With Michael Ferguson
While Lebanese food has been ubiquitous across Canada for decades, this presentation/cooking activity moves beyond shawarma, hummus, and tabouleh to take a closer look at the foodways of one particular community in Leamington, Ontario.
Hailing largely from the northern Lebanese village of Tourza, they migrated in mid-twentieth century to smalltown southwestern Ontario. There, they built a new community while maintaining deep connections to their homeland. By the early 1980s, the Lebanese community had its own wedding hall, shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Lebanon, and church.
We will be discussing, cooking, and sampling along three main themes – those that relate to their religious practices as Maronite Catholics (Sacred), those that connect to their labour in the vegetable picking and processing industry (Industrial), and those that are attached to diaspora and re-creating the homeland (Baladi). While we eat, we will be discovering the largely unknown experiences of rural-rural migration from Lebanon to Canada.
Michael Ferguson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Concordia University. His research focuses on the history of migration in the Ottoman Empire, modern Middle East, and its diasporas using both micro and global scales. His projects have been funded by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada.
REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
As part of our exploration of Lebanese foodways and oral histories, we will be preparing and eating a small meal together. Given space constraints, we need to limit the number of participants to fifteen. We will purchase food items based on the number of registered attendees. Should you be unable to attend, may we ask that you let us know at least one week in advance? We’d then be able to calibrate our food purchases accordingly and/or offer your spot to a participant on the waiting list.
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person at “The SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation,” LB-145, Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.
