec Lea Kabiljo. En français.
Cet atelier de formation couvre les concepts fondamentaux de la méthodologie de l’histoire orale. On y aborde l’évolution de la discipline, son approche de l’entrevue, l’éthique de la recherche, et les diverses façons dont les chercheur.e.s en histoire orale diffusent leurs travaux auprès d’un vaste public. Le plus possible, le contenu sera adapté au niveau de connaissances et aux projets des participant.e.s. Cet atelier est fortement recommandé aux nouveaux et nouvelles affilié.e.s du CHORN, car il constitue une introduction à la méthodologie et aux principes développés et suivis par le Centre.
Lea Kabiljo est une candidate au doctorat dans le département d’éducation de l’art a l’université Concordia. Sa recherche s’intéresse à l’histoire orale, la photographie, les nouvelles technologies et l’empathie dans un contexte pédagogique. Sa pratique artistique combine l’histoire orale et la photographie, examinant la façon dont les interviews biographiques peuvent susciter des portraits. Elle est récipiendaire de la bourse d’étude Fond de recherche du Québec au niveau doctoral et de la bourse Concordia fellowship of Fine Arts. En 2019, elle a été nommé “Concordia’s Public Scholar’s”, une des dix candidat.e.s au doctorats les plus qualifié.e.s à travers les quatre facultés. Lea est aussi une professeur d’art au secondaire et une avide fan de voyages et de fromages.
Registration required. Limited spaces. RSVP: cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
OCT 18, 10:00-12:00 (online)
Intro to Sound Editing I With Adobe Audition, with Vitalyi Bulychev. In English.
Processing, editing and enhancing your audio recording – an introduction to Adobe Audition.
With this two-parts Sound Editing workshop, we will look at ways to clean up and edit recorded sound. Whether the final destination is a podcast, an audio documentary or radio play, we will cover the basics of improving the overall sound of the recorded material, looking at strategies that will enhance it. The recommended software for this workshop is Adobe Audition. It is strongly recommended that you have the program installed before the start date of the workshop. In Sound Editing I (Oct. 18th) we will cover the layout of the software and we will discuss workflows. Sound Editing II (Oct. 25th) will focus on key effects within Audition that should be part of your strategies and approaches to improve sound. Finally, we recommend that participants partake in both sessions of the series.
Vitalyi Bulychev is COHDS Lab Coordinator. He studied film production at Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University, Montreal. Past projects include short films and video installations. Interests include information architecture, expanded cinema, interdisciplinarity, photography. Currently in pre-production for a documentary film focused on micro-histories/oral histories from a small village in Ukraine
Limited spaces. Register by emailing us at cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
OCT 21, 11:00-13:00 (online)
Listening to the Anthropocene through the sound of plantations. Part III. Hosted by: Daniel Ruiz-Serna, Ph.D. In Spanish and English.
Countermapping the Plantation. Dispossession and Soundscapes of oil palm plantations. Diana Ojeda. Universidad de los Andes.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0ldeygrzsqE9CS34Qm9vvcnLslTuFqsaQa
OCT 22, 9:00-16:00
Indigenous Healing Knowledges Online Gathering.
9:00-12:00 Learning from Indigenous Healers
13:00-16:00 Youth Exploration of Indigenous Healing Knowledges
Come join us for an online gathering, as we get to hear from various elders, knowledge keepers and youth on their experiences and approaches to healing.
Today, more than ever, Indigenous peoples need knowledge of ways to enhance their immune systems, avoid conditions such as diabetes and high stress, in order to prevent being vulnerable to conditions such as COVID19.
In this context, this research aims to enhance the understanding of Indigenous worldview and epistemology in relation to healing and well-being, by presenting the teachings of various healing practitioners including those of the Cree, Métis, and Haudenosaunee. These Indigenous Healers referred to as speakers engage in healing practices in the context of social work, counselling, talk therapy, energy work, and those who heal through modalities of music, rhythm, sound, and song. They will offer teachings in their epistemological and cosmological approaches to their work and will inform an audience in areas of First Peoples Studies, Counselling, Social Work, Health Professionals, Sociological and Psychological scholars, and community members.
Registration: https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYuc-6srT8qG9DRJAWi4Kj-iGvJ-lBNS-9v
OCT 25, 10:00-12:00 (online)
Intro to Sound Editing II With Adobe Audition, with Vitalyi Bulychev. In English.
Processing, editing and enhancing your audio recording – an introduction to Adobe Audition.
With this two-parts Sound Editing workshop, we will look at ways to clean up and edit recorded sound. Whether the final destination is a podcast, an audio documentary or radio play, we will cover the basics of improving the overall sound of the recorded material, looking at strategies that will enhance it. The recommended software for this workshop is Adobe Audition. It is strongly recommended that you have the program installed before the start date of the workshop. In Sound Editing I (Oct. 18th) we will cover the layout of the software and we will discuss workflows. Sound Editing II (Oct. 25th) will focus on key effects within Audition that should be part of your strategies and approaches to improve sound. Finally, we recommend that participants partake in both sessions of the series.
Vitalyi Bulychev is COHDS Lab Coordinator. He studied film production at Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University, Montreal. Past projects include short films and video installations. Interests include information architecture, expanded cinema, interdisciplinarity, photography. Currently in pre-production for a documentary film focused on micro-histories/oral histories from a small village in Ukraine
Limited spaces. Register by emailing us at cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
NOV 5, 18:30-20:00
Workshop: How can Music Contribute to the Listening of Testimonies? Hosted by: Jad Orphée Chami. In English
The workshop will explore the way music amplifies testimonies and accompanies us in the listening of real-life stories.
In person at the Acts of Listening Lab Black Box and streamed ONLINE. Please email acts.listeninglab@concordia.ca to secure your in-person spot. A very limited number of spots are available. Register in advance for this meeting: https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMsf-CgpjkpH9aDIdv_2mgtgUeQRnB0t5sB
NOV 8, 12:00-2:00 (online)
Workshop: Oral History Theory and Ethic, with Dr Steven High. In English.
This workshop will provide you with some of the fundamentals in the interdisciplinary field of oral history. Participants will learn about an oral history approach to interviewing, ethics in research, and the many ways that oral histories are shared with the public. This workshop is strongly recommended to all new affiliates, as it is intended to present the methodology and ethics followed by our Centre.
Steven High is professor of history at Concordia University’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling. He is an interdisciplinary oral and public historian with a strong interest in transnational approaches to working-class studies, forced migration, and community-engaged research. He has headed a number of major research projects, most notably the prize-winning “Life Stories of Montrealers Displaced by War, Genocide and Other Human Rights Violations”. He is currently finishing a book on the Montreal neighbourhoods of Point Saint-Charles and Little Burgundy.
Registration: https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwudO-sqDgjGdc7BUVCw9Levcv0ohzwxVZD
NOV 18, 13:00-15:00 (online)
Purity and Pitfalls: Ethical Issues in Multiplatform Storytelling Using Oral Histories, with Alicia Aroche. In English.
This presentation will discuss some ethical challenges and opportunities in the use of oral histories in multiplatform storytelling. Promoting equity and agency of marginalized community members; examining ethical considerations of community embedding; and strengthening collaborative partnerships on such projects will be explored.
Alicia Aroche considers herself a maker, blending oral history, film making, visual arts and public health research. She is interested in creating narratives that spur advocacy and action for equity and justice for marginalized groups.
Alicia launched her filmmaking career in the 2000s, earning a fellowship to the Hurston Wright Foundation Residency, a platform drawing published and unpublished writers globally from across the African Diaspora. During the residency, her work caught the attention of Emmy-Award Winning writer and producer David Mills (“The Corner,” “NYPD Blue,” “The Wire”). Soon after, she landed a position as story analyst with Emmy-nominated actor Tim Reid (“WKRP in Cincinnati,” “The Richard Pryor Show” “Sister, Sister” and “That 70’s Show”) as part of his production company.
In 2016, the film she produced, wrote, and directed, “Empty Chair,” based on oral history interviews with survivors of human trafficking, was recognized at the New York Short Film Festival in Williamsburg, and the Atlanta Underground Film Festival, where it won best animated short.
She is currently promoting the film anthology, “Sunlight Around the Corner,” an award-winning film series she conceptualized, along with community members, based on an oral history project. The anthology has been screened and accepted into seven film festivals globally, including an Academy Award Qualifying Festival in the United States. This series of five distinct short films uses various methods and modes, including expository, poetic and essay, based on the stories of community health workers and advocates recounting the punitive impacts and criminalization of poverty and addiction and despite this, the triumphs along this journey.
Alicia holds a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications and a master’s degree in Education, with a focus on Action and Participatory Research. She has continued studies in film and photography at the University College London, and Escuela de Creativa Fotografía de la Habana in Cuba. Alicia resides in the USA in Virginia.
Registration: https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwpd-2pqzgjHdKBdB-aAepRCBbwLtG8g_8N
NOV 25, 12:00-14:00 (in person)
Conversation: Ethics as a quest, with Dr. Catherine Richardson and Zeina Ismail-Allouche. In English.
This is an open and non-formal conversation between Dr. Catherine Richardson and Zeina Ismail-Allouche that unsettles the concept of shared authority as a guaranteed pathway towards an ethical approach. The session will take the form of a sharing circle that invites participants to unpack their understanding of ethics while addressing representation and contextualization as proposed main constructs to ethics. We will address Indigenous Methodologies as a relational egalitarian approach that extends the concept of shared authority to include the world views, the choice of the research question, and the positionality of the researcher vis-vis the research question.
Limited spaces. RSVP: cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
DEC 10, 11:00-13:00
Prototyping a Research-Creation Project (Exhibition of work by ALLab’s PhD students). Hosted by the Acts of Listening Lab and Dr. Luis Sotelo Castro
In person at the Acts of Listening Lab Black Box and streamed ONLINE. Please email acts.listeninglab@concordia.ca to secure your in-person spot. A very limited number of spots are available. Register in advance for this meeting: https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcodeGqrz0sE9PTSdIFvfZa_KzQzxFBh0V6
DEC 14, Time TBC
Veronica Mockler – Research-Creation Thesis Presentation (Master of Arts in Fine Arts – Individualized Program). In English.
In person at the Acts of Listening Lab Black Box and streamed ONLINE. Please email acts.listeninglab@concordia.ca to secure your in-person spot. A very limited number of spots are available. Register in advance for this meeting: https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIocuCprzMqEtMZb-S1ox2ndujXNmzeLxrF
DEC 16, 18:00-19:00
Sonic Sentimentality and the Unification of the Listening Space. With Alana DeVito (installation artist, composer, researcher). In English.
Exploring the Intersections of Oral History and Sonic Art with Alana DeVito (installation artist, composer, researcher). A presentation and discussion of Mx. DeVito’s paper (published in Organised Sound, September 2021).
In person and ONLINE. Please email acts.listeninglab@concordia.ca to secure your in-person spot. A very limited number of spots are available. Register in advance for this meeting: https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/…/tZUsfu6opz8rEtaW1H…
PAST EVENTS
+SEP 22 – Beirut, one year after the blast
+ SEP 28 – The Goose Village Project: Photography, Research-Creation, and Oral History
+ OCT 4 – Intro to Sound Recording
+ OCT 6 – COHDS Annual General Assembly
SEP 16, 18:30-20:00 (online)
On the occasion of the International Day of Listening: Experiments in Listening – Book/Zine launch. Hosted by Rajni Shah. In English
Registration Link: https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwrcuirrjopHtQteWuZaNQ_LzuOhOXD-mOX
SEP 17, 18:30-20:00
Lamentation: Music as Chorus in the Context of the Testimonies of the Sabra and Shatila Massacre Survivors, with Jad Orphée Chami. In English.
A screening of edited footage from the BBC documentary “After the Massacre” and musical response to the testimonies.
In person at the Acts of Listening Lab Black Box and streamed ONLINE. Please email acts.listeninglab@concordia.ca to secure your in-person spot. A very limited number of spots are available. Register in advance for this online meeting: https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIqd–opj0sHNDjUIVnGHIABvuEvKFjq5Bp
SEP 20, 12:00-14:00 (online)
The Dangers of Everyday Oral History Interviewing: Building and Breaking Trust in the Field, with Dr Stacey Zembrzycki. In English.
What is intimacy in an oral history context? Does an oral history interview constitute and/or make for an intimate encounter? How do projects—the questions we ask and the stories we hear—contribute to intimacy? Does gender impact intimacy? And does intimacy lead to dangerous intimate encounters in the field? If so, how should intimacy play a role in the ethical processes that guide our research? In order to delve deeply into these questions, I will share some of my fieldwork experiences on my SSHRC-funded project Mining Immigrant Bodies: A Multi-Ethnic Oral History of Industry, Environment and Health in the Sudbury Region. In particular, I will outline how the recruitment methods I employed and the ways in which I built research relationships led to four “intimate” and somewhat problematic encounters I had while conducting interviews about health, and, to a degree, personal trauma. Although these encounters were not interrelated, they build on each other in important ways, highlighting how loneliness and intimacy can create the perfect conditions for fostering dangerous interview settings that have the potential to silence and even harm researchers. Is it safe to interview strangers? Is there a danger of becoming too comfortable? Are these dangers more of a problem for women, than for men? Should standard protocol require us to interview in pairs? Does assault happen more often than we care to admit? Ethics review boards ask us to consider the harm we can do to our narrators, but this paper ponders the harm, in everyday encounters, that narrators can do to us as researchers.
Dr Stacey Zembrzycki teaches in the History and Classics Department at Dawson College in Montreal, Quebec. An award-winning oral and public historian of ethnic, immigrant, and refugee experience, she is the author of According to Baba: A Collaborative Oral History of Sudbury’s Ukrainian Community (UBC Press, 2014) and its accompanying website: www.sudburyukrainians.ca, and is co-editor of Oral History Off the Record: Toward an Ethnography of Practice (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) and Beyond Women’s Words: Feminisms and the Practices of Oral History in the Twenty-First Century (Routledge, 2018).
Registration: https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIodOqhqDkiHtEfz9FUS18ZtCLFULZtCLKS
SEP 28, 14:00-16:00 (online)
Beirut, one year after the blast. Moderated by Zeina Ismail-Allouche and Emma Haraké. In Arabic, English and French.
https://forms.office.com/r/ufV41HnaN0
https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/…/tZ0pfu…
—
One year after the blast, we are still in pain and shock. Many stories were shared, and voices were heard. The grief is still heavy.
How do we, the people from Lebanon living in Canada, experience the Blast? Did we survive? How do we navigate the tension between our privilege of being away and our longing to reconnect with the city that is rooted in our minds and hearts? Did we become the expatriates that we are supposed to be?
Join us for an evening of sharing to unfold our narratives and recount our side of survival, away and close, expelled and connected, denied, and legitimized.
All are welcome to share feelings, thoughts, and aspirations. Monologues, poems, music, spoken word, etc. are all welcome. (Must be 5-7 mins in length).
To reserve your reading slot, please fill this form by Thursday, September 16th: https://forms.office.com/r/ufV41HnaN0
This event will take place on the Zoom platform and is free and open for all. You can get the access link when you register here: https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/…/tZ0pfu….
—
Un an après l’explosion, nous vivons encore dans la douleur, sous le choc. Beaucoup d’histoires ont été partagées et beaucoup de voix, écoutées. Le deuil pèse toujours.
Comment nous, ceux et celles installés au Canada, vivons-nous l’Explosion? Y avons-nous survécu? Comment trouver un équilibre quand nous sommes déchirés entre notre privilège d’être loin et notre désir de reconnecter avec cette ville ancrée dans nos esprits et nos cœurs? Sommes-nous devenus les expatriés que nous sommes censés être?
Soyez des nôtres pour une soirée de partage où nous dévoilerons nos récits et parlerons de survie de notre point de vue : loin et proches, exclus et connectés, rejetés et légitimisés.
Toutes et tous sont invités à parler de leurs sentiments, pensées et aspirations. Monologues, poèmes, musique, création parlée… choisissez votre forme d’expression (durée : de 5 à 7 minutes).
Pour réserver un créneau de lecture, veuillez remplir ce formulaire d’ici le jeudi 16 septembre : https://forms.office.com/r/ufV41HnaN0
L’activité se déroulera sur la plateforme Zoom. L’entrée est libre et ouverte à tous et à toutes. Vous obtiendrez le lien d’accès après votre inscription ici : https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/…/tZ0pfu….
SEP 28, 14:00-16:00 (online)
The Goose Village Project: Photography, Research-Creation, and Oral History, with Marisa Portolese. Moderated by Dr Cynthia Hammond. In English.
Marisa Portolese is Canadian-Italian and was born in Montreal, Quebec. She is an Associate Professor in the Photography Program in the Faculty of Fine Arts, at Concordia University. Portraiture, representations of women, narrative, autobiography, the figure in nature, cultural heritage and immigration are major and recurrent subjects in her practice. She often produces large-scale color photographs, rich in painterly references that concentrate on elucidating facets of human experiences in relation to psychological and physical environments, relating to larger themes concerning identity and spectatorship. She attempts to weave together gesture, affect, and the nuances of the gaze, to create an immersive and emotional landscape for the viewer. Her current research focuses on the cultural legacy of the Goose Village and how the hallmark event of Expo 67 caused the demolition of this working-class neighbourhood and displaced an entire community mostly made up Irish and Italian immigrants that included her parents. (www.marisaportolese.com, https://goosevillage.ca)
Dr Cynthia Hammond is Professor of Art History at Concordia University and a core affiliate of COHDS. She is a practicing artist and scholar, whose research and creation emphasize living memories and situated knowledge of the city, especially the knowledge of women and older citizens. She is presently leading a three-year Partnership Development Grant project titled “La ville extraordinaire: Learning from older Montrealers’ urban knowledge through oral history research-creation. (https://concordia.academia.edu/CynthiaHammond, https://cynthiahammond.org)
Registration: https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYrde-urzwqHNWjzybPsczZZzgkDuHgYQyD
OCT 4, 10:00-12:00 (online)
Intro To Sound Recording, with Vitalyi Bulychev. In English.
Best practice and basics of working with microphones and recorders.
Limited spaces. Register by emailing us at cohds.chorn@concordia.ca.
OCT 4, 14:00-15:30 (online)
Intro To Sound Recording, with Vitalyi Bulychev. In English.
Best practice and basics of working with microphones and recorders.
Limited spaces. Register by emailing us at cohds.chorn@concordia.ca.
OCT 6, 11:00-14:00 (online, in person)
COHDS Annual General Assembly | Assemblée générale annuelle du CHORN
Agenda
11h00-11h05
Welcome and territorial acknowledgement
11h00-12h00
Keynote Shirley Gunn « In whose interest? Ethics and storytelling »
12h00-12h30
Lunch break
12h30- 13h30
Annual General Assembly
- Opening of the AGA and review of AGA agenda
- Co-directors Report
- Coordinator Report
- Short questions period
- Elections of new members of the Administrative Board
- Annoucement of new core affiliates
- Ted Little Prize
- Suggestions for the year to come
- End of AGA
13h30-14h00
Coffee break (In-person: Hall Building Terrace)
Keynote by Shirley Gunn “In whose interest? Ethics and storytelling”
In her keynote address, Shirley will examine whose interests are served when looking at the topic of ethics and storytelling. Reflecting on twenty years of practice at the Human Rights Media Centre (HRMC) in South Africa, Shirley believes her reflections have universal resonance. Importantly how do we address and resolve the fundamental question: In whose interest?
Shirley Gunn, a former trade unionist, anti-apartheid activist and freedom fighter of the South African liberation struggle, continues to be involved in human rights work in post-conflict South Africa. For over two decades, Shirley has served as executive director of the Human Rights Media Centre (HRMC) based in Cape Town – promoting awareness and activism through oral history projects, media, educational materials and social interventions. HRMC is a founding member of the South African Coalition for Transitional Justice (SACTJ) campaigning for truth, accountability, justice, and reparations for which Shirley currently serves as chairperson. She is the author of Voices from the Underground, a book collecting eighteen life stories of members of the African National Congress’ military underground.
Registration: https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYvd-qqpzojHtFFJwXo25UuydXAwMTPoLzv
OCT 8, 18:30-20:00
Rhapsody for the Disappeared (Movement, “Odette”): An Oral History Music Performance Fragment. Hosted by: Jad Orphée Chami. In English.
A draft performance of my ongoing research-creation project exploring the dialogue between music and testimony in the context of the missing and the disappeared in Lebanon.
In person at the Acts of Listening Lab Black Box and streamed ONLINE. Please email acts.listeninglab@concordia.ca to secure your in-person spot. A very limited number of spots are available. Register in advance for the online meeting: https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvcuChrj0sHN00tjiuCbKQyLou5pMD1jDH