The First Annual Symposium

in Arab Canadian Studies 15 – 16 February 2013

University of Ottawa, Desmarais Hall: 55 Laurier East, Ottawa

ACANS - EACAN

The Arab Canadian Studies Research Group

Groupe de Recherche en études arabes-canadiennes

University of Ottawa / Université d’Ottawa

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:

May Telmissany, University of Ottawa

Walid El Khachab, York University

Dina Salha, University of Ottawa

Radamis Zaki, University of Ottawa

SPECIAL THANKS FOR THEIR FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO:

The Office of the Vice-President Research, University of Ottawa

The Office of the Dean of Arts, University of Ottawa

The Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics,

York University

The Arab Canadian University Graduate Association (ACUGA)

The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures,

University of Ottawa

Professor Abdallah Obeid, Community leader

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

DR. MAMDOUH SHOUKRI PRESIDENT OF YORK UNIVERSITY

Mamdouh Shoukri, BSc, MEng, PhD, was appointed the seventh President

and Vice-Chancellor of York University on July 1, 2007. Dr. Shoukri began

his career in academia at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, in

1984. In 1990, he was appointed Chair of the Mechanical Engineering

Department, and eventually became Dean of the Faculty of Engineering

from 1994-2001. Dr. Shoukri then went on to serve as Vice-President

Research & International Affairs. Under his leadership, McMaster was

designated Research University of the Year in 2004 by Research

Infosource Inc.

In addition to his roles at York, Dr. Shoukri is a member of the Board of

Directors of Cancer Care Ontario and the Canadian Merit Scholarship

Foundation. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and

the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering. His professional

memberships include the Canadian Nuclear Society and the American

Society of Mechanical Engineers. Dr. Shoukri's scholarly interests are in

thermo-fluid science, and he is the author or co-author of more than 120

papers that have appeared in refereed journals and symposia.

DR. MONA NEMER VICE PRESIDENT RESEARCH, UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA

Mona Nemer is the Vice-President, Research at the University of Ottawa,

Canada where she is also a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and the

Director of the Cardiac Development Lab. She has a PhD in bio-organic

chemistry from McGill University, Montreal, 1982. Prior to joining the

University of Ottawa in 2006, she was Professor of Pharmacology at the

Université de Montréal and Director of the Cardiac Development

Research Unit at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM).

At IRCM, she also served as Director of Academic Affairs and Executive

Director of Planning and Development.

Dr. Nemer’s research interests focus on the molecular mechanisms

involved in heart formation and function, particularly those relating to

heart failure and congenital heart diseases. She is renowned, amongst

other things, for her pioneering work on the regulation of natriuretic

heart hormones and the identification of several genes essential for heart

development. To date, she has published more than 150 articles in

prestigious scientific journals and has participated in editing several book

chapters. Dr. Nemer is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a

chevalier de l’Ordre du Québec and a Knight of the Order of Merit of the

French Republic.

SCHEDULE

Day One: Friday 15 February 2013 (Desmarais-1160)

6:00-6:30 Welcoming Words

6:30-7:15 Keynote Address by Dr. Mamdouh Shoukri. President and Vice-Chancellor of

York University

7:15-8:00 Reception

8:00-9:00 Music Lecture and Recital by Guest Musician George Dimitri Sawa (Qanun): “Paradigms

and Metaphors in al-Farabi's Musical Writings: A Unique Window on Arabic/Islamic

Civilization”. Accompanied by Suzanne Meyers Sawa (Percussion)

Day Two: Saturday 16 February 2013 (Desmarais-1140)

9:00-9:30 Registration* and Coffee

9:30-11:00 Panel One: Arab Canadian Identities

Chair/Discussant: Bessma Momani (University of Waterloo)

Brian Aboud (Vanier College), “Making up Syrians in early-20th-century Canada : from “Asiatics”

to “enemy aliens”

Rachad Antonius (UQAM), “Arab-Muslim migrants in the West : the limits of the

majority/minority paradigm”

Paul Sedra (Simon Fraser University), “The Multiple Meanings of ‘Aqbat al-Mahgar’: Diaspora

Copts as Signifier in Egyptian Politics”

11:00-11:15 Coffee Break

11:15-12:15 Keynote Address : “Mending Broken Hearts” by Dr. Mona Nemer

Vice-President Research, University of Ottawa

Chair: Ryme Seferdjeli (University of Ottawa)

12:15-1:00 Lunch Break

* No registration fees are requested. Please contact Radamis Zaki for any questions

regarding technical support , book sale and media relations.

Contact info: arab-canadian@uottawa.ca

1:00-2:30 Panel Two: Being a Lebanese Writer in Canada

Chair/Discussant: May Telmissany (University of Ottawa)

Guest Speaker Rawi Hage

Kyle Gamble (University of Ottawa), “A Canadian Kafka? De Niro's Game and Minor

Literature”

Elizabeth Dahab (California State University at Long Beach), “A Close Reading of Rawi Hage’s

Cockroach”

2:30-3:30 Panel Three: Arab Canadian Theatricalities

Chair/Discussant: Dina Salha (University of Ottawa)

Yana Meerzon (University of Ottawa), “Between structuralism and affect: toward theatre of

compassion in the works of Wajdi Mouawad”

Guest Speaker Jaber Lutfi, “A même le chaos” (presentation in French)

3:30-3:45 Coffee Break

3:45-5:15 Roundtable : Teaching Arabic (-Canadian) Studies

Chair/Discussant: Walid El Khachab (York University)

Main Presenter: Randa Farah (University of Western Ontario), “Teaching the Middle East to

Canadians”

Participants: Rachad Antonius (UQAM); Bessma Momani (University of Waterloo); May

Telmissany (University of Ottawa)

5:15-5:30 Closing Remarks: Walid El Khachab (York University)

ABSTRACTS

Aboud, Brian (Vanier College), “Making up Syrians in early-20th-century Canada : from

“Asiatics” to “enemy aliens” ”

This paper focuses on the Syrian immigrant experience of the early 20th century in Montreal, Quebec and

Canada. Its specific purpose is to explore the facet of that experience that entailed the production of

migrants from Ottoman Syria as subjects of particular kinds and in particular terms. Taking the first forty to

fifty years of this experience as a timeline for study (approximately the 1880s to the 1930s), the paper will

examine the terms in which this immigrant population was conceived, imagined and “made up” through a

range of classificatory and representational sources of the majority or dominant groups (English Canadian

and French Canadian): popular media (print and visual), educational materials (school manuals),

learned/scientific writings and governmental discourse and statistics with respect to population. Following

Hacking (2002, 99-114), it will also look at the ways that these representations and classifications may have

affected and changed the people who were their object (e.g. adopting labels and their meanings but also

challenging and resisting them). The aim is to try and grasp the dynamics underlying the constitution of

these migrants’ subjectivity and, thereby, to better understand their experience of incorporation and

exclusion with respect to the wider society and of intragroup solidarity and division.

Antonius , Rachad (UQAM), “Arab-Muslim migrants in the West : the limits of the

majority/minority paradigm”

A number of debates about the relationship between Arab-Muslims in Canada and Quebec and their ‘host

societies’ have been informed by implicit images and connotations that relate to majorities and minorities.

But could it be that a majority discourse, that excludes and marginalises minorities, be articulated from a

minority location? In other words, can a discourse whose deep logic is that of a majority be transposed by

migrant communities in a context where it is articulated from a minority position, thus blurring the terms of

the debate? We will argue that such a process is indeed taking place and that it explains some of the aspects

of the debate about Islam and integration.

Dahab, Elizabeth (California State University at Long Beach), “A Close Reading of Rawi Hage’s

Cockroach”

The present paper aims at engaging the rising literary figure of Anglophone Lebanese novelist Rawi Hage on

the Canadian literary immigrant landscape, and more precisely, his 2008 novel, Cockroach, recipient of the

2009 IMPAC Award. The main antagonist of this compellingly morose account is in fact the setting itself,

Montréal in the nineties. Cockroach conveys a sample of the hardships of daily life, not in Beirut this time,

as in the author’s début novel, De Niro’s game, but in some of Montréal’s struggling communities. The

topology of this metropolis, from the student ghetto around McGill University to the wealthy

neighbourhood of mount Royal is brilliantly portrayed in this novel, which brings into collision the opposing

layers of stereotype versus reality by portraying the despair and violence experienced by some (mostly

members of a marginalized, Anglophone enclave of Iranians) in a Montréal unfamiliar to those who connect

it solely with beauty, charm, and culture. In this novel, the metaphor of the global positioning system

encompasses transnational boundaries, as well as socioeconomic, linguistic, and racial boundaries in a city

that delineates the geography of despair.

Farah, Randa (University of Western Ontario), “Teaching the Middle East to Canadians”

Drawing on my experience teaching courses on the Middle East and North Africa at the university level, I

will outline some of the difficulties I have encountered, but also opportunities in discussing the region in the

classroom. The difficulties pivot around three main interrelated areas. a) A deep-rooted Orientalism, which

homogenizes and de-historicizes Arab-Muslim societies. In the past decade, this view that denigrates the

region as the inferior and backward ‘Other’ in western societies has intensified and informs how students

perceive Arabs and Muslims. b) Most students have little or no academic knowledge pertaining to the

region’s histories and societies, and what they do know is shaped by mainstream media, itself laden with

racist and/or distorted views. For example, most students see “West” and “East” as mutually exclusive, and

do not know that western civilization has been enriched by the Arabs and Muslims. c) Last but not least, the

political context which favors Israel creates an environment of fear by attempting to silence and absent the

Palestinian narrative from the classrooms. This renders teaching about the effects of Zionism on Palestine

and the region fraught with tension and the fear climate threatens academic freedom.

Gamble, Kyle (University of Ottawa), “A Canadian Kafka? De Niro's Game and Minor Literature”

Franz Kafka has left an undeniable mark on world literature. It is no surprise then that his work has been

theorised in multiple different fields, including by philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in their

elaboration of the critical concept of minor literature. What is it, however, that makes one's work 'minor

literature?' In his début novel De Niro's Game (2006), Lebanese Canadian author and photographer Rawi

Hage presents an intriguing account of war and emigration in a richly unique style. His blending of Arabic

and French into his English prose is not only estimably Canadian, but also quite Kafkaesque. In their use of

language to convey deeper political meaning, parallels can be drawn between both authors through the

theoretical framework of minor literature. To call Hage's literature 'minor' is in no way to disparage its

importance; in the words of Deleuze and Guattari, "There is nothing that is major or revolutionary except

the minor." De Niro's Game is a brilliant literary work in ways that transcend the aesthetic. With Hage's

writing conforming thus within this philosophical context, we must ask ourselves: is there an Arab Canadian

Kafka in our midst?

Lutfi, Jaber (Visual artist, Montreal), “A même le chaos ”

Introduction à l’œuvre de l’artiste peintre montréalais d’origine libanaise Jaber Lutfi. Difficilement classables,

quelque part entre la peinture de chevalet classique et l’art brut, ses tableaux ressemblent à des scènes de

théâtre où apparaissent et paraissent des personnages costumés, acteurs de récits ''latents''.

Présentation principalement silencieuse entrecoupées de quelques commentaires de l’artiste où il sera

question de quatre fiancés au port, d’une cloche de Pandore, de coffrets d’alliances, d’un dieu qui a un dieu et

autres théâtralités aux artifices et filtres apparents.

Meerzon, Yana (University of Ottawa), “Between structuralism and affect: toward theatre of compassion in the works of Wajdi Mouawad” Erin Hurley and Sara Warner in their insightful study “Affect/Performance/Politics” (2012) remind us that Humanities and social science today experience a new sweep of theoretical inquiry, focusing on studying affect or “an object of desire” as the leading mechanism of our cognition and communication , as well as making and receiving art products. As Hurley and Warner explain, “unlike the “linguistic turn” and the “cultural turn” that precede it, the affective turn promises to bring us closer to that dimension of culture that cannot be grasped through semiotic analysis or a constructivist perspective by privileging those forces that cannot be fully socially determined and may be less prone to discipline and regulation. The affective turn signals a renewed interest in embodiment and sensorial experience; the arts, maybe particularly the time-based performing arts, are especially relevant here for their bodily entanglements in their production and their sensate lures in their reception” (2012:99). This presentation proposes to take the suggested theoretical framework further and examine Wajdi Mouawad’s theatre of compassion – his dramaturgy, directorial choices (mise-en-scene) and work with actors – as an example of the affect theory in full action. The work of Wajdi Mouawad presents an excellent example of how an artist’s autobiography, his childhood trauma, can dictate not only the themes and images of his writing, but also the aesthetic choices he makes; the choices that can instigate the audience’s emotional/affective reactions to the work in question. Sawa, George (Musician, Toronto), “Paradigms and Metaphors in al-Farabi's Musical Writings: A Unique Window on Arabic/Islamic Civilization” Al-Farabi (d. 950) was a logician, political philosopher, music theorist and performer. To enlighten the nobility in Baghdad about music theory, he used his multidisciplinary training to facilitate the task. From the ancient Greeks he borrowed music theory, physics, metaphysics, geometry and rhetoric. From the Arabic and Persian humanities he borrowed paradigms from seemingly "non-musical" disciplines: Arabic grammar, phonology, prosody, poetics, rhetoric, architecture and textile, and Qur'anic terminologies. These concepts will be elucidated with music performances of Arabic music classical and folk repertoire on qanun and percussion instruments. Sedra, Paul (Simon Fraser University), “The Multiple Meanings of ‘Aqbat al-Mahgar’: Diaspora Copts as Signifier in Egyptian Politics” The breach of the US Embassy’s walls in Cairo on 11 September 2012 by Salafists protesting an Islamophobic film drew both Egyptian and international media attention to Coptic Christians, and specifically Copts in the diaspora. This was largely due to the endorsement of the film by a Coptic extremist in Virginia named Maurice Sadiq. The consequences of the episode are still filtering through the Egyptian legal system: A young blogger is now facing a three-year prison sentence for having posted the film online, and several Coptic activists have received death sentences in absentia for purported associations with the film that they vehemently deny. Consternation with the activism of Copts abroad has quite a long history in the Egyptian context, and this paper proposes to explore this history, using this most recent controversy as a point of departure. What role has the figure of ‘aqbat al-mahgar’ played within Egyptian politics, particularly in relation to the negotiation of sectarian tensions? How have Copts both within Egypt and abroad acted upon, and reacted to, the problematic image of ‘aqbat al-mahgar’? And how might the invocation of ‘aqbat al-mahgar’ shift in light of the increasingly transnational media and communications networks that link Copts within Egypt to those abroad?

UPCOMING EVENTS

The CFP for The Second Annual Symposium in Arab Canadian Studies (York University 2014)

will be available soon on our website: http://artsites.uottawa.ca/arab-canadian/en/

The Third Annual Symposium in Arab Canadian Studies 2015 will be organized in collaboration

with the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada (MISC), and hosted at McGill University, in Winter 2015.

SECULARISM AND MADANEYA

The Arab Spring and Occupy from an Arab Canadian Perspective

Seminar and Film Screening Organized by ACANS

in collaboration with Founders College, York University

Founders College Room 305 - March 20th, 2013, @ 9:00am

Organized by: Walid El Khachab (York University)

Participants: Rachad Antonius (UQAM), Mohammad Fadel (University of Toronto),

Bessma Momani (University of Waterloo), May Telmissany (University of Ottawa)

Followed by a film screening of the Egyptian award winning documentary

Words of Witness (70mn. English subtitles) directed by Mai Iskander, 2012

For further information, please contact Prof. El Khachab walid@yorku.ca

GUEST SPEAKERS At the First Annual Symposium in Arab Canadian Studies 2013

RAWI HAGE

WRITER

JABER LUTFI

VISUAL ARTIST

GEORGE SAWA MUSICIAN

BOOK SALE Organized in collaboration with the University of Ottawa Bookstore

ACANS Institutional Address:

Arab Canadian Studies Research Group

(ACANS-EACAN)

70 Laurier East, Room 252

Ottawa Ontario K1N 6N5 Canada

Tel: 613-562-5800 #3763

Email: arab-canadian@uottawa.ca

Website: http://artsites.uottawa.ca/arab-canadian/en/