Listening as Political Act
2025-10-24 11:00 - 12:30 (America/New_York) | Online
In this interactive performance-workshop, Brett Davidson explores listening not just as a personal practice, but as a vital political act. Combining elements of storytelling, theory, dialogue, audio, and visual imagery, the session invites participants to reflect on the ways listening shapes democracy, public life, and our collective ability to imagine change.
Drawing from his extensive experience in narrative strategy, media, and social justice, Davidson frames listening as a tool for transformation—one that can challenge dominant narratives, create space for marginalized voices, and foster deeper connections across difference. Participants will be invited to engage actively, considering how listening can become an ethical and creative practice in their own work, studies, and communities.
As a work in progress, the session opens a space for experimentation and exchange, encouraging those present to co-create meaning around the political and artistic potential of listening.

Brett Davidson is founder and principal at Wingseed LLC, where he supports social justice changemakers around the world to amplify their impact. Brett also serves as Lead of Narrative Field-Building with IRIS, the International Resource for Impact and Storytelling. Previously he was director of Media and Narratives at the Open Society Public Health Program, where he led an international team focused on changing long-held social narratives impacting health equity. Prior to joining Open Society in 2010, Davidson was a media consultant to civil society organizations in Southern and Eastern Africa. He previously served as program manager at the South African democracy institute Idasa, where he helped community radio stations develop participatory news and current affairs programming. Before that, he worked as a presenter and producer in radio current affairs at the South African Broadcasting Corporation, and in collaboration with the BBC. Brett has an MA in Journalism and Media Studies from Rhodes University and an MA in Individualized Study from NYU’s Gallatin School.

REGISTRATION
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but you need to register!
This is an online event.
To attend, please register here.
For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca

COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Historical Walking Tour – Photographing Change: Reform and Photography in Little Burgundy
2025-10-24 15:00 - 17:00 | Meeting at the Union United Church,, 3007 Rue Delisle, Montréal, H4C 1M8
Walking tour participants will meet at the Union United Church at 3007 Rue Delisle, Montréal, QC H4C 1M8 at 2:55 pm
“Photographing Change: Reform and Photography in 1960s Little Burgundy” is a walking tour which invites guests to learn about and engage in discussion on the expropriation photos of Little Burgundy. Taken throughout the 1960s, these photos show the expropriated homes which were destroyed in the building of the Ville-Marie Expressway and the development of the neighbourhood. Haunting and in some ways violent, the photos depict the homes of Little Burgundy residents of the 1960s, depicting the intrusion of city workers in their private domestic lives. Engaging with the story of the historically black neighbourhood and theories of photography, participants will be invited to discuss the photos and critically examine the role of photography in the expropriation process. Oral history interviews from the COHDS archives are used to expand the image of the neighbourhood depicted in these photographs. We’ll hear the words of community members as we walk through the Little Burgundy today.
Serafina Swandel is an undergraduate student in Art History at Concordia University. As a student affiliate with COHDS, her research interests center around the intersections of oral history and craft and the way in which oral history can illuminate craft practices and relationships forged by craft. She is interested in a study of visual and material cultures that is socially and historically informed.

Photo description: Man sitting at kitchen table caught in photo. Expropriation photo on St. Martin Street, May 5, 1967. Archives Montreal Dossier D1015: VM94-C1015-101.

Introduction to Oral History
2025-10-28 15:00 - 17:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
With Lea Kabiljo
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.
Lea Kabiljo, assistant professor of art education at Université Laval, is a multidisciplinary researcher with expertise in the arts, education, and oral history. She holds a PhD in Art Education from Concordia University and has a particular interest in integrating photography and oral history into the research-creation process. Her research explores the educational potential of this multidisciplinary approach in art education. With experience teaching in school, community, and university settings, Lea is actively engaged in teacher training, with a special focus on the development of socio-emotional skills. She is also recognized for her expertise in oral history and has led numerous research projects in Canada and internationally.

REGISTRATION
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but you need to register!
Register here.
For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca

LOCATION
In-person in the COHDS Sunroom (LB-1019).
You will find us on the tenth floor of Concordia’s Library Building, 1450 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W., Montreal, Quebec.
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

The Artist’s Interview
2025-10-31 11:00 - 12:30 | Online
This workshop with artist and researcher Lucia Farinatti invites participants to explore the interview as both a method of research and a form of artistic and critical practice. Through collective listening, transcription, and discussion, the session examines how oral history, sound archives, and curatorial approaches can open new ways of engaging with voices, memory, and experience.
Participants will experiment with different modes of transcription—from verbatim to more interpretative and experimental approaches—highlighting how writing can respond not only to words, but also to rhythm, affect, and embodied presence. The focus is on listening as an active, creative act, and on transcription as a form of art writing that captures the emotional and sensory dimensions of language.
The event offers a space to reflect on how interviews can become sites of encounter, translation, and creation, expanding the possibilities of research and artistic practice.

Lucia Farinati is an Associate Lecturer in Art History at Kingston University, activist, and independent curator. Her research focuses on dialogic practices and methodologies investigating the role of listening at the intersection of art and activism, the history of the artist interview, and performativity in the context of sound and feminist archives. She holds a PhD from Kingston University (2020) on Audio Arts magazine. Recent activities include organising The Listening Academy (London, 2021-22), the conference Regenerative Listening (2023), and co-founding the feminist collective Autocoscienza Writing Group (2022). She is co-author of ‘The Force of Listening’ (2017), ‘Training for Exploitation?’ (2017), and ‘Theorising the Artist Interview’ (2025).

REGISTRATION
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but you need to register!
This is an online event.
To attend, please register here.
For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca

COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

My Dear Theo
2025-11-05 16:00 - 18:15 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
With Alisa Kovalenko and Stéphane Siohan

The Chair in European Intellectual History of the Munk School, Marci Shore, is pleased to collaborate with the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling of Concordia to invite you to the first screening of My Dear Theo (2025) with Alisa Kovalenko and Stéphane Siohan who will share their unique personal experiences from the frontlines of the war in Ukraine.

Alisa Kovalenko is a Ukrainian award-winning documentary filmmaker whose films are internationally acclaimed. In the early days of the full-scale invasion in 2022, she joined the ranks and fought in the Ukrainian Volunteer Army alongside the Ukrainian army. Eight years earlier, at the beginning of the Russian war in Donbass, Alisa had been taken captive by a Russian separatist unit. Her personal story, one of courage and resilience, provides an opportunity to reflect on contemporary Ukrainian history in a more intimate way.

Stéphane Siohan, Alisa Kovalenko’s partner, is a senior French reporter specializing in Central and Eastern Europe, based in Kyiv since 2013. He is the correspondent in Ukraine for the French newspaper Libération, one of the most experienced international reporters on Ukraine and the author of the first biographical essay in French on President Volodymyr Zelensky. In 2014, Alisa Kovalenko, who was documenting the early days of the war in the Donbas, was taken captive by Russian-backed separatists and Stéphane Siohan headed to the occupied territories to rescue her. Since then, Stéphane and Alisa have been living together and working together on documentary film projects that chronicle a decade of history in Donbass and Ukraine at war. What Alisa survived during those days in captivity made her promise herself that if the war were to come to all of Ukraine, she would pick up a gun herself and fight. Eight years later, the war did come to all of Ukraine. And Alisa parted from Stephane and their four-year son, Theo, and joined a Ukrainian battalion. There on the front lines she filmed a video diary for her son. She wanted to show him the landscape “of beauty and death”—and to leave something for him if she were not to return : My Dear Theo.

Stéphane and Alisa worked for ten years, together or alternately, in Donbas and on the front lines of Ukraine at war. This screening, followed by a panel, will provide a rare opportunity to engage directly with individuals whose lives have been shaped by the full-scale invasion in deeply personal ways. Their willingness to speak candidly will provide invaluable insight into the lived realities of Ukraine behind the headlines.

REGISTRATION
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but you need to register!
Register here.
For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca

LOCATION
In-person in the COHDS Sunroom (LB-1019).
You will find us on the tenth floor of Concordia’s Library Building, 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W., Montreal, Quebec.
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Queer Oral History
2025-11-07 13:00 - 15:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
With Gabryelle Iaconetti and Liam Devitt
The workshop and discussion will offer reflections on methodological and ethical approaches to undertaking queer oral history in research. How does one conduct oral history interviews with queer narrators? What is particular about queer oral history? How has oral testimony been significant in the figuration of queer histories?
This panels brings together historians Gabryelle Iaconetti and Liam Devitt, who use oral histories in their various research milieus related to queer labour and activism.

Gabryelle Iaconetti is a third-year PhD student at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, working under the supervision of Dr. Rachel Berger. She holds a BA and MA in History from Concordia University and MISt (Master of Information Studies) from McGill University. Her research interests lie at the intersections of bisexual history, oral history, queer space, queer theory and archives.
Liam Devitt is a labour historian, writer, and research worker based in Tiohti:áke/Montréal. Their MA thesis “Gay Steel Mill” (Concordia University, 2024) examined how deindustrialization affected queer communities in Cape Breton. Currently, they are the Associate Director of “Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time” (deindustrialization.org), a SSHRC Partnership grant project examining histories and contemporary lived experiences of deindustrialization. They are also General Coordinator of their union, CARE (PSAC 12501), organizing for job security, fair wages, and workplace justice.

REGISTRATION
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but you need to register!
This is a hybrid event.
To attend in person, please register here.
To attend online, please register here.
For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca

LOCATION
In-person in the COHDS Sunroom (LB-1019). You will find us on the tenth floor of
Concordia’s Library Building, 1450 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W., Montreal, Quebec.
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Oral Histories of Migration and Motion: Rábanos Olas Jacarandas Aleonarse
2025-11-12 15:00 - 17:00 | Concordia University, LB-1042 (COHDS), 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd O, Montreal
with Nico Contreras, Sonia Bustos, and Priscilla Opazo Castillo

Rábanos Olas Jacarandas Aleonarse (2025, 10min) is an audiovisual collage born out of oral histories of migration, community, and the transformative power of art. Through blending interviews and choreographic exploration with Tiohtiá:ke/Montréal-based artists Sonia Bustos and Priscilla Opazo, the film shares interlinking reflections on political consciousness, navigating shifting identities across countries of origin and settlement, and engagement in processes of change. Glimpses of Chile, Mexico and Canada coexist in a shared space and time, in a moment of exchange between creative voices.
The film screening will be followed by a discussion with the creators.

Priscilla Opazo Castillo, an artist and educator from Chile, has lived in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal since 2017. A self-taught dancer currently training at the Nyata Nyata Centre, she weaves her path between popular education and artistic research. Her creative experience, collective and multidisciplinary, is rooted in an identity fragmented by colonization, exile, and violence, yet rises in resonance with other marginalized voices. A committed feminist, she envisions art as a living territory of resistance, healing, and memory, where movement frees bodies, rekindles their connection to the earth, and nurtures a shared collective consciousness.

Choreographer and performer born in Mexico and now based in Tiohtiá:ke (Montréal), Sonia Bustos is interested in socio-political engagement and the recognition of performers’ creative work. Her artistic research focuses on feminist perspectives, the Tercera Raíz in Latin America, memory, theatricality, and the relationship with the audience. Pillars of her artistic process include varied bodily states, the use of voice/text, the presence of memory-bearing objects, and non-danced body approaches. Sonia is the interpreter-creator of stage works Intérieur brut, Je ne vais pas inonder la mer, Luz : Dentelle, Luz : Terre and Luz : Écho (in progress). She holds a Master’s degree in dance (UQÀM) and a Bachelor’s degree in theatre (UNAM).

Nico Contreras is an Ecuadorian Canadian interdisciplinary artist, social worker, and current doctoral student in Social and Cultural Analysis at Concordia University. A facilitator of reflection and dialogue through creative practice, he believes in the power of art to transform our conceptions of self and society. His most recent film SAN HEN, a love letter to Montréal’s Latinx community, premieres at the Toronto Latin American Film Festival 2025.

REGISTRATION
Register now
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 in LB-1042 (ALLLAB), COHDS
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Intimate Maquettes: Artistic Interventions in Post-Violence Contexts
2025-11-14 14:00 - 16:00 | Concordia University, LB-1042 (COHDS), 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd O, Montreal
With Pablo Gershanik

“At the very moment your life changes forever, what other stories are taking place—on your street, in your neighborhood, in your city, in your country, across the map of the world?…
– Intimate Maquettes Lab”

The Intimate Maquettes Lab is a participatory artistic practice that explores how personal and collective memories of violence can be re-imagined and re-signified through small-scale narrative and audiovisual reconstruction. Developed over the past decade, the Lab engages individuals, families, and communities who have been protagonists of challenging experiences in a process of symbolic reconstruction, where symbolic cartographies of memory become a shared stage for testimony, reflection, and dialogue. Each participant creates a maquette in the interest of exploring the link between personal and collective history, giving form to images, memories, absent elements, mythologies, and desires. These maquettes act simultaneously as archive, witness, and metaphor, opening new pathways for public conversation about trauma, justice, and reparation. In this talk, I will share the conceptual framework of the Intimate Maquettes Lab, situating it within applied theatre, object-based performance, and trauma-informed artistic placemaking. I will also share aspects of my research motivated by key moments that have emerged throughout labs developed across Europe, North America, and Latin America, reflecting on the methodological and ethical challenges of working at the intersection of memory, art, and social repair.

Pablo Gershanik is an actor, clown, director, and academic whose work bridges visual theatre, memory, and justice. He trained at the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq (Paris), holds a Master’s degree in Dramatherapy from the University of Paris, and is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Arts at Concordia University (Montreal). He is a 2025 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar. Pablo is the creator of the Intimate Maquettes Lab, an artistic and trauma-informed intervention presented in museums, universities, and cultural institutions in North and Latin America, Europe and China.

REGISTRATION
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but you need to register!
This is a hybrid event.
To attend in person, please register here.
To attend online, please register here.
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 in LB-1042 (ALLab), COHDS
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

How to Say ‘Longing’ - Cancelled
2025-11-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Concordia University, LB-1042 (COHDS), 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd O, Montreal
with Jad Orphée Chami and Noël Vezina

Join us on Wednesday, November 19th, at 7 PM, at the ALLab, Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling, for How to say ‘longing’, a contemplative performance by movement artist Noël Vézina and composer Jad Orphée Chami.
This intimate exploration of dualities—music and movement, composition and improvisation, the said and the unsaid—delves into the boundaries of closeness, vulnerability, and technology. Using a MIDI controller, a chain of touch-sensitive sensors, the performers weave a digital soundscape that shifts with their physical interactions, crafting a dialogue of embodied listening.

Jad Orphée Chami is a Lebanese-Canadian artist-researcher, composer and performer born in Beirut and living in Montreal. He notably composed the original music for the feature film Antigone by Sophie Deraspe, which represented Canada at the 92nd Academy Awards. He was nominated at the age of 21 for the Iris prize for best original music at the 22nd Gala Québec Cinéma, notably alongside Jean-Michel Blais and Howard Shore. After having provided the soundtracks for more than fifteen short films and three web series, he composed his second film score in 2023 in collaboration with director Eli Jean Tahchi for the documentary Dorchester: In the Midst of the Fray, produced by Jonah Mallak (Nemesis Films).
In addition to his music work for the image, he composes and designs works for the contemporary scene, notably for the École de Danse Contemporaine de Montréal and for the Acts of Listening Lab in collaboration with the Center for Restorative Justice. He explores through research-creation the dialogue between music and oral history. In 2022, he is part of a trio of artists commissioned by the MAI for the realization of the work Justement (en)raciner on the theme of Justice, among others alongside Kimura Byol-Lemoine, Angelina Guo and Moe Clark. The same year, he presented with Noël Vézina the performance How to say ‘longing’, mixing dance-theatre, music and new technologies, at the RIPA performance evening. The testimonies of the disappeared from Lebanon are central to his approach. He is affiliated with the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling and is developing his oral history performance Rhapsody for the disappeared.
He is also interested in contemporary issues of art and presents conferences on themes such as the question of the author, the ethics of research-creation and gender and sexuality in music history.

Noël Vezina is a queer, interdisciplinary, dance and movement artist based in Montreal (Tiohtiá:ke / Mooniyang). Largely self-taught, her process is highly intuitive and organic. Approaching performance as a tool to connect deeply, to herself and to others, her work often takes on ephemeral and intimate forms.
Noël’s latest accomplishments include: presenting Stardust and Parallax with Festival Quartiers Danses (2021), sharing a first version of a cloud, a distance (September 2020), creating We live together now – a video performance presented by Sanskar Festival (August 2020) and Festival Bouge D’ici (March 2021), performing 05062020live via Zoom for National AccessAbility Week with the DisAbled Women’s Network of Canada (June 2020), and her ongoing collaboration with A Safe Space, initiated by Nicholas Bellefleur in 2019. In February 2020 she hosted the first of many editions of 5×8/6 – a free-from experimental performance evening that takes place in her kitchen – where she premiered Soft Warm Light (an autobiographical solo piece in progress).
Noël is one sixth of the winning team of the 2021 Dansathon in Liège, recognized for their imagining of ‘the future of dance’ through a new interactive performance experience The
Living Room. They will continue questioning the place of technology in promoting embodiment soon, with the support of the Maison de la Danse de Lyon, Sadler’s Wells and the Théâtre de Liège.
Noël strives to be radically soft, honest and vulnerable. She values not-knowing and never perfecting. To be kind and loving is essential.

REGISTRATION
Register now
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 in LB-1042 (ALLLAB), COHDS
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Brown Bag Metting: Listening and Perspective-Taking
2025-11-20 12:30 - 14:00 | Concordia University, LB-1042 (COHDS), 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd O, Montreal
This Brown Bag Meeting will be an informal, lunchtime conversation between Mireille Paquet (Concordia Research Chair on the Politics of Immigration; Director of IRMS) and Luis C. Sotelo Castro (Director of the Acts of Listening Lab, Department of Theatre, Concordia).
The session will explore the intersection of Perspective Taking and Active Listening, two frameworks that resonate strongly with the work of both IRMS and ALLab. Rather than a formal lecture, the gathering is designed as an open, reflective exchange, encouraging questions and dialogue from participants.

REGISTRATION
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but you need to register!
This is a hybrid event.
To attend in person, please register here.
To attend online, please register here.
For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca

LOCATION
In-person in the ALLAB (LB-1042). You will find us on the tenth floor of Concordia’s Library Building, 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W., Montreal, Quebec.
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

CONECTADAS: la doble vía de la escucha y del habla / Connected: The Two-way Path of Listening and Speaking
2025-11-21 11:00 - 12:30 | Concordia University LB-1042 (COHDS), 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd O, Montreal
Held in Spanish with consecutive interpretation by Franklin R. Bonivento.
In this event Constanza Ramírez Molano ends her residency at the ALlab by presenting two interviews carried out with the method CONNECTED. This method proposes a journey from the intimate to the collective through narration, listening, and dialogue. It begins with mutual recognition between interviewer and interviewee, giving value to personal stories of care and attachment to life. Listening is understood as an act of hospitality and ethical responsibility, welcoming the other’s words without imposing prejudice. The testimonies, recorded in audio or video, become shared memory when brought into collective reflection, where the personal acquires common meaning and transformative power. Finally, the social circulation of these voices opens possibilities for new forms of citizenship and the construction of peace.
Creators of the method: Luz Marina Monzón, Hugo Andrés Rincón, and Constanza Ramírez.

REGISTRATION
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but you need to register!
This is a hybrid event.
To attend in person, please register here.
To attend online, please register here.
For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca

LOCATION
In-person in the ALLAB (LB-1042). You will find us on the tenth floor of Concordia’s Library Building, 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W., Montreal, Quebec.
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Immersive Oral History Capture: Setup, Recording, and Archiving
2025-11-26 14:00 - 17:00 | Concordia University, LB-1042 (COHDS), 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd O, Montreal
With Frankie Ray

In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn the essentials of setting up and recording oral history interviews with both video and audio. We will cover how to prepare a recording environment, assemble and test a recording rig, and troubleshoot common technical challenges. Beyond capturing the interview itself, participants will gain practical skills in file transfer, organization, and archival best practices, ensuring that valuable stories are safely preserved for long-term use. Participants will practice setting up tripods, microphones, and recorders, then conduct short mock interviews to apply these skills in real time. Cameras available to participants will be Sony FX6, Canon XA40, Blackmagic and JVC 3CCD. The session will conclude with a focus on safe file management: offloading to a computer, creating backups, and preparing files for the archive. No prior technical experience is required; this workshop is designed for anyone interested in documenting, preserving, and safeguarding oral history materials.

What we’ll do:
§ Why technical setup matters for oral history
§ Demonstrate a short 10-minute oral history video/audio project from our archives
§ Equipment set up: build camera & mics
§ File offload and management for editing
§ Best Practices in Archiving Audio- and Videofiles
§ Tear down gear and put it back safely

Perks:
§ Everyone gets to touch gear
§ Make a check list for oral history kit for everyone to take home

Frankie Ray is a Montreal-based videographer and DJ, with professional experience across music festivals, music videos, and film productions, including Netflix, HBO, the NFB and Crave. Trained as a certified 2nd Assistant Camera in ICG669/IATSE, Frankiebrings both technical expertise and creative insight to their work. Outside of their personal work, Frankiehas always put a focus on accessible, hands-on training. At COHDS, Frankie combines their professional background with a commitment to supporting researchers, artists, and storytellers in capturing and preserving stories with care and technical confidence.

REGISTRATION
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but you need to register!
Register here.
This technical workshop has a maximum number of sixteen participants. To have your name added to our waiting list once this maximum number is reached, please contact: cohds.chorn@concordia.ca

LOCATION
In-person in the COHDS Media Lab (LB-1042).
You will find us on the tenth floor of Concordia’s Library Building, 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W., Montreal, Quebec.
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Dancing Life Stories/Dancing Biographies/Forming the WE
2025-11-28 15:00 - 17:00 | Dance Studio, MB 7.265, 1600 Blvd De Maisonneuve West, Montreal, Quebec, H3H 1J5, Canada
With the DANC 202 Cohort: Charlotte Bisson, Nathaniel Cancela Edsell, Florence Cross, Homeyra Esmaeilzadeh, Leonardo Giraldo Rodriguez, Anaïs Girard, Elle Golfinopoulos, Sophie Groleau-Rouleau, Nasiriyah Hamilton, Joselande Josue, Adaline Kuranko, Camille Moon, Fredlyne Pierre, Pooya Ratnam, Amy Staples, Kaiya Thomas-Bynoe, and Cameron Weaver.

Join us for an afternoon of dance as students from the Department of Contemporary Dance bring embodied auto-biographical narratives to the Acts of Listening Lab. Such storytelling in motion – based on life history interviews that students conducted with one of their peers – constitutes what Christine Thurner once called “emphatically fragile, deliberately contingent narrative acts.” These gestural narratives break free of the frame of linear, literary (auto)biography. Seen in relation to one another they form a complex and rich society.

This event is based on students’ coursework in the Department of Contemporary Dance, who, under the guidance of Professor Lília Mestre, are exploring the possibilities of danced life narration, this time in a collective improvisation setting.

Please note that the event will take place in the Dance Studio (MB-7.265) of the Department of Contemporary Dance, 1600 Blvd. De Maisonneuve Ouest.

REGISTRATION
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but you need to register!
Register here.
For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca

LOCATION
In-person in the Dance Studio (MB-7.265) of the Department of Contemporary Dance, 1600 Blvd. De Maisonneuve Ouest.
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Exploring Diaspora Communities: Oral History, Storytelling, and Digital Mapping
2025-12-01 11:00 - 14:00 | Concordia’s SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation (LB-145), 1400 Boulevard de Maisonneuve Ouest, Montréal
In June 2025, the University of Debrecen (Hungary) and Concordia University’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to formalize our collaboration on a large-scale research oral history project that explores the memories and lived experiences of Hungarian Canadians in Montreal and beyond.

We are delighted to host a research showcase and storytelling panel to share early findings of the project, including an interactive map that brings to life the one-hundred-year-old history of Hungarians in Montreal. Featured speakers will include Dr. Balázs Venkovits (University of Debrecen) and Sonya Di Sclafani (Concordia University). We are honoured to welcome a panel of Hungarian-Canadian elders, who have graciously agreed to speak to their life histories and reflect on their memories of making Montreal home.

The event is organized in collaboration with the Hungarian Consulate in Montreal. It will take place at Concordia’s SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation (LB-145) on Monday, December 1st (11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.), followed by a reception (12:30 p.m. – 14:00 p.m.). The Hungarian ambassador, His Excellency, Mr. Miklós Lengyel, will be in attendance.

REGISTRATION
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but you need to register.
This is a hybrid event. To attend in person, please contact: invitation.mtr@mfa.gov.hu (As space is limited, in-person attendance is by invitation only.)
To attend online, please register here.
For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
The event takes place at Concordia’s SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation, J.W. McConnell Building, 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W. (LB-145).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Stories Matter 2.0: Working with COHDS’ (very own) Innovative Oral History Software
2025-12-05 13:00 - 15:00 | Concordia University, LB-1042 (COHDS), 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd O, Montreal
With Kelann Currie-Williams
This workshop will provide a hands-on introduction to using Stories Matter— a free, open-source oral history database software that allows for the archiving of digital video and audio materials, and enables oral historians to annotate, analyze, and evaluate audio and video recordings of interviews. First developed in 2010 at COHDS, this second iteration of the software known as Stories Matter 2.0. provides previous and new users the ability to recover old databases and create new workspaces for various oral history projects. Participants will be supported via guided walkthroughs and live demos on how to build their projects using a software that emphasizes orality and individual interviewees as central to the narration of stories.

Kelann Currie-Williams is a writer and PhD Candidate at Concordia University’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture, working at the intersections of Visual Culture Studies, History, Black Studies, and Cultural Studies. Their research focuses on the image-making and photographic preservation histories of the Afro-Caribbean diaspora in Canada from the late 19th to late 20th centuries. Kelann was a 2023-2024 scholar-in-residence and 2024-2025 Student Representative at the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling.

REGISTRATION
Register now.
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory.
This technical workshop has a maximum number of sixteen participants. To have your name added to our waiting list once this maximum number is reached, please contact: cohds.chorn@concordia.ca

LOCATION
In-person at the COHDS Media Lab (LB-1042).
You will find us on the tenth floor of Concordia’s Library Building, 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W., Montreal, Quebec.

COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

LISTENING/RECORDING/REGISTERING
2026-01-14 17:30 - 19:00 | ALLab, J.W. McConnell (LB) Building, 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W. LB-1042-03 (10th floor)
With Nalini Mohabir

Take part in an active listening session with Nalini Mohabir, inspired by artist Joyce Joumaa’s SIGHTINGS 45 installation. Together we will listen to previously restricted audio excerpts from a 1969 rally in the Hall Building’s mezzanine at the outset of the Sir George Williams Affair. Mohabir, associate professor in Concordia’s Department of Geography, Planning, and Environment and co-editor of Fire That Time: Transnational Black Radicalism and the Sir George Williams Occupation, will guide participants through the recording, attending to the voices and perspectives of its speakers while situating the material within a broader political moment and localized space. We will also reflect on the act of acute listening to institutional archives, and the implications for transcribing the past into the present.
Hosted in the immersive Acts of Listening Lab, the session will consider how we listen to and work with archive, sound, and modes of register. Please sign up in advance at the email address above.
This event is presented in conjunction with SIGHTINGS 45: POWER. FORWARD. REVERSE. REWIND., a project by Joyce Joumaa on view on the ground floor of the Hall Building until February 1st, 2026.

Nalini Mohabir is an associate professor in the department of Geography, Planning, and Environment at Concordia University. She teaches in the fields of feminist and postcolonial migration geographies, and her research is primarily in the field of Caribbean studies, with a focus on indentureship. She has published articles in various publications including Small Axe, Habitat International, Caribbean Review of Gender Studies, and Interventions. She has been working with long-time collaborator Ronald Cummings (McMaster University), on a series of publications about the Sir George Williams “Affair” including the edited collection, The Fire That Time: Transnational Black Radicalism and the Sir George Williams Occupation (Montreal: Black Rose, 2021), a special issue of Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies (March 2022) on the legacies of the 1969 Sir George Williams student protests, and an upcoming anthology (with Ronald Cummings and Christiana Abraham) on the visualities of the protest.

REGISTRATION
To register, please contact: juliaeilers.smith@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person in LB-1042 (ALLab), COHDS COHDS/ALLab is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

COHDS Choir: Sounds of Home, Sounds of Elsewheres
2026-01-15 18:00 - 2026-04-23 20:00 | Concordia University, LB-1042 (COHDS), 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd O, Montreal
With Sara Lucas
“Sounds of Home, Sounds of Elsewheres” is a community choir project led by Sara Lucas, open to COHDS members who want to sing together beyond their research. The repertoire will explore storytelling through song, focusing on how personal and community histories are shared and passed down.
The project embraces the idea that everyone can express themselves through sound and movement, using an inclusive approach to developing natural voices. Songs will be learned mainly by ear, so no singing or music-reading experience is required. Rehearsals will emphasize breathwork, harmony, and unison singing, encouraging diverse forms of expression and joy. The group will work toward a performance for COHDS’ 20th anniversary in October 2026, with participation encouraged but not mandatory.
Sara Lucas is a composer-performer and vocalist with twenty years of ensemble experience. She has toured internationally with Callers and LADAMA, produced multiple albums, and taught community-based music programs worldwide. More at: https://www.saralucas.net/
We will be meeting from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. on the following dates:
January
Thursday, January 15 Thursday, January 29

February
Thursday, February 12 Thursday, February 26

March
Thursday, March 12 Thursday, March 26

April
Thursday, April 9 Thursday, April 23
If you’re interested in participating, please reach out to Sara Lucas at: sara.lucas@mail.concordia.ca

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
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 in LB-1019 (Sunroom) and LB-1042 (Acts of Listening Lab), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), 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.

Deep Listening to Life Stories
2026-01-22 10:00 - 12:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
With Steven High
The workshop will invite you to engage deeply with a videotaped interview of a Rwandan genocide survivor recorded as part of the Montreal Life Stories project. We will explore different ways of interpreting an interview recording and transcription including narrative analysis, life course visualization, analysis of emotion, etc.  We will send the interview link to those registered ten days before the workshop. It is essential that everyone attending listen to the interview and take some notes for reference.
Steven High is Professor of History and has published extensively in oral history. He co-founded Concordia’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS) and led the prize-winning Montreal Life Stories project from 2005 until 2012, where he worked in close partnership with survivor groups, which recorded the life stories of 500 survivors of mass violence, as well as the Living Archives of Rwandan Exiles and Survivors.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
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 in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), 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.

Please note: All those registered will need to be provided with the following link upon registration for this workshop and no later than Monday, January 12:
Interview with Valerie Fernandez
REFUGEE YOUTH WORKING GROUP

Password: [REDACTED]

Screening of Hommes-relais, Becoming Ruby and Red Girl Rising
2026-01-28 18:00 - 20:00 | Concordia University, LB-1042 (COHDS), 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd O, Montreal
With Vladimir Chindea and HotDocs

We are pleased to present, in collaboration with HotDocs, three Citizen Minutes documentaries: Hommes-relais, Becoming Ruby, and Red Girl Rising. Each of these films runs approximately ten minutes and speaks directly to COHDS’s core values of inclusion, resilience, solidarity, and hope. Together, they are sure to captivate viewers and evoke powerful emotional engagement.
Hommes-relais explores experiences of grief and adaptation within the Quebec immigration process, following a group of men who meet regularly to share their stories and develop tools to navigate life in a new home.
Becoming Ruby follows Ruby Chopstix, Canada’s first drag artist-in-residence, as they confront the challenges of underrepresentation and create a showcase that opens space for other queer BIPOC performers.
Finally, Red Girl Rising highlights the work of Mohawk matriarch, retired teacher, activist, and humanitarian Joyce Jonathan Crone, whose compassionate efforts in her Huntsville, Ontario community help bridge divides and strengthen Indigenous education.
Following the screening, we are honoured to host a roundtable discussion with Vladimir Chindea, director of Hommes-relais.

Vladimir Chindea is a Romanian-Canadian filmmaker currently completing the MFA in Cinematic Arts at Concordia University. His work explores themes of migration, memory, and existential inquiry. He directed/produced the short film Remember (2022) and regularly collaborates on both narrative and non-fiction projects as an assistant director. Vladimir holds a BA (Honours) in Philosophy and International Relations from the University of British Columbia. Trained as an ‘Homme-relais’ himself, it was the light of the CRIC community and the felt inspiration from Juan Manuel that guided him to direct this documentary debut.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
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 in LB-1042 (Acts of Listening Lab), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), 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.

Cooking with COHDS: Molisan Winter Remedies
2026-01-30 13:00 - 16:00 | Concordia’s SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation (LB-145), 1400 Boulevard de Maisonneuve Ouest, Montréal
With Cassandra Marsillo

This workshop will centre on making two different types of pasta shapes and accompanying recipes typical to Molise, a small region in Southern Italy with a big, historic presence in Montreal. Cavatelli and taccozze are integral parts of Molisan winter remedies. The recipes used for this workshop were collected through oral history interviews with community members for the cookbook Dalla valigia alla tavola: A journey through Molisan culinary heritage.
Cavatelli are the perfect pasta for hearty sauces to get you through the winter. Their shape allows them to hold a lot of sauce in their ridges and grooves. Taccozze are the typical pasta used to make scattone, a very particular dish that is said to cure all ailments. Participants will make enough for 2 portions of cavatelli and taccozze each. As we shape the pasta, participants will listen to the stories of these dishes from the original oral history interviews (in Italian). Additional historical information, final recipes, and translation will be provided.
Finally, as winter is the perfect time for storytelling over a steaming hot bowl of something delicious, participants will be invited to share stories of their own winter remedies of all kinds!

Cassandra Marsillo is public historian, artist, and educator, based in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal), telling and listening to stories about immigration, identity, collective memory, food, and folklore, particularly in relation to the Italian-Canadian experience and traditions from her family’s region, Molise.
Currently a doctoral student at Concordia University, Cassandra graduated twice from Concordia University with a BFA in Studio Arts and an Italian minor, and a BA in Honours Public History. In 2019, she completed her Master in Public History at Carleton University, Her research project, The Yellow Line: Italo-Canadian Oral Histories from Montreal’s Backyards and Schoolyards, was an archival photo, installation, and oral history pop-up exhibit, presented at the Casa d’Italia in March 2019.
Her latest project is an oral history cookbook on the stories and recipes of Montreal’s molisani, Dalla valigia alla tavola: A journey through Molisan culinary heritage, which she completed in collaboration with the Federazione delle associazioni molisane del Quebec, photographer and artist Vee Di Gregorio, chef Joseph D’Alleva, and pastry chef Erica Marsillo.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
As part of our exploration of Molisan 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 sixteen. 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.

Interpreting the Underlying Dynamic in Oral History
2026-02-05 10:00 - 12:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
With Steven High
This workshop will introduce you to ways of interpreting the underlying interviewer-interviewee dynamic that structures the oral history recording. It is an interview after all. Yet we tend to be so focused on the words spoken by our interview partners that we submerge the underlying dialogic that is its structuring force.
Steven High is an award-winning historian whose research on the structural violence of deindustrialization has put Canada at the centre of important global conversations about what a “just transition” might look like after past failures. His use of oral history ensures that his interpretation is grounded in the lives of working people. He is currently leading a large transnational project investigating the politics of deindustrialization (see the website: deindustrialization.org). He has published many books and articles on this topic, including Deindustrializing Montreal: Entangled Histories of Race, Residence and Class (2022) and Industrial Sunset: The Making of North America’s Rust Belt (2003).
His second area of expertise involves the methodology, theory and ethics of oral history, particularly as it relates to mass violence. Steven High co-founded Concordia’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS) and led the prize-winning Montreal Life Stories project from 2005 until 2012, where he worked in close partnership with survivor groups.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
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 in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), 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.

Working with Communities: A Conversation on Navigating Relationships
2026-02-06 13:00 - 15:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
Photo description: Marjorie Villefranche in a collective oral history interview at La Maison d’Haïti

With Philippe Blouin, Michael Ferguson, Cassandra Marsillo, Tesfa Peterson, Léa Denieul Pinsky, and Désirée Rochat

This conversation explores a central topic: How do oral historians navigate the web of relationships that tie them to the community they are working with?
Over many years, the six panelists have worked closely with the Mohawk Mothers and Duplessis Orphans (Philippe Blouin & Léa Denieul Pinsky); a Lebanese community in Leamington, Ontario that has maintained deep connection to its homeland (Michael Ferguson); Molisan Italian-Canadians in Montreal, who are telling stories about immigration, identity, collective memory, food, and folklore (Cassandra Marsillo); the Institute for People’s Enlightenment in the Grenadian village of LaDigue that cultivates inclusive and intergenerational spaces for learning (Tesfa Peterson); and Black communities in Quebec whose knowledge activism has generated practices of community archiving and popular pedagogy.
Some of the panelists are members of the communities they study; others have been welcomed into the community. Yet, for all panelists, relationality lies at the core of their commitment to non-extractivist research. Their research affords an extended contemplation of the principle of “Shared Authority,” so foundational to our work at COHDS. In essence, they write, we are reflecting on what we are doing to try and “make oral history a more democratic cultural practice.” (Zembrzycki, 2009)
By attempting to tell complex and layered histories that centre knowledge generated by and with communities, researchers develop multi-faceted ways to work collaboratively. In this conversation, we will reflect on experiences of working in community toward a shared goal – to shed light on history. The discussion will centre around five questions:

𖥔 How do we reaffirm ongoing commitments as projects evolve?
𖥔 How do we manage different temporalities and rhythms due to the multiplicity of actors involved?
𖥔 What kind of challenges emerge from sharing authority?
𖥔 How are positionality and relationality negotiated?
𖥔 How do we protect vulnerable community members from other forms of extractivism?

These questions will act as a springboard into a broader conversation with the audience. This conversation will be moderated by Barbara Lorenzkowski.

Philippe Blouin (he/him) is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa. As part of his doctoral research in anthropology at McGill University, he studied the role of the Two Row Wampum as a diplomatic protocol based on respect for difference in the Mohawk Mothers’ and Duplessis Orphans’ searches for unmarked graves. He coordinated the publication of the oral history book, The Mohawk Warrior Society: A Handbook on Sovereignty and Survival (2023 PM Press) and published articles in journals such as The South Atlantic Quarterly and PoLAR: Political, and Legal Anthropology Review.
Michael Ferguson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Concordia University. His research focuses on the history of migration and slavery in the Ottoman Empire, the modern Middle East, and its diasporas. He has worked with two different communities on oral history projects: Afro-Turks (who trace their history through enslavement) in the Turkish port city of Izmir and a Lebanese community in Leamington, Ontario.
Cassandra Marsillo is an oral and public historian, artist, and writer, based in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal), telling and listening to stories about immigration, identity, collective memory, food, and folklore, particularly in relation to the Italian-Canadian experience and traditions from her family’s region, Molise. In 2019, she completed her Master’s project–The Yellow Line: Italo-Canadian Oral Histories from Montreal’s Backyards and Schoolyards–in Public History at Carleton University. The project culminated in an exhibit co-curated with the project’s six narrators. She is the author of Dalla valigia alla tavola: A journey through Molisan culinary heritage, a community project done in collaboration with the Federazione delle associazioni molisane del Quebec. Currently, she teaches in the Department of History at Dawson College and is pursuing her PhD at Concordia University on the development of Italian-Canadian cuisine and food identity in Montreal.
Tesfa Aki Peterson is a public humanities researcher and community-based scholar whose work centers Caribbean history, feminist postcolonial thought, and participatory storytelling. As a student in the PhD Humanities program at Concordia University, her current project traces the life and legacy of Helen Louise Langdon Norton Little, a woman born in LaDigue, Grenada in the late nineteenth century, whose life connected Grenada, Montreal, and the American Midwest. Helen Little was active in the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in Montreal and was the mother of eight children, including civil rights leader Malcolm X. Grounded in community knowledge and Caribbean feminist and postcolonial perspectives, her work asks how public humanities can preserve and honor lives that have been marginalized by colonial archives, while creating inclusive, intergenerational spaces for learning in both Grenada and the diaspora. Since 2020, she has collaborated with the Institute for People’s Enlightenment in the Grenadian village of LaDigue to organize lectures, storytelling sessions, and public conversations that center local voices and oral histories. Additionally, the project also extends to Montreal through an oral history and ritual storytelling podcast documenting Grenadian women’s community organizing. Across storybooks, podcasts, workshops, and public events, Tesfa’s work models a decolonial public humanities rooted in care, collaboration, and community memory.
Léa Denieul Pinsky is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS). Working collaboratively with artists, community leaders, and activists, she conducts research on place, memory, and indigenous-settler alliances. Her current postdoctoral projects, carried out with the Mohawk Mothers and the Duplessis orphans, aim to develop community-centred memory work and ethics of care as tools for repairing urban sites marked by state-perpetrated violence.
Désirée Rochat is a community educator, transdisciplinary scholar, and Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Concordia University. She works to document and transmit histories of Black communities’ activism in Quebec in the 20th century, with a focus on knowledge activism. Her collaborative approach bridges historical research, community archiving and popular pedagogy to preserve and promote Black community archives. She co-edited Statesman of the Piano: Jazz, Race, and History in the Life of Lou Hooper, with historians Sean Mills et Eric Fillion. Her latest project, “Black lives in/and archives” fosters an archival ecosystem to cultivate archives of Black lives.
Barbara Lorenzkowski is an oral historian of childhood and youth whose work explores the ways in which global processes of migration, displacement, and violence have shaped small people’s lives in outsized ways. She recently published the co-edited anthology Small Stories of War: Children, Youth, and Conflict in Canada and Beyond (with Kristine Alexander and Andrew Burt, McGill-Queen’s University Press 2023) and is currently completing a FQRSC-funded book project The Children’s War, a large-scale oral history project on children’s sensuous and emotional life-worlds in Atlantic Canada during the Second World War. Dr. Lorenzkowski is the Lead Co-Director of COHDS.

REGISTRATION
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but you need to register!
This is a hybrid event.
To attend in person, please register here.
To attend online, please register here.

LOCATION
The round-table conversation will take place in our Sunroom (LB-1019) , Concordia University, Library Building, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W.
For any questions regarding this event please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Capturing Voices: Recording Audio for History
2026-02-13 13:00 - 16:00 | Concordia University, LB-1042 (COHDS), 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd O, Montreal
With Frankie Ray

This workshop provides a hands-on introduction to the principles and practices of recording high-quality audio in a range of real-world contexts. Participants will gain practical experience setting up and working with multiple microphone types, including lavaliers, shotgun microphones, podcasting microphones, and built-in camera audio systems. Through guided demonstrations and exercises, the workshop examines how microphone selection, placement, and recording environment shape the clarity, texture, and intelligibility of recorded sound.
Participants will practice recording in both indoor and outdoor settings, rotating between the roles of recorder and speaker while capturing short audio samples across varied acoustic conditions. Emphasis is placed on critical listening as a methodological skill. The workshop also introduces basic audio workflows, including offloading recordings, performing foundational edits using Audacity, and organizing audio files for long-term storage and archival preservation.
Framed around the documentation of oral histories, this session equips participants with practical and transferable skills for recording clear, durable, and ethically sound audio materials. No prior technical experience is required.

Frankie Ray (they/them) is a Montreal-based videographer and DJ, with professional experience across music festivals, music videos, and film productions, including Netflix, HBO, the NFB and Crave. Trained as a certified 2nd Assistant Camera in ICG669/IATSE, Frankie brings both technical expertise and creative insight to their work. Outside of their personal work, Frankie has always put a focus on accessible, hands-on training. At COHDS, Frankie combines their professional background with a commitment to supporting researchers, artists, and storytellers in capturing and preserving stories with care and technical confidence.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
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 in LB-1019 (Sunroom) and LB-1042 (Media Lab), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), 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.

Postponed : Cooking With COHDS: Palacsintá – Sharing Stories and Pancakes from the Hungarian Montreal Community
2026-02-20 13:00 - 16:00 | Concordia’s SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation (LB-145), 1400 Boulevard de Maisonneuve Ouest, Montréal
With Sonya Di Sclafani

In Montreal’s Hungarian community, food is not only a reflection of stability, tradition, and assimilation, but also carries meanings of family, nostalgia, and joy. Palacsintá, a sweet or savory Hungarian crêpe, is a well-loved and easy dish that can be filled with jam, ground walnut purée, farmer’s cheese, cabbage, and meats. In this workshop we will learn to make palacsintá and create both a sweet and a savory filling. To accompany us, a member of the Hungarian diaspora in Montreal will be invited to share their recollections of palacsintá and other food practices of the community.
This workshop on foodways in the Hungarian diaspora forms part of my larger research project on the history of Hungarian-Canadian refugees and their descendants who made Montreal home in the mid-twentieth century. In my oral history fieldwork, I turn to women’s memories of foodways as a way of tracing the intergenerational, interethnic, and gendered dynamics of forced migration and homemaking by Hungarian Canadian women in the second half of the twentieth century. I hope that you can join us!

Sonya Di Sclafani is a MA student (History) at Concordia University, where she previously completed both a BFA in Photography and Art History and a BA Honours in History, with a minor in English Literature. She is interested in exploring experiences of migration, cross-cultural contact, East European history, and Jewish history. Her MA thesis examines the history of Montreal’s Hungarian diaspora, with a particular eye to gendered foodways and food as a means of cultural continuity and disruption. Drawing on newspaper and archival research, she has begun to map the culinary landscape of Hungarian restaurants and food speciality stores in Montreal that provided spaces for inter-ethnic encounters, fondly remembered in some of the oral history interviews she conducted to date.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
As part of our exploration of Hungarian 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.

Cooking With COHDS: Exploring the Foodways of the Lebanese Community of Leamington, Ontario: Sacred, Industrial, and Baladi
2026-03-12 13:00 - 16:00 | Concordia’s SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation (LB-145), 1400 Boulevard de Maisonneuve Ouest, Montréal
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.

The River That is Not: Teaching Oral History and Photography through Fieldwork
2026-03-13 18:00 - 20:00 | Concordia University, LB-1042 (COHDS), 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd O, Montreal
With Lea Kabiljo
This event marks the opening of The river that is not, an exhibition presenting a research project developed in collaboration with students from the visual arts program at the Universidad Laica Eloy Alfaro de Manabí, Ecuador, and presented at COHDS from March 9 to April 20.

Developed as a short-term teaching intervention, the project introduced students to an oral history and photography methodology through fieldwork conducted in residential areas surrounding the contaminated waters of the Río Burro and Río Manta in Manta, Ecuador. Students worked with residents who shared personal accounts related to environmental conditions, urban infrastructure, and long-term lived experience in the area.
The exhibition brings together selected photographic works and interview excerpts from the students’ fieldwork, alongside documentation reflecting their experience of engaging with oral history and photography as a research methodology in a community context. The opening talk will focus on the pedagogical dimensions of the project, with particular attention to the challenges and possibilities of leading field-based work with students.
Project collaborators: Alisson Aguayo, Solange Arteaga, Cristina Basurto, Fernanda Candela, Dayton Cantos, Eduarda Caviedes, Vivian Cedeño, Rody Chiang, Josue Chinga, Joshian Defaz, Hanna Ferrin, Erick Loor, Casimiro Loor, Luís López, John Mera, Kayla Moreira, Jose Pin, Jean-Paul Plua, Emily Quiroz, Yaritza Rodriguez, Jose Sanchez, Brithanny Santana, Sulady Seme, Camily Torres, Pedro Villamil, Kiara Villegas, Nikole Zambrano and Damian Sinchi (instructor)

Lea Kabiljo is an assistant professor of art education at Université Laval and a multidisciplinary researcher working at the intersection of arts, education, and oral history. Her research focuses on integrating photography and oral history as a research-creation methodology and examining the pedagogical potential of this approach.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
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 in LB-1019 (Sunroom) and LB-1042 (Media Lab), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), 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.

Where Is the Joy in Oral History? 13th Emerging Scholars Symposium on Oral History, Digital Storytelling & Creative Practice
2026-03-20 08:30 - 17:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
COHDS is delighted to invite you to the 13th Emerging Scholars Symposium, a one-day, in-person event bringing together emerging scholars, artists, and community practitioners working in oral history, digital storytelling, and creative research.
This year’s symposium asks: Where is the joy in oral history? exploring joy as an emotional, political, and creative force in storytelling and oral history. At a moment often shaped by narratives of loss and crisis, the symposium creates space to listen for joy: in voice, memory, performance, ritual, and everyday exchange, without denying complexity or struggle.
Over the course of a day-long of activities, this event will feature conversations, short presentations, research-creation projects, and creative works by emerging scholars and artists, followed by discussion and collective reflection. Presentations will be in English and French.
All are welcome: students, researchers, artists, community members, and anyone interested in oral history and creative practice.
The Emerging Scholars Symposium is the highlight of the year, so we are looking forward to welcoming you!

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For more information, contact: cohds.chorn.symposium@gmail.com

LOCATION
In-person in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), 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.

Cooking With COHDS: Cantos y Coco – Preparing Alegría to the songs of Palenqueras
2026-03-30 14:00 - 16:00 | Concordia’s SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation (LB-145), 1400 Boulevard de Maisonneuve Ouest, Montréal
With Hannah Pinilla

In this hands-on workshop, participants will explore the intersections of storytelling, music, and cooking through the preparation of alegría, a traditional coconut and panela sweet closely associated with Afro-Colombian palenqueras in Cartagena. Rooted in the history of San Basilio de Palenque—the first free Black town in the Americas—alegría is more than a confection; it is a symbol of resistance, memory, and cultural continuity. The workshop will unfold to the sounds of traditional cantos de venta and bullerengue rhythms, echoing the melodic street calls through which palenqueras sell their sweets in Cartagena’s plazas. Guided through the key steps of grating coconut, cooking panela to the perfect caramel point, and shaping the mixture into compact rounds, participants will explore the vital role of Palenqueras in shaping the music, culinary traditions, and cultural memory of the Colombian Caribbean.
Over alegría and limonada de coco, participants will reflect on the storytelling relationship between cooking and music—how songs, sounds, and shared rhythms shape the ways we remember and retell food traditions.

Hannah Pinilla is an oral historian and holds a MA in public history with a specialization in digital humanities at Carleton University. Her SSHRC-funded master’s research project, “El Sabor del Hogar: The Transformation of Identity and Memory Through the Food Practices of Colombian Migrants in Quebec,” engaged nine Colombian migrants, living in Montreal and Longueuil in oral history interviews facilitated through cooking sessions, to explore how the narration, preparation, and consumption of ‘home foods’ is a form of embodied and interactive diasporic memory work. Her research question were guided by her own lived experiences as the granddaughter of a first-generation Colombian-Canadian: how does the dialectical relationship between identity and memory manifest through food practice and what impact does it have on the process of home-building?

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
As part of our exploration of Columbian 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.

Faire parler les sons de la ville. Réflexions sur les ambiances et les paysages sonores en tant que récits géographiques
2026-04-01 13:00 - 15:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
With Violaine Jolivet

What story (city) sounds tell us? Reflections on ambiances and soundscapes as geographical narratives
This research presentation aims to show how the sounds produced and perceived by individuals and groups can be understood as possible narratives about the places we inhabit and study. Based on interviews conducted as part of my research in urban geography, I consider ambiences or soundscapes as narratives about territories, allowing for a descriptive and analytical approach to the neighborhoods and cities I study. Whether produced, designed, or experienced, sounds depend on our architectural, social, aesthetic, political, and technical environments, but above all on our sensory experience of space.

Violaine Jolivet has been a professor of geography at the University of Montreal since 2012, after obtaining a PhD from Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne 1 and completing postdoctoral studies in New York (CUNY). Her expertise lies at the intersection of urban and migration studies, using comparative methods. Her research focuses on transnational mobility, gentrification, and resistance to displacement in Havana and Montreal.
Documentaries – video and audio, sound maps, narrative cartography, and hybrid methodologies strongly influence her research.Looking on several of my past and ongoing research projects, she would like to discuss how sounds have influenced her practice and methods, particularly field recording and sound maps, and present some more general reflections on sounds as narratives.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
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 in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), 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.

Montreal Book Launch of Gaza: The Dream and the Nightmare
2026-04-10 13:00 - 15:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
With Julie Norman

In this urgent and compelling book, Julie M. Norman and Maia Carter Hallward tell the story of Gaza from its early foundations, across decades of occupation, to the devastation of the ongoing war. Rather than focusing on elites or abstract politics, at the book’s heart are ordinary Gazans – students, aid workers, journalists, and teachers – whose first-hand testimonies vividly illuminate the realities behind the headlines.
Refusing to sensationalize or oversimplify, the book reckons with the legal, moral, and humanitarian debates surrounding Gaza, from war crimes investigations to the contested meaning of resistance and the politicization of aid. Combining a nuanced narrative with hard-hitting reflections from everyday Gazans, the book serves as a timely and necessary disruption of media cliches and political binaries, and from the perspectives of its own people.

Julie Norman is Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations at University College London and Senior Associate Fellow on the Middle East at the Royal United Services Institute. Previously she taught in the Political Science Department at
Concordia University and served as Co-Director of the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
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 in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), 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.
