National research symposium on Filipinos in Canada

National research symposium on Filipinos in Canada

Toronto, Ontario (October 8, 2009) — On Friday, October 23, 2009, leading scholars will gather at the University of Toronto for the first national research symposium on Filipinos in Canada. The symposium is free and open to the public.
Filipinos are the third largest non-European ethnic group in Canada. However, they are largely overlooked in many major policy, scholarly, and educational matters.
Kim Abis, an undergraduate student in equity studies at the University of Toronto explains: “The symposium will be the space where academics, activists, and community members can work together and engage in critical Filipino scholarship. It will open up the possibilities of developing feminist and anti-racist frameworks that are drawn from community-based and participatory research methods.”
This multi-disciplinary research symposium will feature prominent speakers, such Eleanor Ty of English and Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, Leonora Angeles of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia, Bonnie McElhinny of Anthropology at the University of Toronto, Patrick Alcedo of Dance at York University, Jeffrey Aguinaldo of Sociology at Wilfrid Laurier University, and Roland Sintos Coloma of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.
The symposium program will have three major panels. The first will address gender, migration, and citizenship, with a focus on healthcare and politics in Canada. The second panel will examine representations of Filipinos in art, school curriculum, and institutions, like museum. The third panel will address the challenges confronted by Filipino youth in educational and social spaces. The schedule will also feature artwork, a poetry reading, and a short film.
This event is organized by Kritikal Kolektibo, a group of faculty and graduate students at the University of Toronto that is interested in Filipino Studies. It is co-sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and a number of faculties, institutes, and departments at the University of Toronto.
The registration form and schedule are available online at http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/rsc/filcan2009/.