Together with Prof. Jennifer Blair, Prof. Jody Mason is organizing the 2019 edition of the annual Canadian Literature Symposium at the University of Ottawa. Devoted to the topic of “Institutional Work,” the conference will take place from May 3-5th, 2019. Featured speakers include Lily Cho (York University), Keavy Martin (University of Alberta), Louise Profeit-LeBlanc (Nacho Nyak Dun First Nation, storyteller, and former Aboriginal Arts Coordinator at the Canada Council for the Arts), Julie Rak (University of Alberta), and Greg Younging (Opsakwayak Cree Nation, UBC Okanagan and Theytus Books).
The conference seeks to understand what potential lies in the analysis of institutions for those seeking to analyze racism, colonialism, and misogyny in the Canadian literary field. As Diana Brydon acknowledges in a 2007 essay, the first TransCanada conference (2005) raised questions about institutions that produced “uneasiness” regarding the fact that “what were once sociological questions were now overwhelmingly more properly literary ones.” This “uneasiness” speaks to a hesitancy that has, arguably, prevented rigorous analysis of the institutional structures and constraints that mediate the contemporary literary field.
Institutional Work seeks to bring together papers that analyze the literary cultures of Canada / of Indigenous nations within the boundaries of Canada in relation to past and present institutions. The more than two dozen speakers at this conference will address topics ranging from national and multinational publishing companies, book prizes, small presses, the CBC and other media agencies, educational institutions, residential schools, federal cultural policy, and literary marketing.
For more information, including registration information, see institutionalwork.com. Registration is free for Carleton and University of Ottawa students.
