Dear friends of the UMIH, As we enjoy a beautiful and long Fall season, please join us this week for these exciting events:
-Poetry Talk & Writing Workshop
Dr. Christine Stewart-Nuñez (Professor, Women's and Gender Studies)
Wednesday, Oct 21, 6-8pm* Jake Epp Library, 255 Elmdale St., Steinbach
Please note: registration is required for this event: https://jakeepplibrary.com/event/adult-creative-writers-4/
* This poetry talk & workshop, supported by the UMIH Research Cluster Poetry, Grief, and Mourning, is funded through UofM Community Engagement.
-Film screening and discussion
War Came to My Home (Canada, 2026, 16 min.) Marusya Bociurkiw (dir.)
Thursday, October 22nd 2:30pm 409 Tier
War Came to My Home is set in an undisclosed location in Lviv, Ukraine, where approximately twenty women gather to weave camouflage nets for the Ukrainian army. What first appears to be a peaceful craft workshop gradually reveals itself as a space shaped by war, volunteering, solidarity, and everyday resistance. Structured to evoke the rhythm of a long afternoon, the film gradually reveals the women's individual reasons for being there and offers an intimate perspective on how the Russia-Ukraine war enters domestic, communal, and emotional life.
Marusya Bociurkiw is an award-winning Ukrainian Canadian filmmaker, writer, media scholar, and Professor Emeritus at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her scholarly and creative work brings together feminist and queer archives, media activism, migration, social justice, documentary filmmaking, cultural memory, and questions of belonging and displacement.
After the screening of the film, there will be a discussion with its director, Dr. Bociurkiw, moderated by Dr. Mariya Shymchyshyn (UMIH Research Affiliate)
This event, organized by the UMIH, counts on the generous support of the Departments of English, Theatre, Film & Media, and German and Slavic Studies, and it is part of Central and East European Lecture Series.
Also, mark your calendars for next week's events:
-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.
Finally, visit our website (in process of being updated) to read our last blog, https://www.umhumanities.com/longexposures/write-it-exploring-grief-through-... , and follow us in Instagram, umih@umanitoba.camailto:umih@ad.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 jorge.nallim@umanitoba.camailto:jorge.nallim@umanitoba.ca https://umanitoba.ca/arts/jorge-nallim
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.camailto:umih@ad.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 jorge.nallim@umanitoba.camailto:jorge.nallim@umanitoba.ca https://umanitoba.ca/arts/jorge-nallim
Dear friends of the UMIH, A reminder about our event for tomorrow:
-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
And mark your calendar for next week's event:
-Writing Workshop
"Mapping Our Grief" Jodie Schoenbeck (Student Support Case Manager)
Tuesday, Nov. 10
1-3pm 409 Tier
Grief mapping provides space to process and contain our experiences of loss. The workshop invites participants to choose a lived experience of grief and create a visual map. The creative process will allow participants to engage where they are comfortable, whether through imagination or through locating events in a time and place. The workshop is a starting point: Participants can take what they make in the workshop and continue to develop the grief map on their own or use it as inspiration for writing. Examples of grief maps will be provided within the workshop.
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 and long blogs, and follow us in Instagram, umih@umanitoba.camailto:umih@ad.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 jorge.nallim@umanitoba.camailto:jorge.nallim@umanitoba.ca https://umanitoba.ca/arts/jorge-nallim
Dear friends of the UMIH, While we settle in the quiet rhythm of reading week, I would like to call your attention to the exciting list of events that the UMIH is organizing or co-sponsoring for this and the next week.
First ,a reminder about our event today:
-Writing Workshop
"Mapping Our Grief" Jodie Schoenbeck (Student Support Case Manager)
Tuesday, Nov. 10
1-3pm 409 Tier
Grief mapping provides space to process and contain our experiences of loss. The workshop invites participants to choose a lived experience of grief and create a visual map. The creative process will allow participants to engage where they are comfortable, whether through imagination or through locating events in a time and place. The workshop is a starting point: Participants can take what they make in the workshop and continue to develop the grief map on their own or use it as inspiration for writing. Examples of grief maps will be provided within the workshop. This event is organized by the UMIH Research Cluster Poetry, Grief and Mourning
And next week, we have a very busy line up of events:
-Panel White supremacy in global contexts: Understanding histories and resistance
Monday, November 16 2:00 - 3:45 p.m. MPR, 100 Innovation Drive, Smartpark Innovation Hub
Panelists:
-Ben Baader -Sean Carleton -Tina Chen -Roisin Cossar -Jorge Nállim
Concluding remarks: Jordan Howell
Moderator: Sarah Elvins
White supremacy is not confined to one country, historical period or form of political organizing. The ideology of White Supremacy has shaped societies and institutions around the world, taking different forms across geographic, political and historical contexts.
On Monday, Nov. 16, members of the University of Manitoba community are invited to learn about these histories and their continuing impact at a panel discussion featuring scholars from UM's Department of History.
"White Supremacy in Global Contexts: Histories, Political Organizing, Resistance" will examine how racial ideologies have developed, been organized and challenged around the world, offering historical context for understanding racism and anti-racist resistance today.
For more information, please visit https://umtoday.ca/stories/white-supremacy-global-contexts-understanding-his...
This event, organized by the Office of the Vice-Provost (Equity), is supported by the Department of History and the UMIH. -Guest speaker
Robert Zacharias (York University)
"After Multiculturalism: Faith and/as Ethnicity in Mennonite Writing in Canada"
Wednesday, November 18th
409 Tier, 2:30 pm Light refreshments will be served
This presentation explores Mennonite writing as a case study in the impact of multiculturalism on Canadian literary studies. Tracing the contested establishment of Mennonite writing as an "ethnic" literature in the late twentieth century, it considers the field's complicated position within what scholars have called the "after-multicultural era" of Canadian literature-and reflects on its possible futures in a time of resurgent nationalism.
Robert Zacharias is an Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director in the Department of English at York University in Toronto. His publications include Rewriting the Break Event: Mennonites and Migration in Canadian Literature (2013) and Reading Mennonite Writing: A Study in Minor Transnationalism (2022). His edited volumes include After Identity: Mennonite Writing in North America (2015) and In Search of a Mennonite Imagination: Key Texts in Mennonite Literary Criticism (2025).
This event is organized by the Department of Religion and Culture and supported by the UMIH
-Book discussion North End Love Songs (The Muses' Company, 2012), by Katherena Vermette
Thursday, Nov. 19th
1-2 pm
307 Tier Building
Coffee and light refreshments will be served Red River Métis poet, novelist, and filmmaker Katherena Vermette's North End Love Songs is her debut poetry collection, and it won the 2013 Governor General's Award for poetry and The Lina Chartrand Award for Activism in Poetry. The poems represent a loving, careful way of exploring poverty and Indigenous identity in Winnipeg's north end. Many of the poems deal with birds, trees, and girlhood, but the collection takes a dark turn when they start to detail her brother's disappearance and the subsequent issues her family faced with local police and media in their quest for justice. Print versions of North End Love Songs are available through the Winnipeg Public. This event, organized by the UMIH Research Cluster Poetry, Grief, and Mourning, is free and open to public and the general university community.
-Panel Queer and Trans Approaches to Science Fiction and Fantasy
Friday, November 20th
2:30 -4 pm (Manitoba Time) 627 Tier and online via Zoom (link below)
Presenters: Dr. Evie Johnny Ruddy, Creative Technologies and Design, University of Regina Dr. Hee-Jung Serenity Joo, English, Theatre, Film & Media, University of Manitoba Dr. Megan Perram, Department of English and Creative Writing, Campion College, University of Regina Dr. Nicole Goulet, Department of Religion and Culture, University of Manitoba Moderator: Dr. Erin Keating, English, Theatre, Film & Media, University of Manitoba Zoom meeting: https://umanitoba.zoom.us/j/62913539426?pwd=pVolGTzJZDhfEpSU8BY4UHMyACaMtM.1 Meeting ID: 629 1353 9426 Passcode: 166459 All are welcome. Coffee and light refreshments will be served. This event is organized by the UMIH Research Cluster Queer Science Fiction and Fantasy.
Finally, do not forget to visit our website (in process of being updated) to read our last short and long blogs, and follow us in Instagram, umih@umanitoba.camailto:umih@ad.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 jorge.nallim@umanitoba.camailto:jorge.nallim@umanitoba.ca https://umanitoba.ca/arts/jorge-nallim
participants (1)
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Jorge Nallim