Posted on March 18: Conference helps refugee women reclaim their identity

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Refugee_opt.jpg”]After learning the horrific story of one of her students on a CBC documentary about “Victims of Torture”, something became acutely clear to Alison Miculan, sessional lecturer in the departments of philosophy and health studies.

“As we proceed through our busy lives, we rarely take account of the circumstances of those around us,” she says.

Her hope is a three-day conference beginning tomorrow on refugee women's lives and identity will open eyes to the experiences of refugees, who may be students, teachers, neighbours or friends. Canada, she says, admits more refugees per capita than any other country in the world  three quarters of whom are women and children. “Many of these people have suffered persecution, rape, torture, physical and mental intimidation.”

Hosted by McMaster's Women's Studies Program and the Settlement and Integration Services Organization, the conference “Saying “I” Is Full of Consequences: Refugee Women Reclaim Their Identity“, will focus on identity, research, education and policy. The conference takes place March 19-21 in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Business.

The initiator and academic organisor of the conference, Maroussia Ahmed, spent a year researching and preparing for this event. Ahmed is an associate professor of French and women's studies at McMaster. Other key organizers include Vera Chouinard, acting director of Women's Studies; Madina Wasuge, director of programs at SISO; Patricia Young, administrative co-ordinator, Office of Interdisciplinary Studies; Georgina Al-Hallis, McMaster graduate; Claudia Montan, program co-ordinator, SISO; and Miculan, administrative co-ordinator of the conference.

The timing of the event could not be better, Miculan says. “In the current climate of international instability, Canada's refugee population is bound to increase,” she says. “We need to be thoughtful and responsible in our policy and decision making with respect to refugees. We hope that this conference will give a listenership to the voices that need and deserve to be heard.”

The conference will involve a number of refugee women and students as well as others involved with immigrant and refugee populations as researchers, educators, policy makers, service providers, peace workers, or members of the community at large.

Speakers include Madeleine Gagnon, award-winning poet, novelist and essay writer from Montreal; Judith Kumin, United Nations High Commission on Refugees representative in Canada and Maryanne Loughry, Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford.

To register for the conference visit http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~wsconf/register.htm

Photo caption: “The Refugee Girl” by Yar M. Taraky.