DLS in March 2024
March was a busy month, and we were excited to invite a couple of speakers to our classroom for ITA392H5S Queer Italy: Literature and Cinema!
- Students had the opportunity to meet and interview Gay Italian Nonna (Digital Content Creator) and reflect on her lived experiences (as a first generation Italian Canadian and lesbian) as well as current issues of persecution, social struggle and activism, censorship, and the marginalization of LGBTQ+ individuals and works.
- Dr. Maurizio Scontrino (University of Arizona) presented a meaningful analysis of Ferzan Özpetek’s Le fate ignoranti (2001), a film about Queer spaces, the concept of Chosen Family, the discovery of hidden secrets and identities, and the transformative power of self-discovery.
The organizing committee of the UTM/JHI Annual Seminar Series on Multilingualism: Reflecting on a Global Reality through Time, Space, Mind and Text seminar series also hosted the following events:
- Mesure des différences individuelles dans la recherche en acquisition des langues secondes (Prof. Daphnée Simard, UQAM)
- Plurilingual Education in Canadian Schools: Who, What, When, Why, and How? (Prof. Gail Prasad, York University)
- Can Language Policies Affect Language Vitality? A study of Sámi language use in Norway and Sweden (Prof. Tanja Kupisch, University of Konstanz)
Finally, near the end of the month, we were thrilled to be able to bring back La Soirée des Talents, our annual French Talent Show, which had previously run annually until 2019! Students performed dances, read poetry, sang their own composed pieces, and played a variety of instruments, including the flute, guitar, and piano.
A big thank-you to Sima Farsandaj, Prof. Mihaela Pirvulescu, and Prof. Jeffrey Steele for organizing this event and allowing our French students to share their many talents. We look forward to next year's talent show!
