• Welcome
• Curriculum
• Courses
• Study Abroad
• People
• Funding Opportunities
• News & Events
• Links
• Student/Faculty Award

Miléna Santoro is an Associate Professor in the French Department at Georgetown University, with specializations in Québec Studies and French and Francophone women writers. She has published articles on Hélène Cixous, Jeanne Hyvrard, Nicole Brossard, Madeleine Gagnon, and Esther Rochon, and has translated excerpts of works by Jeanne Hyvrard and Michèle Sarde. She produced and introduced a video of Québec feminist writers entitled La Théorie un dimanche: Sweet Suite (ACQS and Le Conifère têtu, 2002). Her first book, Mothers of Invention: Feminist Authors and Experimental Fiction in France and Québec, was published in 2002 by McGill-Queen's University Press. Her current book project focuses on américanité and Americanization in Québec films since the Quiet Revolution. Santoro is currently Associate Editor for the International Journal of Canadian Studies and for the American Review of Canadian Studies.

March 19
Norm Ravvin
Concordia University
The Myths of Montreal: Leonard Cohen, A.M. Klein and the Rest of the Canadian Jewish Writers

4:30 PM, Freeman Center for Jewish Life/Library

Norman Ravvin is a writer, critic and teacher.  He presently Chairs the Concordia University Institute for Canadian Jewish Studies.  His publications include A House of Words: Jewish Writing, Identity and Memory, the novel Lola by Night, which was recently published in Serbian translation, the story collection Sex, Skyscrapers and Standard Yiddish, and Hidden Canada: An Intimate Travelogue.  He is the editor of Not Quite Mainstream: Canadian Jewish Short Stories and he co-edited, with Richard Menkis, The Canadian Jewish Studies Reader.  He is a native of Calgary who has also made his home in Vancouver, Toronto and Fredericton before moving to Montreal.   Present projects include a novel set in contemporary Poland entitled The Typewriter Girl, edited volumes on Mordecai Richler and A.M. Klein, and a book length study on Canadian Jewish writing lives.

 

2009 Québec Cinema Festival

We are pleased to present these films in association with the Duke Film/Video/Digital Program's Spring 2009 Screen/Society film series.
Free and open to the public.

Each film will be shown at Duke's Griffith Theater in the Bryan Center beginning at 7:00 pm.

MARCH 23

Familia(2005) directed by Louise Archambault.

A contemporary family drama shot by ace cinematographer Andre Turpin Familia explores the question of how value systems are passed on from mother to daughter and asks: Is it possible to avoid passing on to our children those traits that we despise in our parents? Michele (Sylvie Moreau), a 30-something aerobics instructor addicted to on-line gambling, loses her job and is forced to seek refuge with a childhood friend, Janine (Macha Grenon), who lives in a seemingly comfortable middle-class suburban home. Michele's teenage daughter, Marguerite (Mylene St-Sauveur), and Janine's daughter of a similar age, Gabrielle (Juliette Gosselin), become friends, leading to unforeseen tensions that force both generations to reassess their values.
Winner of the Claude Jutra Award (2006).

 

March 25

Maman est chez le coiffeur (2008) directed  by Léa Pool,
written by Isabelle Hébert.

A 1960s-era teenager discovers that the adult world is neither what she hoped nor what she expected it would be after sparking her mother's tempestuous departure and subsequently being forced to step up and take care of her father and brothers. Elise's father is a respected doctor, and her mother an unsatisfied career woman and part-time journalist. It's been some time since Elise and her mother shared a kind word, so when the frustrated girl is disciplined, she resorts to meddling as a means of lashing out. That meddling proves the breaking point in the relationship between daughter and mother, prompting the mother's hasty and stormy departure from the family. The result of her absence is no less than devastating to the family, and life-altering for Elise, who must now sacrifice her youth in her struggle to keep the family together in their darkest hour. 
Shown at Film Festivals in Toronto, Vancouver, San Sebastian, Denver, etc.

 

March 30

Congorama (2006) written and directed by Philippe Falardeau.                                                

Blood diamonds, world expos, electric cars, long-lost fathers and emus. Such is the stuff of the unlikely world of surefire crowd-pleaser Congorama. Michel, an underachieving inventor trading on the name of his famous and ailing father, leads a life of unremitting frustration. So when said father reveals to Michel that he is not Belgian, but is instead an adopted Canadian, Michel finally uses one of his well-intentioned yet ultimately pointless inventions as cover for a quest to find his biological family. Ostensibly trying to sell cable deicers to the government of Québec, Michel lights in the rural hamlet of Saint-Cécile, where a series of chance encounters will change his fortunes forever. Director Philippe Falardeau’s second feature playfully interweaves the implausible with the poignant to produce a uniquely satisfying wry comedy. Unlike other films that use intersecting, engineered narratives to offer pedantic views of politics or culture, Congorama uses the form towards a richer aim—humor—with tongue planted firmly in cheek.

Shown at Film Festivals in Cannes, San Francisco, Seattle, Palm Springs, Toronto, etc.
Winner of 5 Jutra Awards and a Canadian Genie Award.

April 1
We are honored to welcome Director, Philippe Falardeau for Q& A following his film.

C’est pas moi, je le jure!  (2008) directed by Philippe Falardeau, based on the autobiographical books by Bruno Hébert.

At the beginning of the 1968 summer, a young 10-years-old boy, named Léon Doré, almost killed himself, accidentally, by hanging. His mother saves him in extremis. The past summer, she saved him in the pool and, two years ago, from a freezer. Léon has quite the imagination. At home, his parents are always fighting. There also are the neighbours and Léa, the irritating neighbour who is always right. When his mother quits the family to start a new life in Greece, Léon will try everything to escape his pain: steal, lie... and fall in love with Léa.

Philippe Falardeau will join us on April 1!

PHILIPPE FALARDEAU b. 1968 in Hull, Québec

Philippe Falardeau is an award-winning screenwriter and director. He studied political science at the University of Ottawa before travelling around the world making twenty short films. He co-wrote and was assistant director with Jacques Godbout's Le Sort de l'Amérique, after which he directed his own documentary, Pâté chinois. His first feature film, La Moitié gauche du frigo won Best Canadian First Feature at the Toronto International Film Festival and a Best Screenplay nomination at the Quebec-based Jutra Awards. His 2006 film, Congorama nearly swept the prestigious Jutra Awards.

 

 

Feb. 5
Jane Moss, PhD
FRANCOPHONE AFRO-CANADIAN HISTORY AND CULTURE
225 Friedl Building, 4:00 pm
"From the African translator who accompanied French explorers in 1606 and the slave woman hanged for setting fire to much of Montreal in 1734 to the first Black woman appointed Governor General of Canada, the history of the Black Francophone Experience in Canada deserves to be told.  This presentation will explore how people of African descent came to Canada from different places and for diverse reasons and the enormous contributions they have made to French-language Canadian culture."
Jane Moss is Director of the Center for Canadian Studies at Duke.
She is Editor-in-chief of Québec Studies and winner of the 2002 Prix du Québec.

We have enjoyed having Joan Sangster, Ph.D., Trent University as our newest Fulbright Visiting Chair in Canadian Studies. She is  professor of History and Women's Studies. Her courses include Canadian Women's History and Working-Class History. She is currently researching a book on women and paid labour from the end of World War II to the 1970s, as well as pursuing a project on 'Modernizing Colonialism', examining images of the First Nations in the post World War II period. While in residence, she is teaching a graduate course in History:
HST 371 Research in Politics, Public Life, The State.
(Wed 8:45-11:20 am, Carr 229)
Office: 025 John Hope Franklin Center.
Email: jis5@duke.edu
Phone: 919-681-5943

Activities this semester by Steve Kelly Rear Admiral (ret.) Roger Girouard, Royal Canadian Navy, visited Durham from Feb. 28-March 3.  He was scheduled to speak to my class the morning of March 2, but classes were canceled because of an alleged snowfall.  Nonetheless, four of my students wanted to come anyway, and Roger did his presentation for them.  A reporter from WXDU also managed to brave the half-inch blizzard and interviewed Roger and me on the value and meaning of public service (this aired March 17; you can download it on iTunes from WXDU).  We then had lunch with Vice Provost Gil Merkx; Scott Silliman, Professor of the Practice of Law and Executive Director, Center on Law, Ethics and National Security, Duke Law School; and the Honorable John Thompson.  The discussion focused in part on possible linkages between Duke and Royal Roads University, where Roger is creating a new Centre on Governance and Conflict Resolution.  In the afternoon Roger conferred with Carolyn Pumphrey of the Triangle Institute of Security Studies about his center, and then addressed a class of some 200 students at UNC-Chapel Hill in Prof. Joe Caddell's "History of Sea Power."  Finally, he spoke to a small group of students organized by TISS in Perkins 317 (once we found it) on peacekeeping operations.  Roger stayed with me, and Gil Merkx picked up the tab for lunch, so his expenses were mainly his plane ticket and honorarium. Edward Alden, the Bernard Schwartz Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and author of The Closing of the American Border, visited March 30.  He spoke to my class about the status of U.S. efforts to make its Canadian and Mexican borders more secure while still supporting legitimate travel and trade.  We then had lunch with David Schanzer, director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, Noah Pickus, Director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics, Jenny Snead Williams, executive director of the Program in Latino Studies, and Prof. Thompson.  In the class and during the luncheon, immigration reform was a major topic.  Ted is the director of a working group for the CFR on immigration, and Noah Pickus is doing the same for the Brookings Institution, so they compared notes.  Ted is also returning on April 16 as a guest of David Schanzer to take part in an immigration panel as part of a Duke conference, "National Security under a New Administration."  Ted then addressed Jenny's class on Latino studies, and met with a group of DukeEngage students who will take part in a service project on the U.S.-Mexican border this summer, or who did so last summer.  Because Ted's flight from Washington March 29 was delayed four hours, he actually arrived early March 30, having canceled his reservation at the Washington-Duke.  His expenses will be limited to the luncheon, his plane ticket, his honorarium and a taxi fare.

 

.

 

FALL 2008

Stephen R. Kelly
US Foreign Service Officer in Residence hosted by the Center for International Studies.
With a career that spans over 25 years, Mr. Kelly is a member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister Counselor.  He is currently the U.S. Department of State Diplomat in Residence at Duke University.

Prior to this assignment Mr. Kelly was Director of the Senior Level Assignments Division at the State Department in Washington, D.C., where he oversaw the counseling and assignments of the most experienced and high-ranking career officers in the U.S. diplomatic service, including Ambassadors, Deputy Chiefs of Mission and Deputy Assistant Secretaries.

From 2004 to 2006, Mr. Kelly was Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Mission to Mexico.  With a huge Embassy in Mexico City and nine consulates around the country, Mission Mexico counts more than 2,000 employees, making it one of the largest U.S. Missions in the world.  Mr. Kelly focused in particular on the myriad border issues with Mexico, growing law enforcement and immigration problems, and on efforts to further North American integration under the banner of the Security and Prosperity Partnership between the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

From 2000-2004 Mr. Kelly was Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Mission to Canada, which includes the Embassy and seven consulates from Halifax to Vancouver.  Border issues again were one of Mr. Kelly’s key interests, especially after September 11, and he participated in the drafting of the U.S.-Canada Smart Border Accord in late 2001.  Mr. Kelly also served as Consul General in Quebec City from 1995-1998, where he was the chief U.S. reporting officer on the Quebec Sovereignty Referendum of October 1995.

Other overseas postings include the Netherlands as political counselor, Indonesia as human rights officer, Belgium as a political and consular officer, and Mali, in West Africa, as a management officer.  His early domestic assignments included the State Department Operations Center, special assistant to the Deputy Secretary, and desk officer for Senegal, Mauritania and The Gambia.

Mr. Kelly has received four Senior Performance Awards, two Superior Honor Awards, one Meritorious Honor Award, and the Charles E. Cobb Award for Innovation and Success in Trade Promotion for his work in opening a commercial section at the U.S. Consulate General in Quebec City.  He is a graduate of Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and holds a master’s degree in National Security Strategy from the National War College in Washington, D.C.   His foreign languages are French, Spanish, Dutch and Indonesian.  He served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Zaire and as a journalist for various U.S. newspapers before joining the Foreign Service, notably the Charlotte Observer, for whom he was the Raleigh and later Washington correspondent.

 

BLACK COMMUNITIES IN CANADA series

Monday, October 6
4:00 PM
KAROLYN SMARDZ FROST, YORK UNIVERSITY
DISCUSSES HER AWARD WINNING BOOK:
I'VE GOT A HOME IN GLORY LAND
a special thanks to African & African American Studies for their cosponsorship.
JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN CENTER, ROOM 130

Smardz Frost is a Toronto-born archeologist and historian whose work on Thornton and Lucie Blackburn, fugitive slaves who escaped to Canada on the Underground Railroad, led to a book I've Got a Home in Glory Land (Thomas Allen Publishers), which won the 2007 Governor General's Prize for history. This fascinating book follows Thornton Blackburn and his wife Lucie as they escape to Canada on the Underground Railroad. Thornton plans a successful daylight escape once he learns that his new bride is to be sold “down the river”. The couple reach Michigan, only to be caught by slave catchers. Once the Black community in Detroit heard of the Blackburns plight, the first racial uprising in Detroit’s history occurred. The couple was able to escape again, this time to Canada, where they settled in Toronto and started the city’s first taxi business. Then the US government insists that they be extradited back to the States. This was the first serious legal dispute between Canada and the US regarding slavery. Ultimately Canada’s Lieutenant Governor’s impassioned defense saves the Blackburns from the US. Thorton and Lucie resolved to assist as many other slaves as possible and made their home a refuge for escaped slaves. Smardz Frost spent two decades piecing together this incredible story from artifacts that are almost two centuries old. I enjoyed reading Smardz Frost book not only for the Blackburn's story but also for the wealth of information regarding the Underground Railroad. (Bronwyn Addico).

 

Monday, November 3
4:30 PM

"African-Canadian Literature: What makes it unique?"    
GEORGE ELLIOTT CLARKE, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
225 Friedl Building (formerly Art Museum and Science before that)

George Elliott Clarke was recently named Officer of the Order of Canada by Governor General Michaëlle Jean with the following citation:

"For his contributions as a poet, professor and volunteer who has brought his original voice and his perspective on the Black experience to contemporary Canadian literature, and who has generously shared his time and talents with young and emerging writers."

We are thrilled that George Elliott Clarke will be returning to Durham.  He was a highly popular Professor of English and Canadian Studies while at Duke from 1994-1999.

Canadian Studies is a proud supporter of this year's American Council for Québec Studies (ACQS) biennial conference, November 13-16, 2008 to be held in Québec City, Québec.  This will be a joint conference with the Association for Canadian Studies in the US (ACSUS)
                     
Spring 2008

 

DISTINGUISHED GUEST SPEAKERS LOUIS BALTHAZAR, PhD February 26, 2008 ALAN TAYLOR, PhD APRIL 14, 2008 Co-sponsor: Duke Dept. of History GILBERT GAGNE, PhD May 1, 2008

 

Fall 2007

A two part event with filmmaker and photographer Elle Flanders, director of the award winning film
Zero Degrees of Separation.

WHAT: Screening of Zero Degrees of Separation with a reception (Q&A with the director to follow)
WHEN: October 2, 2007
TIME: 6:30 PM reception, 7:00 PM screening, and a discussion to follow
WHERE: 104 Howell Building at UNC-Chapel Hill

WHAT: Contextualizing Representations of Sexual Politics in the Middle East, a panel discussion and reception with Elle Flanders, Rebecca Stein (Duke Anthropology), and Negar Mottahedeh (Duke Literature), moderated by Ara Wilson (Duke Sexuality Studies)
WHEN: October 3, 2007
TIME: 4:30PM reception, with panel to follow
WHERE: East Duke Building Parlors

3RD ANNUAL QUÉBEC CINEMA WEEK! November 5-9, 2007 STARDOM (2000) Denys Arcand,Director Monday, Nov 5 7:00 PM Teer Engineering Library A comic, yet troubling look at the world of celebrities. Stardom focuses on Tina Menzhal (Pare), a model who hits it big and grows dependent on the media hype surrounding her every move. Runtime: 100 minutes   GAZ BAR BLUES (2003) Louis Bélanger, Director/Writer/Actor Joining us from Québec Q & A following the film This is the story of Mr. Brochu, whose friends like to call "the Boss". He runs his small-town gas station the best he can (not unlike the one the director's father ran) and tries to stay happy no matter what happens. But his three sons are getting restless--one is off to photograph the end of the Berlin Wall, and another keeps hitting the road with some band--and his own body is every bit as disloyal. "The Boss" is starting to have Parkinson's disease, a metaphor for decline that's also an essential part of the film's real-life feel. Runtime: 115 minutes Tuesday, Nov 6 7:00 PM Griffith Theater (within the Bryan Center) LOST AND DELIRIOUS (2001) Léa Pool, Director Wednesday, Nov 7 2:00 PM Griffith Theater Lost and Delirious is about the friendship of three teenagers and how they experience it in a private school. Throughout the film, the lost girls question their relationships with one another and the authority of others, while desperately attempting to seek out true love and meaningful emotional connections in their confused adolescent life. Runtime: 104 minutes   DÉLIVREZ-MOI (2006) Welcoming back for a return visit... Denis Chouinard, Director Q & A following the film Wednesday, Nov 7 8:00 PM Griffith Theater After serving 10 years for killing her lover Marco, Annie regains custody of her daughter, but the girl wants nothing to do with her. Desperate and haunted by memories of Marco, Annie sinks into growing confusion between past and present. Surprises await when she returns to the island where the murder took place. Runtime: 103 minutes   Le goûT des jeunes filles (2004) Dany Laferrière Director/Writer Thursday, Nov 8 7:00 PM 125 Hudson Hall Based on the autobiographical novel by Dany Laferrière, Le goût des jeunes filles is the story of 15-year-old Haitian Fanfan (played by Lansana Kourouma) and his unforgettable weekend. Montreal director John L'Ecuyer had only a $1.5-million budget to bring this story to the screen and, in his own words, was shooting with "broken equipment" in a foreign country (Guadeloupe substituting for Haiti) with a cast and crew who largely spoke different dialects of French. The result is like the little cousin of City of God, clumsier but obviously heartfelt and very evocative of a specific time and a place. The year is 1971 and "Papa Doc" Duvalier's death is causing social unrest, awaking old pains in Fanfan's mother (Mireille Métellus). Her husband was murdered by government thugs, making her overprotective of her son. One night, trouble finds Fanfan anyway, when he and his hoodlum friend Gégé (Uly Darly) butt heads with some Tontons-Macoutes militia soldiers, forcing the boys into hiding. But sometimes bad things can lead to good fortune, as Fanfan finds out when he takes refuge at his neighbour's house and discovers the world of sexy young women. Runtime: 88 minutes BON COP/BAD COP (2006) Eric Canuel, Director/Writer Friday, Nov 9 7:00 PM Teer Engineering Library Bon Cop, Bad Cop is a Canadian comedy-thriller buddy cop film about English Canadian and French Canadian police officers who reluctantly join forces. The dialogue is a mixture of English and French. The title is a translation word play on the phrase "Good cop/Bad cop", and the film's tagline is "Shoot First, Translate Later." Runtime: 116 minutes

SPRING 2007

January
The Center is pleased to welcome Jonathan Malloy, Ph.D., our 2007 Canadian Fulbright Visiting Scholar. He is assistant professor of political science and Associate Chair of the Department of Political Science at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. Specializing in public administration and legislatures, he has a particular interest in the relationships between state institutions and social movements. His current research focuses on the politics of evangelical Christians in Canada and their relationship with Canadian political institutions, funded by a SSHRC grant. He also has continuing interests in parliamentary reform and e-government. He will focus on his academic research as well as contribute to the intellectual climate within the John Hope Franklin Center where he will be located.

Feb. 21 ......
Debora VanNijnatten, Duke's Canadian 2005 Fulbright Visiting Scholar will return for a lecture:

"New Environmental Policy Actors? Cross-Border Regions in North America."
Associate Professor of Political Science at Wilfrid Laurier University.
John Hope Franklin Center,
2204 Erwin Road, Durham, NC (Room 240)

Feb. 28

Jonathan Malloy
FULBRIGHT VISITING CHAIR IN CANADIAN STUDIES
Associate Professor of Political Science
Carleton University
Ottawa, Ontario
February 28 (Wednesday) at 5:00 PM
Breedlove Room/Perkins Library
Jesusland North?
The Christian Right in Canadian Politics
With a new Conservative government and pressures to roll back the legalization of same-sex marrige, Canadian politics seems to be moving closer to the red-state religious rhetoric of American politics. Is Canada the new frontier of the religious right?

March 26
Gerald Baier, Ph.D.
Department of Political Science
University of British Columbia
Vancouver
Currently on academic leave as Bicentennial Professor,
The Macmillan Center,
Yale University
"ANTI-TERROR LEGISLATION & RIGHTS AND THE SUPREME COURT OF CANADA"
Monday, March 26, 2007
4:30 PM
John Hope Franklin Center
Room 240
Refreshments will be served.

His teaching and research interests are in Canadian politics with a focus on the Constitution, federalism and public law. He is a regular commentator on federal politics in national and local media. His past research has explored the role of judicial decision-making in the shaping of federalism in Canada, Australia and the United States. He is presently investigating how national standards emerge outside of areas of national jurisidiction in those same three federations.

Les Voix Humaines
Friday, November 3 at 8:00 pm
Goodson Chapel, Westbrook Building, Divinity School
Tickets: $15 General Admission
Susie Napper and Margaret Little have been thrilling audiences with their performances of exotic masterpieces of the 17th and 18th centuries for over two decades. The Montreal-based duo are renowned for their passionate performances offering fresh insight into music that is shrouded by the mists of time. Their program will include music by the two greatest French masters who wrote for the viol, Sieur de Sainte-Colombe and his brilliant pupil Marin Marais, the most influential gambist at the court of Louis XIV. French chamber music of this time reveals an intimacy in musical expression and makes use of a language at once moving and discreet, evoking a world where freedom and intimacy go hand in hand. Cosponsored by the Duke Centers for French and Francophone Studies, and Canadian Studies, DUMIC (Duke University Musical Instrument Collections), and by the French Consul in North Carolina

ARCHIVES

Back to top