Welcome to The Line Crossed Us 2023: New Directions in Critical Border Studies!

June 8-9, 2023

Virtual Conference

https://www.lethbridgeborderstudies.com/2023

Building on the success of our previous conference in June 2021, the Lethbridge Border Studies Group – Paul McKenzie-Jones (Indigenous Studies), Sheila McManus (History), and Julie Young (Geography & Environment) – is hosting our virtual conference, The Line Crossed Us 2023: New Directions in Critical Border Studies, from June 8-9, 2023.

The conference brings Indigenous, Settler, and migration politics and histories into conversation by focusing on early-career researchers to promote new voices and cutting-edge questions in the field of critical border studies. Our call for papers welcomed submissions from current graduate students, emerging scholars, community researchers, and activists working on any aspect of border studies.

This year, approximately 40 presenters will share their research over the two-day conference. In addition to a presenter panels, we are hosting two public events.

Registration:

Purchasing your free ticket on the Eventbrite site is how you register for the conference.

Note that you also need to pre-register for the two public events - the Welcome and Keynote and the Film Screening - via the Zoom webinar links included below.

Once you have registered, visit the TLCU homepage to access the full conference program:

TLCU Conference Program

TLCU Panel Linktree

Welcome and Keynote Address:

Thursday, June 8, 2023 | 9:00am-10:30pm

Bordering Migration and the Rights of Forced Migrants in Canada Dr. Idil Atak, Professor, Lincoln Alexander School of Law, Toronto Metropolitan University

Please register separately for this webinar at: https://uleth.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_mPceQfRjRke01pjeuL1RlA

This presentation explores the various ways in which borders have undergone reconfigurations that extend beyond and within the geographical boundaries of Canada. The aim is to shed light on the recent changes in asylum policies and the bordering practices that shape them. The presentation also examines the implications of the bordering processes for the fundamental rights of forced migrants.

Idil Atak is a professor at Lincoln Alexander School of Law, Toronto Metropolitan University. Former editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, Idil is a past president and current director-at-large of the Canadian Association for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies. She is conducting a research project funded by the Government of Ontario’s Early Researcher Award and examining the securitization of irregular migration in Canada. Idil also leads the Canada-related portions of an international research initiative exploring the implementation of the UN Refugee and Migration Compacts. The project has received funding from SSHRC and the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.

Film Screening Event:

Friday, June 9, 2023 | 2:00pm-5:00pm

Beyond Extinction

(102 minutes, English, Snsəlxcín, 2022; Writer, Director, Producer: Ali Kazimi)

Discussion and Q&A with Writer, Director, Producer Ali Kazimi & Smum iem Matriarch Marilyn James

Please register separately for this webinar at: https://uleth.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_QeCZu-3DS2yteKHw6KvcXg

Beyond Extinction: A Sinixt Resurgence documents three decades of Indigenous struggle by the Sinixt people, whose traditional territories are in Southwest British Columbia and the USA, divided by the border. It weaves together observational footage, contemporary interviews, oral histories, survival stories told by matriarchs, personal as well as public archives, to tell a story never told before. This documentary traces through generations how the Indian Act, colonialism, residential schools, and borders, that led to the Canadian government declaring the Sinixt people to be “extinct”. The film won the People’s Choice Award at Planet In Focus Canadian Environmental Film Festival in 2022.

Professor Ali Kazimi is one of Canada’s most distinguished independent documentary filmmakers. Kazimi’s work demonstrates a deep-rooted humanism, as well as an unflinching commitment to shedding light on often difficult truths – while tackling issues of race, social justice, history, and memory. Kazimi’s feature-length documentary, Continuous Journey, not only brought the little-known history of the arrival and turning away of the Komagata Maru in 1914 into public consciousness, The film was followed by a critically acclaimed book Undesirables: White Canada and the Komagata Maru. Kazimi is the recipient of several awards and honours including, the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts, and a Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) from the University of British Columbia.

Learn more about the film.

Marilyn James is a Smum iem Matriarch appointed by her Sinixt elders (e.g., Eva Orr) to uphold Sinixt protocols and laws in the Sinixt təmxʷúlaʔxʷ (homeland) under the laws of whuplak’n and smum iem. Her work has included the repatriation of 64 ancestral remains from museums and collections back to their rightful places in Nk̓ʕáwxtən, “a place for praying,” (Vallican) . She was the appointed spokesperson for the Sinixt Nation in Canada from 1990 to 2013. She continues her work as Smum iem Matriarch and knowledge-keeper for Sinixt. She is an accomplished storyteller of traditional and contemporary Sinixt stories as well as the co-author of Not Extinct: Keeping the Sinixt Way (Maa Press, 2018, 2021). Marilyn holds a Masters of Education from Simon Fraser University and has worked extensively in the field of curriculum development. She is an ardent advocate for her ancestors and the land and water of their təmxʷúlaʔxʷ.

More information about Smum iem and Autonomous Sinixt can be found at sinixt.org.

Contact information:

Questions? Please contact borderstudies@uleth.ca for additional information.

Check out our website & Twitter!

We gratefully acknowledge the support of:

The Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Critical Border Studies, Catharine Reader, (Director, Marketing & Communications), Office of the Dean, Faculty of Arts & Science, and the School of Graduate Studies