Media releases

• New book explores border life in Niagara before and after 9/11

  Thursday, September 22, 2016 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: R00203 – 22 September 2016

  With the recent 15th anniversary of the tragic Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, many Canadians living near the U.S. border were reminded of their changed relationship with their communities, government officials and their American neighbours.

  Everyday life and a sense of national belonging for residents in the Niagara Region are examined in Borderline Canadianness: Border Crossings and Everyday Nationalism in Niagara (2016, University of Toronto Press), a new book by Brock University sociology professor Jane Helleiner.

  The book looks at how life changed after 9/11 for local residents who were long accustomed to making quick, frequent border crossings to shop, dine or engage in cultural and recreation activities.

  “The idea of pursuing research on border life began when I moved from Toronto to Niagara in the early 1990s,” says Helleiner. “At that time, I was immediately struck by the salience of the Canada/U.S. border as new neighbours and colleagues offered information about going ‘over the river’ to the U.S. for shopping and leisure activities.”

  She conducted 51 interviews and an extensive review of the local press to explore the everyday lives and identities of those living at the territorial border and their pre- and post-9/11 border experiences.

  Key findings from the research highlight the complexities of borders and nationalism and the reproduction of inequality through unequal cross-border mobilities.
  Despite extensive histories of going ‘over the river’ residents “remained deeply invested in varied constructions of ‘Canadianness’ with very limited embrace of bi-national hybridity, even by those with dual Canadian/U.S. citizenship,” says Helleiner. “Another important finding is that border residents had a lot to say about how crossings were filtered in classed, gendered and ethnoracialized ways.”

  Borderline Canadianness explores the patterns of “filtered bordering” and how it can further establish classed, racialized, gendered and globalized inequalities by facilitating the cross-border movement of some while constraining the movements of others.

  The research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the book publication was supported in part by the Council for Research in the Social Sciences (CRISS), Brock University Advancement Fund’s Special Purpose Grant and Brock University’s Department of Sociology.

  Helleiner’s book has already received praise from scholars in the fields of border and migration studies and will be celebrated at the joint book launch with Education Professor Susan Tilley’s published book, Doing Respectful Research: Power, Privilege and Passion (2016, Fernwood Publishing) on Tuesday, Sept. 27 from 4-5:30 p.m. in the Welch Hall Atrium at Brock University.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases

• International philosophers coming to Brock

  Wednesday, September 21, 2016 | By Brock University

  MEDIA ADVISORY: R00202 – 21 September 2016

  There will be some deep thinking coming to Niagara this week.

  From Thursday through Saturday, a prestigious international conference taking place at Brock University’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts will draw up to 60 of the world’s leading philosophers to downtown St. Catharines.

  The 41st edition of the annual Merleau-Ponty Circle, considered one of the most significant gatherings in Continental European thought, is being hosted by Brock’s Department of Philosophy. The conference director is associate professor Rajiv Kaushik, whose research on conference namesake Maurice Merleau-Ponty includes the 2011 book Art and Institution: Aesthetics in the Late Works of Merleau-Ponty and the 2013 book Art, Language and Figure in Merleau-Ponty: Excursions in Hyper-Dialectic.

  Brock had presented a proposal to host the annual conference when the 2014 event was held in Geneva. This week, scholars from as far away as China and Australia will be in Niagara for the 2016 Merleau-Ponty Circle.

  The conference theme this year is “Merleau-Ponty: Doing Philosophy from the Outside,” and seeks to open up the meaning of philosophy to other disciplines. The theme is a play on a series of 1948 radio lectures given by Merleau-Ponty titled “Man Seen from the Outside.” Merleau-Ponty was deeply engaged with a variety of fields apart from philosophy, and the conference aims to continue this approach to philosophy by encouraging connections between philosophy and other academic disciplines.

  The conference is scheduled in a way that allows all participants to attend all presentations. This, says Kaushik, gives scholars “the rare opportunity to engage in a deep and sustained way with the research of other presenters, who are generally internationally well-regarded scholars.”

  This year’s keynote speakers include:
  Rudolf Bernet, from the University of Leuven, Belgium, who has published hundreds of articles in psychoanalysis and phenomenology, and authored a number of widely-acclaimed books.

  Veronique Foti, a Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Penn State University. She is a leading researcher in Merleau-Ponty scholarship and works in the areas of European, Continental and Ancient philosophies, as well as philosophy of art and literary theory.

  Edward S. Casey, from Stony Brook University in New York, was the president of the American Philosophical Association (Easter Division) 2009-2010 and works in the areas of phenomenology, aesthetics, philosophy of space and time, ethic, perception and psychoanalytic theory. His research investigates place and space, including landscape paintings and maps.
  The entire conference takes place at the Marilyn I. Walker School for Fine and Performing Arts and First Ontario Performing Arts Centre.

  More information can be found on the conference website.

  The public is welcome to view the conference art work in the MIWSFPA Visual Art Gallery during regular gallery hours.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases