Dear friends of the UMIH,
A quick reminder about our events for today and this week:
-Guest speaker
“Queer and Trans Space Operas: From Samuel Delany to Becky Chambers”
Dr. Jes Battis (University of Regina)
Monday, October 26th
2:30 - 4 pm
409 Tier and online via Zoom
(link below)
The space opera genre has a long history of queer and trans authors, including Samuel "Chip" Delany, who was writing before
the 1969 Stonewall uprising. This talk, with Dr. Jes Battis, will explore the radical history of space ships and interstellar travel, including Star Trek and the popular Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers. This hybrid talk will be recorded and shared online
via YouTube.
Dr. Jes Battis (all pronouns) teachers queer and trans speculative fiction, medieval studies, and creative writing at the University of Regina. They are the author of books on
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Farscape, and the cult classic film Labyrinth, as well as the fantasy novel
The Winter Knight. Their work has won the Saskatchewan Book Award, and been shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award and the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic.
Zoom Meeting link:
https://umanitoba.zoom.us/j/68325450693?pwd=wFpO7DauHtWJmO6f2iwDL4TBG28Xlz.1
Meeting ID: 683 2545 0693
Passcode: 307571
This event, organized by the
UMIH Research Cluster Queer Science Fiction and Fantasy, counts with the generous support of the Department of English, Theatre, Film & Media.
-Workshop and Meet and Greet
-“Queer Science Fiction & Fantasy World Building Workshop with Jes Battis”
Tuesday, October 27th
9:30 – 10:30 am
307 Tier
-“Queer Science Fiction Research Cluster- Meet and Greet”
Tuesday, October 27th
10:30 am – 11:30 am
307 Tier
All al welcome to attend one or both events. Coffee and breakfast snacks will be served
These events are organized by the UMIH Research Cluster Queer Science Fiction and Fantasy, with the generous support of the Department of English, Theatre, Film & Media.
-Research Presentation
Brennen Siemens (UMIH Graduate Fellow)
“Oral Histories of Identity Formation and Collective Memory in Low German Mennonites of Southwestern Ontario”
Friday, October 30th
409 Tier, 12:30pm
Mennonites are a minority ethno-religious group that has origins in the Protestant Reformation. As a transnational group, their experience of mass migration throughout their history has resulted in close-knit
and insular diasporic communities forming throughout North America. Mennonites in South Western Ontario came to form a collective identity and shared memory based on separation and persecution and around areas such as nostalgia, education and political engagement.
This presentation will focus on how oral histories contribute to Mennonite identity
formation and mythmaking through the politics in and around home and school.
Brennen Siemens is a graduate student at the University of Manitoba’s Department of History and a UMIH’s Graduate Fellow
And mark your calendars for next week’s event:
-Poetry Reading
“A poetry reading and conversation with Rosanna Deerchild”
Conversation facilitated by Dr. Charlene Diehl (Creative Director, Alan Klass Program in Health Humanities)
Tuesday, November 3rd
1- 2:30 pm
409 Tier
Coffee/tea to follow
Join award-winning poet, playwright, and journalist Rosanna Deerchild for a reading and conversation exploring the intersections
of poetry, grief, and healing.
Rosanna Deerchild (She/Her) is Cree, from O-Pipon-Na-Piwan Cree Nation. She has been a storyteller for almost 30 years, as a journalist, broadcaster, poet and playwright. As the host of Unreserved (CBC Radio
One, Sirius XM, US Public Radio and Native Voice One), Rosanna shares Indigenous community, culture and conversation. Rosanna has written three collections of poetry: this is a small northern town (winner of the 2008 Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry),
calling down the sky (winner of the 2016 Pat Lowther Memorial Award) , and she falls again (winner of the 2025 Indigenous Voices Award). Her first play, with Winnipeg’s RMTC’s Pimootayowin Creators Circle, The Secret to Good Tea was the first Indigenous-written
play to debut on their mainstage for their 2023 season. It was produced by The Grand Theatre in London, Ontario and Ottawa’s NAC Indigenous Theatre in the 2025 season. She is currently at work on her second play. A community builder, Rosanna co-founded the
Indigenous Writers Collective of Manitoba to make space for Indigenous creative writing. Rosanna now lives and works in her found home of Winnipeg.
Rosanna’s conversation partner is Charlene Diehl, creative director of the Alan Klass Program in Health Humanities at the Max Rady College of Medicine and recently retired director of Plume Winnipeg (formerly Winnipeg
International Writers Festival). Charlene is the author of Out of Grief, Singing: A Memoir of Motherhood and Loss and
lamentations.
This event is organized by the UMIH Research Cluster Poetry, Grief, and Mourning
Finally, visit our website (in process of being updated) to read our last short (https://www.umhumanities.com/snapshots ) or long
https://www.umhumanities.com/longexposures ) blogs, and follow us in Instagram,
umih@umanitoba.ca
Jorge A. Nállim
Professor, Department of History
Director, Institute for the Humanities
405 Fletcher Argue Bldg.
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, MB R3T 5V5
https://umanitoba.ca/arts/jorge-nallim