Looking Back and Ahead: Exploring Uniquely Canadian Cultural Narratives - Debrecen University Symposium, 2024

• Elek Bartha, Vice Rector for Educational Affairs, University of Debrecen
• H.E. François Lafrenière, Ambassador of Canada to Hungary
• Helga Katalin Pritz, Consul General of Hungary in Montreal
• Balázs Venkovits, director of the Canadian Studies Centre and the Institute of English and American Studies, University of Debrecen
• Greetings from Margaret Atwood (video message)

• Judit Molnár and Péter Szaffkó (University of Debrecen), “The History of Canadian Studies at UD”
• “Mapping Montreal”
  • Helga Katalin Pritz (Consul General of Hungary in Montreal) and Balázs Venkovits (IEAS, University of Debrecen), “Exploring Hungarian Montreal”
  • Barbara Lorenzkowski (Lead Co-Director, COHDS, Concordia University), "Charting the Intersection of Oral History and Creative Practice: Concordia’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling" (online)
  • Sonya Di Sclafani (COHDS), "Women's Histories of Hungarian Foodways in Montreal" (online)

Coffee break

Exploring Literary Narratives
Moderator: Zsuzsanna Lénárt-Muszka

• David Staines (University of Ottawa), “Contemporary Canadian Fiction: Forty Years On” (online)
• Anna Porter (Hungarian-born Canadian author and publisher), “Falling in Love with Canada (one book at a time)” (online)
• Endre Farkas (Montreal-based poet, novelist and playwright), “SZERBUSZ” (poetry reading) (online)

Coffee break

Exploring Historical/Political Narratives
Moderator: Balázs Venkovits

• Daniel Béland (director, McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, McGill University), “The Partisan Politics of Immigration in the United States and Canada”
• Dennis Gruending (journalist, former MP), A Communist for the RCMP: A Police Informant and the Canadian Security State (online)
• Mélissa-Anne Ménard (Concordia University), “Voices in the Field: A Critical Approach to Reusing Archived Oral History Interviews” (online)

Parallel panels 1-2
Panel 1 - Venue: University Library, “Sziget” room, Chair: Éva Pataki

• János Kenyeres (Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary), “Trauma and Identity in Atom Egoyan’s Recent Films”
• Éva Huszti-Balázs Venkovits (University of Debrecen), “Immigration, Integration and Social Capital: History of the Hungarian St. Stephen's Ball in Montréal, 1959-2013”
• Judit Nagy (Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church, Hungary), “Canadian Missionary Women’s Contribution to Korean Society” 

Panel 2 - Venue: Studio 111, Chair: Ildikó Szilágyi

• Gertrud Szamosi  (University of Pécs, Hungary), “Shaping Heaven: The Wind as a Narrative Force in Jane Urquhart's Novel"
• Dalibor Žíla (Masaryk University, Czech Republic, “L’imaginaire de la fin du monde à travers trois récits de Julie D. Kurtness” (The image of the end of the world through three novels by Julie D. Kurtness)
• Ildikó Szilágyi (Université de Debrecen), “Formes poétiques et identité culturelle dans la littérature québécoise”

Parallel panels 3-4
Panel 3 - Venue: University Library, “Sziget” room, Chair: Judit Molnár

• Jason Blake (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia), “Coming to Grips with Canadian Short Stories of Multiculturalism”
• Robert Stacey (University of Ottawa), “Livesay’s ‘The Documentary Poem: A Canadian Genre’ Revisited: Towards a Poetics of ‘The Project’”
• Ahmet Uruk and Ayşenur Kör (Gümüşhane University, Turkey), “Negotiating Canadian Identity and Nature: Eco-Nostalgia in Jane Urquhart’s Sanctuary Line”

Panel 4 - Venue: Studio 111, Chair: Péter Csató

• Tidita Abdurrahmani (Bedër University College, Albania), “Self, Otherness and Gendered Identities in Alice Munro's Writings: A Close Reading of ‘The Albanian Virgin’”
• Éva Pataki (University of Debrecen): “‘After all, we’ve brought India with us’: Migration, Home, and Belonging in South Asian Canadian Literature”
• Aniko Zsuzsanna Antal (independent researcher, Toronto, Canada), “The Thunderbirds Metamorphosis From Images Into Words: Armand Garnet Ruffo’s Poetry in the Mirror of Norval Morrisseau’s Indigenous World”

Lunch break

Book and project presentations
Venue: Studio 111

• Marisa Portolese (Concordia University), “Goose Village Project as a Significant Cultural Narrative Pertaining to Italian and Irish Immigration in Montreal, Quebec”
• Donald E. Morse and Balázs Venkovits (University of Debrecen), HJEAS and HJEAS Books
• Jason Blake (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia), Central European Journal of Canadian Studies
• Zsuzsanna Lénárt-Muszka (University of Debrecen), Canadian narratives: calls for papers, collaboration opportunities, and a special issue of Short Fiction in Theory and Practice
• Gabriella T. Espák (University of Debrecen), Seminal Years: Federal Multicultural Policies and the Politics of Indigeneity in Canada and Australian between 1988-1992

Coffee break

Parallel panels 5-6
Panel 5 - Venue: University Library, “Sziget” room, Chair: Péter Csató

• Doina Ciochina (Sherbrooke University), “Bodies as Commodities and Stolen Identities in Horror: A Comparative Study of Never Whistle at Night and Get Out”
• Jennifer Baker (University of Ottawa), “Kate Beaton’s Ducks and the Emergence of the Necro-georgic in Canadian Literature”
• Ian Desmond Mauer (Northeast Normal University, China), “Mnemonic Liminality in Shueng-King's You Are Eating an Orange. You are Naked"

Panel 6 - Venue: Studio 111, Chair: Dorottya Mózes
On decolonizing and growing Canadian Studies: Migratory and multiple heritage epistemologies, connections, and praxis from the lens of Filipino/a/x studies in Canada

• Jacqueline Stol (McGill University)
• Nellie Alcaraz (McGill University)
• Anabelle Ragsag (McMaster University)

Parallel panels 7-8
Panel 7 - Venue: University Library, “Sziget” room, Chair: Balázs Venkovits

• Gabriella T. Espák (University of Debrecen), “Stuart McLean’s Canada: A Multimodal Approach”
• Shelley Hornstein (York University), “Discrimination by Design: Jews, Resort Architecture, and the Canadian Countryside”
• Palla Mária (Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Hungary), “Sharing Food at Home and Abroad: Fictionalizing the Hungarian-Canadian Emigrant Experience”
• Gabriel Thym (Concordia University), “Between Glory and Oblivion: Kondiaronk, an Indigenous Historical Figure in Canadian Public and Collective Memory”

Panel 8 - Venue: Studio 111, Chair: Zsuzsanna Lénárt-Muszka
Representations of Motherhood in Canada

• Andrea O'Reilly (York University), “‘I Am Not Responsible for Your Decision:’ Monique Lépine’s Aftermath and the Judgment of Maternal Culpability”
• Katharine Viscardis (Northern Lakes College), “‘Keep them at Home:’ Resisting Institutional Care in Postwar Ontario”
• Zsuzsanna Lénárt-Muszka (University of Debrecen), “Mapping the Maternal: Narrating Embodiment in Canadian Short Fiction”
• Vedran Obućina (Centre for Interreligious Dialogue, Croatia), “Interreligious Aspects of Motherhood in Canada”