COHDS

Looking at the World from Inside Mosques: Questioning Prejudice Through Art Photography
2025-04-03 16:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
with Marwan Bassiouni. Hosted by Chedly Belkhodja (Concordia) and Paul May (UQAM)
Islam comes in all shapes and colours. It is now Western and a part of the national identity and landscape of many countries. Since January 2018, Marwan Bassiouni has visited mosques in various countries in order to document their presence in the landscape from the inside. He was led into the hearts of cities, suburbs, villages, industrial zones and remote areas, alongside rivers, lakes and mountains. Mosques were able to become a part of the Western landscape by adapting to the shapes and colors of the local architecture – by building minarets and prayer rooms out of bricks, wood and various other materials. Through this journey, Marwan Bassiouni not only witnessed the diversity of locations in which Muslims are living today, but also the diversity within the Muslim community itself.
Unfortunately, Muslims are the most targeted minority when it comes to hate crimes, and recent terrorist attacks have contributed to an increase in islamophobia, racism and xenophobia towards Muslims. Many Western medias are biased in their representation of Muslim peoples and contribute towards negative and unwelcoming sentiments towards this multi-ethnic and multi-cultural minority demography. The mosques contained in this project were therefore left unidentified to respect the wishes of mosque representatives who feared for their safety. All photographs in this series document views of actual mosques within their original surroundings.
Marwan Bassioni’s images, often presented large-scale, lie at the intersection of documentary practice, fine art, and intercultural mediation. In his photographs, he explores the poetics and aesthetics of documentary photography while focusing on the Western landscape and themes related to identity, spirituality, culture, and the politics of representation.
His work is held in private and public art collections such as Kunsthaus Zürich, Kunstmusem Bern, Kunstmusem Den Haag, The Nederlands Fotomuseum, and many other arts centres. Marwan Bassioni is the recipient of the W. Eugene Smith Student Grant, the Harry Pennings Prize, the Prix Circulation(s)-Fujufilm and several other awards and nominations. His book New Dutch Views was a finalist for the Aperture First Book Award at Paris Photo.
Chedly Belkhodja is Professor and former Principal of the School of Community and Public Affairs at Concordia University. He holds a BA (1988) in Political Science from l’Université de Moncton and an MSc (1990) in Political Science from l’Université de Montréal. He completed his Diplôme d’études approfondies (1991) and his PhD (1996) in Political Science at l’Université de Montesquieu (Bordeaux, France). His research focuses on immigration policies and mobility of migrants in the case of less common destinations. He is also interested in the processes of integration and inclusion.
Paul May is a professor in the Department of Political Science at the Université du Québec à Montreal. He holds a PhD from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris) and UQAM. His research focuses on the consequences of immigration for Western societies, with a particular focus on debates on multiculturalism, public controversies related to identity politics in the public sphere, and the agency of migrants during their migratory journey. Before joining UQAM, he was a post-doctoral researcher at Queen’s University (Canada) and Harvard (United States). Dr. May was awarded the Vincent Lemieux Prize for the best thesis in political science in Canada as well as two awards for teaching excellence at Harvard University. He regularly writes articles and op-eds, notably including the Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post US, Le Monde, Le Figaro, and Liberation.
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-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

WIBCA’s Legacy: Carrying the Torch from Elders to Youth in Montreal’s Black Community
2025-04-10 17:00 - 19:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
with Jamilah Dei-Sharpe, Joan Lee (President), and Ray Resvick
MC by CBC’s Dionne Codrington.
In 1982, the West Island Black Community Association (WIBCA) was founded as one of Montreal’s first Black Anglophone associations. The film is guided by the oral histories of WIBCA’s founding elders, who recount their grassroots efforts to support Black communities in Montreal for over forty years. Despite challenges like school bus drivers refusing to transport Black youth and increased policing, WIBCA engaged with politicians, educators, and law enforcement to develop essential programs. Through intergenerational dialogue, the film showcases how WIBCA youth continue to champion justice and unity amid the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter Movement, highlighting WIBCA’s vital role in Black Canadian history and its commitment to celebrating and supporting diverse communities in Montreal. The film was produced by the Decolonial Perspectives and Practices Hub (DPPH) and was funded by the SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation. Directed by Jamilah Dei-Sharpe, with Ray Resvick as Director of Photography, Rania Salawdeh as Videographer and Rebeccah Redden as the Video Editor.
Watch the Promotional Video.
The Decolonial Perspectives and Practices Hub (DPPH), is a nonprofit organization based in Montreal. It creates spaces for collaboration between faculty, students, and community organizations to address the systemic challenges marginalized groups face in academia. The DPPH makes higher education more equitable and inclusive by incorporating decolonial approaches into curricula and the learning environment, including integrating oral histories, community knowledge, antiracism education, and promoting student leadership. The DPPH engages in various initiatives to transform teaching and learning, such as syllabus deconstruction events, enhancing collaboration between students and faculty, an online library of antiracism educational videos, and offering a credit-based experiential student internship program. This program connects Concordia University students with community organizations involved in social justice projects. Notably, the WIBCA short film was produced as part of this internship program, linking Concordia film studies students with the West Island Black Community Association.and oral history into her research-creation process.
Jamilah Dei-Sharpe is, a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at Concordia University, specializing in Black Canadian studies, gender studies, and decolonizing higher education. As an undergraduate instructor and community organizer, she is dedicated to nurturing the next generation of students and scholars. Some of Jamilah’s work for community advancement includes serving as co-chair of the Race and Ethnicity Research Cluster at the Canadian Sociological Association, founding the Decolonial Perspectives and Practices Hub, and co-founding the National Black Graduate Association.
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Dionne Codrington is an award-winning journalist. In addition to her role as the producer of the CBC Black Changemakers series for CBC Quebec, she’s the host of the spin-off podcast, Changemakers. Dionne is a regular guest TV and radio host. When she’s not in front of the camera or on the mic, she also works as a TV and radio producer.
Ray Resvick, is a filmmaker, comedian & community organizer based in Tiohtià:je / “Montréal.” Their work is focused on marginalized perspectives and subverting mainstream understanding of identity. They graduated from Concordia University in 2023 with a major in Communications and a minor in Creative Writing. They are currently participating in the Quebec Writers’ Federation’s screenwriting mentorship. Ray’s short film Extremely Small Claims Court was screen at the 2025 Canadian Film Fest.
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-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Cancelled - A Reflection Moment: Writing a Land Recognition for COHDS
2025-04-11 13:00 - 16:00 | Québec
“Our immigrant plant teachers offer a lot of different models for how not to make themselves welcome on a new continent […] But Plantain is not like that. Its strategy was to be useful, to fit into small places, to coexist with others around the dooryard, to heal wounds […] White Man’s Footstep [Plantain], generous and healing, grows with is leaves so close to the ground that each step is a greeting to Mother Earth.” – Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass
English
With Fran Beauvais, Catherine Richardson and Mélissa-Anne Ménard
We invite you to a moment of connection and deep reflection as we work together to write a land recognition that vibrates with COHDS’ essence and intention of reciprocity, respect and care. A time to explore the relationship we have to the land that kisses our feet every day and to honor it, this Reflection Moment will approach the collective writing moment as an ongoing process to be reflected on in the years to come. It is meant as an opportunity to connect to love and commit to the land that houses us, shapes us and offer deep gratitude to its guardians; it is a commitment to self.
As members of the COHDS community, you will be invited to meditate on your own relationship to the land and the relationship that COHDS, as the sum of its parts, also has to it. In small groups, you will be asked to come up with a land recognition which we will then “braid” together as a whole to act as a heartfelt ode to the land for COHDS to use moving forward.
Why are doing this?
Members of our team and community have felt the need to write a deeply personalized land recognition and acknowledgement, gratitude for the Kanien’kehá:ka nation, people and lands upon which we live and work.
Our aim is that this process would also allow us to reflect on COHDS’ positionality and involvement in decolonization.
Please note that participating members will ask to read and listen to excerpts beforehand so as to arrive with a common mindset. We will communicate with participants 1 week prior to the event to do so.
We look forward to sharing this moment with you.

REGISTRATION
Please note that this event has been cancelled.
Please note that registration for this event will close on April 4. If you wish to attend after this date, please write to cohdscoordinator@concordia.ca.
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, Computer Research Lab, Moonroom), COHDS
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Memory, Art, and Violence: Listening to Difficult Stories
2025-04-22 10:00 - 12:00 | Online
with Manuela Ochoa, Luana Sampaio, and Patricia Branco Cornish.

Conflict and dictatorship are challenging topics to discuss and engage new audiences. However, scholars have tasked themselves with finding creative ways to revisit narratives of these difficult pasts to foster public awareness and prevent socio-political violence from happening in the future. Art has been a long-standing medium through which our society registers our lives, from pre-historic cave paintings to contemporary cartoons, films and exhibitions.
Oral history is ubiquitous in recounting stories of survivors’ experiences of traumatic pasts involving state violence, civil conflicts and abuse of power around the world. Still, merging oral history with different forms of art practices remains an underutilized approach to retelling the recent violent pasts in Latin America. A new wave of scholars are working to promote more engaging and immersive ways of showing the broader public complex narratives of people who experienced or survived dictatorships and armed conflicts.
This panel brings together three doctoral researchers who examine the interconnections between listening, memory, and art in Brazil and Colombia. Through three case studies, researchers discuss how oral history methodology and art practices offer alternative ways to engage audiences with complex narratives about past socio-political violence.
Manuela Ochoa has developed Can You Hear the Trees Talking?, an arts-based methodology for conducting dialogical interviews and actively listening to survivors, collaborating with Comunidad, a displaced human rights defender and musician.
Through the question “How can memory be filmed?”, Luana Sampaio explores a series of Brazilian documentaries that depict the Civil-Military Dictatorship in Brazil, which lasted from 1964 to 1985. The films focus on listening and filming the testimonies of survivors and their peers. By examining this creative work, she uncovers how cinema can offer a new understanding of memory by engaging an artistic expression with the past, present, and future.
Patricia Branco Cornish researches the experiences of women artists during Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964–1985), merging oral history and visual art within a decolonial framework. She uses the artworks as memory prompts so women artists can retell their past from daily struggles to groundbreaking creative practices despite censorship and normative gender roles. Patricia seeks to understand the pervasive and subtle ways dictatorship erases women’s stories, and manipulates how we understand past state violence in the present.
Manuela Ochoa’s is an artist and PhD candidate in Humanities at Concordia University. In Colombia, she was part of the team at the Museum of Memory, where she explored the relationship between art and memory in violent contexts. Her research centers on how to listen—effectively and with care—to survivors of violence while collaborating on creative works based on their life stories.
Luana Sampaio is a documentary filmmaker and a PhD student in Communication Studies at the Federal University of Ceará in Brazil. Her research and creative practice focus on exploring the relationship between memory and history in documentaries that use cinematic narrative tools to tell stories about the past. Luana has co-directed over five documentaries, including short films, feature films, and series, and is dedicated to discovering new ways to listen to and capture memories through cinema. She holds a Master’s degree in Communication Studies from the Federal University of Ceará (UFC) and a Graduate Certificate in Creative Arts from Deakin University.
Patricia Branco Cornish is a PhD candidate in the Communications Department at Concordia University. Her research focuses on women artists living under the Brazilian dictatorship (1964-85) and their contributions to the country’s avant-garde art scene of the 1960s–70s. In Brazil, Patricia worked as an art curator and gallery owner. She earned her MA in Art History from the University of São Paulo, where she investigated how women artists carved out space for themselves in the local avant-garde movement despite censorship and conservative gender norms.
ATTEND THIS EVENT
Join us on Zoom.
Please note that all our events are free and open to all. For any questions please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca

Ethics in Research: How to Apply for Ethics Certification
2025-04-24 15:00 - 17:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
With Liam Devitt, Gabryelle Iaconetti, Barbara Lorenzkowski, and Sonya Di Sclafani
To obtain the informed consent of our research participants is both an ethical and institutional obligation for oral historians working at Canadian universities. This workshop seeks to demystify the process of applying for ethics certification. Three emerging scholars will reflect on their experiences in navigating this process and discuss how they have translated the ethos of “sharing authority” into the formal language of their ethics applications. Meanwhile, Lead Co-Director Barbara Lorenzkowski will provide hands-on guidance on how to prepare an ethics application for your own thesis research at Concordia. Registered participants will be provided with examples of successful ethics applications, including consent forms.
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 Vice-President, Sir George Williams Campus for their union, CARE (PSAC 12501). They are in charge of grievances at this campus, and work with union members to fight for justice in the workplace.
Gabryelle Iaconetti (she/they) is a second-year PhD student at Concordia University in Montréal, Québec under the supervision of Dr. Rachel Berger. She holds a BA and MA in History from Concordia University and a MISt (Master of Information Studies) from McGill University. Her research interests lie at the intersection of bisexual history, oral history, queer space, queer theory and archives.
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, while also serving as the Associate Chair at the Department of History (Concordia University).
Sonya Di Sclafani is a first-year MA student in History at Concordia University. Her research centres on women’s experiences in the Hungarian-Canadian diaspora in Montreal, with a focus on foodways and intergenerational storytelling. She holds a BA History (Honours), with a minor in English Literature, from Concordia University; a BFA in Photography and Art History (Concordia); and a diploma in Interior Design at Dawson College, Montreal.
REGISTRATION
Register now.
Please note that all of our events are free and open to all, but you need to register! To register, contact us at: cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person in LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Casual COHDS
2025-04-29 14:00 - 16:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
Join us for another session of “Casual COHDS,” a monthly drop-in event for members of the COHDS community and anyone curious about oral history to gather, converse, and connect over coffee, tea, and snacks in a relaxed setting. If you would like to meet other members of the COHDS community, or simply take a moment to pause, recharge, and connect with other oral history practitioners and enthusiasts, “Casual COHDS” is an opportunity to foster these exchanges. Held in the afternoon, each monthly meeting will be loosely designed around a theme, to get the conversation started. For our gathering in March, participants are invited to bring a favourite story around an interview encounter or a photograph that they would like to share — or to simply bring themselves. We look forward to welcoming you on Tuesday, April 29th, anytime between 14:00 and 16:30 p.m. in the Sunroom (LB- 1019).
Kelann Currie-Williams (they/she) is a writer, visual artist, and oral historian based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. Kelann is a PhD student at Concordia University’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture, working at the intersections of Visual Culture, 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, and the scenes of migration, homemaking, community-building, and political mobilization that those photographs depict. Kelann is a long-time student affiliate of the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling, an affiliate of the Access in the Making lab, and a member of the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology’s Post Image cluster. Her critical work has appeared in academic journals such as Urban History Review, the Canadian Journal of History, TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, and Philosophy of Photography.
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-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Vernissage and Durational performance, "I Insist" - Bodies Carrying Exhibit Programming
2025-04-30 17:00 - 19:00 | Québec
I insist is a long-duration performance piece that unfolds over the course of several hours. In it, the artist slowly wraps their body in red sewing thread. With minor, ritualistic, almost inconsequential movements, the piece itself is mostly understood in fragments. The scale of this piece does not encourage you to sit with it in its entirety, though one may choose to, but rather to understand it as it unfolds in the space. The slow disappearance of the body from its surroundings enhances a distinction between the person and the outside; the other. I insist is an exploration of what it means for a body to be woven (or not) into networks of community, lineage, and environments.
Sol Worsnip is an emergent interdisciplinary artist whose work primarily lies at the intersection of sound, video, and performance art. They are currently completing a B.A. in Communication Studies at Concordia with a focus on sound and audio art. Through their work, they seek to ask the simplest questions. How can one inhabit a body and move it through the world—and get everything else done as well? And what does it mean to witness?
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-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Exhibit - Bodies Carrying: Traces & Stories
2025-04-30 17:00 - 2025-05-16 17:00 | Québec
Bodies carry and transmit traces of memories, sites, and stories—both as acts of care and as burdens to bear.
Bodies Carrying: Traces & Stories is a twofold conversation taking the form of a group exhibition and a program consisting of workshops, performances, and talks. This is an experiment in transforming the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling into a dialogue space that brings together artists and researchers who engage with or reflect on oral history in their work, from the curatorial process to the mise en œuvre.
The exhibition and program explore the traces we carry—the traces of what was willingly or unwillingly passed on, those that were inflicted, and the lingering ghosts of what was left behind.
These imprints can be things we hold onto or want to make more visible, carried through acts of care, (re)connection, and resistance. Yet, these traces also represent the weight of what bodies have borne and still bear. Bodies Carrying: Traces & Stories asks: How do we hold space for both the tenderness and heaviness of what it means to carry?
Exhibition Location
COHDS, 10th Floor – LB-1042; 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W.
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.
Exhibition Hours
May 1 – May 16
Open daily | 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Dates
May 5 – May 8
Please register for individual events.
Vernissage
April 30, 5 à 7, Sunroom (LB-1019)
With durational performance “I Insist” by Sol Worsnip
Program
May 5, 10h-13h
Corps, émotions et recherches: une exploration par cartographie corporelle – Atelier
May 6, 12h-14h
Attuning to Spectralities: Senses, Whispers, and Other Connective Membranes – Workshop
May 6, 15h-16h30
كان حتى ما كان (Once Upon a Place): What Remains of the Halqa? Performing Memory and Absence – Lecture Performance
May 7, 10h-13h
The Metabolism of Silence – Workshop
May 7, 16h-17h30
Intimate Listening- Immersive Theatre
May 8, 14h-15h
Walking Interludes – Reading and dialogue
May 8, 16h-18h
Identity, Care, Labour, and Matrilineal Stories – Performance and Artist Talks
REGISTRATION
Registration forms are linked on each event page.
Curated/facilitated by: Annie Thao Vy Nguyen
Annie Thao Vy Nguyen (they/she) is a Master’s student in Geography and Urban Studies at Concordia University, exploring queer futurity and political imagination through dialogic processes. Their thesis uses oral history to trace the evolution of queer Asian activism in Montreal across generations, using Chinatown as a case study. Annie holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Université de Montréal, with a thesis at the Technical University of Munich on inquiry-based exhibition pedagogy, where they co-developed and co-taught a course on pedagogy in architecture exhibitions. Trained and soon-to-be certified in Philocreation dialogue facilitation, Annie used these tools to facilitate this exhibition and program through a curatorial dialogue with all contributors.
